Allaboutwriting

Essential reading – Growing through writing

- Pierre Brouard * I loved the Joyce Carol Oates book on losing her husband, A Widow’s Story * * * * And of course The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion speaks movingly of her widowhood and its traumas * * * * David Reiff’s Swimming in a Sea of Death, about the … Continue reading »

How journals help writers – twelve tips

- Jo-Anne Richards Oh, I know you kept a diary when you were fourteen. Your awful brother probably picked the lock and read steamy passages to his friends. But even so … a journal kept properly can help your writing in many ways. A journal is a safe place to expose yourself, explore your own … Continue reading »

Travel writing – a paid vacation?

Q and A with writer and journalist Fred de Vries who will be running a practical Travel Writing Course in Johannesburg starting on Thursday 24 May 2012. What sparked your initial interest in travel writing? I travelled a lot for my newspaper when I was foreign correspondent and later foreign editor, and on those trips always looked … Continue reading »

McEwan on suspense

- Jo-Anne Richards To continue with the suspense discussion, I remembered an interview with the fabulous British fiction writer, Ian McEwan, that appeared in the New Yorker. He’s one of my very favourite writers, so I was excited when I found the following extract on the subject – and to see that he also believes … Continue reading »

Suspense is more than a shot ringing out at midnight

- Jo-Anne Richards Richard and I ran a writing session recently at which one of our members read us a piece of her writing. She hoped it might form the start of a memoir; a story of the things she’s been facing in her life. It began with her waking in the night and experiencing … Continue reading »

250 word writing challenge

Enter the Allaboutwriting monthly writing challenge. The best entry wins a R200(or equivalent) book voucher to be spent at the independent bookshop of your choice. The title of your short story is Ms Antoine’s Dark Encounter. Now write 250 words, deploying as many of your senses as you can both in your descriptions and your dialogue. Write … Continue reading »

There is more to writing than publishing

Many of us want to write, indeed feel a great need to write, but the goal is not a book or to publish but to find out more about ourselves. We asked Pierre Brouard, co-facilitator of Growing through writing some questions. Is it really possible to write to process the past, deal with the present … Continue reading »

Essential reading – travel writing

- Fred de Vries Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is a classic piece of travel writing. I still love it. It has everything: pace, scenery, passion, sex, jazz, friendship, betrayal, exhilaration and dismay. Paul Bowles’s collection of short stories is sublime and his Sheltering Sky is frightening. … Continue reading »

Books for Writers

- Linda Cassidy Lewis I love to read books about writing. These are the ones I use most. Constance Hale’s book Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose is the first book I read on writing. This is more than just a style manual. After teaching you the basic rules, Hale teaches you … Continue reading »