the invaluable @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social explains the nuts and bolts of writing that many of us who've been working with those nuts and bolts all our lives have never understood (or maybe it's jut me)

Quick heads up that I've taken down the paywall on my Itch of Writing post about which way round speech tags might go. It's usually a supporters-only post, but it's in use in our current Self-Editing course, so I thought others might find it useful: buff.ly/Jj9Ehgf

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

Freewriting is a technicque which can do SO much to help your writing. This piece explores how and why:

Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: everything you need to know about free-writing. What it is, how to do it, why it's worth doing, and all the different ways your writing benefits from you having free-writing mode in your tool-kit. buff.ly/M2L0whj

Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: everything you need to know about free-writing. What it is, how to do it, why it's worth doing, and all the different ways your writing benefits from you having free-writing mode in your tool-kit. buff.ly/M2L0whj

Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters - everything you need to know about free-writing. What it is, how to do it, why it's worth doing, and all the different ways your writing benefits from you having free-writing mode in your tool-kit. buff.ly/M2L0whj

Little Toller is a fabulous publisher! Let’s get behind this crowdfunder 👏🏼

Six things beginning with P that will help you revise a story. @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social emmadarwin.substack.com/p/itchy-bite... #wirtingcommunity #Storytelling #authorlife #writinglife #skywriters

18 years 700 posts 5,755 comments 2,326,332 page views. I'm surprised how emotional I feel.

Funny to think that at some point tomorrow the old Typepad This Itch of Writing will vanish forever. Almost exactly 18 years, we've been together. Good bye old friend - your soul lives on, on Substack!

Good writing is mostly made by revising & editing. But how do you work out what needs doing, and how to do it? New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: The Six Ps of Revising and Editing, and the Qs that will help you, Linktree in bio or click through: buff.ly/X9LgObz

Something useful for the weekend's writing work?

Mordor on the Orient Express

Revising & editing is the key to good writing: we all know that! But how do you work out what needs doing, and how to do it? New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: The Six Ps of Revising and Editing, and the Qs that will help you, Linktree in bio or click through: buff.ly/X9LgObz

Good writing is mostly made by revising & editing. But how do you work out what needs doing, and how to do it? New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: The Six Ps of Revising and Editing, and the Qs that will help you, Linktree in bio or click through: buff.ly/X9LgObz

We all know good writing is mostly revising & editing. But how do you work out what needs doing, and how to do it? New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: The Six Ps of Revising and Editing, and the Qs that will help you, Linktree in bio or click through: buff.ly/X9LgObz

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) urgent appealing to children’s authors, writers and publishers to donate stories to its new bedtime stories app. The charity relies on stories in the public domain but are running out of books. Anyone willing to donate should contact [email protected].

🥳 This week, we will pay 31,487 members their share of £11,588,572! Find out more: www.alcs.co.uk/news/your-di...

Setting up my @youtube channel & an event I did in Mexico a decade ago mentions two books: a peculiar memoir which is just going out on submission, and a novel set in the 16th Century…as of 6 Nov they’ll BOTH be @hollandhousebooks.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMSt...

New on This Itch of Writing for supporters: Just Because "Real Readers Don't Notice" Doesn't Mean They Don't Care - and why good writers must therefore learn to know, notice, take notice and care. Linktree in bio, search this itch of writing substack or use the link: buff.ly/7zSI3yp

'This Ottoman supply train still buried in the sand after being ambushed by Lawrence of Arabia 104 years ago' www.amusingplanet.com/2016/09/saud...

New on This Itch of Writing for supporters: Just Because "Real Readers Don't Notice" Doesn't Mean They Don't Care - and why good writers must therefore learn to know, notice, take notice and care. Linktree in bio, search this itch of writing substack or use the link: buff.ly/7zSI3yp

I find this moderation hilarious: apparently the "Adult Content" in this post is that it "does not contain nudity". What it does contain is a 1504 engraving of Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer, now in the V&A with artfully-placed figleaves. So we're all good, but still adult...

Ahoy, me hearties! It be #TalkLikeAPirateDay says we. So grab yer doubloons an read ye our favourite pirate thread about how an #Orkney pirate inspired the book that inspired the film that makes us go ARRR when we talk like pirates! Avast ye!🏴‍☠️

New on This Itch of Writing for supporters: Just Because "Real Readers Don't Notice" Doesn't Mean They Don't Care. And why good writers must therefore learn to know, notice, take notice and care. Linktree in bio, search this itch of writing substack or use the link: buff.ly/7zSI3yp

Liz Kendall asked on Today if the government has given any guarantees on copyright to the tech sector in the Prosperity Deal: “No, we have not [...] I actually had a meeting yesterday with Lisa Nandy, our Culture Secretary, to see where we can find common ground” [between tech and creatives]

Celebrating Two Million visitors to 'The Writing Desk' tonyriches.blogspot.com/2025/09/cele... #writing #Blogging #HistoricalFiction #WritingCommunity

Love this!!

