Hi everyone, I’m so happy to have been asked to join GirlsHeartBooks as one of their guest bloggers for the next few months. What a fabulous place to talk about books and writing – and other things! So a little bit about me; ‘I’m a writer.’ There, I’ve said it! That tiny sentence is surprisingly … Continue reading
I am playing around with an idea for a new book at the moment and I am struggling to come up with names for my characters. Would you be able to help? I can’t tell you much about the story because a story idea has to stay top secret until it is written, but I … Continue reading
Jo Franklin remembers an important book from her childhood. Continue reading
My new series for Nosy Crow is classic fantasy for readers aged 10+ and I’m really enjoying digging into the first book as I work on all the elements that make for a good read: an exciting plot with twists and turns, a sense of place, high stakes, great characters. As a writer, I’ve come … Continue reading
To celebrate World Book Day next week, National Book Tokens have just announced the results of their Great Big Book Poll … and girls rock. In a poll voted for by men and women, girls and boys, 6 of the top 10 heroes of all time in children’s books were girls (and two of the … Continue reading
When you’re writing a story, the characters that you create are key ingredients – and an important part of creating great characters is to have brilliant character names. Sometimes names can be plain, sometimes they can be funny, and sometimes they can be meaningful – but every name you choose has to be memorable for … Continue reading
‘All my books were about ponies or horses, as that’s all I thought about when I was a child. I couldn’t have a pony of my own as we lived in a town and my parents couldn’t afford it. So I wrote down all my wishes and invented ponies whose life stories I followed: good … Continue reading
Of course you need to know a lot about your characters, and by the time you finish writing the first draft of your book you will, – but 100%, inside-out, every breath and thought and reaction they could ever have? And work all this out before you dare put pen to paper – or these … Continue reading
Children’s literature is rich with so many delicious character names. With the very best ones, your eyes widen, your ears prick up and your tongue wraps around the words. Merely seeing the names, helps you visualise the characters or imagine their personalities. Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians must be one of … Continue reading
Writing is a funny business – you are constantly making things up in your head, and not always sure where on earth any of it came from. But one of the things I find most mysterious about writing is how the people in your stories develop into real characters – like Max Pendragon and Adolphus … Continue reading
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