The Creative Writer's Toolbelt discussion

Greetings everyone!

I'm delighted to announce that after three and a half years of podcasting, over 100 episodes, dozens of guests, and a year of preparation, The Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook is published!

You can get exclusive access to the first chapter from the members only areas of my website from here


My aim with The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Handbook is the same as the podcast – to give you creative writers practical advice that you can apply straight away to your own writing. This Handbook takes all of the best advice and insight from those 100 episodes and distills it into one book.

Over eight chapters, the Handbook gives you advice on all of the main dimensions of the craft including:

Story Structure
Characters and Characterisation
Setting and Worldbuilding
Tools of the Trade (PoV, foreshadowing and more)
The building blocks of writing
The Sound of your writing
Story identity (genre, moral, theme, and trope)
The writer's life



The Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook

Do you want to be a better writer? Do you want all of the fundamentals of creative writing at your fingertips in one book? Then this is the book for you.

The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt Handbook gives you the very best advice and insight from one hundred episodes of the popular podcast, The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt. The handbook is packed with practical tips as well as comment and encouragement from professional authors, artists, and editors who have guested on the show. All of this is supported with examples from the best of historic and contemporary literature.

The handbook is divided into eight chapters, each looking at a dimension of the craft, with sections in each chapter giving you a range of tools that you can apply straight away to your own writing. Those chapters are:

Chapter 1: Creating a Story
Learn the classic shape of stories and understand why throughout history, one particular approach to story construction has been so successful. This chapter also presents the six-stage story model, giving you a tried and tested framework so that you can tell your own great stories.

Chapter 2: Characters and characterisation
In this chapter we explore the two primary aspects of characterisation: character essence and goal, motivation, and passion. We see why getting these right is most of the hard work of character development. This chapter also explores the four secondary aspects of character, giving you examples and practical tips for developing the characters in your story.

Chapter 3: Setting, worldbuilding, and research
This chapter presents the two critical requirements of a setting – that it be credible and immersive. These principles are grounded with examples and we also look at the best way to gather and apply research, with expert insights into the process, and guidance on the important issue of understanding and writing ‘the other’.

Chapter 4: Tools of the trade
As creative writers we are presented with an array of techniques to apply and jargon to remember. This chapter presents the most important tools of the craft, in a clear and accessible way; from ‘showing not telling’ to point of view, and foreshadowing to exploiting the power of sensory description.

Chapter 5: The building blocks of writing
Great writing requires an awareness of the way the narrative is constructed; from sentence to paragraph and from paragraph to scene. In this chapter we explore the techniques for harnessing the power of punctuation and structure, and also look at the importance of verbs in driving the pace of a sentence.

Chapter 6: The sound of your writing
One of the hallmarks of excellent writing is that it sounds great when you read it. In this chapter we unlock the secrets of tone, style, and voice, and learn how to use all three of these aspects to capture and enthrall the reader. We will also learn how to use the sharp tools of clarity, brevity, and precision.

Chapter 7: Story identity – Genre and theme
Hiding behind the characters, setting, and storyline of our work are the other aspects of its identity: genre, theme, and morals. In this chapter we explore the strategies for harnessing genre and trope to both reassure and absorb the reader. We will look at how symbol, dilemma, and innovation interweave with them and moral, and how to apply these aspects to enrich and enhance our work

Chapter 8: The Writer’s Life
Finally the handbook also looks at the best advice to writers for living well. From physical health to mental and emotional wellbeing, the handbook offers suggestions for the writer’s life. This chapter also explores the author experience with publishers and some thoughts on how to effectively market both ourselves and our work

The handbook includes ‘toolbelt tips’ summarising the advice and insight from each section, and a podcast index to help you quickly access podcast episodes that you are interested in.

You can find out more about the handbook at www.andrewjchamberlain.com

Bought it. Read it. Reviewed it. Awesome! Your podcast is supremely useful and well-structured; the handbook likewise.

Keep writing the good write.

~ Rhón

Hi Rhón

Thanks for the purchase, read, and review - really appreciate that, and I will try to 'keep writing the good write' as you suggest,

Best wishes
Andy