A large part of my writing/teaching time is devoted to individual mentoring: hour-long face-to-face or Skype meetings with new writers in which (I trust) they are imbued with creative energy and the tools to channel this energy into a stronger, better piece of fiction. ‘Why and how does this happen?’ an interested potential mentee wants to…
» Continue Reading
All fired up and ready to write, write, write – members of the lively group who attended last summer’s Fiction Booster are forging ahead to make this the most creative, productive summer ever. And for those who couldn’t make this course, watch this space for another chance to have Shelley’s intensive tuition for five full days at the Faber Academy’s home…
» Continue Reading
Out there, lurking darkly in cyberspace, is a creature more voracious than any on earth. Like most writers I know, I’ve been offering it literary titbits for years. Blogging, tweeting, Facebook-feeding, the lot. Of late – with much help from the lovely Kristen Harrison of The Curved House – I’ve been preparing a Cybermonster Feast in the form…
» Continue Reading
You want to write a novel? Write it! Shelley offers advice to writers-in-waiting over at Faber Academy. To read the whole article visit the Faber Academy Blog… You want to write a novel? Stop dreaming. Do it. Once, many years ago, I found myself at a party heavily populated by fellow journalists. I’d recently made…
» Continue Reading
YOUR NOVEL INSIDE OUT with The Literary Consultancy
Workshops for Writers
Shelley’s collaborative venture with The Literary Consultancy, the UK’s leading editorial advice service for writers, concluded with the last of her three day-long masterclasses collectively entitled YOUR NOVEL INSIDE OUT. The day-long session on 28 March, called MAKING IT HAPPEN, looked at the writing process – style, revision, and what to do with your novel once you’re…
» Continue Reading
Who on earth will buy my novella?
Ask Shelley
The commercial imperative rears its head in the latest appeal to ASK SHELLEY. Frugal Fred (is there such a person?) believes that, while a novel could earn him a fortune, sweating over a novella may be for the birds. Dear Shelley (he writes), The novella masterclass that you’re running for Peirene sounds fascinating. I have…
» Continue Reading
Advice from the Literary Agony Aunt
Ask Shelley
Once upon a time, in my way-back incarnation as a jobbing journalist employed (illegally) in a Fleet Street features agency, one of my tasks was to provide a regular advice column for dissemination to the far flung outposts serviced by the agency. Readers, probably not that many, in places like Kowloon or Easter Island or…
» Continue Reading
Can literary excellence be bought?
Ask Shelley
When Tight Wilma’s dilemma lands in my ASK SHELLEY tray, I’m in a quandary. Does she know I have an interest in this area? Am I the best person to respond to her plea without prejudice? Here’s what she writes: Dear Shelley, I’m a new writer and wondering how best to get ahead. Alone and…
» Continue Reading
When can I say, ‘I’m a writer’?
Ask Shelley
Yet another literary dilemma comes crashing onto my desk or, rather, pinging into my inbox. Then another. And another. The whole world, it seems, is wanting to ASK SHELLEY for advice about writing issues they’d rather not talk about to anyone else. Well, perhaps not the whole world. And perhaps the problem is that most…
» Continue Reading
… And yet another literary problem lands on my overflowing desk. This time it’s from a writer with a bent for irony and an uncontainable desire to prematurely spill out her story. Poor Idina Closet (I assume Idina rhymes with Irina?) – if only there were a drug on the market with the verbal impact…
» Continue Reading
There seems no end to the writerly travails that land on my desk, into my inbox and even on the streets, as I’m waylaid with tearful scribes in need of help. They’re tangled in plot-twists. Their characters stink. They’re stuck for the right words to describe their setting. Some are just stuck. Blocked. And while…
» Continue Reading
Help! I’ve insulted my mother-in-law…
Ask Shelley
Another literary dilemma lands on my desk! And, as the Peirene Press problem solver and masterclass deliverer, I’m duty bound to give my considered response. Here goes: Dear Shelley, I’ve just typed ‘THE END’ to my first novel – hooray! But now I suddenly see that one of my main characters, not a nice one,…
» Continue Reading
What does the new novelist really, really want?
Ask Shelley
So you signed up … or almost did … to the latest Faber Academy six-month Writing a Novel’ course? Or joined me in Spain for the Literary Consultancy’s Literary Adventure? Or emerged triumphant from one of the summer Five Day Short Story courses? Well done – even for that moment of serious consideration. Out of all…
» Continue Reading
Do you have any burning literary problems?
For honest, informed, confidential and compassionate advice about any matter of the pen, click the button above and ASK SHELLEY. Those who have are now happily scribbling away.