Need some inspiration to get writing?
Need some instant inspiration to get writing? Who doesn’t. Here are ten of our Monday Motivations, all focusing on story, sure to spur you on.
Read them all at once, or one a day, to gain advice, encouragement and, yes, motivation.
The Writer, the Hero, and his Journey
Let me make a quite unremarkable observation that writing a story is, in its own right, a Hero’s Journey. Join me as I trace the Writer’s Journey over the course of composing a story… The writer, […]
Oh what stories you could tell
Were you anticipating 2018 with any relish? We usually do look forward to the new year with some degree of excited anticipation. The world conspires to encourage us to do so. It’s the beginning […]
The pulsing heart of your next story
I want to think about passion today. That irrational, unmanageable force within you that urges you to do something possibly mad and whose consequences you can’t and don’t and won’t weigh. Think […]
The glue that holds story together
I want to talk today about the remarkable properties of glue when it comes to assembling story. You remember what E.M. Foster said about the difference between story and life? The king died and […]
I continue to think of parallels between life and the imaginary worlds of all our fictions. There have to be these equivalences, because otherwise fiction wouldn’t resonate with us; we wouldn’t […]
A story-teller in search of six characters
Let’s examine how a master story-teller whips a little literary confection into existence. Stephen King is the dude I’m thinking of – and the confection in question is a feature that appeared in […]
The bigger the story, the larger your lens
It’s become a trope of popular philosophy: take care of the little things (pennies, broken windows, chores) and the big things will take care of themselves (pounds, violent crimes, your life’s […]
The bigger the story, the slower the telling
I’m now onto the sixteenth CJ Box novel which documents the adventures of his Wyoming game and fisheries warden, Joe Pickett. Why have I become so addicted to the series? Well, they’re well […]
Lessons from the Giudecca Canal
Santa Maria del Rosario, on the Giudecca canal in Venice, is noted chiefly for its classical façade – enormous Corinthian pilasters support a heavy triangular pediment. It is an imposing presence […]
Your protagonist must remain the lead in his story
I think in the film and television business we talk more about agency than people do when discussing stories destined for print – although why this should be so I’m not sure. By “agency” I am […]
Just a slender thread of story
‘He might be dead. ‘It’s dreadful but it’s true. Bobby, my younger brother, pulls at my hand and asks again, “Where’s Dr. Congo-man?”’ So starts Inessa Rajah’s essay that won her first prize in […]
Time to introduce a little havoc
You’ve been writing now for some years. As your skills have improved, so your writing has become more fluid. When you sit down at the computer these days, the words spring almost unbidden to the […]
Upcoming courses designed to help you write better story
Our weekend in Stow-on-the-Wold between 21 and 23 September will focus entirely on the generation and the framing of story. (There are just two places left on the course which takes place in this iconic Cotswold market town.)
The Cape Town face-to-face Creative Writing Course with Jo-Anne; the Online Creative Writing Course; and our Creative Screenwriting Course with feedback from Michele Rowe and Richard all kick off on October 8.
Our two intensive online Coaching Programmes,one on Story, the other on Scenes, launch on 5 November. Sign up early for either of these two-week programmes, with intensive daily feedback from Jo-Anne and Richard, and you’ll enjoy a 20% discount.
And finally, a curiosity. Between 18 and 30 of November, Trish and Richard will be manning a bookshop in Scotland’s booktown (it boasts 11 bookstores amid a population of just 1 000) of Wigtown. We’ll be bringing stocks of South African books to whet the appetites of readers, and I’ll be running a series of seminars, all on the house, for anyone interested in honing their writing skills. So if you happen to be in the area…