So much of our life and language is tied up in our understanding of time. Work deadlines, milestones, catching planes, gym timetables, shop opening hours, making time, wasting time, time on our hands, killing time. We glance at our smartphone or our fitbit or the clock on the wall to check the time because we know time means something. Hey, but do we really know what time it is? Apparently not.Read More →
I know most of you all want to write something insightful, stirring, meaningful, and gobsmackingly clever and on point. But what if what you wrote got you into trouble. Serious trouble. Like dead.Read More →
Writers are bower birds, so watch out what you say around them! We’ll pick up on any old event or situation you name and immediately start plotting a story. We often find ourselves telling stories about the experiences of other people. But hold on. Some stories are not yours to tell.Read More →
What’s it all for? Writing. Why do you write anything? What’s the compulsion? Do you understand the act of writing? Are you conscious of the gift?Read More →
Ever watch that trainwreck of a reality TV show Intervention? Compelling viewing, wasn’t it, watching the details of a human tragedy unfold with the promise of redemption and release always hanging the air? See now, I’m living in my own private script intervention, complete with a rehab program, and turns out, it’s far from entertaining. Damn right unpleasant.Read More →
Who the hell are you as a writer? What do you stand up for? When you hear of evil and see evil, do you speak of it? Where’s them fighting words? What you got?Read More →
Look. A piece of Art. How amazing! Yeah, I’m keeping up with my artform. I liked it, click that thumbs-up icon. Click, it’s off my list. Next! Oh, come on! Really? Back it up.Read More →
magic realism noun a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy, and everyone is doing it these days.Read More →
It’s Modern Family’s Jay Pritchett. It’s Star Trek’s Doctor McCoy. It’s Orange Is The New Black’s Galina “Red” Reznikov. It’s a Hollywood (and small screen) staple, and some might conclude a complete cliche. Yet the ‘crusty but benign’ character, forever firing off conflicting messages of love and disdain, has something to tell us writers.Read More →
Three drafts of ‘to be or not to be’. There’s probably a bunch more where that came from.* First drafts are the raw materials of my industry. I get to read a lot of them. I love them. They are what they are; the first in (hopefully) a progression of ever more distinguished versions of a good story. Whether you are a complete novice or you have fully emerged from those difficult, uncertain times to the infinitely more difficult and uncertain times of being a hardened professional, first drafts never stop being appalling things.Read More →