Charlie Wilson

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 230:
Be honest. Write what you care about. Give of yourself. If you try to hold back, you'll fail to connect with your readers. (And yes, it feels scary, being vulnerable. Do it anyway.)

19.11.2025 10:49 — 👍 91    🔁 15    💬 3    📌 0

As I explain in my blog post 'You can’t pad your novel with a bath sponge', you can totally get away with padding a cake. But not your writing. Pad with fluff and filler, and you risk losing your reader's attention. More at: charliepippawilson.com/novel-sponge #writing #writer #bookeditor

18.11.2025 18:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

For 20 years, I wore my 'Business Hat', but good grief did it itch. So now I wear a hat that's much more me: soft and colourful. Because it turns out you can be both professional AND creative. charliepippawilson.com/business-hat/

#freelancing #creativebusiness #creativejourney #creativelife

12.11.2025 09:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This is me – #writer, #editor, #booklover – as drawn by the fabulous @katieabey.bsky.social.

YOUR words and voice matter too, and carry power. What are you #writing, or aching to write? What do you need to say?

10.11.2025 19:12 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

My guide in life is Older-Me. She's 70, 80, 90; she wears loud, fabulous clothes; she has wobbly bits and is gloriously cuddly and unashamedly proud of the body that's been with her through so much. She's fierce, she's fearless, she sings and dances a lot. Soft but strong. Wise. Rockin'. She is me!

25.07.2025 08:05 — 👍 30    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 668:
All authors need an editor. Your editor is your first reader; gives feedback; sees the things you're too close to see. A good editor knows the genre you're writing in; understands the business; knows how to help you make your book as good as it can possibly be.

23.07.2025 17:00 — 👍 170    🔁 31    💬 5    📌 9

Four days until the kids' summer hols. Plan to do a LOT of editing in that time. Deep, focused work in silence: glorious.

Then realise I only have two days, really, when accounting for all the interruptions: appointments, school careers morning, school play, etc.

Ah well. On with the juggle.

22.07.2025 07:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

My old library at @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is just as it was 25 years ago - still that heady smell of old books and signs reminding us to shhhh. But also not just as it was. A café with book-lover cushions on comfy sofas? Never in my day. I am a fan.

#booksky #books #libraries #nottingham

18.07.2025 15:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

(Visions of kids in a huge warehouse whipped into a sort-your-life-out frenzy, hurling onto the 'donate' pile book after book, along with clothes and toys and tools and crockery and that awful oil painting inherited from Aunt Hettie.)

16.07.2025 13:54 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

My oldest book, dating to 1976.

There's such comfort in revisiting books from childhood. I wish I had every book I ever loved as a child.

Please don't coax children to clear out books without careful thought!

#booksky #books #oldbooks #readingcommunity #childrensbooks

16.07.2025 13:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Do you fancy the chance of winning £1000 for your writing?!

Well, the Creative Writing Ink Short Story Competition 2025 is now open for entries and the 1st prize is just that.

Open internationally and with no set theme, genre or subject, anyone can enter!

Find out more here⬇️
bit.ly/CWICOMP

13.07.2025 17:02 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Thanks, Tyler. Octavia Butler has been another favourite writer since I studied Kindred at university.

I love that your books are old and well read. More beautiful by far than shiny and new.

13.07.2025 17:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

What's your oldest book? The one that's so well thumbed, it's on the brink of falling part? Mine is The Color Purple.

On my blog today, I share a little about why this book, which I've kept with me for nearly 30 years, means so much to me. tinyurl.com/tha3cu36

#booksky #books #reading

13.07.2025 15:19 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

The tower at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent – at the top of which is Vita Sackville-West's writing room.

Imagine not only having 'a room of one's own' in which to write, but a TOWER room. Yes, please.

#writesky #writersky #writingcommunity #writer #writers #famouswriters #writingspaces

12.07.2025 14:52 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Spiral staircase in the library.

Spiral staircase in the library.

Grandfather clock in the library.

Painting of Clifton in the library.

My son and I took the history tour yesterday at Bromley House Library, Nottingham. Such a beautiful place. Makes me want to read... and write.

#books #booksky #bookcommunity #library #libraries

07.07.2025 15:34 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I've spent many hours in the past week watering my new lawn to help it establish. Time I could have been writing. Sometimes, we need to just accept that the WIP isn't growing because the grass needs to grow. And the grass is beautiful.

#writersky #writesky #writer #writingcommunity #writerlife

03.07.2025 08:19 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Writing For Pleasure | National Literacy Trust Writing is more than just a skill - it’s also a powerful tool for thinking, communication, and self-expression.

According to recent research, young people aged 8–18 are writing less – much less. Only 1 in 4 say they enjoy writing in their free time.

This makes me so sad, as a mum and as a writer. We need to help kids fall in love with writing.

tinyurl.com/s6rjdv5w

#writing #writersky #writingcommunity

26.06.2025 14:27 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A dress with colourful typewriter print.

A skirt with colourful typewriter print.

Is it too much for a writer to WEAR her passion for writing? Nope. Makes me happy.

Also... typewriters. I love typewriters. Way less fiddling about. Just writing the next word and the next, and then at the end: a Real-Thing-You-Made.

#writersky #writesky #writerlife #writingcommunity #amwriting

25.06.2025 15:35 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Family selling 'idyllic' island with ruined castle after 80 years The Island of Shuna, which includes a ruined castle, working farm and a holiday accommodation business, is on sale for £5.5m.

Your very own 'Lake Isle of Innisfree' (WB Yeats)? 'And I shall have some peace there...' We can but dream.
#yeats #poetry #poem
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

24.06.2025 18:27 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

So you love to write and you're developing your craft. Question: are you OVERwriting? Over on my blog, I explain overwriting, share my own journey to write more simply, and suggest some ways you can gently edit your writing. tinyurl.com/y8x5bh7k #writing #writersky #writesky #writingcraft #amwriting

17.06.2025 11:45 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

How to be a writer, #36899:
Open WIP
Think: this looks okay
Edit WIP
Think: actually this sucks
Re-read WIP
Watch as WIP spontaneously combusts and disintegrates into radioactive dust which blows away on nuclear wind
Gently close WIP
Tea.

09.06.2025 12:34 — 👍 262    🔁 43    💬 9    📌 7

I've been editing books for 20 years, and in that time I've learned: what you need when you edit (or your work is edited) is compassion. Editing really doesn't have to be merciless, ruthless. It can gently polish.

#writesky #writersky #writing #writingcommunity #amwriting #amediting #editing

11.06.2025 09:02 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: special edition book on grass.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: special edition book on grass.

Having loved Suzanne Collins' latest book, Sunrise on the Reaping, I decided to reread the Hunger Games trilogy. And I couldn't resist the new special editions by @scholasticuk.bsky.social.

Books, beautiful books. I wish more books had special editions.

#booksky #books #amreading

09.06.2025 10:55 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Pregnant woman forming a heart with her hands over her baby bump.

First post = pressure to write something pithy/witty. Ach, who needs that pressure? Instead, I'll share a post from my blog: 'On writing while pregnant: nine months, five novels'. tinyurl.com/89vcb9er

#writing #writingmama #writingcommunity #writersky #writesky #writers #writerslife #authors #hsp

05.06.2025 13:56 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0