Of course, I should have said that it's entirely thanks to @melissaaddey.bsky.social's brilliant webinar @societyofauthors.bsky.social (and the inspiring example of her own trailers) that I had the faintest idea of how to make a book trailer - and I'm rather pleased with the result...

You could spend Sunday evening glooming or fretting about the impossibility of working out what to do with a bunch of feedback (we’ve all been there!) Or you could become a supporter of This Itch of Writing, and discover how to figure out what’s really going on!: buff.ly/Em4o85D

Use real locations in your story or invent your own? Pros and cons of both by @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social #skywriters open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...? #writingcommunity #authorcommunity #writinglife #authorlife

Brand new on This Itch of Writing for everyone: What do you gain by disguising the place you’re writing about - and what do you gain by writing the real place as itself? Link in bio, or search this itch of writing substack, or use link: buff.ly/Ob25MJP

My new novel The Bruegel Boy, is published on 6th November by Holland House Books. Here's a flavour of it: Find out more here: www.emmadarwin.com/writingindex...

New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: What do you gain by disguising the place you’re writing about - and what do you gain by writing the real place as itself? Link in bio, or search this itch of writing substack, or use link: emmadarwin.substack.com/p/do-you-wan...

Introducing AI Watchdog—The Atlantic’s ongoing investigation into the data sets used by the world’s most powerful tech companies to train their AI models. Search the data sets now: https://theatln.tc/0rT2FBnR

Calling all Itch of Writing supporters: still time to get your Qs in for the 11am BST Ask Me Anything! substack.com/chat/2036854...

Another one for that back-to-school feeling! When a longstanding (or crazy-first-drafted) project has got into a huge, daunting tangle of ideas, versions, characters, storylines and settings - how do you tame your draft? emmadarwin.substack.com/p/itchy-bite...

This frontispiece in my book just made me laugh a lot. Is this Buddhist reincarnation, or some other form of afterlife?

Another one for that back-to-school feeling! When a longstanding (or crazy-first-drafted) project has got into a huge, daunting tangle of ideas, versions, characters, storylines and settings - how do you tame your draft? emmadarwin.substack.com/p/itchy-bite...

The folks @historia-hwa.bsky.social know more about telling brilliant stories, and working with history, than most of us, so when they review something, I listen! And in this case, agree wholeheartedly!

So much of the discourse about art and creativity centres on those magical moments: ‘the spark’ of ‘genius’. But what if inspiration fails? Brand new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: “It’s perfectly possible to create art from deliberate, cold-blooded decisions and actions” buff.ly/zdIzu7f

What writers label as ‘showing and telling’ is fundamental to the effect of your writing on the reader. It’s not hard to get your head round, but it's worth checking in: could you make more of BOTH? Itchy Bitesize 29 rounds up the main things to think about. buff.ly/u4GnVpC

So the weekend is on its way, but are you afraid that, yet again, you’ll find you’ve cleared the children and packed off the decks, you’ve settled down to write, and then… nothing happens? This post could be just what you need:

So much of the discourse about art and creativity centres on those magical moments: ‘the spark’ of ‘genius’. But what if inspiration fails? Brand new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: “It’s perfectly possible to create art from deliberate, cold-blooded decisions and actions” buff.ly/zdIzu7f

open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...? Here are some tools To make some rules For writing your books, your way. @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social #writingcommunity #writinglife #writingtips #authorlife #skywriters

Before Substack, This Itch of Writing was on Typepad, which is shutting down on Tues 30 Sept; the Itch archive there will vanish. We are migrating all significant posts across to Substack but do save any favourites before 30th September, just in case. More: emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwr...

(Almost) every Wednesday, the Itch of Writing Supporters and I get together for an hour's online Ask Me Anything Q&A. Click through to the Itch for just a taste of the sort of things we discuss: buff.ly/dFzKLMs buff.ly/GVREs4m buff.ly/3A9B2nv Join in with this Wednesday's Q&A: buff.ly/2E1qt34

Back-to-school feeling about your writing? Planning to tackle a project, or your whole writing life and process? Trying to triage feedback and advice, and move on? My Twelve Tools (never Rules) of Writing should help your writing becoming its own best self. emmadarwin.substack.com/p/darwins-tw...