Hello again, fellow fiction writers. I’m reading some wonderful fiction titles on my Facebook page. Well done! My last week’s blog focused on our powers of imagination – or in my case, a distinct lack of. And during these difficult weeks of home schooling maybe we should be taking a few lessons from our children…

My last week’s blog featured phonics in reading. Yet, while phonic skills are undoubtedly the essential foundation for reading at word level – there is far more to reading than words alone. The end goal of reading is comprehension. After all, if children do not understand what they read, what is the point of phonics?…

Who better to help adults unlock, or should I say unblock, imagination, than our children? Given the current home schooling situation, we writers could learn lots of lessons from our children and grandchildren. So for my fiction blog today I want to focus on imagination. In writing terms, what is it? Where does it come…

Now that schools are closed for what could be a few months, it is hard for parents to know how best to keep children busy and buzzing. On-line lessons are available for many children – but how are parents to cope if not? A main aim would be to engage in some of the basic…

What strange, unprecedented times we are now living through. How will this real life human plot end? Following my last blog about plots and loose ends, it occurs to me that stories do not always have a planned ending. For some lucky writers, their characters write the plot themselves as it moves along. In this…