The Maeve Binchy Writer's Club

Maeve Binchy is known throughout the world for her novels, but not only did she delight readers with her stories, she also gave advice to budding writers through her letters that she wrote to students taking a course at the National College of Ireland in Dublin. The Maeve Binchy Writer's Club includes some of those letters along with advice from other well known guest speakers who talked about specific areas of writing during the course.

Maeve Binchy says
"Everyone is capable of telling a story . . . the imagination has no limits."






Tips

1. Schedule time to write (Maeve got up at 5:00 a.m. 3 mornings a week to write).
2. Goal (Maeve's was 10 pages a week)
3. Join a writers' group
4. Start the story at an interesting point in the life of the protagonist i.e. crisis, decision)
5. Decide on: Where, when, main dangers, what is the end of the story? Open with action, decide on time period for story (two weeks? two years?)

"Whatever you do - don't give up" - Maeve Binchy

Marion Keyes:

Writing is really one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Ed McBain:

When writing mysteries, give the reader more information than you give the cops.

E.M. Forster:

Story: The king died and then the queen died.

Plot: The king died and then the queen died of grief.

Mystery: The queen died and no one knew why until they discovered it was grief.

Murder Mystery: The queen died and everyone thought it was grief until they discovered the puncture wound in her throat.

Maeve Binchy:

What will separate the winners from the losers is that ability to pick ourselves up and refuse to take rejection personally.