Sitting in my favourite Starbucks, frequented by lots of other writers, Ian Rankin included. (Haha get me putting myself up there with the big man- one day!) I find myself caught up in plots, narratives and character motivations when a voice interrupts me, nope not divine intervention but some dude with a coffee and a…
Read MoreCreativity and The Artist’s Date
Following on from my posts about the methods used in Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, I’d like to discuss the second important tool in the kit – The Artist’s Date! When I first read it, my initial thoughts where ‘What?’ ‘Date myself?’Are you mad?!’ But then I got to thinking about it. How often…
Read MoreThunderbolts and Lightning!
Summer in Edinburgh and we’ve all been experiencing some strange weather, Earlier in the week we had gorgeous sunshine, now we have rain, mist and drizzle. Last week we had thunder and lightning, it’s crazy summer weather. I love the sound of thunder, the storm coming, and the flash of lightning in the sky. It’s…
Read MoreMagic Moments in Writing!
“In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful,…
Read MoreCreativity and The Morning Papers
As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I have followed The Artist’s Way (Julia Cameron) on and off for years now. It is definitely a valuable tool for an artist, whatever your art form, and within its cover, you will find many ways to unleash your creativity. It’s full of writing tips, advice and…
Read MoreSusi Jones’ Swag Guide
Have you met Miss Jones? My favourite part of being a writer is creating characters, they just drop into my head and I get an image of them doing something funny and we’re off. I tap away at the keyboard or write with a pen. Pages later I resurface, in a daze and read back the…
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I’ll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours.
Something occurred to me recently, I’m hearing the phrase ‘pictures or it didn’t happen’ more and more. As a writer this concerns me slightly. Are our precious words being left behind as we start to think in images? I have purposely left images out of this blog post. Can you cope? Thought so, but read on…
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