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
Write what you DON’T know…QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
One of the dumbest things you were ever taught was to write what you know. Because what you know is usually dull. Remember when you first wanted to be a … Continue reading
How to jump on a bandwagon and do it well… Art for Writers
This young woman might be a resident of the gothic house I featured in last week’s art for writers post but I chose this painting by John Everett Millais because it’s … Continue reading
Make a beeline for this cliché short story competition
I’ve just heard from the organisors of The Stringybark Dog Eat Dog Short Story Award 2017, an Australian competition that welcomes international entries. They are looking for stories that have … Continue reading
Mary Wollstonecraft on Imagination QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
The imagination is the true fire, stolen from heaven, to animate this cold creature of clay, producing all those fine sympathies that lead to rapture, rendering men social by expanding their … Continue reading
A moody Gothic house by moonlight…forget the election results and get stuck in…ART FOR WRITERS
If you live in the UK then yesterday was the day that decided our tomorrows…whatever you feel about the result, put it to one side for half an hour or … Continue reading
Join me on a life writing course in July
I’m back on Brighton beach again, teaching in a wonderful art gallery with a great atmosphere. This time I’m running a life writing course that starts on Monday July 3rd. … Continue reading
Stephen King on timid writers and timid lovers QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe. The timid fellow writes “The meeting will be held at … Continue reading
What stories are told over the washing…ART FOR WRITERS
….or confidences exchanged over the washing up… When I was younger I resented the women being ‘banished’ to the kitchen at family gatherings, tied to the drudgery of clearing up … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 