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Blog, Writing

Become A Better Writer By…


Becoming a better writer starts with confidence. The first step in reaching any goal is telling yourself you can do it. It doesn’t matter if your goal is writing a novel, creating a collection of poems, or keeping a journal.

…Believing In Yourself

Becoming a Better Writer: get a business card. Photo by Hans via Pixabay

If you want to be a writer, give yourself that job title from Day One. Then work at it with all your might. Whether or not you are published, as soon as you put words down on the page, you become an author. Celebrate that fact! Create your own business card and keep it in your phone case. Seeing it every time you use your phone will remind you of your ultimate goal. Your first business card can be as simple as a hand-written, cut-down postcard. Include your writing name, email address, and that vital word ‘author’. As soon as you can afford it, order a small supply of business cards from somewhere like Vistaprint or Canva. Then when the time comes you’ll have something to hand out to your readers, and book stores.


Writers are supposed to avoid using clichés, but practice really does make perfect. Here comes another favourite saying—I wish I had a pound for every time someone has said to me; ‘I’d love to be a writer, but I don’t have the time,’ or, ‘I’d love to be a writer, but I don’t have the inspiration.’ If you care about your ideas and you are willing to work at them, the words will come. The more time you invest in writing, the better you will become.

Become A Better Writer By—Writing!

Entering competitions teaches you to write to a deadline. Some offer a paid-for critique service, which is helpful. Attending conferences and workshops will give you ideas and advice, but in the end how much your writing improves is up to you. If you wait until you are in the mood to write, you might as well give up now. You have to put in the work, whether or not you, or the words are in the mood to play along. As long ago as 1911, Mary Heaton Vorse came out with the perfect advice to writers everywhere; ‘The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.’

yellow black pencil sharpened above the white paper in macro photography Becoming a better writer by writing
Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com


Writing goals keep you on track and give you something to aim for. The SMART system is really useful for writers. The individual letters of the word stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. Saying; ‘I want to write a book’ is woolly. There’s neither detail nor urgency about it.

I will have written a book at least 70,000 words long by 31st December this year is specific. It’s measurable, because at the end of the year you will either have reached your goal, or you won’t.

Writing a book of that length in a year is both achievable, and realistic. All you have to do is write 109 words every day for 365 days. Want an idea of what that daily total looks like? There are more words than that in the first nine sentences of this blog.

Set a Goal

Becoming a better writer takes self-belief, practice, and a definite goal. If you sit down, concentrate, and write a few lines every day, it will soon become a habit—like cleaning your teeth or brushing your hair.

Why don’t you share your writing goals for 2023?

You can find out more about me here, and see some of my books here.

merry christmas sign
Blog, Writing

December Notes and Writing Prompts

Lots of us are busy with parties and Christmas preparations this month. I started early! However busy you are, take some time out to and relax. When the weather is cold and clear we can get some wonderful sunrises and sunsets this month. Here are some December notes and writing prompts, to give your creativity a nudge.

December Writing Prompts: photo of a winter sunset with birch trees and snow.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

December Notes

December 1st is the official start of winter. At this time of year insects are in short supply. Wildlife has already eaten most of Autumn’s berries and seeds, so birds and animals are getting hungry. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can feed them. There are windowsill feeders to bring life and movement right up close. That can provide inspiration for non-fiction work, or simply a break from work. I waste lots of writing time watching the finches, nuthatches and woodpeckers squabbling!

December Writing Prompts: Use the contrast of light and dark to spark creativity. Two pillar candles
Photo by Matej Novosad on Pexels.com

December in the Dark

One of my favourite December memories is trudging home from school one dark winter afternoon, weighed down with a ton of homework. With a hundred yards to go I looked up—and saw the coloured lights of the Christmas tree in our front window, shining through the darkness. They were only the old-fashioned, static Woolworths fairy lights, but that didn’t matter. Seeing them gave me a real boost. It’s important to include contrast in your writing. The difference between reality and promise, or darkness and light, add depth to your work.

close up of christmas decoration hanging on tree
Photo by Gary Spears on Pexels.com

Sensory Treats at Christmas

December brings lots of sensory treats. There’s Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and the fragrance of crushed pine needles, or marzipan, and all kinds of exotic citrus fruits. I love the sensation of sliding into a brand new bubble bath on Christmas morning. It’s a shame those bubbles are always cold, no matter how warm the water!

Writing Prompts

Editors schedule magazine features and stories about Christmas months in advance. The The People’s Friend , for example, looks for Christmas pieces in early summer. You can get some inspiration ahead of Christmas 2023 deadlines by studying what is on offer right now. Background reading of this month’s Christmas fiction and non-fiction will give you an idea of what is wanted. Make lots of notes. Then you can spend the next few months working them up for submission.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Create your own December Notes and Writing Prompts to inspire you this month. If you have a busy Christmas, the time between the big day and New Year celebrations can be a bit of a let-down. Writing gives you focus. If you are on your own this Christmas, writing can help to ease loneliness. Either way, you can use the dark days of December to squirrel away inspiration for your new writing year.

