Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Thursday, April 7th, 2016
1: Start writing. An idea is not necessary at this stage.
2: Keep writing. Pay no attention to mundane matters such as plot, character, setting, structure, or story. Just keep writing words until you have around half a million of them.
3: Now take those half a million words and throw. them. away.
4: Stare [...]
Tags: books, novel, plotting, shitty first drafts, stupid ridiculousness, writer's block, writing, writing advice, writing is rewriting
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Sunday, January 31st, 2016
Winter is cold and depressing (my favourite). I continue to fill my empty existence with reading and writing. My field notes from January:
My Black Static story “White Rabbit” has been well received, and even garnered a very nice mention in the Guardian! It’s good to see Black Static getting some recognition in the [...]
Tags: black static, blogging, books, brilliance, novel, reviews, shitty first drafts, short stories, writers, writing
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Monday, December 14th, 2015
It turns out that I’m not too modest to mention that White Rabbit, my very first story in Black Static, made the cover. And what a cover! The utterly brilliant artwork is by Vince Haig, who has done another superb illustration for the story inside. One of the most wonderful experiences a writer can [...]
Tags: black static, brilliance, illustration, short stories, small press, TTA Press, Vince Haig, writing
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Saturday, November 14th, 2015
1. You have to invent your own genre, what happens if you don’t is that they subsume you into theirs.
(By genre, I mean everything.)
2. You want them to like you, but you know that your magic is not for them.
3. They inveigle you. They distract you from the scratch at the cellar [...]
Tags: advice, bluebeard, books, domestic fiction, domestic magic realism, genre, instruction, magical realism, manifesto, subtle doors, tales of woe, writing
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2015
A brief update on what’s what and what’s not in my world… I finished the first draft of my novel at the end of the summer holidays, which meant I had three whole days of holiday left before starting back at work. I spent those days in a whirl of shock and delight [...]
Tags: black static, blogging, crimewave, magazines, novel, short stories, ttapress, writing
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Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
In the words of Mike Allen, “makes our notoriously offbeat Clockwork Phoenix seem like a product of the straight and narrow.” How can you possibly resist? Now available to buy on Amazon UK. Buy it, write a review, say you love us only.
Tags: anthology, clockwork phoenix, reviews, short stories, writing
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Sunday, October 5th, 2014
At five ayem, all you can hear is the sound of the river rushing below your window, and the gurgle and spit of the coffee machine. You still have the night, and all its velvet mystery. The day hasn’t yet started; you are there to call down the moon and raise up the sun.
Tags: early mornings, personal, work, writing, writing advice
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Monday, September 29th, 2014
The absolute best bit about writing is when you get a lovely new copy of a book containing one of your stories. There are other good bits, but this has got to be the best. It never gets boring.
It adds to the brilliance when you are sharing covers with some flipping amazing writers, [...]
Tags: books, brilliance, interzone, personal, short stories, women, writing
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Saturday, September 27th, 2014
“Not everyone knows how cognac comes into being. To make cognac, you need four things: wine, sun, oak, and time. And in addition to these, as in every art, you must have taste. The rest is as follows.
In the fall, after the vintage, a grape alcohol is made. This alcohol is poured into [...]
Tags: brilliance, inspiration, Kapuściński, professional, writers, writing, writing is rewriting
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Saturday, September 13th, 2014
Teaching and writing go together like cake and icing, like chips and vinegar, like cheese and jam. We writers are drawn to teaching for good reasons: we get to talk about books all day, we get nice long holidays, we get the sort of autonomy and independence we awkward types love. In my workroom [...]
Tags: difficult people, people, teaching, thinking, work, writing
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