I’ve been thinking about that old chestnut – can writing be taught – since reading this article featuring UK writers who have good things to say about courses they’ve done. It seems pretty obvious, to anyone who spends time around kids, that everything, really, is taught. When you cover off the necessities of life, if [...]
So much of our focus in writing favours beginnings. We’re told again and again you have to have a great first line, a great first paragraph, and that your first chapter has to lure (then arrest) your reader. The implication is that if you can’t win readers over in the first five pages, you’re sunk. [...]
A new year always brings the expectation of a fresh start. It’s almost mid-January, and I’ve been back at work a week, but I still don’t feel I’ve had much chance to take stock. Yet when I think of this time last year, I hadn’t even started this blog, let alone the novel I’m now [...]
Like all writing, NaNoWriMo teaches you things about yourself, and things about your book. This was my third NaNoWriMo, and each one has taught me something different. As a first-timer, I was fuelled by a fear of the unknown: could I really write 50,000 words in a month? Second time around was about testing if [...]
Ever since I read this piece in the NYRB a few weeks back, I’ve been thinking about John Cheever. I came to his writing late, and knew very little about his personal life other than the world you imagine he had to occupy, to some degree, based on what he creates or recreates in his writing. I’m [...]