Blog | Roisin McAuley - Broadcaster & Novelist

11th April 2020 — About Writing

Life under Lockdown

It's not all bad.

9th July 2015 — About Writing

Do you like Nordic crime fiction?

There's something about crime novels and TV serials set in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

23rd December 2014 — About Writing

How I write - my top 10 tips

1. The writing muscle needs exercise. Write everyday if you can. If you can't write something, write anything.

23rd December 2014 — About Writing

I write romance fiction - not 'Mills and Boon', as the term is understood today (in earlier days Mills and Boon published P. G. Wodehouse, E. F. Benson, Hugh Walpole, Georgette Heyer); and not 'chick-lit' (a term first used in the title of a 1995 anthology of post-feminist women’s writing: Chick-Lit: Post-Feminist Fiction. The work was serious, the title sardonic).

19th December 2014 — About Writing

Some thoughts about research

“Is it possible for an ordinary person to climb over the area railings of no. 7 Eccles Street, either from the path or from the steps, lower himself from the lower part of the railings till his feet are within 2 or 3 feet of the ground and drop unhurt? I saw it done myself but by a man of rather athletic build. I require this information in detail in order to determine the wording of a paragraph.”

18th December 2014 — About Writing

Sentences

Whenever I speak to a book group, I’m struck by how little attention they pay to the mechanics of writing, to the architecture and engineering of a novel, the nuts and bolts of sentences and paragraphs. I urge them to think about what makes a good sentence, a good paragraph,…

15th December 2014 — About Writing

How I began writing fiction

When I started writing fiction, I thought the screenplay would be my natural format. I had worked as a television documentary maker, had read drama scripts for the BBC and had been consulted by the drama department about making a film based on a factual story. I didn’t think at…

9th December 2014 — About Writing

Male or Female writer? ‘Literary’ or ‘Commercial’ novel?

The publishing industry categorises books as either 'literary' or 'commercial'. The former being the ones which win the prizes. The latter being the ones that sell. The two categories are not mutually incompatible. I prefer to define books as well-written or badly-written.

19th July 2013 — About Writing

So you want to write a novel and get it published?

Some advice on getting started and keeping going........

3rd February 2012 — About Writing

Working without the Web

I’ve just come back from a two-week stay in one of my favourite places in France – The Old Bakehouse at Chateau Sentout on a ridge above the Garonne about twenty kilometres south of Bordeaux with a wonderful view out across Les Landes to the wide, western horizon. The…

29th December 2011 — About Writing

Getting Started

I find it hard to begin a new book. When I look at the one I’ve finished, I wonder how I did it. I forget how I did it. I can’t see how I will do it all over again.

18th November 2011 — About Writing

Coincidence

It happens all the time in real life, so what's wrong with it in fiction?

3rd November 2011 — About Writing

Writing longhand versus typing onscreen

Is writing longhand better for authors than writing with a pen?

9th January 2011 — About Writing

Where do Ideas come from?

As soon as people know I write novels, they ask me where I get my ideas from.