Still on holiday in Italy where, right now, it’s pouring with rain and the lavender is dancing. Since some of you will also soon be on holiday, if you are not already, you will be taking photos or videos of your happenings. In the dim and distance past, photos were called snaps. Black and white … Continue reading Places not People.
It’s a Sunday in a different form of lockdown – more of an ‘I could go home, but why should I?’ lockdown. We’re staying in a house surrounded by farmland, with narrow, unmade-up tracks leading to the few dwellings in ‘our’ part of Tuscany. We’re between two villages, small towns really as each village is … Continue reading The Upside of an Extended Lockdown
As I've told you all before, I'm re-writing my 1950s novel for the 3rd time. I wanted a fresh perspective, new ideas and masses of encouragment. I'd heard writer Emma Darwin (http://www.emmadarwin.com) speak more then once and met her for a chat at an event at Bell House, Dulwich. http://www.bellhouse.co.uk. The decision to work with … Continue reading Outlines and Timelines
For most of us the thing which keeps us going at whatever we do is the day-to-day stimulation of real life. Not a fake imitation of living, as this lock-down is. I understand that some kind of regulation which hopes to limit the damage and the death is essential. However, we must not forget that … Continue reading This Petty Pace
Well, I’m not doing a graph – yet. So far I’ve made cards for each scene I have print-outs for, which take me to the end of the first draft of the novel, but I've at least two new scenes to write. See featured image at the top of this blog. The first page gives: … Continue reading Writing the Outline
I have been charged by my writing mentor to produce an outline of my novel – not a synopsis – for our next meeting scheduled for the last week of May. Let’s ignore the aggravating possibility that this discussion might have to take place courtesy of Skype or might be cancelled altogether. There are two … Continue reading Lock-In = Write Outline
By now your New Year resolutions have been made and broken. It is the time for writers of all kinds to think about those wonderful weeks or weekends away at special places called writers’ summer schools, festivals or just plain tuition centres. I’ve had experience of 2 different residential writing courses but not the third … Continue reading Writing Away
My New Year’s Resolution is to achieve more with my writing, ie put more writing out there. Remember school timetables? We produced work on English grammar, English Literature, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Religion. That’s 8 academic subjects. In a five day week of 6 hours a day. My writing life takes place over … Continue reading New Year, New Resolutions, New Puzzle
I'm re-writing my novel set in the 1950s, written during my 2 years on the MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University. The story started out with one narrator, a child, who then had a mother with her own history and then an uncle. His experiences took the reader back to WWII and then there … Continue reading Researching World War Two
To begin on a positive note – cos I’m working towards writing about the dreaded synopsis – earlier this month I had a story in a short list of 6 writers in a competition run by Henshaw Press. That heart-stopping moment when you see your name on the screen is one every writer deserves to … Continue reading The Writer’s Life
