BRIDGET WHELAN writer

for writers and readers….

Our stories are as unique as snowflakes – Donald Maass QUOTES FOR WRITERS

…We may have dens with trophies on the mantles, but when we tell the stories of our lives, we relate the meaning of things that happened and describe how we … Continue reading

March 8, 2020 · 2 Comments

What makes a good plot? It’s all to do with the implicit promise that lies behind it – John Mullan QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Plot is not just a sequence of connected events (in this sense, every TV drama or novel equally has a plot). It is something rarer: the unfolding of a hidden … Continue reading

March 1, 2020 · Leave a comment

“…I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you…” Ray Bradbury’s advice to writers QUOTES FOR WRITERS

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries … Continue reading

February 23, 2020 · 3 Comments

“…Writing is not figure skating or skiing…”warns Paul Theroux QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc. Writing is not figure … Continue reading

February 16, 2020 · Leave a comment

Probably the best definition of a short story – Neil Gaiman QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be … Continue reading

February 9, 2020 · 3 Comments

“When I start writing the first sentence…” Anna Mocikat QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Since I used to be a screenwriter before I started publishing novels, I’m an enthusiastic plotter. When I start writing the first sentence of a novel, I know exactly how … Continue reading

February 2, 2020 · 5 Comments

What happens when we allow ourselves to write freely…Sharon Olds QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Whenever we give our pen some free will, we may surprise ourselves. All that wanting to seem normal in regular life, all that fitting in falls away in the face … Continue reading

January 26, 2020 · 2 Comments

Clive James on originality QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Scarcely anything is original. It’s very hard to be totally inventive, so I’m not terribly interested in originality. Vitality is all I care about. CLIVE JAMES Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash

January 19, 2020 · 3 Comments

“…It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” Ray Bradbury QUOTES FOR WRITERS

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same … Continue reading

January 12, 2020 · 2 Comments

Read Iris Murdoch on words: “the ultimate…stuff of our moral being” QUOTES FOR WRITERS

THERE IS NO DOUBT which art is the most practically important for our survival and our salvation, and that is literature. Words constitute the ultimate texture and stuff of our … Continue reading

January 5, 2020 · Leave a comment

My New Year present… a link to a short story that might just change the way you write or what you want to write about.

Ok, the statements in the heading of this post are so sweeping they could clean your whole house. And you’ve probably instinctively flinched because who likes to be told how … Continue reading

January 1, 2020 · 9 Comments

How to overcome writer’s doubt – Diana Marie Delgado QUOTES FOR WRITERS

My problem isn’t writer’s block—it’s writer’s doubt. I sit down but I often doubt that I can finish what’s in front of me. So, I’m not a writer who typically … Continue reading

December 29, 2019 · Leave a comment

Two opportunities in 2020 for artists, scientists and teachers to sail the Arctic Circle

CRAVING ADVENTURE as you look towards the new year and a new decade? Sailing the Arctic Circle in a traditional rigged sailing ship in the company of fellow artists (all … Continue reading

December 27, 2019 · Leave a comment

It rained when it should have snowed…Seamus Heaney QUOTES FOR WRITERS

It rained when it should have snowed. When we went to gather holly the ditches were swimming, we were wet to the knees, our hands were all jags and water … Continue reading

December 22, 2019 · Leave a comment

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