If you are writing or thinking about writing, or reading about thinking about starting to write you will, with little trouble, come across a terrifyingly huge amount of advice. It comes in the form of: books, blogs, well-meaning friends, videos, hash-tagged conversations, mime performances, professional organisations and their magazines, software, spam invitations to pay for … Continue reading Anti-Advice for Writers
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Messages in the music
Being a person in the world, I have noticed, of late, that it isn't going well. The world, that is. Drought, ice melting, reefs dying, war, famine, poverty, burning this, flooding that, rampant terrible disease things, pillaging hordes of other things, like politicians and media barons, kids being shelled, torture, censorship, kidnapping, rape memes, repression, … Continue reading Messages in the music
On Being a Writer and a Reader
Been working on the thesis and it's nearing completion. I am both hopeful of and dreading the outcome. What it is forcing me to be is to be a writer and a reader. Mostly you'll say this is easy, writers and readers share things in common, like language, and perhaps a love of and ability to … Continue reading On Being a Writer and a Reader
Answering borrowed questions (about writing)
I'm knee-deep in thesis-land at the moment, which explains fewer posts of late. However I had some time for this. The other day I was inspired by Anna Spargo-Ryan’s blog and her Q and A about writing. She has a way with words. But the questions she answered got me thinking. So it meant I … Continue reading Answering borrowed questions (about writing)
Going Back to Baker Street
'Ere 221B Dragons and Those Who May Spoil Them...mmmkay? Reflexivity When I write something there is me writing it #ObviousStatementisObvious. Yet if there is any art to writing, it is about removing the (obvious) evidence of me. But there is another art, or perhaps a balance, to leaving such evidence in the writing. Sometimes it's … Continue reading Going Back to Baker Street
The Hobbit: Consolations of Structure & Dreaming
Structure and Imagination The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug was mostly a triumph of restructuring and knowing what to do with a story once it's been written. Tolkien followed a dream when he began inventing a world in between stints in the trenches of WWI, and it was one that was continually reshaped over his entire life … Continue reading The Hobbit: Consolations of Structure & Dreaming
String Pullers and Sleight of Hand
Puppets are great metaphors for writers. Writers are the string pullers of their worlds. They are the will behind the action, the sleight of hand making things happen without seeming to do much at all (except typing), the voice of the work behind the words. They are ventriloquists who throw their voices and make matter … Continue reading String Pullers and Sleight of Hand
Knitting and unpicking the Day of the Doctor
Rules and World Building If you write a story you're creating a world, or a part of a world. It could be as close to 'real life' (whatever that is) as possible or it can be completely made up or it could sit somewhere in between. But it will obey rules. The world you invent … Continue reading Knitting and unpicking the Day of the Doctor
Strength of Character
I keenly dislike the phrase 'strong character'. It's a cliché and it is often unclear what is meant - either an individual who is well-defined, and/or easily identifiable, or actually physically and/or emotionally tough. And it is different to powerful. Power is about agency. You can be well-defined or even tough, without power. For example, Jayne … Continue reading Strength of Character
Writing: dreams may come
True Fact: stories about dreams are mostly boring to other people. This however, won't stop me telling you about my dream. Anyhoo, I dreamt I gave birth to a tiny demonic grey Gumby-looking thing I imagined was a golem (I know, golems aren't born, nor are they usually tiny). It rested in the palm of my … Continue reading Writing: dreams may come
Writing Bec 