ART FOR WRITERS a picture (and artist) I fell in love with…number 5 from the archives
I want this picture on my wall (the orginal if I’m longlisted for the Booker for the novel I haven’t written yet, or a print if I manage to save … Continue reading
ART FOR WRITERS Ice hot white… painting Number 4 from the archive
Two for the price of one today because when I was looking through the picures in this series of blog posts I was struck how essentially the same colour range … Continue reading
ART FOR WRITERS picture number 3 from the archives – a working class hero
I don’t know where I found this painting – on some pleasant thrawl through the internet I imagine. And there she was: a real woman with a big-bellied, lived-in body … Continue reading
ART FOR WRITERS picture number 2 from the archives
I was blown away by this very different way of seeing the female body and I hope you are too. I love the structure of the painting. We are close … Continue reading
ART FOR WRITERS picture number 1 from the archives
This was one of the first pictures I published in the weekly Art for Writers series and I still love it. I discovered it on Pixababy, a wonderful website that … Continue reading
WRITING QUOTE number 7 from the archive
Most stories we tell in real life are under 500 words. You’re at a party, everyone has a glass of wine, and suddenly you have the floor. You throw out … Continue reading
Writing Quote Number 6 from the Archive
A story is not like a road to follow … it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling … Continue reading
Writing Quote Number 5 from the Archive
I step away from the computer and swim. I really wish someone had told me earlier that there’s a relationship between writing and exercise. Writing involves you being completely, revoltingly … Continue reading
Writing Quote Number 4 from the Archive
I’ve always loved books. I’m passionate about them. I think books are sexy. They are smooth and solid and contain delightful surprises. They smell good. They fit into a handbag … Continue reading
Writing Quotes Number 3 from the Archives
Aside from heavy drinking, the creation of lists is the most effective temporary form of anxiety relief that I know of, and, as a bonus, it’s substantially cheaper and results … Continue reading
What do you call songwriters? Poets with music in their pen
“… when you’re talking about the music of a country, you’re talking more or less about the soundtrack of a country, the soundtrack by which people’s lives are lived,” Tyehimba … Continue reading
Writing Quote Number 2 from the Archive
It is well known that a woman can be in two places at once, at her desk and her washing machine… Sylvia Townsend Warner
Writing Quote Number 1 from the Archives
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an … Continue reading
Creative Writing Exercise Number 7 from the Archive
When I’m teaching I often use this exercise in the first week of term and I thought others might like to try it. Varying the length of a sentence is … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 