Andrew Ferguson's Blog, page 14

Horror Clichés and How To Avoid Them

Well, we're getting near the end of our series on genre clichés and how to avoid them. Today it's all about horror.

Romance Clichés and How to Avoid Them

I'm just going to come right out and say it: love stories really aren't my thing.... Nevertheless, romance is a major genre of fiction and we are right in the middle of a series on genre clichés and how to avoid them so it seemed only right for me to take a stab at this anyway. So here goes nothing.

Sci-Fi Clichés and How to Avoid Them

For those of you who haven't read the previous post, get over there and read it for even more sci-fi cliché goodness. But first, and without further ado, I give you today's top three sci-fi clichés...

Mystery Clichés and How to Avoid Them

Mystery Clichés and How to Avoid Them #NewPost #fiction #stories #writing #writetip #writingtip #amwriting #genre #mystery

Fantasy Clichés and How to Avoid Them

Well, it's been a while since I've done a series of posts on any subject so I decided it was about time for another one: this time focusing on all your favourite genre clichés and how to avoid them.

App Review: Writer Tools

As I've said before, finding a decent app for planning and writing your novel is no mean feat. But I think I may have come pretty close to it with Writer Tools* for Android by AJP-Tools.

Blogging and Novel Writing

This week's post will be rather introspective, specifically focusing on the challenges of running this blog while also trying to write a novel. I do hope, however, that if you're a novelist yourself, perhaps considering starting a blog of your own, that it might also provide you with food for thought.

Get Your Copy of Penstricken: Collected Stories!

There are short stories, there are very short stories and then there is flash fiction: the delicate and often tricky art of telling a story in as few words as possible.The stories in this tiny little book (all originally published between 2015 and 2020 on the fiction blog, Penstricken) are deliberate exercises in brevity.In total, this book contains twelve flash fictions ranging from fifty to 2,000 words apiece, plus six collections of six word stories.While these stories vary in mood and genre, you will find in many that the author's tongue was firmly entrenched in his cheek; whether it be in the brief tale of a Martian liberating his 'kin' from the deep fat fryer of a Glasgow chip shop or the nightmarish tragedy of Santa Claus' true genesis, Penstricken: Collected Stories is a brief snapshot of one writer's meandering imagination.

7 Useful Posts on Fiction and Writing

I have scoured WordPress for the last few days, searching out some of the most useful, entertaining or insightful posts on the subject of story writing and have compiled them here for your enjoyment.

7 Websites To Help You Procrastinate

If you want to waste time online without having to listen to all your acquaintances broadcasting their opinions that nobody cares about then you've come to the right place. I have scoured the internet looking for websites that you can waste your entire writing session on without having to interact with another human being anywhere else on the internet.