Occasionally, caught in the slipstream of social media, our own voices can be drowned out by the baying of a crowd that yells, “Like me, follow me, review me, add me, and friend me.” And ‘friend’, last time I checked, isn’t even a verb. How close a relationship can it be when someone wants me …
Month: April 2012
The Making of Her
It’s a rare thing indeed to witness the journey of a writer, from a newbie finding their feet to a fully fledged author in the eyes of the world. I met Susie at a Novel Writing Summer School in Falmouth, back in 2006. We worked together in a few exercises, under the guiding hand of …
You have to laugh
The interesting thing about comedy writing is that what’s funny to one person can be entirely unfunny to the person sitting next to them. And although you can dissect it until you’re blue in the face, there are ultimately only two kinds of humour: Funny humour and unfunny humour. Something works or it doesn’t work, and all …
As in Bodge*
Whatever else it is, writing can also be an outlet for the frustrations and confusion of daily life. Writers can create take those uncontrollable influences and experiences and then reshape them into situations, characters and plots where the world makes a little more sense (but doesn’t have to be predictable, of course). Or we can …
The Name Game
There’s a definite art to naming your book. Or perhaps that’s an indefinite one. On the face of it, it’s the headline for the story – pure and simple. A title can create reader expectations about the setting – 1984, Animal Farm or even Great Expectations itself. Or, perhaps, act as a teaser – Tell …
Stand by your plan
So, in one of my replies to a comment last time (You mean you don’t read those?), I mentioned turning some opportunities down. Naturally, someone has asked me to explain and I never like to disappoint an audience on a Thursday. Here’s the thing though, and by all means sing it along with me. Ready? …
Achievement without tears
It’s always a very strange time when you finish writing a novel. There’s a mixed bag of emotions – part of you is sad to see the end of the adventure, part of you is still focused on whether you did the story and characters justice, and part of you is just plum tuckered out …
Be Still – found in a notebook
‘Be still and know that I am God.’ How many times had Carrie heard pastor Gellard say that in class? Yeah, she knew God – saw him winking at her between the lines of her Student Bible. But did he know her? Did his all-seeing eye witness the pile of dishes left by her mum …
Adrift – found in a notebook
“You’ll love it,” she said. “It’s where you find your soul.” Find the bottom of my stomach, more like. “But what about the snow? Surely a boat can’t sail…” I realised I was sounding like an idiot halfway through my plea bargain. She smiled. The sea won’t freeze, and anyway, it’s going to rain later …