In the endless stream of articles and posts about curing writers’ block, there’s lots of advice about writing anything, just anything, to get your shift on. Morning pages. Free writing. Notebooks. But what about maps? Writing maps are a lovely little resource that come in handy handbag sized packets. Each map contains a series of… Continue reading Writing maps
Category: writing
September has come & I wake to questions about my favourite poem
September has come and one Twitter exchange this afternoon has made me consider poetry. Which I rarely do. Still, Megan from Writers’ Greenhouse posted a link to Autumn Journal by Louis Macneice today – my favourite poem. Why is it my favourite? Well, I love it because I was born in September and my nature… Continue reading September has come & I wake to questions about my favourite poem
Nottingham Festival of Words blog hop
I’m very pleased to join Nottingham Festival of Words’ blog hop – thanks to Rustic Writer for tagging me next. What’s your connection with Nottingham and its written and spoken words? I’ve lived in Nottingham now for 14 years, and I moved up here because of words. Well, kind of. I moved to transfer to… Continue reading Nottingham Festival of Words blog hop
Plotting…
I went to a workshop at Nottingham Writers Studio last night. It was called ‘Plot your novel in an hour’ and was part of their summer taster workshop series, short sharp shocks to draw in the crowds and boost membership. It was a packed room full of folk keen to learn the basics of plotting.… Continue reading Plotting…
Writing the past
I’ve been having some plotting problems with the novel, from its inception really. At first it seemed far too long a time span to cover before I remembered Kurt Vonnegut’s advice about starting as close to the end as possible and cut out 20 years. That was the easy part. But I’m still struggling with… Continue reading Writing the past
Seed packets from Writers’ Greenhouse
My writing group, Writing at Rosy’s, met last Wednesday. After a discussion about how walking isn’t as good exercise as you think it is, we managed to move to a proper table and start on the task at hand. Which was to examine the Premise versus Plot seed packets we’d been sent by Writers’ Greenhouse.… Continue reading Seed packets from Writers’ Greenhouse
Where am I? Researching a location
A few months ago I submitted a piece for feedback – it was a conversation between two protagonists, one secretly bidding the other farewell as she resolves not to see him again. The feedback I received was all to do with how poor the location work was – about how the reader needs to trust… Continue reading Where am I? Researching a location
Fantastic classics
Joanna Trollope has said something a bit daft this week. The gist of it was that she was concerned that young people read too much fantasy fiction and that they should be reading the classics instead. The classics will equip them better for the big bad wide world. It’s similar to the statement made recently… Continue reading Fantastic classics
Susan E Barsby 