Liz Monument

Three places where the prose slows down: love, death, and magic.

Editorial is often about paring things back. It might mean removing unnecessary words, sentences or even paragraphs which seem to slow a story down. It could mean reducing dialogue…

Feedback from clients tells me that while ‘show don’t tell’ is something of a writer’s mantra, it can be tricky to find specific information relating to the mechanics. Here are some brief examples, with explanations: 

Showing – this is anything…

When a Jericho Writers blog on 'writing sex' arrived in my inbox this morning, I just knew I had to share. It's written by Jacqueline Silvester, and it answers all those questions aspiring debut authors might feel awkward about asking. 

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The feedback I’ve had recently from literary agents is that they prefer debut novels to be no longer than 80-90,000 words in length. This is because agents know from experience that long debut novels often contain too many characters, too…

Which POV?

Point of view (POV) refers to the angle from which a story is told. To follow are some useful tips and resources for choosing which POV would be best for your novel or short story. 

I - first…

Visual fiction and written fiction share many things, including compelling characters, a developed plot with a clear quest and conclusion, and genre conventions (crime thriller, romance, historical or science fiction, for example). Anybody familiar with visual fiction might instinctively use…

Harry Bingham founded Jericho Writers in 2004. Jericho offer worldwide editorial and educational services for writers of all genres. 

Harry's August 2021 blog echoes exactly what I was told when I set out on my writing journey, many years ago…

One of the most important skills my first writing coach suggested I learn was how to ‘read as a writer’. It didn’t come easily, and it took longer than I’d expected (about two years of concentration and application, to properly…

'Show don’t tell' is an important rule for all writers of fiction. Showing rather than explaining things allows the reader to join the dots for themselves, which readers love to do. Showing is vivid for the reader - it unfolds…

Dystopian fiction is a particular kind of science fiction. Whereas science fiction can be about intergalactic travel, off-world adventures, spaceships and futuristic technology, dystopian fiction is always situated on our Earth, ‘somewhen’ in the future. Dystopian fiction is therefore a…

I wrote my first book, The Heirs of History: A Nation From Nothing, on Google Docs. The book clocked in around 111,000 words. Writing it on Docs was a mistake. 

TLDR: Google Docs is not a good book writing…

The expression ‘clunky prose’ is often used by writing coaches and editors. It describes prose which is clumsily written. We’ve all been guilty of using clunky prose at some point, which is why the phrase is so commonly used. Aspiring…