How do you write a novel?
Practising novelists and teachers of creative writing reveal their working methods and offer practical advice. Subjects covered range from magic realism to characterisation, surrealism to historical fiction, via perspective, plot twists and avoiding being boring, among many others.
This book is for
creative writing students
writers and readers of novels
teachers of creative writing
With contributions from Leone Ross, Tom Bromley, Jenn Ashworth, AJ Dalton, Nikesh Shukla, Stella Duffy, Mark Morris, Alison Moore, Nicholas Royle, Alice Thompson, Kerry Hudson, Toby Litt, Livi Michael, Joe Stretch, James Miller, Sarah Butler, Will Wiles, Graeme Shimmin
Featuring
Eighteen specially commissioned essays
Creative writing exercises
Top tips
Lists of recommended novels
is the author of six short story collections – Mortality, Ornithology, The Dummy and Other Uncanny Stories, London Gothic, Manchester Uncanny and Paris Fantastique – and seven novels, most recently First Novel. He has edited more than two dozen anthologies and is series editor of Best British Short Stories for Salt, who also published his books-about-books, White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector and Shadow Lines: Searching For the Book Beyond the Shelf. In 2009 he founded Nightjar Press, which continues to publish original short stories in the form of limited-edition chapbooks. He lives in Manchester and London.
Jenn Ashworth’s first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, won a Betty Trask Award in 2010. On the publication of her second, Cold Light, she was listed by the BBC’s The Culture Show as one of the UK’s twelve best new writers. Her third novel, The Friday Gospels, is currently being adapted for television. She teaches creative writing at Lancaster University and is one of the co-founders of Curious Tales, a writer-led performance and publishing collective.
Tom Bromley is an author, editor, creative writing tutor and ghostwriter. His books include ten works of fiction and non-fiction under his own name, and a further fifteen ghostwritten titles, including prize-winners and bestsellers. He has taught novel writing for the Faber Academy since 2013, is Director of Fiction for the Professional Writing Academy and in 2017 founded the Salisbury Literary Festival. He writes a weekly column, ‘Word Up’, for various newspapers in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and reviews fiction for the regional Living Magazines. He lives in Salisbury.
Sarah Butler explores the relationship between writing and place through prose, poetry and participatory projects. Recent writing residencies include writer-in-residence on the Central line; at Great Ormond Street Hospital; and Tideline – a public art project linked to a major regeneration project in Belvedere, East London. She has two novels published by Picador: Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love and Before The Fire www.sarahbutler.org.uk www.urbanwords.org.uk
AJ Dalton is an international author with Gollancz Orion. His novels include The Book of Orm, Empire of the Saviours, Gateway of the Saviours, and Tithe of the Saviours. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and lives with his cat Cleopatra. He was born in Croydon. He maintains the website www.ajdalton.eu.
