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The Fine Line is an Edinburgh-based publisher, editorial consultancy and website content service. We publish books that enthral our staff, provide personalised content for your site, writing advice to get you started, lessons to download, insights into the methods of working writers, weekly writing prompts, a Dear Editor writers' problem page, and an editorial service designed for your individual needs.

Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

May Sinclair is in danger of being lost under a mountain of critical essays; smothered by scholars of literature and psychoanalysis alike, apparently determined to claim her as one of their own; and dissected by biographers until every word on the page is weighted with biographical reference, no matter how tenuous.  Her fate is partly [...]

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Beginning, or Not

This fall I’ve been trying to start a new novel.  I hate this stage and will do anything to avoid it.  One morning I was actually thankful for the dead mouse smell in the basement, so that I could otherwise occupy myself for another three hours. It’s not just the fear of failure that keeps [...]

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Cardio Sprint On A Tightrope

I know I must be a writer because I have procrastinated writing this piece for weeks, promised myself that I’ll sit and properly cogitate it before I lay finger to keyboard, promised I’ll make a list of what I want to say, and yet here I am, throwing myself onto the page before I’ve had [...]

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On Inverted Writing

‘There’s rosemary that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is pansies. That’s  for thoughts. There’s fennel for you; and columbines; there’s rue for you, and here’s some for me: we may call it herb grace o’Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy; I would give you some violets [...]

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