I’m a bit late to the New Year goal-setting party, but here goes. For my writing, I want to finish my second novel and get it published, and start on a third. I also want to write more short stories and submit them to magazines and contests. For my reading, I want to read a [...]
Tag Archives | Writing
Update
All is well, despite the silence. I’ve been putting all my energy into winning a short story contest. With a £25,000 prize and a star-studded judging panel, I’m expecting the competition to be fierce. To win, I think I’ll have to write something better than anything I’ve written before. The deadline is next Monday at [...]
“The Writer as Migrant” by Ha Jin
These are three essays on the notion of migration for the writer, mostly explained through other writers such as Nabokov, Conrad, Kundera and Naipaul. In the first essay, The Spokesman & the Tribe, Jin explores the balance between the individual and the collective, and asks to what extent a writer can ‘speak for’ his nation [...]
New York, New York
I had a wonderful trip to New York. The book-related reasons to go were to sign copies at the Columbia Alumni Book Fair and to give a speech at the Jack Kerouac Literary Group, both of which went very well. Outside of the scheduled events, it was great to spend some time in New York [...]
Present-tense novels
I was experimenting with writing my next novel in the present tense. For a while it went well. The present tense felt more immediate, a little fresher, and was appropriate to the story I was trying to tell. But gradually I began to feel constricted. The present tense seemed to work well for describing scenes [...]
Read more often than you write
Came across some good back-to-basics writing advice over on How Publishing Really Works. The bottom line: Just write every day, and read more often than you write, and your writing will improve. I am a keen reader, but sometimes when faced with the competing pressures of finishing a manuscript, paying the rent and occasionally having [...]
“The Anatomy of Prose” by Marjorie Boulton
This is a rigorous 1950s analysis of prose, seeking to classify different elements of prose as you would classify insects or flowers. From the broad divisions of types of prose (narrative, argumentative, dramatic, informative, contemplative), Boulton proceeds to smaller divisions and sub-divisions, for example listing and defining 36 different rhetorical devices. Despite the intense detail, [...]
Sheer egoism
Yes, I went around bookshops looking for my book on the shelves. And I started taking photos of it… OK, so it’s not very cool. It’s not something I could picture Salman Rushdie or Iam McEwan doing. But I enjoyed it!
Launch!
I realised I haven’t written anything here for a week. The official reason is that I was busy – the unofficial reason is that I was in a constant state of nervous anxiety and couldn’t concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds at a time. The reason for the nerves is pictured here: [...]
Books arrived!
When I first decided to quit my sensible career job and focus on writing, I suppose this is the day I had in mind. At the end of all the early mornings and late nights and rejection letters and self-doubt and setbacks and new starts and hating the chapters I loved yesterday and editing and [...]
-
“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
-
Introducing “A Virtual Love”, coming to a bookshop near you in Spring 2013
-
Finding some inspiration
-
Beauty is a sleeping cat
-
“Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
-
Great opportunity for unpublished UK writers
-
How to write a book review
-
How writers generate ideas
-
The Sense of an Ending, explained
-
How much would you pay for a short story?
-
HeeKyung: I couldn't quite understand the ending until I re...
-
Bruno D\'Itri: How Veronica really behaved towards Tony is up for...
-
HPM: Why does Veronica behave so obstructively? Yes, i...
-
Andrew Blackman: Yes, that would be good! I like contests with no g...
-
Geosi: I wish it was extended to africans as well....lol!...
