Welcome to the Hints & Tips page.

The 'Writers & Artists Yearbook' and 'Writers Handbook' are two must haves for writers. Of the two I prefer the W&AY as it has hints and tips from many famous authors, details of competitions etc. The WH has advice but not the extent of the W&AY. It's more of a who's who. Both books are updated and published yearly and are around the £15 mark.

I produce handouts for my fortnightly writing group and the topics covered to-date include podcasts/websites, biographies, poetry, sci-fi, crime, shorts, ideas, children's, script and romance, historical/the classics, names, grammar, the novel, other opportunities (including song-writing, writing for magazines and newspapers), libraries, graphic novels/comics, obituaries/bizarre but true, prizes/competitions and Christmas.

The latest handout was on the novel (revisited) and here are five rules courtesy of Ivy Reisner's www.ishouldbewriting.com:

• RULE 1: Write – You’re not a writer if you don’t do this. And there are 100 excuses not to do it, but you need to ignore those and just… write.

• RULE 2: You are allowed to suck – If you allow yourself to write without worrying about being perfect, you will fret less and learn more about the craft, therefore improving, therefore sucking less.

• RULE 3: Ideas are cheap – it’s the work that’s hard- don’t hold tight to your ideas, never talking about them, never writing them down. Just get it out.

• RULE 4: They will not kill you and pack you in salt – meaning that you will rejected, you will survive it, and you will keep writing. The fear of rejection or critique sometimes makes sending stuff out paralyzing. Just remember you will not be killed. Or packed in salt. Or eaten.

• RULE 5: Don’t be an ass – [new!] The Internet is a very public place. More public than we think. If you complain about agents, editors, critics, or even readers, online, THEY WILL HEAR YOU. Don’t be an ass.

Here's another tip for you...from William Strunk in his ‘The Elements of Style’ 1918 book: “Omit needless words...a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”