Creative Writing | Guide to Wine | Genealogy

Creative Writing

When I first started to write fiction I came across a quote by W. Somerset Maugham that began 'there are three rules to writing a novel'. Great, I thought, this should be easy! Three rules, I can cope with that. Imagine my disappointment when the quote went on to say 'unfortunately, no one knows what they are'.

It's one of life's great truisms: there are no rules to writing creatively. It's not like putting up a flat-pack wardrobe or learning to work your microwave. The sheer number of quotes I've come across in the last few months says it all: everybody does things their own way, and everybody gives different advice.

But I guess that's what lies at the heart of creative writing, that's what makes it such a powerful means of expression. If there were set rules to follow, we'd all be doing it, we'd all be millionaires, bookshops would be as big as countries and nothing would be worth reading. The fact is that all good writing comes from the heart, it's unique to the person who wrote it, it's a piece of them unleashed onto the paper, something nobody else could have written. This absence of rules is what makes writing so personal, so evocative and so magical.

This isn't a rulebook. It's a collection of the hints, exercises and priceless nuggets of information I've picked up over the years as a writer, editor and publisher. Some of this is centred around the technical details, most is focused on ways to help you free your creative side, to conquer your fears and enable you to write something you'll always be proud of, and which will hopefully end up in print.

Writing is about so much more than plot, character, setting, rhythm, style, rhyme and so on. But finding ways to express yourself successfully and creatively means learning the basics first. I hope the ideas in this book will give you a good understanding of the process of writing, but more than that I hope it inspires you, gives you that burning, insatiable passion to write. If it doesn't, I haven't done the craft justice.

Lastly, I'm one of those people who buys Men's Health every month thinking that reading it will give me a six-pack. Don't take this approach with your writing. This book will give you some excellent advice on how to explore your creative depths and write convincingly on the page, but reading it from cover to cover won't make you the next Booker winner. If you want to be successful, there's only one way. You have to write, write, write. Good luck!


Custom Search