Dear Dr Darwin, I’m writing a novel set in medieval Mallorca, and I’m a draft-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer, not a planner. My business partner says it’s inefficient to do the research until I’ve written my first draft and know what I need. My critiquing partner says it’s asking for trouble to do the writing first and leave […]
So I put the gravy browning on my legs as I drank my Camp coffee and sang along to Glenn Miller
Dear Dr Darwin, When a wartime-set story is all, “So I put the gravy browning on my legs as I drank my Camp coffee and sang along to Glenn Miller,” or similar? It’s so unsubtle that it ruins my immersion in the story. I know it makes sense to use things that I think lots of […]
Picture This
Dressed in their Sunday best, straight-backed and solemn-faced, the family in the photograph appears the epitome of working class respectability. Taken around 1913, the picture shows Annie Baker, her husband Arthur and their daughter Florence. There is a look of calm innocence in their eyes, and perhaps this is why I have always found the […]
‘The history stuff’ is like lumps in the custard
Dear Dr Darwin, I loved doing the research for my historical novel, but a beta-reader friend says that “all the history stuff” is like lumps in the custard. I don’t want to write about Britain in 2014, but if I don’t explain and describe historical things, readers won’t understand what’s happening. Also, they won’t believe […]