December Writing Prompt: close up of mistletoe
Photo by Dids on Pexels.com

Ideas to get you started

  • What if the family member who always did the cooking went on strike, and refused to cook Christmas dinner?
  • Power cuts are predicted. How would your characters cope, faced with cold baked beans and bread toasted over a candle?
  • Mincemeat originally contained real meat. What’s the worst traditional dish you can think of—and how could you persuade your fictional characters to try it?
  • Kisses under the mistletoe—a huge mistake, or the start of a beautiful friendship?
  • Christmas 1914 saw a football match between British and German forces during the First World War. How would you mend a rift between opposing sides? This is the idea behind my latest story Goodwill to All, by the way!
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Blog, Writing

Resolutions—Broken, or Kept?

We’re now seven weeks into 2022, so the New Year isn’t so new any more. I don’t know about you, but my resolutions are already pretty dog-eared. “I will stop snacking between tea and bed” was the first one to go, closely followed by Tech Sabbath.

sweet macaroons and pink carnations placed on table
Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com

My willpower is non-existent when it comes to dipping into the biscuit tin before bedtime. The obvious answer is not to make or buy cake and biscuits. The problem is, I keep telling myself it’s not fair to deprive the rest of the family when I’m the only one with no willpower.

I have a great set of dog-walking waterproofs which fitted perfectly before lockdown, but I can now barely fasten them up. That is a powerful incentive to sit on my hands each evening, but will it be enough? I’ve decided to definitely give up snacking for Lent so pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (1st March) will be my last foodie treat until Easter. I hope…

For better or worse I get my news from the BBC World Service, or Radio Four. I don’t need to trawl the internet. But then, there’s always some cute cat video, or “celebrity” gossip popping up online that the BBC is far too sensible to cover. That’s why a Tech Sabbath (switching off my computer at 5pm one day per week and not switching it back on again for twenty-four hours) is very hard for me to achieve. I really need to know about all the local houses for sale, even if I’ve got no intention of ever leaving Tottering Towers!

One resolution I have managed to keep is to write every day. My target is a thousand words, and so far I’ve managed to complete several short stories already this year. I’ve also tried writing Flash Fiction for the first time. I’ve been helped to achieve all this by the methods set out in The Organised Writer by Antony Johnston. You can find out more about that book here.

If you’ve signed up for the Romantic Novelists’ Association‘s New Writers’ Scheme this year, you’ll know the deadline is 31st July. It makes life a lot easier for Janet Gover, the scheme’s co-ordinator, if you don’t leave it to the last minute to submit your manuscript.

open white notebook near pencil and eyeglasses beside laptop computer on white surface
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As a Reader for the New Writers’ Scheme, I’m keen that everyone’s entries are submitted in plenty of time. It’s lovely to read new stories and discover fresh voices, so please try and have your work ready for submission long before the end of July. You’ll need to spend plenty of time editing to make sure your work is as good as it can be, so the polishing process should start in early summer.

The minimum word count needed for the New Writers’ Scheme is 10,000 words. That may seem a lot, but if you were to start with a blank page this morning and write only a hundred words per day for the next fifteen weeks, you’d have a first draft of at least 10,500 words by 4th June. Then you could spend a whole month editing your work, and STILL make Janet smile by getting your entry in well before the closing date!

Francis Close Hall,
University of Gloucestershire

When I started university as a very mature student (you can read about that here) my daughter gave me an invaluable tip about deadlines: make a diary note well in advance. Try and get everything done by that date. Then you’ll never get caught out. If your work is finished early, great. If you hit a snag, you’ll still have plenty of time to put it right.

If you want some motivation, I’ve got some advice for kick-starting your next writing project here.

woman in white long sleeved shirt holding a pen writing on a paper
Blog, Writing

Writing Romance —How To ACE It

I began my writing career by producing photographs and non-fiction articles for national magazines such as The Lady, and the Royal Horticultural Society’s The Garden. Then I was seduced by romance, and started working in the genre. Twenty-one novels later I’ve sold nearly three million books, which have been translated into lots of different languages. On the right you can see the cover of the recently-released Manga version of my Harlequin Modern Romance, Weight of the Crown.

For the past few years I’ve been acting as a reader for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme. Members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association who are unpublished submit their work to be assessed by professional authors like me. Graduates of the scheme include a fellow member of the RNA’s Marcher Chapter, the lovely Jan Baynham. As an unpublished author, Jan submitted her novel Her Mother’s Secret to the NWS. It went on to be published, and Jan’s career took off.

You can find out more about joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association here.

If you want to write romance, start by reading everything in the genre that appeals to you. Once you’ve got a feeling for the type of stories you like best, three letters will help you craft your own romantic novel. They are A.C.E:

Audience and Atmosphere

Characters and Conflict

Expectation and Experience

A is for Audience. Always keep your reader in mind. Reading romance is an escape, so whether your story is historical, contemporary, conventional, or alternative, give your audience what they are looking for — a story with plenty of Atmosphere. The swish of skirts and glitter of candlelight against silverware sets the scene for an historical novel. Sun, sand, and champagne sipped on a yacht supplies the glamour every contemporary romance needs.

