Time for me to recommend another book or, in this case, a series of books.
The Mr Gum books by Andy Stanton are, to put it mildly, hilarious! I picked up the first of these irreverent adventures for my eight ear old, read it myself, and immediately went out to get the other two!
Mr Gum is [...]

Another chance to kick-start your writing today, and this exercise is great for combatting the dreaded writer’s block (something I’ll be discussing in-depth in a future post).
Have a look around the room and pick out an object. It could be a lamp, a door, an ornament - anything at all. Now, write about it.
Don’t think [...]

How was your Christmas break? Mine was wonderful, thank you for asking, save for having to call the RAC (breakdown service for my non-UK readers) out TWICE on Boxing day (day after Christmas Day for you Johnny Foreigners).
Now, however, as the turkey finally settles, it’s time to get back to work. I finished the third [...]

Well, this is me signing off for Christmas! I’ll still be in my office, writing, between now and the big day, but I’ll be leaving the blog until the turkey has settled.
Have a great Christmas, and I’ll see you all soon!
Tommy
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I read a lot. I must get through close to 100 books a year, which isn’t bad as I only get chance to pick one up at bedtime when the kids are asleep!
One thing I don’t do is continue reading a book that doesn’t grab me. Time’s too precious to waste reading bad writing. On [...]

Belated congratulations to the master of young horror, Darren Shan. The movie based on his Cirque Du Freak series of books begins filming in February. here’s the official announcement:
The “Cirque du Freak” series of bestselling children’s novels by Irish author Darren Shan has been acquired by Universal Pictures and will be adapted for a motion [...]

From time to time, I’ll be posting writing exercises here for anyone who visits and wants to put pen to paper themselves. Eventually, I might put them all together in a separate site but, for the time being, you’ll find the exercises in this blog.
For today’s exercise, take a well-known children’s story or fairy tale [...]

First drafts, eh? That initial piece of work that has finally been torn from your subconscious, kicking and screaming, onto paper. Trust me, it will be bad. Really bad.
Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is sh*t!”, and I agree with him. But, you know what, it’s necessary.
Before we go any further, let me check [...]

I’m busy working away on the third draft of Scream Street book one, and it’s been an interesting experience. I’ve discovered that, as a result of writing three further books in the series with the same characters, I’ve developed both their individual voices and a style for the series as a whole.
This style wasn’t [...]