This title charts what we might call the journey of a book, from the earliest shape of a story, through to cover design and blurb writing
Read MoreReview: How words get good
Review: A Little History of Music
A broad sweep like this will inevitably overlook some aspects, and the lightness of tone might not appeal to academics – but…
Read MoreReview: The Notebook
I love the subtitle: A history of thinking on paper (my emphasis). I do think there’s much to be said for writing on paper, and there is no paucity of research showing the benefits of analogue over the digital approach.
Read MoreImaginative film-making
in Archives, Photography
The following article was written and published in May 1973. I thought you might find it interesting, as it looks at a few imaginative ways in which to make films — with a cine camera and actual film! Most of the techniques described can still be achieved with video.
Read MoreQuick looks: Once Upon A Prime
in Quick looks, Reviews
I recently received this book, and I’m enjoying it very much. It looks at the (usually hidden) existence of maths in literary works.
Read MoreQuick looks: Solutions for Writers
in Quick looks, Reviews
This is packed with useful information. I’m especially looking forward to reading the the sections called How to Show Instead of Tell, and Using the Techniques of Fiction to Enhance Nonfiction.
Read MoreQuick looks: The Notebook
in Quick looks, Reviews
This comes out on 2nd November. It has a very readable style, and interestingly the footnotes are in a different font from, and bigger than, the main text.
Read MoreSentence models for creative writing -- full review
Perhaps I’m judging by my own standards here, but I think a big mistake you could make with this book is to try to ‘get into it’. You can’t, because it hasn’t really been designed to be readable as such. It’s more of a source of reference material and ideas.
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Terrified, by Dall-e
A comic book page by AI
in Creative Writing, EiS
Someone challenged me to write a graphic novel of my short story A Bang on the Head, which forms the basis of my experiments in style, à la Queneau. Well, I’m useless at drawing the kind of comics I like to read, so I thought I’d enlist the help of AI. I used this prompt, mistakenly, with ChatGPT…
Read MoreQuick look: Retroland, by Peter Kemp
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This book arrived recently, and I’m very much enjoying reading it. It’s a kind of guided tour or survey of the types of fiction that have appeared in the last fifty years (mainly).
Read MoreComing soon* Review of How Words Get Good
in News & views
I recently reviewed How Words Get Good for Teach Secondary magazine. It’s a great read, and delves into all the processes that go into producing a book.
Read MoreCreating personas
I asked Claude.AI to create some personas for my writing about different forms of writing. What was the result?
Read MoreLitotes
in EiS
Litotes, pronounced lie-toe-tease, is a literary technique whereby you express things in a negative formulation. What would it look like if a whole story was written in this fashion?
By the way, if you’ve been thinking of taking out a premium subscription for my Eclecticism newsletter, the mega deal of 20% off forever ends tomorrow, 22nd August 2023.
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Picture by Dall-e
Review: Clouds like dust, and other poems, by N. Slake
in Oulipo
Poetry lovers will recall the impact Slake' s first book made. "Tied up in Notts" was, at the time, not merely avant-garde but positively risque. The reason, of course, was Slake's cavalier approach to poetic conventions. For example, his 15 Line Sonnet caused a massive rift in the arts community.
Read MoreBook reviews the wrong way round
in Oulipo
This is the usual way of doing things. Someone writes a book, or a poem or whatever. Then (with a bit of luck) someone reviews it.
A fellow writer, Nathan, and I decided to do it the other way around. He wrote a review of something I hadn’t written yet. Then I wrote it!
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Why would anyone write badly?
Why do some writers write badly? Plus links to examples of bad writing.
Read MoreReview: Sentence models for creative writing By Christopher Youles
Most books on creative writing tend to be less technical, at least in appearance, than ‘Sentence models’.
Read MoreReview: The Written World and the Unwritten World: Collected Non-fiction, by Italo Calvino
Some of the essay topics may be a little dated – the failure of the Italian novel being one – but such is the clarity and variety of his work that the actual subject matter starts to feel immaterial.
Read MoreWho needs a Creative Writing MA? (Revisited)
I wrote this article in 2020. Having read it again, I still agree with the views I expressed then. In fact, I’d go further. When anyone who has achieved the benefits potentially offered by X tells you that you don’t need X, I think a huge dollop of cynicism is in order.
Read MoreOulipo taster course: discount for today only
in News & views, Oulipo
Oulipo techniques are great for dispelling writer’s block, and generating new works.
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