Writing habits

Gillian McAllister is often asked about the process behind her novels. She uses 'the age-old and hugely inefficient system of trial and error. The problem is, the trial is writing 100,000 words, and the error is deleting them'.

Let me just start with: I do not condemn "telling." There's a place for it in every story, and that's mainly in the interstices between scenes.

But there's a reason we must show things when we are in scene and not tell: readers attach to clear actions and emotions. And that's key to pulling the reader into your story.

Five important insights from the first cohort of Orion's debut writers' academy.

I'm the author of two books, but I'm used to writing on the side of other jobs. Maybe that means it's a hobby-or maybe it's what knits my whole life together.

When we tell people we wrote a novel together-The Lemon, out November 8 on Viking-they all want to know two things: 1. What did you do with all the money? And 2. How on earth do three people write a novel together? The answer to the first question is easy: We bought-late model Mazda Miatas. The answer to the second question is more complicated.  Read more