Christine Hawthorne

The Writer’s Ways series encourages authors to put words ‘on paper’, although that paper may be another medium using electronic tools. The story may be just for the author, or for the whole world.

Great care is required to ensure boundaries are not crossed. And in the digital age we live in, sticking within bounds is incredibly hard.

Do you ever find yourself reading someone else’s writing, and you notice a ‘little’ mistake but, that little mistake distracts you from what the writing is about?

We write to get a message across, and we must ensure our message is clear. So, yes! Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are important, and can be dealt with given time and patience.

What is the ideal word count? One needs to consider whether 37 words are necessary when 5 could be thought adequate. It all comes down to 'What are you actually trying to say'?

The new year is a great time to plan for the writing year ahead. We need to give ourselves time when we can sit down and put our thoughts together.

Consider the writing which you enjoy reading. This may give you direction as to where you feel comfortable taking the early steps in your creative writing.

When one reads a story, it is obvious where to begin. Sadly, that is rarely true when writing one. Here are a few tips and tricks which may help.

Something which helps the process when formulating ideas for writing is known as a Journalist's 5W dictum Who, What, Where, Why, When, (And How)

In life, when ripples occur in our world or disturb our tranquility, nothing ever quite returns to what it was. Life goes on. The ripple may have hardly been noticed, but something will have changed