You probably remember the old show, don’t tell  saying being drilled into you at school. But do you remember the way it convinced us that every line in a poem we wrote had to include an image that represented a deeper metaphorical meaning? Or how telling was almost considered a sin? That obsession with always showing and never   telling is probably a part of the reason why many adults hate that over-flowery quality they associate with poetry, and consequently poetry itself. T

It's the very first interview of 2026! Yes, today I have the pleasure of introducing you to another member of the Author Support Network , the lovely Zara Thatcher , an excellent formatter, also known as typesetter, of books. We spend so much time getting our manuscript right, taking it through hours and hours of editing but how much time do we spend thinking about how it looks on the page? Enter Zara. Hi there, Zara! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you go

Hi there! Well, we are still stuck in that strange place where it’s winter: Christmas and New Year celebrations are in our back window and summer holidays are way way ahead of us. Looking on the internet, as I do, to find out what kind of things are celebrated this month, I can see that numerous people have tried hard to make us feel better in this desolate month of the year. Today is National Milk Day ! Not great for those who are lactose intolerant. I must admit, when I rea

Can you believe it’s 2026? This is the first yearly anniversary of my weekly blogs. An entire year ago, I sat at my laptop and kicked off with New Years’ Resolutions. But not being a fan of repetition, I will shift the focus to something else. How has your year gone? I bet if you made a list of all your accomplishments you would see just how busy you’ve been. Some of you may have achieved big things: new job, moved to a different country, got married, had a baby. Imagine if s

Well, here we are in the final week of 2025. It’s that limbo time of the year between Christmas and New Year, where we aren’t sure what day it is or what we should be doing. The presents have been opened, but what's this? The last remnants of Christmas - the gift of cash! Oh the possibilities of what we could get and where we could spend it is magical. If you're at a loss how to spend your time and those precious Christmas pounds (not the ones from the food - we had better av

I’m very excited to tell you that Sarah Banham from For The Love of Books  and the  Author Support Network i s back with us again today. However, what you may not know is she is not only an Editor but also a Writer of five non-fiction and six fiction books. This extremely ambitious and motivated lady has challenged herself to publish one book a year! I thought, as a special Christmas Treat, because, yes, it is the big C this week, she could talk to us about how she creates h

Art from A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Mark Summers Christmas can mean different things to different people. Not just dependent on your religion, or if you even have one, but what you are going through, maybe you are dealing with grief or struggling with illness. There are a lot of people going through financial difficulties, and this time of year just ramps up the stress of those expectations as to what Christmas should be like. If we want to look at an example of a cont

I’ll be honest with you, when I’m writing a poem, I almost never think about my target audience. In fact, I never think about who my target audience is. Sure, I did think about who I was writing for when I was a student at university, but only because we were tasked with doing so in order to analyse our own writing. I’ve always written poetry with myself as the sole target audience to please. Maybe it’s because I’m a Virgo, but satisfying my own rigid and slightly neurotic eg

Does anyone else feel like this year has gone by incredibly fast? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were celebrating the New Year, and tomorrow we are at the beginning of December. Yes, tomorrow I will be wading into the attic and getting out all the Christmas decorations. I will put on some Christmas music and try to erect the tree while six cats attack it at various stages. And it is also the first day of Advent, where we all get to open a window and see what treat lies

Hi there and Happy Doctor Who Day! I’m sure you are spending the day binge watching all your favourite episodes, which of course will be those featuring David Tenant, derr. You’ll be humming the theme tune, remembering some of his old nemeses and perhaps even wearing a Doctor Who costume or, a fluffy Dalek onesie. Hey, I’m not judging. You do you! It’s getting chilly and being all snuggled up watching your fav episodes on a chilly day sounds a pretty good way to celebrate. If

Yes! It’s that time again, when I ask one of the members of the Author Support Network to introduce themselves and tell us how they can help you elevate your writing. Today, I am delighted to be chatting with the lovely Nej Steer. To save yourself the embarrassment of mispronouncing her name, as I did, Nej is said as Neigh (like a horse, I was told), and I have tried to remember this ever since. Hello Nej, it is great to have you with us today. Please tell us a little about y

Welcome back to another one of my blogs. I don’t know if you are like me at the moment, but with Christmas approaching, a few months of throwing my cash at repairs on the house and the car, new clothes for my children, and prices of outgoings going up, up and away, money is tighter than Superman’s underpants (I mean they can’t be comfortable to fly about in). I seem to spend all my time scrutinising items, wondering if they are a priority, whether I can wait before I buy them

Hello again, you creative bunch. Now that Halloween has come and drifted back into the shadows again, the next celebration that awaits us is Bonfire Night. Of course, this was originally called Guy Fawkes Night. I still remember when I was young and older kids would knock on the door asking if they could have a ‘penny for the Guy’. They would make an effigy of Guy Fawkes, dress it in old clothes and burn it on a bonfire. I recall them collecting spare wood for their bonfires

Since I was a young child, I’ve always loved to write. My Nana was an avid storyteller who would always teach me about the folktales and mythical creatures of Ireland. I still remember her warnings of the Fae and instructions of how to catch a Leprechaun (to this day, I believe I saw a Leprechaun at seven years old, but of course, I blinked and he disappeared. Sure, it could have been my imagination, but I swear it feels like a memory). We would sit up late at night writing h

I’m shocked because this year is flying by so quickly. The summer has well and truly left us, and winter is fast approaching, along with the spooky season of Halloween. Do you celebrate it? We didn’t when I was a child, but once I had children, I wanted them to enter into the fun of the season. So we carve pumpkins, dressed up and went trick or treating when they were younger, give out sweets and treats to little ones that come knocking on the door, and I have a selection of

Hello again. As October is Mental Health Awareness Month, and is something I feel strongly about, I‘m going to chat a little about how...

Welcome to blog number 39! I have an interesting fact about that number: it’s Japanese chat slang for thank you (san kyu). Following that...

In literary works, the motif refers to a repetitive pattern or recurring element that is used to develop the complexity and depth of the...

Welcome to another blog, and to the last day of Summer. Yes, sadly it’s true, we can officially say goodbye, as the 22nd heralds the...

Hi there, Creative Writers, and happy National Gobstopper Day! You haven’t got any, you say? Well, get to the shop and buy some. I recall...