Monday Motivation

Writers are God, we rather fatuously proclaim. We can do anything – bring characters to life, destroy them at will, have Fate take a hand in the affairs of men. All this is no doubt true – but [...]

George Sanders, winner of the Man Booker in 2017 for his Lincoln in the Bardo, and author of several books of astonishing short stories, makes an important point about detail in fiction in an [...]

Writing has rules, yes? Rules of punctuation. Rules of grammar. Rules regarding cause before effect (the first should come before the second). Rules regarding point of view. Rules regarding [...]

I had a long conversation with a breadmaker last night. It was the occasion of a friend’s seventieth birthday party, and the tables groaned beneath a range of dishes too various and numerous to [...]

It strikes me that discussions of political correctness are somewhat risky affairs, since it’s so easy in tippy-toeing around the sensitivities of others, to avoid debating a real and substantial [...]

I think I might indulge myself and write a little meditation on prejudice, judgement and forgiveness both in life and in literature. What prompts this? Well, it was a piece I recently read in the [...]

You’re sitting opposite someone on a train. She is deeply engaged in a book and you take the liberty of examining her closely. She’s attractive and you enjoy your silent interrogation of her [...]

Our local is just a short walk away from our boat in Priory Marina in Bedford. Local cinema, that is. (Our local pub is even closer.) Yesterday evening we took advantage of our proximity to [...]

This is the first piece I’ve written in this brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-box 2019. I’m in trouble. But it’s not the first time I’ve been here. I seem to remember that I face the same problem [...]

Some people have a kind of preternatural understanding of story structure, an inborn ability to create memorable characters and a clear appreciation of the need for detail, tension and conflict [...]

Characters, like quarks*, come in many different flavours. There are large, silent characters, whose presence is felt but not greatly demonstrated. There are small, voluble characters that, like [...]

I’ve been writing a little fable about the adventures of Bella and Basil who’ve been charged with looking after a bookshop in Wigtown for a couple of weeks. The inspiration for each twist and [...]