Andrew Ferguson
Children's/YA Author
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Throwback Thursday: 50 Character Motives For Your Story
Posted on November 17, 2022 Leave a Comment
I’ve listed a few possible character motives in the image below and I would encourage you to play around with different ways of interpreting and applying them.
Throwback Thursday: Are Idea Generators Ever Any Use?
Posted on October 1, 2020 Leave a Comment
If you’re struggling to come up with an idea for your story, you might be tempted to Google story idea generators to help you out.
But do these little miracle makers really deliver the goods?
Throwback Thursday: The Overwhelming Art of World-Building
Posted on September 17, 2020 Leave a Comment
Research is, undeniably, one of the most important stages of writing a story. Understanding the time and place your story is set in will enable you to make that story more true to life, and therefore, more compelling. But what if you are writing a fantasy, set in an imaginary world? Make no mistake: research is just as important in fantasy as it is in non-fantasy, perhaps even more so since you are creating a world from scratch. If you’re writing a historical fiction set during the Spanish Civil War, you probably won’t need to research whether or not gravity existed in Spain or what colour the grass was. We can take these things for granted in non-fantasy, but in fantasy you need to become an expert on your entire world… and still make time to actually write the story!
Throwback Thursday: 5 Ways to Write a Terrible Novel
Posted on August 13, 2020 1 Comment
If you are a writer, you’ll know how insistent that little Inner-Writer’s voice can be, constantly banging on about the different ideas he’s come up with that you absolutely have to write. You might find it simply impossible not to write.
But fear not, ye who are enslaved by the urge to write. Your salvation is at hand. If you dread becoming a full time author, but cannot resist the urge to write, there is another solution: write badly.
It’s easy to do. Just follow these simple steps.
Throwback Thursday: Ready Player One (Book Review)
Posted on July 23, 2020 Leave a Comment
‘Enchanting. Willy Wonka meets The Matrix’ (USA Today). That’s what the little quotation says on the front cover of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
High praise indeed. High enough to make me buy it and read it. But I know what you’re thinking: ‘did it deliver?’
Throwback Thursday: Little Thieves Are Hanged
Posted on June 4, 2020 Leave a Comment
What follows here is entirely my own work and has not been published anywhere else in the world, whether on print or online, nor do I expect it to be. And so, without further ado, I give you, LITTLE THIEVES ARE HANGED by. A Ferguson
Throwback Thursday: 5 Types of Story Ending
Posted on April 30, 2020 Leave a Comment
Don’t you just hate endings? For me, they’re one of the hardest bits of the story to write, but they’re also one of the most important. Your audience will (usually) put up with a fair amount of uncertainty in the middle of a story but by the time they reach the end, they want their ‘i’s dotted, their ‘t’s crossed and all their questions answered. And who can blame them? They’ve devoted a considerable portion of their valuable time to reading/watching/listening to your story. The least we owe them is a good ending that doesn’t leave them scratching their heads (or worse, venting their hatred for you on Twitter). And so, it is my pleasure to present you with a whistle stop tour of the pros and cons of five common ways to end a story.
Throwback Thursday: Figuring Out Foil Characters
Posted on April 23, 2020 Leave a Comment
A foil is a character (or sometimes an object or idea) who highlights the traits of another character (usually the protagonist) by contrasting with them. But apart from that, these characters can play just about any role in your story you like.
Throwback Thursday: Keeping a Writer’s Journal
Posted on April 16, 2020 Leave a Comment
However, even if you’re not the sort of person who normally bothers to keep a journal, you might find it useful as a writer to at least keep a writer’s journal– especially if you’re working on a large writing project such as a novel.
‘Oh nooo!’ I hear you cry. ‘That sounds too hard/time-consuming/pointless’ (delete as appropriate).
It needn’t be. You don’t need to fill it with epiphanies written in flawless iambic pentameter, you don’t need to handcraft your own leather bound volume to write in and you don’t need to write ten thousand words a day (having already written ten thousand words in your actual story). In fact (just between you and me), you don’t need to keep a journal at all if you don’t find it helpful, though I would recommend giving it a bash for a week or two to be sure that it’s not for you.
Throwback Thursday: 50 Character Motives For Your Story
Posted on April 9, 2020 Leave a Comment
I’ve listed a few possible character motives in the image below and I would encourage you to play around with different ways of interpreting and applying them.
Andrew Ferguson 