Evie Wyld is Booktrust's third online writer in residence.

  • New writer's tips again!

    Posted Monday July 27th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    They’re coming fast and furious now.  Well, fast, perhaps.

    There’s a new set of writers’ tips up today, this one talking about voice and how your book has one whether you like it or not, so it’s time to start listening to it.

    Bravos and brickbats to the usual comment spot.

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  • The small matter of making it great.

    Posted Friday July 17th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve written before on here about writing both first drafts (where you try anything and everything because no one will ever see it) and second drafts (where you cut away all the unnecessary fat and get a first glimpse at what your actual story is). 

    Each one is a scary thing. Facing the blank page every day for the first draft, desperately hoping there are enough diamonds in the rough of the second.

    And so I’m sorry to say the third draft isn’t any easier. It’s where, by some indescribable alchemy, you must take your story and make it great.

    Hopefully*, of course, you’ll have a head start on this. You wouldn’t have begun the first draft without a good idea, and the energy and power of that will still be there. You wouldn’t have cut away things in the second draft unless they needed to go for the good of the story, so what remains will be pretty much everything you need to get a real book out of it.

    So what’s the third draft for then? For me personally, it’s all about the telling of that story. I’ve set out my material as…

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  • New writer's tips up!

    Posted Monday July 13th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    I’ve spent most of the last month working on the new short story (which I hope you’re all enjoying; it’s free, after all!), so there’s been a lull in the writers’ tips portion of the page.

    No longer! Up today is a new set of very counter-intuitive tips on how setting limitations on your writing might actually free it. If you’ve been struggling with your story, this might help, though a little bravery is also required.

    Questions and comments welcome.

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