To depict big themes, the advice to writers is to focus on small items and moments. If disease is the theme, the moment in a global pandemic is how a medico might be motivated by the sight of a toy box in an eerily empty children's hospital ward. Emotional, concrete, and reasonably relatable. Conspiracy to commit writing In … Continue reading Balancing Big Themes and Small Moments
Stuff I Like
Filled with references to stuff I like in music, film, tv, reading, writing, online etc.
X Files: Minor Stories Please
If you're not all caught up: here be aliens, creatures and spoilers. Sure, X-Files rebooted with a conspiracy-mythos that links all the worst events in the world to all the biggest public and private organisations and governments...in order to take over America. Right. Actually no. I'm with Scully here. It's too much. But then, I … Continue reading X Files: Minor Stories Please
Stick together and defend
Seldom do Aussie pub rock anthems get recognition for their assistance in solving writing dilemmas, but this changes here. By the way that's not a sentence I'd ever thought I'd have to come up with, but there you go, writing is strange like that. We know that ideas come from anywhere. Like today, when I was driving … Continue reading Stick together and defend
Doctor Who: reports from afar
Hot on the heels of the news of Steven Moffat leaving after 2017, with Chris Chibnall to take over Doctor Who, there are now reports that Peter Capaldi could depart as well. Some are calling it a fresh start with a new producer in Chibnall, and it might be. The thing is, if I were taking … Continue reading Doctor Who: reports from afar
X Files: X marks the writer
I was always a fan of X Files. At the risk of revealing my age, some series were often enjoyed communally. It was virtually the only thing we all agreed on as bunch of undergrads, lapping up the ongoing trials and tribulations of FBI's most basementy duo, Mulder and Scully. It wasn't just Moonlighting, but … Continue reading X Files: X marks the writer
Doctor Who: Moffat and Chibnall, looking back
I woke to the news that Steven Moffat is leaving Doctor Who after this year. Hmm, I want to say. Hmmm. I will miss the complexity of his plots and his use of time. It is, after all, a program featuring time travel. I will miss some of the humour too and energy and the pathos … Continue reading Doctor Who: Moffat and Chibnall, looking back
Shelf Life: Poppy by Drusilla Modjeska
The Stella Awards have initiated #stellaspark to fund raise for their literary prize, but also to get people talking about their favourite books by Australian women. I selected Poppy: A Life by Drusilla Modjeska, for exactly the reasons I tweeted. It was moving and powerful and is a useful guide for writers tackling stories where … Continue reading Shelf Life: Poppy by Drusilla Modjeska
Writing Workshop Review: Taming the Beast
It's been an out of the ordinary couple of days for me. On Friday I attended the Summer School Wheeler Centre writer's workshop Taming the Beast with Sonia Orchard, while this afternoon featured another instalment of me at the dentist. Turns out both had things in common: bit of probing, and fixes for things. How to clarify … Continue reading Writing Workshop Review: Taming the Beast
Exhibition Review: feeling the disturbance
If Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei's NGV exhibition is a little 'art anyone could do' (from cat pics to soup cans) then Lurid Beauty, an exhibition of Australian Surrealism, is art anyone can feel. Unlike Warhol and Ai Weiwei, little of it is repetitive, except for the feelings the works inspire. The works are weird, visceral, … Continue reading Exhibition Review: feeling the disturbance
Exhibition Review: meme themes
The Ai Weiwei Andy Warhol exhibition is on at the National Gallery of Victoria - International in Melbourne. I went in the knowledge that while I understand the importance of Warhol, I'm fairly unmoved by his work. I am left as flat as his famous multicoloured prints. It's all too familiar. Pop art too popular, … Continue reading Exhibition Review: meme themes
Writing Bec 