Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity and Patience; and walks with Mental Health Mates

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Angela

Being an artist means … ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms … summer [will] come. But it comes only to the patient … patience is everything! from Rainer Maria Rilke’s advice to Franz Xaver … Continue reading →

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Literary Villains, Literary Summer Reads and an idyllic treehouse in East Sussex (where you can stay)

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Angela

Forty of the Best Villains in Literature appear in this article at The Literary Hub (where you’ll find many literary goodies). The villains include the obvious: Mr Hyde, Mrs Danvers, Uriah Heep, Mr Rochester, Dr Frankenstein, Hannibal Lecter and many more. But … Continue reading →

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Women writers, and children; and Retro Peepers

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Angela

I’ve never had children and the reason (apart from meeting the man whose children I’d love to have had well beyond my fertile years) is that I was always afraid that looking after children would eat so far into my … Continue reading →

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Writers on writing, and an exquisitely beautiful tea

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Angela

When our writers’ group met this week one of our number described how the rise of the ‘plotting and typing’ approach to writing was driving her demented. How all the work is done before you’ve typed a word and then you … Continue reading →

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RMS Titanic: on this day 106 years ago … & Samira Addo, Portrait Artist of the Year

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Angela

It’s 106 years ago today that the ‘unsinkable’ passenger liner, RMS Titanic, hit an iceberg and sank in just two hours and forty minutes. For years the tragedy was a matter of private internal horror: people didn’t talk about trauma then and … Continue reading →

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Social media and the writer; Modigliani and Akhmatova

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Angela

It’s wise for writers to have a social media presence these days. Publishers don’t exactly insist on it, but they like writers who have significant followings. (Followers equal interest in the writer and so potential sales, obviously.) But how does … Continue reading →

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Teaching kids to fall in love with science (a different kind of love for Valentine’s day); and things to do with rubbish

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Angela

I was noodling around on the internet wondering what I was going to post about this month when I discovered Arvind Gupta. He won the Padma Shree on 26 January (India’s Republic Day) for his work in literature and in education, … Continue reading →

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A new writing resolution; and a new (to me) altruistic way of advertising

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Angela

I’ve made a new writing resolution: I will not allow the confusing complexity, the sheer size and the constantly changing, shifting nature of a novel’s first draft to eclipse the excitement I felt when its guiding idea first electrified me. I. Will. Not. … Continue reading →

Posted in Baby Boomers, Creativity, Fiction, Millenials, Psychology, Rewriting, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Uncategorized, Writing | Comments Off on A new writing resolution; and a new (to me) altruistic way of advertising

Chaos & Creativity; and Beautiful Bookshops

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Angela

I dislike hate chaos. Very much. Who doesn’t? But it’s an essential state if you want to write fiction. Messiness of the mind is the sine qua non for writers. But, when a piece is finished, it looks so orderly that … Continue reading →

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Rejection is a rite of passage for writers, and the Raw Chocolate Company

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Angela

One of the things that a writer takes a while truly to believe (it’s taken me a while) is that rejection is part of the process: it’s necessary, inevitable and makes our work better. It’s a rite of passage.But the … Continue reading →

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A very small trawl through a few less well-known news sites

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Angela

This month – perhaps because it’s the silly season when news tends towards the frivolous because the House of Commons is in recess and us ordinary folk go on holiday – I thought I’d have a little light trawl through a few … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, News, News Outlets, Science | 2 Comments

Blurt It Out and Instead of a Card

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Angela

I’m submitting the manuscript of my third novel to literary agents. It’s a process that requires much patience, a certain amount of luck and, most importantly, the ability to pitch my work well to the right agent at the right … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Fiction, Mental Health in Fiction, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Third Novel, Writing | 2 Comments

Words on Writing, and Pass on a Poem

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Angela

There are hundreds of thousands of words written about writing fiction: how to write, why we write, what to do when we can’t write and on and on so that, sometimes, I feel as if I’m adrift on a sea … Continue reading →

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Death and Dying, Fiction, Literary Prizes, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Women, Writers, Writing | Comments Off on Words on Writing, and Pass on a Poem

Spring in London, and The Kid Stays in the Picture

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Angela

Spring in London is an astonishing thing: blossom among the grey buildings and pavements; green and blue and pink and white making us look up at it and then at each other and smile, us Londoners who spend most of our … Continue reading →

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A History of Britain in 21 Women, by Jenni Murray

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Angela

This is both the thing I’m writing about this month and the thing I’d love to have written, in a parallel universe where time is infinite and all things are possible:What an entirely brilliant and inspiring idea. It begins with … Continue reading →

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Anselm Kiefer and Heywood Hill

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Angela

On the weekend we went to the Anselm Kiefer Exhibition at the White Cube in Bermondsey. It’s just closed, but if there’s any of his work anywhere near you do go and see it. He is the most imaginative of … Continue reading →

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Dare Always Dare, and Guerilla Grafters

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Angela

A friend pointed out to me a week or so ago that this: DARE ALWAYS DARE is written in neon above the foyer entrance to the Old Vic Theatre (no idea why I’d never noticed it before): And so we should, if … Continue reading →

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Third novel, and the Reith Lectures, 2016

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Angela

This month I finished my third novel. Finished to be interpreted loosely: there will be redrafts when I’m working with an agent and then with an editor. It’s working title is For the Love of Life. Rejoice. At least for now. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Equality, Fiction, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Third Novel, Titanic, Writers, Writing | 2 Comments

Rose Tremain’s The Gustav Sonata and Dioni Mazaraki’s silver jewellery

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Angela

I’ve read all Rose Tremain‘s novels and I love the fact that they fail to fit neatly into any particular category (except the category of beautifully written stories about the way we are and how we become). They’re always and essentially different, one from … Continue reading →

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How dramatic stories change brain chemistry, and NOT the Booker Prize

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Angela

Good strong stories, as we all know, transport us to other people’s worlds. So, when we’re reading fiction, even though we know the people we’re reading about aren’t real, if the story has a successful dramatic arc we’ll empathise with those imaginary people and … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Literary Prizes, Mind, Psychology, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Writers, Writing | 2 Comments