MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT AND EDITORIAL ADVICE SINCE 1996
Blog
In 2016, TLC’s 20th anniversary year, we launched a blog as a space for thoughtful, non-promotional pieces on all things writing, editing and publishing. If you’d like to pitch a piece, please email Aki Schilz on .
We’d love to hear from you, and please feel free to comment on the blogs here.
How I Wrote My Novel Using Index Cards
November 01, 2019 | Blog
As a writer, I began as a ‘pantser’. If the term isn’t familiar, its simply (and somewhat hilariously) refers to someone who writes by the seat of her pants. That’s how I do life, that’s how I started writing flash fiction and short stories, and I imagined that’s how I would write a novel.
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Whose Voice is it Anyway?
October 01, 2019 | Blog
Finding a voice
People talk a lot about finding your own voice when writing fiction, and I’ve heard people who think this a bit strange: who else’s voice would you, or even could you, use? I have to say my own reaction was along those lines. I was tempted to dismiss it as one of those first-world problems which are better ignored so that they can slip quietly away of their own accord,
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Writing about not writing…
September 01, 2019 | Blog
At the age of 48, I decided to take up writing. I had not spent my youth, twenties or even thirties keeping a diary or scribbling stories and poems, but one year I spent an entire holiday putting pen to paper. My husband said it was one of the nicest trips we have ever had,
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Why did it take me so long to tell other people I was writing a book?
August 01, 2019 | Blog, Other News
It took me a long time to tell people I was writing a novel.
For over three years, I beavered away at it alone. My friends, my family and my work colleagues were oblivious of what I was trying to do. The only other human who knew was my partner.
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Why I can finally say, ‘I’m a Writer'
After my last corporate HR contract finished almost three years ago, I came to the decision that I would not look for another job in HR. I was not contributing a lot to our finances as most of my earnings were invested in childcare. My husband supported my decision, and I hung up my disciplinary/recruitment/general giver of bad news coat.
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From Pitch to Publication (via TLC): Neema Shah
June 01, 2019 | Blog
Let’s just say I was a little late getting started with my writing. After many years building a career in marketing, I signed up for a short online writing course with a vague idea inspired by my family history. And somehow that uncertain first step has turned into my debut novel Kololo Hill,
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How Funding Can Provide Vital Access Support for Marginalised Voices
May 01, 2019 | Blog, Other News
As a writer myself, I understand how a publisher’s rejections can be debilitating. As a freelance creative writing practitioner, I get frustrated when vocational learners report back that they feel there are limited opportunities to pitch their writing.
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Why Writers Need a Business Mindset
April 01, 2019 | Blog | 2 comments
A steep learning-curve
As well as writing all my life, I’ve also spent all my working life in education, in some form or another. This meant that when I left my full-time teaching job a couple of years ago, I didn’t have first-hand business experience. In fact, I regarded business skills with the same suspicion that many creative people I know exhibit.
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“I’m a Writer, capital W [ignore what’s below the waist, please]”
March 01, 2019 | Blog | 2 comments
I’m often asked how I manage to do so much, or receive glowing compliments about being a “such a trooper” and the amount of achievements accomplished in the five years since I started writing. There are no easy answers and many variables that a physically disabled writer with a degenerative spinal and auto-immune joint disease has to contend with.
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Editing
‘I’m looking for someone to proofread my book.’
When a freelance proofreader or copy-editor receives an enquiry along these lines, the first thing we’re tempted to ask is, ‘Are you sure that’s what you’re looking for?’ What we actually ask, if not in so many words, is what they mean by ‘proofread’.
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