Personality questionnaires and character development
The origins and perennial attraction of personality tests and their potential as hooks to motivate writing and for characer development.
writing techniques
Of the muse Clio and other daemons
Do you have a muse? Long ago I co-opted Clio, muse of history, but like Rudyard Kipling’s cat, she walks by herself and isn’t very reliable.
Podcast creativity, thinking aloud and Elin’s Story
Thinking about podcast scripts, trying to move forward with Elin’s Story, my historical novel, and exploring my own creative process as I go.
Bringing up the Bodies from Wolf Hall
Bring up the Bodies from Wolf Hall: a discussion of point of view in Hilary Mantel’s fantastic trilogy, and a discussion of character names.
Panic on the writing course – writing diary
A panic attack was perhaps not the best way to start my participation in the six week Novel Writing Essentials course with Bill Ryan as tutor.
And I would write ten thousand hours
Ten thousand hours is about writing blog posts and how deliberate practice with the help of the Yoast SEO WP plug-in has helped me improve over time.
Writing Sprints – what are they and a how to use them
Writing sprints are writing exercises in which one writes against the clock for a shorter period of time. This post is also the script of a vlog post.
Somebody faraway nearby that I used to know
A book review of The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit and Somebody That I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell, two books read in parallel.
So, Anyway – the Autobiography of John Cleese
A review of John Cleese’s autobiography “So, Anyway” with a particular look at what he has to say about writing, script-writing and writing comedy.
In the swim with Dr Sacks – kind of a review
Dr Sacks is Oliver Sacks. This is a review of Oliver Sacks’ autobiography, On the Move. The focus is on his writing process, his swimming and a highly speculative meeting between Dr Sacks & John Cleese.