Creative Writing – Joanna Courtney

History vs Fantasy: East Meets West

Joanna Courtney — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 12:41:39 +0000

Want to hear my thoughts on how Fantasy and Historical fiction are like east and west - and certainly meet on the other side! Well pop over to the brilliant blog of the lovely Helen Hollick here

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Save us from dry January…

Joanna Courtney — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 14:18:41 +0000

Or - why must we make resolutions? I’m not an exponent of dry January – not because I’m weak-willed or borderline alcoholic (though the latter at least may be true) but because January is a dark, long, tough month and far from the ideal time to be setting yourself challenges that will only make it…

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Being a ‘time-nazi’ or working for yourself…

Joanna Courtney — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:34:30 +0000

One of the inherent problems of being a writer is that you work for yourself and I find that brings with it all the usual issues faced by the self-employed, nicely laced with an additional dose of paranoia and a tendency to the over-dramatic. I’ve built up my working hours year on year as my…

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Writing Longhand – a poll!

Joanna Courtney — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 11:17:40 +0000

I cannot write straight to screen. At least, I occasionally can for short stories or more factual pieces but when it comes to the first draft of a novel, I have to write it pen in hand. I just find that my ideas seem to flow so much more naturally if they go straight from…

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Juggling the Family Balls….

Joanna Courtney — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 10:13:16 +0000

Life as a working mum can often feel like throwing yourself off a cliff (as I'm doing on holiday last summer here!). We all know that. Indeed, the fact that being a working mum is tough is becoming one of the most blatant truths of modern life. I’ll never forget the wonderful opening scene in…

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The roller coast first draft…

Joanna Courtney — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 09:30:07 +0000

Writing a draft is an exhilarating experience, a little like riding a huge roller coaster only in slow- motion as, clearly, it takes rather longer to write 100,000 words than to plunge over the edge on ‘Oblivion’ or its ilk! Nonetheless, there’s the same pit-of-the -stomach anticipation beforehand, the same ‘what if it goes wrong’…

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Why writers need other writers…

Joanna Courtney — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 10:55:05 +0000

Last week I was lucky enough to spend a glorious day walking around beautiful Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire with my fellow writers Tracy Bloom and Julie Houston. We paused once or twice to gasp in awe at the stunning scenery but most of the time we were lost in a world of books – writing…

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Becoming the baddies…

Joanna Courtney — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 10:21:18 +0000

As I start to pull together my research on the Normans ready to launch myself into the third book of my trilogy, I find myself with a very interesting task - learning to love the enemy. In this case, William the Conqueror. My first book, The Chosen Queen, is written from the Saxon point of…

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The perils and joys of a book launch…

Joanna Courtney — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 10:52:02 +0000

A month on from the launch of The Chosen Queen and I have finally drawn breath enough to take a moment to record a little of that lovely day on this blog. As I said, in my previous post I was nervous beforehand. I had that horrible sensation you get when you hold any sort…

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