Oof! Another dose of daily motivation and focused training hits you in the gut like a push-passed American football. But you catch it. And you undo the laces and inside is the small jade statuette you need to unlock the door to your grandfather’s vault. Well done. You’re almost there.

Wow! We’ve started Week 7. Once you reach this point, you’re three-quarters of the way through the boot camp, and the end is in sight. So these last two weeks are all about setting you up so you have everything you need to turn the positive habits you’ve practised and the skills you’ve been working … Read more

Here’s one of my periodic longer episodes where I talk more broadly about fiction writing, and my thoughts that have come up over recording the course so far. In this episode I drill into the problem of setbacks in our writing, and how to deal with them. If you’d like to try the 8 week … Read more

And there you have it. Another week done, dusted, polished, placed under a protective layer of plastic and sealed inside a shipping container for the long, perhaps endless, voyage into history. If you’re new here and you’d like to take part in my 8 week Couch to 80k Writing Boot Camp, ideal for writers of … Read more

Ooh! Another episode. More metaphor-meta-fun as we play madlibs with great works of literature for our personal pleasure and profit. MWAHAHAHAHAHA.

And here’s another episode of my 8 week writing course – this week we’re working on metaphors, similes, and transforming language in your fiction.

SORRY for the delay, diligent writing pals. Of course unless you’re following these posts as they go up you probably won’t have noticed the time lag between this post and the last one. I was ill! I came down with fever and a cold simultaneously, and a poorly daughter and wife. We’re all over the … Read more

Here’s Day 2 of Week 6. We’re looking at pushing metaphors to their metaphorical limit – and then going farther, just to see what happens when your metaphor density reaches CRITICAL.

Week 6 has started! Eeek! This week it’s all about lyrical language, metaphor, simile, the sound and feel of your writing, and powerful imagery.

Here’s the last day of Week 5, our journey into your writing’s emotional core. If you haven’t listened to any of the course yet, you can start here. I’m only asking you commit to 10 minutes of writing a day, 6 days a week, over an 8 week course. I’ll tell you what to write … Read more

Apologies for being slightly behind with updates. A cold-real life combo set me back slightly, plus these episodes felt like the ones I least wanted to fuck up, so I took my time getting them right. I hope you find the exercises rewarding.

Hey hey hey. Welcome to Week 5 Day 4 of the Couch to 80k Writing Boot Camp. If you’re new and you’d like to join in, click back and start at Week 1 Day 1. Today’s episode discusses unstable early memories.

Here’s the latest episode of my 8 week writing course. Today’s was a tricky one to record – it took me a while to work out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. If you have a listen you’ll hear why. I hope it’s helpful for you, however you choose … Read more