Andrew Ferguson
Children's/YA Author
Archives
Take a First Draft and Make it Better
Posted on April 24, 2016 4 Comments
It was still the worst story I had ever written. But that didn’t matter. It was a completed draft; a full blown story with a beginning, a middle and an end which more or less made sense. The difficult bit was now at hand: writing a redraft.
After the initial excitement of finishing the first draft wore off, I quickly found myself less than enthusiastic about the second draft. It can feel a little bit like you’re starting from scratch with something you’ve already spent weeks on. However, you’ll find it a whole lot more rewarding and enjoyable to do if you remember that the point of a redraft is to make your story better. In other words, it’s about taking a little time to identify and fix the problems with the first draft, rather than starting all over again.
Persevere With Your Idea
Posted on April 17, 2016 2 Comments
I never started writing with a bad idea. In fact, I’m not even entirely convinced there is such a thing as bad story ideas or good story ideas. There are just ideas, some of which are well executed, some of which are badly executed and some of which are never executed because the would-be writer cannot decide the best way to do it, or is unwilling to try (though I feel that in the interests of public safety, I should point out that this only applies to story ideas; other kinds of ideas, like deciding to use Tabasco sauce as an eye-drop, really are bad ideas).
So, why do the marvellous ideas we start with so quickly turn into half-finished manuscripts that we are unable to finish and are ashamed to have even begun?
I’m beginning to learn that it comes down to perseverance (or a lack thereof) and perfectionism.
A Beginners’ Guide to Making Up Fantasy Names
Posted on April 3, 2016 1 Comment
How do you go about naming characters in your story? If you’re writing a sci-fi or fantasy story, you are certain to come up against this question, not only for your characters but also fantasy organisations, races, religions, philosophies, nations, planets, galaxies and just about anything else you invent!
After all, it’s no small job creating a world!
Well, for what it’s worth I’ve decided to share with you a little bit about how I like to go about naming fantasy things in this simple, handy-dandy beginners’ guide to naming fantasy things.
5 Simple Steps to Avoid Becoming a Writer
Posted on March 13, 2016 4 Comments
So, there’s a writer inside you and he’s already sowing the seeds of a best-seller in your brain. Your inner-writer’s urge to write that story is overwhelming. Night and day, he nags you to let him write. You fear that it may only be a matter of time before you have to quit your miserable office job that you love and become a professional author instead – all because you couldn’t silence the voice in your head which said ‘Let me write!’. Because the urge – no, the need – to write is so powerful, you know you’ll never be able to simply ignore it.
All you can hope to do is keep your inner-writer at bay by pacifying him with false promises of writing, so if you want to make sure that best-seller of yours never makes it to the first draft stage (never mind the best-seller shelf!), here’s a few simple steps you can follow.
Andrew Ferguson 