Photo by Wix. Understanding your writing style is key to letting your words flow onto the page. Understanding what these writing styles mean is also key. What Is a Pantser? A Pantser is someone who writes without a plan. They start on a blank page and jump straight into the story. No plan needed. No story bible. No character profiles. It all comes from within their head and out through their fingertips. Drafts are often written a lot quicker than the editing rounds. Those tak

Screenshot of the author holding her book, What's Left. From her Youtube video released today. Writing descriptions can make the best of us stumble. We want to tell the reader everything, but actually, we want to show them and tell them nothing. How do you show someone words on a page? I love writing descriptions. Here's my secret sauce you can use on your creations, too: Be the Character. Get inside the head of your character. Imagine exactly what it would be like to be them

Photo from Wix Starting out is one of the hardest things you can do. There’s a whole world out there to wrap your mind around. Your words could become the next biggest thing, start trends, or be lost in the abyss. With these essential tips, you’ll be able to keep a sustainable pace and move out of the beginner stage to become someone who writes writing tips for new authors! Define Your “Why” There are going to be a million obstacles that get in your way. If you know why you’r

Photo by Wix. Tip 1: Adjust Your Goals Having goals is great but when you’re unwell or life in getting in the way. Shrink these goals to something achievable. Write only 100 words a day. Write 10 words a day. If you really need to, don’t write at all. Sometimes, Life has to take priority. Tip 2: Ditch the Routine I’m all for having a routine. Mine keeps me on track. But when life gets busy, we fall ill or something else gets in the way, we need to adjust. This might mean movi

Writing is a scary process. Sometimes it’s so scary it stops us from writing altogether. Here are some of my fears and what you can do about them. Readers are Scary Readers are people with opinions. And opinions are terrifying. They could make or break our day or career — and those thoughts are huge! We need readers, yet readers can crush our egos in a millisecond. However, we need readers. They are wonderful people who can build up our egos and careers. They are our communit

Motivation is one of the hardest things to maintain as a writer. I personally feel like motivation and inspiration are the same thing. When we feel inspired, our brains are on fire with ideas, and we can write furiously without pause. But that feeling wears off. This is where the name “dragging middle syndrome” comes from. We’ve written all that we could think of, and then we’re stuck at the turning point, raising conflict, building tension bit. We hadn’t thought about any of

Photo from Wix. A blog on a laptop. Starting a blog is a wonderful way to build a portfolio of work. This portfolio can be used to share with publishers, potential clients, magazines, and job applications - it's a pretty versatile way to get your work out there. My favourite part of blogging is the writing community you come across, and the wonderful people you get to interact with and read the stories of. Not only that, it's a lot of fun. So how do you start? 1) Pick a plat

The cover of my novel: What's Left My best story is the one above. And it started by asking myself, "What If?" When I try to come up with story ideas, I'll usually be out in the world walking around or driving or laughing with friends. I'll see someone on a bike go past and I'll think 'what if they bumped into me?' They'd stop and apologise, I'd see something glint in their bag that looked like jewels. They'd carry on with their day and I'd carry on with mine. And what if lat

Cover of my novel. Designed by Marie Tulbo The character in my novel, What’s Left, whom I feel the closest to is Michelle. I started writing her as a way to process something I had been going through. From the age of 18, I started to notice my energy levels would drop suddenly and without explanation. One day I’d be doing push-ups and the next I struggled to get out of bed. Just like Michelle. I remember interviewing for my first job as a writer. I was so excited to get this

We all need a bit of help Photo from Wix. 1) A woman walks into a bar, sees her friends at a table, all laughing. Why was she not invited? 2) A man wakes up in a grave. 3) Children laughing, seasaws seasawing, but no children in sight. 4) A thruple starts having trouble. 5) A dragon flies into a city and starts destroying it. 6) An apartment gets broken into. But there's no sign of a break in. 7) A deadly disease spreads across the planet, but only a certain group of people a

