Good morning everyone and welcome to a BUMPER day of blog posts!

I’ve got 3 blog posts for you today! We’re kicking it off with a guest post from author Padraig Kenny. His newest kids book ‘Monsters of Rookhaven’ has hit the shelves and I can not wait for my copy to arrive (I have heard amaing things!)! I am a big fan of Padraig’s other books!!

“Humans, as is there wont, have a terrible habit of making a mess of everything.’
Mirabelle has always known she is a monster. When the glamour protecting her unusual family from the human world is torn and an orphaned brother and sister stumble upon Rookhaven, Mirabelle soon discovers that friendship can be found in the outside world. But as something far more sinister comes to threaten them all, it quickly becomes clear that the true monsters aren’t necessarily the ones you can see.”

Padraig is stopping by to give us all some tips for budding authors! Who better to get tips from than authors themselves?

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5 tips for budding authors.

1. Tension is EVERYTHING and I don’t mean suspense or fearing something might happen. I mean you have to keep your reading, and the best way to do that is through dramatic tension. For example, the simplest one is your main character wants something, but there’s an obstacle in their way – a big dragon, or their own lack of self-belief. The tension comes from whether they resolve that problem. Your book should have a problem for your character, but it should also should have problems for all your characters, so that you can set up various ripples of tension, until finally he reader can take no more and you resolve that tension, or better still (if you’re evil like me) only semi resolve it so that your reader is left wondering what happens next, and they just have to keep reading the next chapter or the sequel.
2. Don’t sit in front of the blank page or screen and expect to find inspiration. That way lies madness. It’s better to wander around from day to day and you’ll find that the best stories are the ones that sneak up on you. Don’t sit waiting to be inspired, let the inspiration (if you want to call it that) happen naturally, so that a story might be suggested to you by something you see or hear.
3. Start late and get out early. This is an important thing I learned from my scriptwriting days. Don’t start at the scene at the very beginning where the characters might walk into a room and start talking about the weather. Get to the conflict point of the scene as quick as you can. Maybe the characters did have a chat about the weather, but that’s not important. What’s important is that the evil scientist wants something from our hero but our hero doesn’t want to give up the secret plans/magical amulet/location of his puppy. Then when the conflict reaches its height, its most explosive moment, you leave the scene, just before the tension is lost. And then that tension carries on. See note number 1.
4. Ignore what other people are doing and find your own way of writing. Some people write fast. Some people write slow. Some people do several drafts, some people might only do a couple. Find what works for you. Trust your instinct.
5. Keep a routine going. Discipline is key. A routine will become second nature after a while and you’ll find that your mind becomes so adjusted to it that it’s primed to write every day. And above all, even when it becomes a routine just enjoy it.

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A massive thank you to Padraig for taking time to write this post – I’ll be sharing these with my class! I can’t wait to see what they think of them! I hope they encourage you to do some writing!

Remember to check out Monsters of Rookhaven (out now!) and check out the other stops on the blog tour. It promises to be lots of fun… and maybe a bit spooky too!

S x