In this essay I have used three different AI apps to analyse a piece of my writing, and to make suggestions for improvement.
Read MoreExperiments in Style: A Borgesian Story
One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. This one was written in the style of Borges.
Read MoreLibrary madness: a trabble of trouble
The worst thing about belonging to more than one library is that it's all too easy to take a book back to the wrong one. I did that a few months ago, and the following conversation ensued.
Read MoreSix-word reviews
When writing short-form I think it helps to think in terms of the minimum viable wordage, or MVW...
Read MoreNot just a numbers game
I’ve been thinking about definitions of success recently.
Read MoreGeoffrey Chaucer's Complete Works: which edition do YOU prefer?
We visited the William Morris Gallery at the weekend, and Chaucer’s Complete Works was one of the books Wm Morris published.
Read MoreSuccess -- at last! A short, hopefully interesting and chortlesome, memoir piece
It is understandable that an ambitious young man, in his late twenties and early thirties, wanting success in all its various guises, and with a belief in the power of the mind, would be attracted to certain kinds of books, tapes and courses. The young man I’m talking about was, of course, me.
Read MoreBooks added to the TBR heap
This article is an excerpt from a longer one that appeared on my Eclecticism newsletter.
Read MoreNano reviews
You’ve heard of six-word stories. How about nano non-fiction?
Read MoreA rather annoying side effect of scanning a typed document and converting it to text
It was my intention to provide you with a guide to style guides. But...
Read MoreThe art of writing originated from a very prosaic need, not a creative impulse
The art of making paper was kept secret for hundreds of years.
Read MoreBooks I'm reading or about to read
I’ve been sent the following books by publishers, and will review them in due course. Here is some information about them.
Read MoreIf you learnt how to write well at school, maybe you're lucky
The typical school writing assignment involves working in a way that no real writer does.
Read MoreLet's hear it for the introverts!
This review was originally published in Teach Secondary magazine, and so is aimed at teachers rather than writers, but as writers are often called upon to speak in public I thought this might be useful for them too!
Read MoreReview: 99 Variations on a Proof
It was, surely, only a matter of time before someone would take Raymond Queneau’s idea of exercises in style and apply it to mathematics.
Read MoreYe olde book signing
I’ve recently finished a course on Macbeth and Othello, and I’ve been doing some research.
Read MoreAI for bloggers
In my recent blogging course, I abandoned my carefully-prepared lesson, or part pf it, threw caution to the winds, and suggested to the class that we experiment with using AI for writing blog posts. Here’s a partial blog post it came up with, which you will agree is utter rubbish…
Read MoreAn intriguing interlude on the Underground
Travelling back from my saxophone lesson on Saturday, a very attractive young woman kept looking at me. Did I finally have sax appeal I asked myself.
Read MoreAn embarassing interlude on the Overground
Last week, Elaine, a friend of hers (D) and I went to an art gallery. On our return we caught the Overground train at Highbury and Islington, heading towards Stratford….
Read MoreWhat makes a great and successful writer?
This is a transcript of a conversation between Fred Terryman and myself. It’s been lightly edited, with the pauses taken out for ease of reading.
Read More