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My blog has moved to Substack
In early 2024 I discovered Substack. It is easy to use, and a fine community for writers, so my blog is now hosted there. My earlier posts, covering issues like my writing journey and apps/software of interest to writers, are retained on this site. Newer ones will be on Substack. Take a look: Charlie Garratt’s…
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What’s in a family?
It started with a search for family Back in the 1990s, way before the internet, Ancestry, Findmypast, and a hundred other genealogy sites were available, I started to research my family history. Why I bothered at the time I can’t remember, but I do know I’d been given a photograph, allegedly of my great-grandfather. Something…
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The Perfect Place to Write?
If you’re looking for the perfect place to write, it is probably just in your head. Not actually, physically, in there, of course, but a mental attitude to a location where you feel comfortable. I just spent two weeks in France, only a holiday but hoping the change of scene would help me write more.…
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Research for Historical Fiction -3 Top Tips
As authors, we create worlds which we want to be believable. In science fiction and fantasy, the world may be another planet or a dystopian future. In historical fiction this world is the past. Good research is the key.
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It’s all about family
A Handkerchief for Maria – a family saga In this engaging family saga, Maria sits by the bed of her comatose daughter, Alice, in 1945.When the doctor tells Maria the young woman has only a short time to live, she begins to tell Alice family stories, some true, some not, to make sense of the…
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Donkeys in the Desert
In 1858 my great-great-grandfather, a soldier in the 91st Regiment of Foot, embarked on what must have been one of the strangest events of his life. Alongside the rest of his comrades, bound for India, he was transported across seventeen miles of desert between Alexandria and Suez in a column of around 1,000 donkeys, in…
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Scrivener 3 – An Honest Review
Readers of these posts will be aware I’m a great fan of Scrivener – and now Scrivener 3 – as a writing tool. It enables detailed planning and has a really good system of structuring…
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Conquer outlining using Scrivener and Scapple
I’m a big fan of Scrivener as a writing tool and recently began outlining a new novel (the fifth in the Inspector James Given series). As always, procrastination took over and I searched for ideas on how to make the process easier. I found an exceptionally good video on outlining from Abbie Emmons, which is…
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Planning a new novel
Many authors spend time planning their novels to some degree, many don’t plan at all. It’s whatever floats your boat. I’m a planner. When I was half-way through A Patient Man, the third in the Inspector James Given series, I decided I’d kill him off. I’d had enough of him and wanted to move on…