Smarter Writers Use Semi-colons and Colons

I have heard in writing circles that writers who use the semi-colon are just demonstrating that they’ve been to college/Uni. And that writers should either pause (comma), not pause (no comma), or stop completely (full stop). This is not true at all. A semi-colon is an important element of punctuation to have and you’ll be a better writer for learning …

Badass Book Cover Designs

I have known about GoOnWrite book covers for a long time, but couldn’t recollect the name until I searched (hard) for it this morning. These covers are sooo good! I want them. In fact I love them so much, I don’t want to tell anyone about the site! I want it to be my secret. I know that’s really bad …

Book 3: Pool Staker Progress

Progress on Book 3 looks like this…

I’m grafting away. Actually, I shouldn’t be writing this, but hey. Distractions! I’m not put off by my 3k a chapter targets, because this is just draft 1. I’ll be whizzing through it again as soon as I’ve finished and sprinkling description, better dialogue, and all manner of authorial talents which I’ll probably regret later. I really feel like I’m …

Blatant Self Promotion

CredibleInk is on instagram! Yes. Blatant, unashamed, self promotion alert. Go here: instagram.com/credibleinkmark and follow me! Why should you follow? Because you’ll get to find out more about me, my writing woes, and you’ll see how to do Instagram for writers! Here’s my top tips for Writers using Instagram (scroll down if you want to see my strategy!):   Tip 1: Find …

8 big problems all novelist’s face and how to overcome them

Writing a novel is hard. Tapping keys is the easy part, the struggle comes from all the battles with fear, uncertainty, and doubt, over a number of aspects of story telling. I’ve pulled together a list issues I (and other writers) constantly run into. I would argue if you haven’t written a fiction story before and want to, you’ll need …

My Massive Writing Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Mistakes I Make When Writing Fast First Drafts

The point I want to make is usually at the end of the sentence because I’m thinking things up as I go. This means a lot of rewriting because the sentence is clunky. I know I shouldn’t leave it like that but I often do. Echoing headwords. Too many sentences start with character names: Ethan…, El Gato…, Dixel… etc. I …

Using Scrivener to create your Author pen name

Not sure if anyone has done this before, but I’ve discovered the Scrivener name generator is brilliant for coming up with Author pen names. Select either gender, Forename initials only, and choose 2 initials from the dropdown. Punch the Generate Names button and skim through the results. Perfect! Mark