The Tool-Kit
Welcome to the Itch of Writing Tool-kit! This page leads to both the new posts here on Substack, and the archive of posts on Typepad. Links which end with (£) are available exclusively to paying supporters and founder members, which helps to keep This Itch of Writing going: click the button below to subscribe or upgrade your membership.
TWELVE TOOLS (NOT RULES) OF WRITING : just what it says on the tin
MY BEST TIP OF ALL : whatever you write
TWENTY-FIVE THINGS WHICH NO ONE SAYS OFTEN ENOUGH : about writing
THE ITCHY BITESIZED SERIES : short posts about key skills and issues
JERUSHA COWLESS, AGONY AUNT : All the problems which the Itch of Writing Agony Aunt managed to answer before she vanished up a melting glacier.
THE FUNDAMENTAL TOOLS & SKILLS
Showing and Telling; Psychic Distance; Past vs Present Tense; the Write Your First Novel series; Pinpoint Your Problem
CHARACTERS
Characterisation-in-action; Giving Characters Depth; Dressing your Characters
STORYTELLING, PLOT AND STRUCTURE
Plot vs Story; Narrators and Narrative Drive; the Novel Planning Grid; Scenes; Flashbacks and Backstory; Prologues; Writing Ethically; Handling Your Material; Creating the Reader you Need
POINT OF VIEW & NARRATORS
Narrators; Point-of-View series; Moving Point-of-View
NARRATIVE VOICE AND DIALOGUE
Voice, Style and Tone; Dialogue and Speech Tags; Rhythm and Rhyme; Writing Emotion; Description; Kill That ‘Office-Speak’
SENTENCES
Sentence Structure; Long Sentences; Structure and Punctuation; Free Indirect Style; Modifiers; Passive Voice; Verbal Nouns and Phrasal Verbs; Common Confusions; Spellcheckers and Thesauruses
REVISING, RE-VISITING, RE-ENVISIONING
Diagnosing; Revising Process; Overwriting; Adjectives and Adverbs; Synopses; Cutting and Filleting; Editing; Filtering; When Do You Stop Revising?
PROCESS, PLANNING AND HOW TO GET OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS
Drafting; Notebooks; Procrastination; Inner Critics; Yoga for Writers; Writer’s Block; The Anti-Writing and the Must-Write Demons
FORMS AND GENRES
Long and Short Fiction; Form; Literary Fiction; Historical Fiction; Creative Non-Fiction
READING FOR WRITERS
How to Read Like A Writer; Riffing and Copying; Books for Writers
GROUPS, COURSES & ACADEMIC CREATIVE WRITING
Writing Courses and MAs; Feedback; Mentoring; Editorial Services, Commentaries; PhDs; Academic Writing
GOING OUTSIDE AND GOING PUBLIC
Titles; Presenting Manuscripts; Synopses; the Being Published Series; Competitions; Giving a Reading; Publicity; Social Media
THE WRITING LIFE
Surviving Submissions; Rejections; Adulting; Making a Living
