Is writing a calling rather than a profession? Read more
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Advice for Aspiring Writers
Is writing a calling rather than a profession?
How to Start a Novel
Rose Tremain, Ruth Rendell, and Paul Bailey discuss what makes an idea worthy of a novel
Developing Characters
Beryl Bainbridge, Malcolm Bradbury and Claire Boylan on giving characters a background
Setting
How to decide where to set your book - what landscape, milieu, place or time?
Establishing Voice
What is meant by "voice" in fiction? And how can a writer develop their own?
Dialogue
How to write something - dialogue - that you don't want to sound written at all
Endings
What to do when endings don't suggest themselves, and who to get to read the first draft
Finding an Agent
What the literary agent, the publisher, and the book seller, do and want
