Here’s what motivated you to write in 2021 (Part 1)

 In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog

For over eight years, Richard Beynon, co-founder of All About Writing and designer and facilitator of our Creative Writing Course, our screenwriting courses, and more, has motivated you with his Monday musings on writing, inspiration, and stories.

To date, Richard has written more than 400 Monday Motivations – which means that if you read one a day, it would take you over a year to get through them. Plus, you’d probably know almost everything there is to know about being a good writer.

We’ve rounded up the top 15 Monday Motivation blogs that you loved the most this year. Click here to read the full archive.

1.TEN THINGS EVERY WRITER SHOULD KNOW

  1. Writing is rewriting.
  2. The first idea is not necessarily the best idea.
  3. Your protagonist must want something – badly.
  4. Writing is not the best way to prepare financially for old age.
  5. Writing is the best way to prepare emotionally for old age
  6. Details make story memorable, not plot devices.
  7. Less is more… [more]

 

 

2. GALGUT’S KALEIDOSCOPIC VIEW OF HIS CHARACTERS

Damon Galgut, we’re all aware by now, has won the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel, The Promise, by a unanimous vote of the judges. Much of the literary talk since has concerned the complex point of view he adopted for his story. That’s what I’d like to consider today

First, let’s try and get a handle on what precisely he did. Then we’ll ask why he made those particular choices. And finally we’ll consider what effect they had…[more]

 

3. THE ROLE OF HANDCUFFS IN STORY

The blank page, the even blanker screen, can act as a profoundly inhibiting factor in the life of a writer. The blank page invites you to write… whatever you like. On the face of it, that sounds fantastic. An open invitation! Wow. I can write about anything on earth – or in the universe. What freedom!

But we soon learn that unfettered freedom feels oddly… constraining. If we can write literally anything, then what shall we write specifically?… [more]

 

4. I’M A CHARACTER AND I WANT TO GET OUT

We meet Alexander musing moodily about the impending dissolution of his marriage. He wonders whether there isn’t any chance of rescuing it. He agonises over the effect of the breakup on the children. Sophie’s just eleven, and will be devastated, he reckons. Pete is more resilient, but even he won’t easily absorb the body blow of his parents’ divorce.

We cut to Eleanor, whose overwhelming sense after being trapped in what for her is a loveless union, is relief… [more]

 

5. HOW I FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH SWANS

This is a story about how a gauzy attachment to a stereotype was shattered by the facts.

On our travels on the canals and rivers of England, we have encountered hundreds, perhaps thousands of swans. On the Thames we often found ourselves nosing our way through flotillas of the birds sailing regally on the dark waters, admiring their grace, their serenity and their parenting skills… [more]

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