Welcome to the Aliventures blog!
You’ll find hundreds of posts here to help you with different areas of writing and editing, along with tips on motivation and creativity. Not sure where to begin? Take a look at the Start Here page.
Read posts about: Writing techniques | Getting motivated | Being creative | Editing your writing
How to Turn Your Year Around: Getting Your Novel Plans Back on Track
How’s 2025 been going for you? Maybe you started the year feeling enthusiastic and motivated: this was going to be the year you finished your novel. But we’re close to halfway through the year now, and perhaps things haven’t quite gone to plan. Novels often take...
Using Apostrophes Correctly: From the Easy to the Tricky Cases
I think it’s a safe bet that you’ve come across the apostrophe before. (If not … there are two in the previous sentence.) However, quite a few writers struggle with using apostrophes correctly. And that can really damage your credibility…
What is an Epistolary Novel? Pros, Cons, and Examples of Epistolary Fiction
You might have heard the term “epistolary novel” bandied around in writing circles or book groups. An “epistle” is a letter—and “epistolary fiction” just means a story written in the form of letters. These days, stories that are written as diary entries, text...
The Ten Best Free Writing Tools to Help You Write More and Earn More
There are so many different useful tools out there for writers, it can be tricky to figure out which ones you need … and which ones are just a distraction.
About
I’m Ali Luke, and I live in Leeds in the UK with my husband and two children. Aliventures is where I help you get your novel all the way to “the end”.
Archives
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Five Different Approaches to Developing Characters
This post was first published in April 2019 and last updated in May 2025. Whether you consider plot to be more important than character or you believe they’re just two sides of the same coin, it’s clear that character matters. Readers want characters who are engaging...
How to Write a Flashback: Five Tips and Four Examples
One challenge that you’re likely to face when writing a novel is how to fill the reader in about important events in your main character’s past. There are various techniques you can use for this—one of which is a flashback. Flashbacks can be fun to write, but they can...
Annual Writing Goal Progress in Q1, 2025 (What’s Working and What’s Not?)
We’re into April already! It’s been a pretty good first quarter (Q1) for me, though one with a few challenges. I’ve been broadly happy with the writing progress I’ve made, and I wanted to share how things are going, what’s working, what’s not quite working so well,...
How to Write a Flashback: Five Tips and Four Examples
One challenge that you’re likely to face when writing a novel is how to fill the reader in about important events in your main character’s past. There are various techniques you can use for this—one of which is a flashback. Flashbacks can be fun to write, but they can...
Annual Writing Goal Progress in Q1, 2025 (What’s Working and What’s Not?)
We’re into April already! It’s been a pretty good first quarter (Q1) for me, though one with a few challenges. I’ve been broadly happy with the writing progress I’ve made, and I wanted to share how things are going, what’s working, what’s not quite working so well,...
What is Plot … and is it the Same Thing as Story or Narrative?
What exactly is plot? While many elements of storytelling – like dialogue – are easy to point to, plot can be trickier to pin down.Here are a few definitions: A plot is a sequence of events in which every cause has an effect, pulling the story…