Author, Writer, Word Person
So earlier this week I posted a review of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars to GoodReads. I am a huge fan of the work of John and his brother Hank, but I wasn’t a fan of the book. So if you’re a fan of The Fault in Our Stars, I don’t overly recommend you read that review. It isn’t written for entertainment, and is a rather meticulous explanation of why I
Read more
Having been to London Book Fair last year and thought about returning pretty much constantly since, my happiness at being back there was inevitable. In fact, I was happy just to be in Earl’s Court again, I love that place and will miss it when it closes. This year I discovered an excellent way to slow the inevitable leg pains that come from conferences and
Read moreSo there’s things I’ve learnt as a writer, and things I’ve learnt as someone who knows a lot of writers. Here’s a few of them, collected as a guide for friends and family on the right way to approach these difficult, awkward and sometimes fussy souls.. Here we go… IF YOU HAVE TO ASK a writer what they’ve had published, do your very best not to sound
Read moreHorror tropes and cliches came so thick and fast in Shaun Hutson’s 1982 cult novella “Slugs” that I found myself wondering if it could be used as a road map for writing similar fiction. I was right. Everything you read here is inspired by genuine content that I discussed in my original review, and will probably make much more sense if you read that
Read moreI need a lot of things. What I don’t need is to waste energy and time enthusiastically dictating the proper use of an adverb to people who enjoy abusing it in a way that many others find addictive and catchy. So I am literally giving up the fight on “literally” But I’m literally going out with a bang. BANG! The reason why I think it’s time (for me at
Read moreI’m really not a fan of image memes. They reduce conversation to catchphrases and stifle creativity in a way that doesn’t let good ideas develop into better ones. They’re lazy, trite, easily dismissed and instantly forgotten. They’re the Christmas cracker jokes of digital communication. But what I’m finding worse is this growing trend of taking a quote
Read moreFans and followers of National Novel Writing Month may not be aware, but that month of writerly passions and furies used to have a sister scheme called Script Frenzy, where the aim is to produce 100 pages of fairly well-formatted script in 30 days. Since I turned down a BA in Scriptwriting over a decade ago, I can’t claim to have always been drawn to the
Read moreSo just after New Year I finished reading a book, an awful, dreadful thing stuffed with prostitutes and shotguns, and the kind of dialogue you’d expect from Engrish dubbing. The central character approached the narrative in an ingenious fashion, routinely getting knocked unconscious for the boring parts before coming around just in time for any action. I
Read moreWhen I saw that Ridley Scott is committed to a new Blade Runner film I had the predictable reaction of feeling that nothing is sacred any more, followed by hoping, really hoping, that the film is not a sequel, prequel or remake, but merely further stories set in the Blade Runnerverse. There’s enough unused material in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Read moreThe easiest and most unique thing to write is a writing guide. No other How-To guide can be so full of regrets and failed expectations, and still be taken seriously. An unpublished writer can tell you what you should do, tell you the best way to get something published, how difficult that is, and the common traps to avoid. An unemployed bricklayer will
Read more