A woman with writer's block. Photo from Wix. Writer's Block is a controversial topic. Some are debilitated by it, others say it doesn't exist. I sit in the middle. I think it does exist and you can absolutely work through it. First, we must understand it. Just like with any activity, if you do it for too long you'll get fatigued. If you run, you go for a certain amount of time and then you catch your breath. Runners Block. You may not want to run the next day. Extended Runner

Image from Wix Editing is what writing is. We all know the saying “Writing is Re-writing.” Anyone who writes for an audience knows most of the work happens after the first draft. And if you’re an editor, you know that all too well. There are a lot of questions around editing. How to do it? What should the writer focus on? How many times do they need to rewrite their work until it’s perfection? I’m now on my 2nd draft of my 2nd novel — the sequel to my recent release, What’s

A classic new year story This year has been a heck of a year. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it from me. But let’s go over them again. Starting with 2025; the bad, then the good, then the goals. The difficulties of this year: I became ill for months. I discovered mold in my flat and found moisture had no way of escaping from the bathroom. The fan took the moisture into the roof and left it there. I argued with the property manager who blamed us, the tenants, for the mo

In a sort of right way… The world is a messy place with messy experiences and I am just one of many who constantly feels their head spin. Pushing yourself beyond your limits and entering situations that scare you, tease you, and make you chuckle. The world is full of love and joy and darkness. It can all be experienced simultaneously. How can one experience anxiety and happiness at the exact same time? Being up and down is a normal, human experience. Even if you feel all of t

If you are wondering, yes, I am like Taylor Swift, and I am hinting that I will write 33 books in my lifetime. Markets are wonderful places! If you have written a book and want to get the word out there — head to a local market. You’ll meet so many interesting people! Some will buy your book. Some will join your mailing list. Some will search up your website. And some will wish you luck. This market was quite different to the last one. This time round, I had a lot of people

A printing press. Image from Wix. I recently published my contemporary women’s fiction novel, What’s Left. I went through self-publishing, which has been a crazy and very rewarding experience. Previously, I sold two travel guides to an Indie Publisher. And I’ve been rejected multiple times by Traditional Publishers, so I feel I have some ground to talk about my experience. First, everyone’s favourite to discuss: Traditional Publishing. I’m from New Zealand and because this co

What's Left by Livvy Skelton-Price Imposter syndrome can be a common occurrence within the writing community. We spend a lot of time dreaming about being Authors, yet when we become one, we don't believe it. I had a recent experience when I was referred to as an Author. Not only that, I was introduced as an Author. For the first time in my writing career, I completely froze. I had an overwhelming urge to correct them, tell them it's only me. Not an Author, just me. I wanted t

Writer's Block is one of those things we’ve all come across. The words don’t flow, and nothing feels like it fits. The characters are 2D, the plot falls flat, and the twists don’t twist. It’s a bad hair day, but for your writing. And that’s all it is. A bad hair day. And what do we do with bad hair days? Do we light our hair on fire? No. Do we shave it off? No. Do we declare we don’t deserve hair? No. We get some gel, do what we can and hope for a better day tomorrow. Th

Creating a character out of thin air is a hard task for anyone. So I’ll walk you through how I like to create a character. I usually start with a character which is rather stereo-typical - it’s always easier to work with a template. I note down what traits they have and what stand-out characteristics. Then, I flip them on their head and make them the opposite. In the 80’s, teen films loved these five character types: The Princess. The Jock. The Nerd. The Rebel. The Goth. Let

Starting your story can be a daunting process. It’s just you and the page. Nothing else. Nobody else. Who’s responsible for creating the next best-seller? You are. Who’s helping you? No one. It can certainly feel like a lot of pressure as the weight of the book industry rests on your shoulders. The best way to create a beginning that soars through the ranks and lands in the hands of your potential readers is to: Start In The Middle. The middle of what, though? Honestly, the