Writers’ undercurrents: in the novel you’ve just read — or in your own writing? Sometimes it’s only after finishing a novel that you become aware of its undercurrent. For instance, in Dead Water (Simon Ings) the fast paced plot involves the protagonist in a deadly international chase after an evil[…]
Read More »Writing characters? E.M. Forster admitted that “We all like to pretend we don’t use real people, but one does actually. I used some of my family …” Perhaps you can’t or won’t do that. As a writer, you will need different resources for bringing your characters to life. You may[…]
Read More »Writing stimuli. What gave you that sudden idea that made you urgently scribble it down? It’s worth exploring. The power of olfactory stimuli in activating memory is well known. But it’s much harder to ‘dream up’ a smell that might affect the character in your story, than it is a sound[…]
Read More »A SUDDEN IDEA – What prompts a writer to suddenly write down an idea? Author – there’s a lot going on when you write. When your idea appears ‘out-of-the-blue’ , more likely the germ of the idea lies in some unconscious association. Past experience affects the significance of something that[…]
Read More »It is often the tiny detail that remains in the reader’s mind and catapults him into the imaginary world the writer tries to create. I’ve used Jonathan Wolstenholme‘s painting to portray a focus on detail. Minute detail is the interest in another post featuring cross-fertilization. The collector uses detail to[…]
Read More »If you like to read historical fiction, especially set in WWII:- INFILTRATION is the second in the trilogy, A Relative Invasion. It begins in the blitz, September 1940 where Billy, my sturdy, well-meaning main character, is arriving at his new billet in the country, delivered by horse and cart. When Book[…]
Read More »This is the camera lucida. I came across it when visiting the Fox Talbot museum at Lacock. Although the museum is about the birth of photography, the link between artistic forms of making images is not ignored. The original design of the camera lucida was by William Hyde Wollaston in[…]
Read More »Some writers complain of writers’ block. Perhaps they are due for pollination from other sources. I’ve written before about how cross-fertilization within the arts is something to seek out and to treasure. A writer, performing artist, teacher, does him/herself no good by constantly giving out and never feeding the self.[…]
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