Vicky Ellis

 Five tips from Vicky Ellis: 

1) Pleasure yourself. This is important for both erotic and non-erotic writing. If a story begins to feel like a ball and chain that will come across. Sure, writing is hard work but there's a real joy in the inventive process so make the most of it.

2) Find the right pace. The best piece of advice I heard (from Dominic Kelly, storyteller extraordinaire) was that there are three speeds to a story:
     Action is fast forward
     Dialogue is real time
     Description is a pause
Too much of any one aspect creates an imbalance. You can use these speeds to create tension or allow the reader to rest after a dramatic sequence.

3) Concrete isn't only for lovers of 1970s architecture. Ditch the vague abstraction and give your readers tangible descriptions. Figurative language is your friend:

She followed him
Like a starving wolf
Following a stag too strong to be tackled

From Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes

4) Be cruel to be kind. As in real life, antagonism is the bedrock of a good story, hence the title 'antagonist' with its etymology in the word 'struggle'. Pain is pleasure where the reader is concerned.

5) Make sure the editing process includes reading your work out loud at least three times. Clumsy dialogue and prose alike can be picked up much more easily when verbalised.

Vicky Ellis is the author of many pieces of fiction and poetry including What I have Learnt about Kissing. More of Vicky's work can be found by visiting: http://vickyellis.weebly.com/
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