#WriteCBC tip and task from Gabrielle Griffiths
BY Maya Fernandes
5th Jun 2025
Welcome to our June 2025 #WriteCBC prompt challenge. I hope you’re ready to be inspired by our latest writing tip and task! If you haven’t taken part in a #WriteCBC competition before, we’re excited to welcome you to our writing community. Please note that #WriteCBC is now hosted on Bluesky. Get up to speed by reading our blog full of information about how to play and the prizes on offer. It’s a lot of fun, and you might just win a free place on one of our online writing courses (worth up to £230).
This month's special guest is author Gabrielle Griffiths, who was a student on our three-month London Writing Your Novel course in 2021. Her debut novel Greater Sins is out now from Doubleday.
Greater Sins is a historical, folk horror set in rural Aberdeenshire during the First World War. The story follows Lizzie, the wife of a wealthy local landowner, and Johnny, a nomadic singer and farmhand, as they investigate the discovery of a corpse in their isolated Scottish community.
Gabrielle's writing tip:
- Deftness and specificity can often tell a reader more than reams of description. When you walk into a room or meet a new person, it will often be a small detail that stands out. Learn to hone in on these specifics and use them to your advantage.
Great writing doesn’t overload the reader with information, but guides their focus with specific details. Think about real life; when you walk into a room, you don’t take everything in at once. Usually, one thing grabs your attention. Maybe it’s the flickering fluorescent light, the faint smell of antiseptic or a mug of tea left to go cold. Those little details can help to pull the reader deeper into the world you’re building.
It's the same when you introduce a character. Instead of listing their features, focus on what someone might notice first and think about what that detail says about them.
Read this passage from the opening of Greater Sins, in which we get our first glimpse into the mind of the nomadic farmhand Johnny.
‘A toast to himself for getting by unseen. Outside are the folks who’ll want things from him – so first, alone, a drink. Johnny has his ritual: slip a hand round a cool glass, feel the weight as it rises heavenward. Agnes has lit the paraffin lamps despite the bright day and so he holds the dram before the light to admire its syruped beauty. He brings the whisky to his lips and pauses, lets the scent beguile him – peat-sweet, a sigh in the nose. But as Johnny opens his mouth to drink, something disturbs him.’
In just a few lines, we come to understand Johnny as a solitary, introspective man who finds comfort in his 'ritual' of being alone and undisturbed. Rather than explaining this, the text allows these associations to emerge naturally through how Johnny acts and what he notices around him. This subtlety encourages the reader to engage more deeply and draw meaning from what’s being shown rather than what’s told.
This brings us on perfectly to Gabrielle's prompt . . .
Gabrielle's writing task:
- Start with your character opening the door to a stranger. Use specific details to introduce this stranger and to hint at how their relationship might unfold. Do they trust each other? Will they fall in love? Or is disaster in their future?
We’d love you to write a scene prompted by Gabrielle’s task in which your character answers the door to a stranger. This stranger might be someone they’ve never met or someone who feels familiar in an unsettling way. Either way, this meeting should feel loaded with possibility.
Foreshadowing is especially powerful here. Let this first exchange drop hints about the future of their relationship through what’s said, what’s left unsaid or the tiny details you choose to focus on.
You might decide to show us a scene in which the reader senses the future of this relationship, even if the character’s don’t yet see it themselves. Or, you could present a confrontation in disguise; a polite conversion that is heavy with subtext. This is your chance to drop right into the moment when something begins to shift and keep the reader wanting to know what happens next.
Here are few tips to inspire you:
- Think about your characters’ idiosyncrasies: Every gesture your character makes offers an opportunity to convey their personality and get vital information across to the reader.
- Setting: It can be helpful to use setting as a tool to reveal clues about the actions and behaviours of your characters. These minor details can help the reader to feel more immersed in the story.
- Use foreshadowing to plant clues: Think about how this first meeting might shape what happens next. The key is to make the reader feel that something is starting, even if they're not sure what.
We can’t wait to read your Bluesky post-length scenes. Reply to us over on @cbcreative.bsky.social with your responses to Gabrielle’s task and you might win a free six-week online writing course place. Competition closes Fri 6 Jun, 10am (the winner will be announced on Bluesky and this blog at 11am).
Congratulations to this month’s winner, @kylieh31.bsky.social!
- She opened the door a fraction. He stood there soaked, hat dripping, a box sagging under one arm. Rain slid down his wrists and dripped onto the box. She didn’t want this day to come. The dog pressed into the backs of her trembling legs and growled.
What a fantastic entry! We absolutely loved how Kylie built suspense in this gripping scene without giving too much away. The short, punchy sentences heighten the tension, whilst the subtle emotional cues, both from the characters and the dog’s reaction, add a compelling layer of depth. It leaves the reader wanting to know more about who this stranger is, and why they would provoke such a strong reaction from the protagonist. You really nailed Gabrielle’s #WriteCBC task! Well done Kylie, you’ve earned a free place on an online writing course (worth up to £230).
And well done to this month’s runners-up – each getting a £50 course discount - @darrenk1.bsky.social and @nancyboland.bsky.social. Congratulations, all!
To redeem your prizes, please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
Get your hands on a copy of Greater Sins.
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