Thoughts about things I’ve written or read or heard or seen. An attempt to stay positive in a turbulent world.
Subscribe to the Column
Subscribe on Substack
Search the Column
Select
a Topic
Categories
Most Recent Articles
Telling ourselves into being
I found this: We tell ourselves into being, don’t we?… I think that is one of the great reasons for stories. I mean, we are the storytelling animal, there is no other creature on earth that tells itself stories in order to understand who it is. This is what we do, we’ve always done it,...Continue reading→
To plan or not to plan a novel?
That is the question. A writing colleague and I were talking the other day about whether we should or shouldn’t plan our novels. I said I felt as I’d heard Rose Tremain say she’d felt: that if she plans, the subsequent writing bores her and if the writing bores her, it will surely bore readers...Continue reading→
CORNFLOWER Book Group
The Cornflower Book Group is discussing Speaking of Love, so if you’d like to join in the discussion, hop on over there, here.I’d like to hear what you think does work as well as what you think doesn’t work, and if you’ve got any questions ask me them there, in the comments, and I’ll reply...Continue reading→
I have been Normed
Here. It is a wonderful thing that normblog does, this norming thing of a Friday. The similarities and the differences between, for instance, why a person would tell a lie (often to save a life) and which songs and poems people love – when they can only choose one – make interesting and sometimes hilarious...Continue reading→
The Convergence of the Twain
It is strange what research throws up when you let yourself follow a curving line, isn’t it? (I know, it could be called a MAT, but I don’t think it counts.) I was looking for information about icebergs, when this caught my eye and so I veered off course towards it. Hardy wrote it in...Continue reading→
In the blink of an eye
Jean-Dominique Bauby (Jean-Do to his friends) wrote a whole book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by the arduous process of one blink for each letter. In French it’s called La Scaphandre et le Papillon. (I tried to upload a video clip of the film – which the boyf and I saw last night –...Continue reading→
Writing yourself well
I’ve just read, over at the wonderful Stuck in a Book, that he’s just about to read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. He has a treat in store. And that reminded me that Perkins Gilman also wrote about why she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. You can read the full article here, but here’s an...Continue reading→
Prinknash (pr Prinnidge)
I am going here where these Benedictine monks live The reason I am going is that this was my great-grandmother’s childhood home (she of the biography I was going to write, now of the novel that I am about to begin). It’s called Prinknash (pr Prinnidge) and I’m going to meet the Abbot who will...Continue reading→
Procrastination
A friend of mine, a wonderful artist who works in all kinds of media (mediums?) told me about the Jerwood Moving image award winners. I highly recommend Johnny Kelly’s (which is called PROCRASTINATION). It’ll take you about 5 minutes to watch and it’s the perfect MAT. So perfect that I’ve just watched it twice …...Continue reading→
Old work, new work
While staring through the window and dreaming about my new novel (and doing some planning) I find images from my first novel stealing into my mind. I ask myself if that’s because I’m afraid of stepping into the new or afraid of letting go of the old? I also find weaknesses in the first. Just...Continue reading→