Last week a student asked if it’s problematic when the original idea or prompt for a story doesn’t seem to connect (or is entirely absent) from the finished piece. The student is on a formal writing program, and was coming at this from the perspective of having her work graded, but it got me thinkingContinue reading “How to stay faithful (or not) to your story”
Category Archives: The Writing Life
The Duality of Being Creative
I’ve always felt that my compulsion to write has been a blessing in my life, taking me to unexpected places, having surprising thoughts, and meeting some thoroughly magnificent people. But this blessing can also be a challenge to navigate, not least because living a writer’s life often means inhabiting opposite states of mind, sometimes simultaneously. Continue reading “The Duality of Being Creative”
What’s the best way to learn how to write?
This question comes from Aniko Madi, who is embarking on writing a novel of speculative fiction: — What is the best way to learn how to write? Should I do a course? Do I need to go to university? Is it possible to teach myself? This is a great question, Aniko, and the short answer isContinue reading “What’s the best way to learn how to write?”
Feeling the fear of reinvention
‘…if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.’ Ray Bradbury I’ve had to reinvent myself many times over the years, sometimes in a way of my own choosing, sometimes it was forced upon me. However it happened, these transitions have always evolved into positive change,Continue reading “Feeling the fear of reinvention”
Archive: The Unwriteable
…the river house 70. The house beside the river is a house of lazy, hazy days. You have gone there looking for something in the low grey sky and the thick flowing river, the still of the trees and the arched stone bridge. You are there with your lover, laden with food and wine andContinue reading “Archive: The Unwriteable”
…on not knowing
69. What to do when you’ve said everything but there is still everything to say? Your mind is both depleted of words and so full you barely know where to begin. As always the tools are waiting for use, pen and paper, keyboard and screen, but the starting point is elusive, a mere fleeting glimpse. Continue reading “…on not knowing”
…on tradition
68. Tradition is just peer pressure from the dead The dead are powerful. The dead are invisible but their imprint is everywhere, tendrils of belief that curl and hook into sight and sound, winding their way into darkened rooms and open spaces, into minds still soft from birth. Tradition wants you to be Mr/Mrs/Ms andContinue reading “…on tradition”
…things you have lost
64.You have lost the tattooed lemon that lived in your freezer for many years. The lemon was illustrated by your daughter during her apprenticeship, the waxy yellow skin bearing a swallow in vivid blue and yellow and red. It was one of the most precious things you owned, and was lost during a busy fewContinue reading “…things you have lost”
…books in formation: 6 to 10
6. Winter Journal, by Paul Auster Auster writes his journal in the second person. He is the you of his own story, but the reader is also the you of his experience, living with him and inside his mind. And so my own you is born, a you who is both me and not me,Continue reading “…books in formation: 6 to 10”
…books in formation: 1 to 5
1. Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande Brande taught you how to think into your stories. She explained the strange alchemy between movement and creativity, a cocktail of circumstance that is both individual and universal, and, if the measurements are right, as potent as morning light on a sunflower. Still now you think while washingContinue reading “…books in formation: 1 to 5”
Sally Gander 