J A DuMairier

Writing for some is an escape; for others it’s work. Either way, we do not write as a torture (though it may torture us) but instead as a vocation. Writing is our duty, our purpose, our drive; so how can one c […]

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is an award-winning epic fantasy novel set in the contemporary US. It is a sometimes sprawling and often ingenious book, offering both a rich and wide-reaching world of gods and m […]

Follows: Third Draft

Upon completing the third draft, and getting it to the best possible version of itself, the writer will need some help. This is a prime opportunity to pass the piece to others – trusted […]

Follows: Second Draft

After some time has passed from the second draft, the writer can readdress the story from a more objective viewpoint. The third draft is not another rewrite, but rather it is […]

Follows: First Draft

Once the first draft is complete, time needs to pass before the writer can work on the second. It needs to gestate and the writer, as the least-objective person to assess the merit of their […]

When writing a new story, particularly one over a few thousand words, several drafts will be required. This is a necessary process, as the story will improve with each draft a writer undertakes.

The first draft […]

The King in Yellow is a collection of ten short stories by Robert W Chambers that are very loosely connected by recurring themes and concepts, though not always directly. Published in 1895, the title comes from a […]

Some characters surpass the constraints of their books; becoming more through reputation than that which they were originally written. To do this takes a great amount of skill and is a rarity amongst novels. With […]

Stories are strange things. They are difficult to define, yet always contain the same elements: characters, a plot, and a journey. In a good story those three parts need to all be written […]

Whit, or Isis Amongst the Unsaved, is the story of Isis Whit, a young girl also known as The Blessed Very Reverend Gaia-Marie Isis Saraswati Minerva Mirza Whit of Luskentyre, Beloved Elect of God III, who is a […]

Delving into a novel about the election of a new Pope brings about two fears: either it will be extensively and overly detailed with a complex process that drowns out the plot, leading it to be overwrought and […]

As a crime novel, The Talented Mr Ripley does not necessarily fit the rules. Similarly, as a thriller, it is once again outside of the regular parameters. In fact, it is more a character study than anything […]

From time to time, soft openings are en vogue. Writing a before-the-book section can help transition readers from the mundane of reality into the pages, but they are not always needed and often their purposes are […]

They trot along the street, their heads bobbing and nervous, as if they have lost their way amongst the parked cars. They are just looking to find some shelter, something that’s away from the non-existent breeze t […]

The Scarlet Gospels is a horror story that is both hideously gruesome and immensely fun. Clive Barker brings two of his most celebrated characters together and pits them against each other in a battle of wits and […]

The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway’s masterpiece. A short novel—barely more than a novella—it tells the story of an old man, struggling to stay financially afloat, who sets out to sea to catch a marlin. He does […]

To say The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is funny is an understatement. This book is laugh-out-loud hilarious, from its snarky voice to the words ‘Don’t Panic’ written in big, friendly letters on the back. T […]

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. The writing is poor, the characterisation non-existent, and the plot overly-complicated yet paper-thin—it gets to the point where I […]