It’s the 23rd June 2022, and this year’s National Writing Day. Here are links to reviews of useful books about writing, resources for use in schools (some are good for adults too!) and top tips (ditto).
Read MoreWriter, by Terry Freedman
News & views
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Writing the Oulipo: A taster update
This course is running tomorrow (18 June 2022), and I’ve added a few more exercises for people to try out.
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All Party Writers Group Report Launch, by Terry Freedman. From left to right: Barbara Hayes, Giles Watling, Lord Vaizey, Tony Bradman
Writers' earnings
in News & views
Yesterday I attended the launch, at the House of Lords, of the latest report from the All Party Writers Group on writers’ earnings in the UK.
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The Redbridge branch of the London Cycling Campaign — or some of us anyway. Photo credit: unknown
Cycling to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
in News & views
Our aim was to cycle into London, specifically Green Park, and watch the fly past. Unfortunately, everyone else in the UK had the same idea…
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Navigating a book
One of the first things I look for when reviewing a non-fiction book is whether or not it contains an index. If it does, the next thing I check is whether the index is actually useful.
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Image by Ronny Overhate from Pixabay
Yeah, I run a business. So what?
I pitched an article to a newspaper that, it turns out, pays less if the article has been written by someone who runs their own business. Why?
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Fake news by Terry Freedman
Gilray and plum pie
in News & views
My Gilray and plum pie day.
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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
A slow motion rejection
in News & views
Just in case I might get too complacent, a malignant Fate decreed that an article I’ve spent hours on has been rejected — by the person who commissioned it.
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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Cancel culture, McCarthy-style
in News & views
These days of “cancelling” people whose views one doesn’t agree with is nothing new. In recent times (the 1950s) this went on at a semi-official level.
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Question mark, by Terry Freedman
My writing warm-up exercise
in News & views
In her book Discoverability, Kristine Kathryn Rusch cites the acronym penned by Scott William Carter: WIBBOW.
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Bookcase, by Terry Freedman
Second-hand ebooks? (Updated)
in News & views
I love second-hand bookshops. Whenever I go on holiday, one of the first things I do is go to the nearest Tourism Information outlet and get a list of the local used bookshops.
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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Eclecticism
in News & views
My public writing tends to be mostly about education technology, and the craft of nonfiction writing. My interests are more varied than that brief description would suggest, but to avoid muddying the waters I either attempt to skew an article so that it fits into one of those categories, or not publish it at all. But that has now changed….
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The London Book Fair, 2016. Photo by Terry Freedman
The London Book Fair 2022
The London Book Fair is back this year, and as usual there's a lot on that writers will find useful. The show this year is semi-hybrid….
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Blogger, by Terry Freedman
The trials and tribulations of blogging as a SWOT analysis (Updated)
in News & views
To blog or not to blog? That is the question. Here’;s a SWOT analysis to help you decide.
Read MoreThe hard sell (Updated)
It's always difficult to get the balance right between hard sell and soft sell. Joe Coleman's website allows you to choose your own level of (dis)comfort!
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Photo by Terry Freedman
Remembering Paul Jennings, a great British humorist
in News & views
As a frequenter of Golders Green in years gone by I sometimes had occasion to use the Gents in the station. My friends and I, with the silliness of youth, always used to chortle at a sign there.
Read MoreCan your face be used for copyright protection?
in News & views
The idea is that if an article is ripped off, it’s much easier to prove that it was originally published by you if your face is embedded in it.
Read MoreA computational approach to Eng Lit
I often wonder if the most arduous part of the work of the people who write this sort of tripe is to ensure they don’t use the same words more than once for the same editor.
Read MoreA glimpse into cancel culture
in News & views
As far as I know, I’ve never been cancelled. I’ve been attacked online, had my reputation smeared, but not actually cancelled.
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How you could help Ukraine
in News & views
The following is a list of 29 ways in which you might be able to help the Ukrainian situation. My aim was to collate a list of ways that ordinary people could contribute, even if only in a small way.
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