The least sensible thing one can do in circumstance like this is to read stuff which has absolutely no bearing on any it.
Read MoreReviews
Review: 99 Ways to tell a story
The book works in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to start.
Read MoreReview: The Rise and Fall of Oscar Wilde
I enjoyed the course, but would have preferred it to have been longer.
Read MoreReview: A Little History of Literature
As for non-students whose memories of Eng Lit conjure up trying to make sense of Shakespeare, you may discover that “A Little History of Literature” will help you to erase such memories!
Read MoreReview: Creative writing for social media
Good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practice may decree that the ideal blog post length is between 1760 and 2400 words, but I prefer to write for people rather than an algorithm.
Read MoreReview: Exercises in Style
Anyone interested in the craft of writing should read this book. It’s not a primer, or dictionary, or anything of that nature. But it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Read MoreReview of the Writing Inspiration Jam course
This one-off session from the City Lit looked like an exciting course to try. It ticked several boxes: no long-term commitment, and brimming with ideas.
Read MoreWho's the author?
If you write a play or a film script, presumably you have a mental picture of how it will look on screen or stage.
Read MoreReview: Book Parts
When you start to read a new book, what’s your routine? My routines differ according to whether the book is fiction or non-fiction, and whether I’ve been sent it to review or not.
Read MoreReview: Writing Tools, by Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark describes and analyses fifty five strategies for writers.
Read MoreReview: Storycraft, by Jack Hart
Like Chekhov's gun (if a gun appears in Act 1, it has to be fired at some point), actions like someone clearing their throat are pointless if they add nothing to how we see them as a character.
Read MoreTesting a camcorder for interviews
A few years ago I thought I would test the capabilities of a pocket camcorder I’d been asked to review
Read MoreReview: The Go-Between
I also started to ponder: why the obsession throughout the book with belladonna?
Read MoreReview: How to write short
This is a very different book from Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer's Guide And Anthology, both in content and style, but covers similar ground.
Read MoreQuick look: You talkin' to me? The Unruly History of New York English (The Dialects of North America)
One of my ambitions, once this pandemic is over, is to visit New York if I can. In the meantime, this look at the various cultures and dialects in New York is a reasonable substitute for actually being there.
Read MoreBooks of 2020 -- now with audio
Yesterday I published a blog post entitled Books of 2020, a list of the books I’ve (mostly) read in 2020. Well, it’s a bit of a long read at around 4,000 words, so I’ve created an audio version of it as well.
Read MoreBooks of 2020
These are the books I’ve encountered in 2020. I’ve read most of them, and reviewed many of them.
Read MoreA shorter review of the Penguin Book of The Prose Poem
Arranged in reverse chronological order, this book will help you find great examples of innovative approaches to writing poems, dating back to the 1840s. But what exactly is a prose poem?
Read MoreOn this day #7: Review of Help! for Writers
On 22 December 2015 I published a review of Help! For Writers, by Roy Peter Clark. I liked the book back then. Do I still like it now?
Read MoreReview: The European City in Contemporary Literature
The focus was not so much on viewing the city through a tourist’s lens as on looking at how spaces in the city interacted with the experiences of the authors or, rather, the narrators in their stories.
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