Writing Life: insights, updates, and craft

  • Time of Death
    Time of Death

    “ONE TIME, IT WENT LIKE THIS. “Time of death, twelve twenty-three.” He looks again at the head wound. Why can’t he make it make sense? He did not, could not, he still cannot find that bloody bullet. Entry wound, but no exit. Now she’s finally dead, it’s tempting to get stuck in. But he’s been…

  • More Here
    More Here

    Following the video of the other day, some sound. Short. Sweet.

  • (Listen)
    (Listen)

    Fewer words; more feeling.

  • Accepting You’re Creative When You Doubt You Are
    Accepting You’re Creative When You Doubt You Are

    “Unheard wishes tug at the sleeve of your consciousness. They bother. They are – understandably, dissastified. Unhappy. And sometimes, as they get older, they grieve.” Inspired by an acquaintance who’d been made so miserable by her utter conviction she didn’t have a creative bone in her, I wanted to encourage some self-care in others, and…

  • Rewriting, using comic book techniques, and other energy-boosters….
    Rewriting, using comic book techniques, and other energy-boosters….

    Tips and resources to get the energy going when it’s time to rewrite…

  • Give me 4 minutes and I’ll read you a story for 6
    Give me 4 minutes and I’ll read you a story for 6

    Give me 4 minutes of your time by completing a survey for me, and I will reward you with 6 minutes of free, super-sizzling storytelling. That’s gotta be a win, right?

  • Safe in Uncertainty
    Safe in Uncertainty

    I’ve been floored by a lurgy – the culmination of a couple of weeks sliding grimly under the weather. The b*gger of it is that it’s a big work week with family obligations. But as you all know, if you keep applying the technique that got you here, nothing’s going to change. So. Surrender it…

  • Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law
    Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law

    Tell me something that drives you mad when people do it. Not a crime. Not cruelty. Just one of those small social laws we all obey without thinking. Talking during a play? Not having your ticket ready at the station exit? Sliding into the parking space someone else has clearly been waiting for? Now ask…

  • All of 2025 in one post
    All of 2025 in one post

    If it’s how you pay your bills, being a scriptwriter has been a bit depressing the last few years. The screenwriting world is in crisis. Theatre is in freefall. If you back this profession up – like I do – with writing-related corporate work (I do more than write, but words are still significant), too…

  • Theatre: everything to play for, moment by moment
    Theatre: everything to play for, moment by moment

    Why’s a script more like an advent calendar or a Haynes manual than a novel?

  • It’s all in the telling (and that can be hard)
    It’s all in the telling (and that can be hard)

    The story-telling process (and not the end result) is where to put your focus …I may have been quiet, but, cor, have I been writing! I’m at the 65k word mark on a comedy novel, and loving the hard graft you get when crafting a story. This is my second prose adventure (the first is…

  • How did you get here?
    How did you get here?

    I posted last week about how I’ve got an article in The Writers’ and Artists Yearbook for 2023 and ‘24. I’m really proud of this, but how it came about might surprise you… > How did I end up on the back page? I met Bath Life’s lovely editor, Sarah Moola, at a “thank you…

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