Hello! I'm running a free masterclass next Tuesday at 7pm UK / 2pm EST on Developing Your Novel Idea. Details at the bottom of this email. Here's this week's post for you: How to Add Tension and Pace to a Scene That’s Sagging How to Add Tension and Pace to a Scene That’s Sagging? Some novel scenes speed along, taut and tense, and full of energy. But others drift, with your characters ambling around, chatting or thinking, not really doing anything much at all. The pace sags … and the tension...

Hello! Lots of writers set daily or weekly targets, and if you're writing a novel (or working on any major project), it often makes sense to break it down in terms of words. For instance, if you're writing a 90,000 word novel and you want to finish in six months, that's 15,000 words per month, or about 500 words per day. And that would work really well ... if the writing process only involved getting fresh words on the page. But even when you've got a great plan for your novel, you'll...

Hello! Here's this week's post for you: How Long Does it Take to Write 1,000 Words? How Long Does it Take to Write 1,000 Word? How long does it take to write 1,000 words? If you’re writing a novel … the answer matters! If you’re aiming for an average-ish novel length of 80,000 words, then that’ll take you 80 days, writing 1,000 words per day. (Those don’t have to be consecutive days, of course.) Knowing your writing speed is important, so you can figure out how much time you need to set aside...