International Writing Competition and you don’t have to be even a little bit Scottish…
The Highlands and Islands Short Story Association are running their annual competition again this year. Enties are welcome from all over the world and you or your entry don’t need … Continue reading
I want to write about the air we breathe – Arundhati Roy QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Of course, as a novelist, I never want to write about “issues” like “the Indian family.” What I want to write about is the air we breathe. These days, I … Continue reading
A revealing portrait – an example of showing, not telling ART FOR WRITERS
I don’t think I have to say much about this week’s inspiring picture. It’s an arresting face staring back at the viewer, devoid of hope. The title tells us everything … Continue reading
Where music comes from – Franz Kafka QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Everything that lives is in flux. Everything that lives emits sound. But we only perceive a part of it. We do not hear the circulation of the blood, the growth … Continue reading
A Hospital Ward, a subject for art and poetry ART FOR WRITERS
It’s an impossibly long ward and a cold one. The patients have outdoor coats on and most are staying close to the stove. But the nuns seem to be taking … Continue reading
How to use research in fiction – Stephen King QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
If you do need to do research because parts of your story deal with things about which you know little or nothing, remember that word back. That’s where research belongs: … Continue reading
Lowering the temperature & igniting the imagination….ART FOR WRITERS
It’s approaching 30 degrees where I am right now (Brighton on the English south coast) so I was in the mood for this picture by Pascal Campion. It’s called Deep … Continue reading
What kind of creature is a short story writer? Author Joseph O’ Connor is certain of one thing…QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
What kind of strange creature is a short story writer? I must confess that I don’t know. A high priest or priest of art? A wounded soul who can’t understand … Continue reading
Breaking boundaries with paint and words… ART FOR WRITERS
This painting is alive. It moves. Words sometimes feel inadequate, but look at what this artist has achieved within the limits of her medium. She made paint dance… We can … Continue reading
Non-Fiction Prize for a Work in Progress
The Biographers’ Club is calling for entries to the 2017 Tony Lothian Prize, which awards £2,000 to an uncommissioned first-time writer working on a biography. Note the word working: you … Continue reading
Words are what matter…Ursula K. Le Guin QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Words are what matter. The sharing of words. The activation of imagination through the reading of words. The reason literacy is important is that literature is the operating instructions. The … Continue reading
Mixing it all up and seeing what comes out – ART FOR WRITERS
I don’t think I have to say much this week….look at the picture and start writing. Who knows where you will end up: it may be in a blind alley, … Continue reading
Stay in a Cornish writers’ retreat – full bursary available for low waged writers
Brisons Veor wants applications from writers for two fully-bursaried places for a week’s residency in 2018 at their centre in west Cornwall. The bursaries (worth £275 each) are open to … Continue reading
Do exercises really help writers to write?
Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth, says that writers ought to practice writing in much the same ways as musicians practice the scales. She is not alone in suggesting that … Continue reading
