Writing Magazine

Why does grit get us in the groove?

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve got a fantastic book idea up your sleeve. What event were you inspired by – what was the crisis your protagonist overcame? Fiction or non-fiction, there’s no book on Earth that’s all sunshine and rainbows, because if there was, there would be no addictive story arc, no lesson to be learnt and no wisdom to be transferred. Even the fluffiest children’s books feature crisis of some small sort. So what crisis, personal or collective, inspires your story?

Great British Spirit

At the end of May 2020 writer Charlotte Browne was commissioned by publisher John Blake to write 50,000 words in two months for her new book . No prizes for guessing which crisis inspired her book. As the pandemic continued to change all of our lives more permanently each day, Charlotte researched dozens of both modern and historical heroes who overcame big or small crisis in quintessentially ‘British’ ways, a lot of them instrumental in the

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