Stories, Ideas, Connections
Yesterday, I discovered that I am a highly successful novelist. It was quite a surprise. I’ve not managed to write a novel, never mind publish one. But I have started two – maybe more, my hard drive is so cluttered. With the first, I got to about 27,000 words before I stopped. The second is …
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Trying to do anything creative or different is a risky business. You might end up looking stupid. Your efforts might fail in a way that makes you unhappy. Try it at work and you could lose your job. In the balance of putting yourself on the line versus playing safe, the scales are tipped heavily …
With the sudden death of my Mum last week, I nearly cancelled the event I’d planned for World Book Night on Tuesday. I wasn’t sure I was in the right frame of mind to host a short story slam or to perform my “on-the-spot writing” shtick. But I’m glad I went ahead with it. For …
I was reading an interview with the author Terry Pratchett over lunch. Towards the end, he started talking about death – an event much on his mind, as he has early Alzheimer’s. “It’s not morbid to talk about death,” he says. “Most people don’t worry about death, they worry about a bad death.” My Mum …
I guess you might call this a ‘found story’.I overheard a girl on the train, talking on the phone to a friend.I wrote down what she said… “So we spent five hours talking about our relationship and I told him we were splitting up. He phoned me later and he’s in the bath, with his …
Now that my Limehouse story has been published (read it here), I thought I’d set out some thoughts about where the idea came from and how it developed. I’ve already blogged about this project and my first visit to the area, when I took lots of photos and made pages of notes. The mile of …
One of my writing aims for this year is to enter more competitions. I’m off to a good start, placing second in a flash fiction challenge run by the Nottingham Festival of Words. I don’t normally enter comps. There’s such a long gap between sending off a story and hearing the result; I’m too impatient. …
Vince Whatever happened to shameless self-publicity? I can’t believe I’ve forgotten to post a link to this. At the back end of last year the Fates smiled kindly on me. A strange string of coincides occurred. The result: the brilliant Vince Franklin, an actor to whom I could utter the cringey words “I love your work” …
I thought I’d create a collage of some of the photos that I’m using to inspire my Limehouse project. Is this a “mood board”? Don’t know, but it’s useful.
Just before Christmas I took a trip to Limehouse, part of London’s old docklands. I’m writing about the area for a project called 26 miles. Specifically, I’m writing about one mile of tarmac that runs through Limehouse. The idea behind the project is simple. Take the 26 miles of the official London Marathon route and …