Latest News

Kirsty Logan

Hello! I’m Kirsty Logan, a writer of novels and short stories. My latest book is Now She is Witch, a medieval witch revenge quest. My other books are Things We Say In The Dark, The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales.

Latest News

Kirsty Logan

Hello! I’m Kirsty Logan, a writer of novels and short stories. My latest book is Now She is Witch, a medieval witch revenge quest. My other books are Things We Say In The Dark, The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales.

Blog: Writing

10 Steps to Becoming a Published Writer

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

1. Read. As well as showing you how narrative works, novels and short stories teach you about language: the rhythm of sentences, which phrases and images are fresh and which are cliché, and how to find the right balance between dialogue, description and action. Unusual non-fiction is great for potential story ideas too. 2. Write. It’s amazing how many people forget this step! It’s all very well reading books about writing, or listening to podcasts about writing, or discussing writing…

What the Slush Pile Taught Me

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

For two years I co-edited Fractured West, a print magazine for flash fiction. We received around 3,000 stories, and I read every single one. I also guest-edited a special UK-themed issue for PANK Magazine, for which I read around 500 stories, poems, and personal essays. What I am trying to say is: the slush pile is my friend. It teaches me what what works and what does not. For example, I have read dozens of stories with one (or more)…

How to Set Up a Writing Workshop

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

Honest, useful critique is a vital part of being a writer. Writing is so internalised that we can lose track of our words, and what we meant to say isn’t actually on the page. It’s difficult to look objectively at your own work, and every piece of writing eventually needs a fresh set of eyes. If you can’t find a suitable workshop group in your area, then set one up yourself! This is easier if you already have some writer-friends…

Five Ways to Build a Story World

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

‘World-building’ is usually used to describe fantasy or science fiction stories, but all stories happen somewhere. Narratives set in the real world are created by the writer too: smells, colours and temperatures can vary wildly depending whether your story is set in Ghana or Liverpool or New York, the present day or ten years ago or the late 1800s. Writers must build a strong sense of place without dumping paragraphs of rambling description into the story, and there are lots…

The Five Most Common Creative Writing Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

1. Point-of-view shift. ” ‘Will you?’ he asked, feeling nervous as he held out the ring box he’d secretly been carrying for weeks. ‘I love you,’ she lied, thinking about her plot to marry him and steal his money.” Point of view means who is telling the story. Often, fictional stories use third person limited, which means that ‘he’ or ‘she’ is used (as opposed to ‘I’), but the reader only knows the thoughts and feelings of the main character….

Six Ways to Develop Your Writer’s Voice

4th Jun 2018 in Writing

Your writing voice can’t be forced, but it’s a vital part of creating stories that could only be written by you. It’s your fingerprint, and it’s tricky to define. Voice is that unique combination of language, syntax, theme, tone and plot that immediately tells us the difference between a story by Cormac McCarthy, Sarah Waters, Stephen King or F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here are some exercises to help develop your voice: Free-writing or automatic writing can help you to see the…