C is for Characters. Focus on quality, rather than quantity. When it comes to romance, the fewer speaking parts, the better. Bring in other people only to enhance the reader’s understanding of your principal characters, or to deepen the Conflict between them. In this instance, the word conflict refers to the dramatic tension between how a character feels and the public face they adopt. For example, Pride and Prejudice has a whole raft of characters, but each plays a vital role in exposing the real Elizabeth and Darcy. Those two central characters are confined within the rigid class structure of their era, while their strong emotions create the inner turmoils which drive the plot.

a couple in white dress standing in view of the mountain
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

E is for Expectation, which brings us back to your audience. Anyone choosing a romance to read is looking for a central character they can relate to, who is swept off their feet by their idea of a perfect lover. There’s no satisfaction for your reader if the path of fictional true love runs smoothly, so make it a roller coaster of Emotion (another E!) and Experiences. Let your central characters be faced with situations that test them in the same way your readers are tested in their own lives. Readers love to follow the journeys of heroes and heroines as they come to terms with hardship, pain, separation, and every other kind of disaster before finding their Happy Ever After.

Love conquers all is a cliché, but it’s perfect in this situation as it describes what readers like to read about. Your job as a writer is to give them what they want.

Next time I’ll be talking about how you can avoid the three common mistakes that get a manuscript rejected without being read. Subscribe to my blog by using the button above, so you don’t miss out!

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Advent, Blog, Writing

A Present, An Award, and Publication…

Guess what—Christina Hollis isn’t my real name!

I’ve had quite a week, so I’m hoping to spend this weekend recovering with a good book!

Monday was the day I’d been both looking forward to, and dreading. I graduated with an MA (distinction) in Creative and Critical Writing in October 2020 but the graduation ceremony was cancelled due to Covid. We finally got our chance to get togged up and go on parade at The Centaur auditorium in Cheltenham Racecourse this week, along with all the the 2021 graduands.

My social anxiety was in overdrive while driving to the venue, getting robed, photographed, and making that long walk across the stage to bow (no handshakes, thanks to Covid) to the University of Gloucestershire’s Pro-Chancellor Sir Henry Elwes. Thank goodness I was in the good company of my fellow MA students, Rosie, Carole, and Hayley. Congratulations again, girls!

On Tuesday, Alex disturbed a wild boar when we were out on a walk. It must have been asleep in the bracken brash which covers the woodland surrounding our house. It jumped up and huffed at him furiously. I would have done the same if Alex’s cold wet nose had woken me up when I was fast asleep! Alex bounced straight back onto the track unhurt, but he was careful to hide behind us while barking furiously at the retreating boar.

The People’s Friend, Edition No. 7905

On Wednesday, my story Raining Cats and Dogs appeared in The People’s Friend. Although it’s completely fictional, the setting is based on my daughter’s tiny home in Tewkesbury. She took me with her when she first went to view it. I fell in love with the place the moment we went up the (high) front steps and over the (raised) threshold. It’s a beautiful little house, built hundreds of years ago as “infill” by some mediaeval entrepreneur to unite two rows of traditional black and white cottages. Despite being on the river bank it has never flooded—although all the properties keep special flood gates at the ready!

Ever since I got my results in October 2020 I’ve been dithering about whether or not to do a PhD. There are lots of reasons why I should (personal satisfaction, increasing human knowledge, getting to wear am even fancier cap and gown on qualifying, etc)…and lots of reasons why I shouldn’t (cost, time, effort etc).

On Thursday, all that dithering had to stop. My husband announced that he’d told his work colleagues he was looking forward to taking a back seat at office parties when we’re introduced as “Dr and Mr Hollis”. He’s hoping that curiosity will divert attention away from him, for a change!

DD, Looking Great On My Big Day

Friday brought a welcome message from Lucy, my lovely editor at The People’s Friend magazine. She told me that I’d had another story accepted for publication. This one has the working title The Self-Help Switch. I don’t know when it will appear—probably some time in the New Year—and the title is almost certain to change. I’ll let you know when I have more details.

The Forest of Dean is supposed to catch the edge of Storm Arwen over the weekend, but this week has already given me enough excitement, thank you very much! I’m planning to spend my time curled up in front of the fire with the workbook my sister gave me as a graduation present. It’s The Writers’ Advent by Portland Jones, which gives a prompt for every day leading up to December 25th. The first one supplies the opening of a detective story, and challenges you to supply the next 200 words or so. The book’s subsequent prompts cover all kinds of genres, one for each day, with suggestions for blog posts, limericks, horror stories, and more. I’ve never used a prompt book before, and can’t wait to get started.

Have you used a book like The Writers’ Advent? Did it persuade you to try a new writing journey?