Maggie Hamand

Do you want to be the next best-selling author and dream up a new iconic character? Follow this handy Cheat Sheet, which breaks down the creative writing process into manageable tasks and helps you to develop your writing style and become a confident and accomplished writer.Gather your creative writing toolsAlways be prepared!

Writing a first draft of your creative writing project – whether a novel, short story, poem or play – can be a bit daunting. Follow these handy hints to help you organise your thoughts and manage your time: Don’t worry about a great opening line yet. Simply start writing wherever you like. Keep the flow going in the early stages – keep writing without stopping, going back, re-reading or changing what you’ve written.

Blogging is one of fastest growing forms of communication. It’s easy, cheap and is a great way to develop your writing skills and get your voice heard. Blogs can take a number of forms – commentaries, diaries and fiction. The first thing to think about is the title of your blog. This is crucial: Most viewers will decide to visit your blog based on its title.

Here are some top tips for developing your creative writing. No writing is ever a finished product – there are always ways to improve and refine your style. Go on a writing course. Join a writers’ circle. Find a good library and use it. Read and re-read good writing. Attend book festivals, readings and bookshop events.

Believable, authentic characters are crucial to great stories and novels. Fictional characters should have the depth and power to inspire varied emotions such as love, hate and fear in a reader.There are a number of ways you can go about creating characters. When writing fiction, you can often use a real-life person as a basis for a character, then change and adapt the person’s characteristics for the story you’re writing.

Always be prepared! Here’s a checklist of useful writing aids to have with you as you begin to write – just don’t forget the chocolate biscuits. A good notebook A decent pen Plenty of paper A computer or laptop A desk or other writing space A dictionary A thesaurus

Writer’s block affects all writers from time to time. If you feel a bit stuck for inspiration, try these techniques to get your creative juices flowing. Find a postcard, photograph or painting depicting two or more people and write a story about them. Look at any object and write about it – where does it come from, who does it belong to, who might want it?

Effective, compelling and realistic dialogue is crucial to successful creative writing. Without authentic-sounding conversation, your characters and plot will seem undeveloped and unbelievable. At its best, dialogue should be able to build tension, reveal individual character and add sparkle to your fictional storytelling.