authors | Penstricken

Why Your Fantastic Story Idea Has To Die

Posted on May 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you want my advice, you’ll treat your idea as a profane thing from the very moment it’s conceived. It is not sacred. It is not too beautiful to die. Frankly, it’s probably not as clever as you thought.

5 Useful Fiction and Writing Blogs

Posted on May 22, 2021 1 Comment

Instead of sharing individual posts, I’m sharing links to whole blog sites that I find myself returning to again and again, either because they’re full of useful tips and resources or because they’re just plain enjoyable to read.

How to Help Your Audience Suspend Disbelief

Posted on May 21, 2021 Leave a Comment

You as the writer have a responsibility to write a story which makes it easy for the audience to suspend their disbelief…. The issue is not one of what is possible. The issue is of what is likely.

Blogging and Novel Writing – Revisited

Posted on May 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

A couple of months ago I expressed my frustration with how much of my writing time was being gobbled up by this blog, and the detrimental effect it was having on my novel…. Having carefully examined my own writing habits (both good and bad), I’ve concluded that a large part of my problem lies in how I plan and organise my blog.

Get Your Copy of Penstricken: Collected Stories!

Posted on May 1, 2021 Leave a Comment

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.

App Review: Storywriter

Posted on April 25, 2021 Leave a Comment

I, too, despair of the hope of ever finding such an app. It was in this context that I downloaded Storywriter by Raindrop for Android but the question is: did it deliver?