Plan now for 2020!

• Timelines and ideas to help you make 2020 your most productive year yet (From a commercial point of view, ie generating publiclity,m scheduling promotion, etc, timelines for production)

• How to start now and get your novel manuscript ready for submission by December 

• Targets and goals to get you submitting short stories regularly, and hopefully published, by the end of the year. (for beginners and more advanced, aiming to get into a cycle of writing and submitting whatever your level)

• You can’t beat the system! The benefits of chunking and taking a systematic approach to plan and get through your book (non-fiction)

• What’s your business strategy? Whatever your genre, definining your aims and goals will help you hit them! What’s your strategy for your writing business? Should you specialise in a particular subject matter or genre? Will you seek a traditional publishing deal, or self-publish? Defining your writing business vision for 2020 will help you achieve your writing goals.  

How to write funny! Two authors reveal how they write humorous fiction

Twenty questions: writing fabulous children’s fiction - continuing the most commonly asked questions of children’s writers, this time with 20 focusing on the writing itself

Epic undertaking! How do you go about writing a speculative fiction epic, 120,000+ words 

The thought of writing a novel is a daunting task, even when you’re angling for the lower end of the word count at 80,000 words. However genre writers often have to go far beyond that, pushing to 150,000 words or more. But how do you go about tackling such an epic story? This article will offer practical tips and advice on how to develop, tell and write extensive stories in the fields of SF and fantasy.

Star interview: Salley Vickers on using her background as a psychotherapist to create realistic characters with believable psychological depth and traits 

• We mark the 200th anniversary of Anne Brontë’s birth with a look at her life and work 

• Celia Anderson explains how her latest novels was inspired by her family’s love of letter writing

• Jane Risdon explains her writing routine after retiring from the music industry to become a thriller writer

• Historian and journalist Christopher Hadley highlights his five favourite reads