FOOTBALL CRAZY Writing children’s short stories can be challenging as well as fun. A few years ago I was a regular contributor for RTE RADIO ONE’s children’s FICTION FIFTEEN series. I wrote over twenty children’s short stories and each one was narrated by an actor, recorded and broadcast on Sunday evenings. I have often been […]
Author Archive | Grace
FOOTBALL STORIES – FOOTBALL CRAZY
Football Crazy is one of two football stories written originally for RTE Radio. The story is much-loved for its humorous and realistic look at life in a family who love football – as seen through the eyes of a small boy. It differs from other football stories in that as well as taking a humorous […]
How To Write Stories For Children – Five Rules
HOW TO WRITE STORIES FOR CHILDREN – FIVE RULES These five simple rules will help you avoid the common mistakes a lot of writers make when writing for children. 1. DON’T THINK WRITING FOR CHILDREN IS EASY Do not decide to write stories for children thinking it will be easier than writing for adults. Writing […]
A FOOTBALL STORY FOR KIDS – FOOTBALL MAD
FOOTBALL MAD Kids of all ages enjoy a good football story and this story combines family themes, humour as well as football. Football Mad was extremely popular when it was originally broadcast on RTE One – the national radio station in Ireland – if you are a busy parent you’ll understand why. ‘Football Mad is […]
Writers Problems
Writer’s problems aren’t all about the writing. Sometimes it’s the way we work that causes the most difficulties. Writing isn’t cleaning the drains but it still isn’t the easiest job to do every day. Forget those romantic visions of writers sitting around in pubs being witty and eloquent all day before returning home to spend […]
HOW TO CREATE CONFLICT
HOW TO CREATE CONFLICT ‘The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict and conflict.’ James Frey Learning how to create conflict in your stories is crucial. Imagine reading a story that begins where the main character has no flaws or fears, lives in a great environment, has happy well-balanced relationships, a great job and […]
Fear of Failure
Fear of failure is often expressed subconsciously. It takes the form of worries. These worries distract us from our goals and are a root cause of procrastination. Do you spend too much time worrying? Do you sometimes feel you should be cleaning your house instead of writing? You are not alone. Sometimes when I am […]
The Copy Editor
WHAT DOES A COPY EDITOR DO? The copy editor, sometimes called a line editor, carries out a close concentrated inspection of the text, They seek out the ‘smaller’ errors such as grammatical, spelling, typing errors and incorrect wording etc. Some writers write very fast while others are much slower, and perhaps more methodical workers. They may stop […]
Editing – the essentials
Editing is crucial. A good editor will search for problems such as technical errors, story inconsistencies and structural defects. They will draw your attention to all manner of issues, and assist you in the process of making your book the best it can be. TOO CLOSE TO SEE You may think you can do all […]
DIGITAL IMPRINTS
SELF-PUBLISHING AND DIGITAL IMPRINTS If you are going down the digital self-publishing route there’s a lot to think about. Do you want to arrange editing, proofs, line editing, covers, and marketing? Yes? Then there is plenty of helpful information for you here. If your answer is no? Then my advice is to stay with, or seek out conventional […]