It’s official – the creative industries earn £146,000 every single minute for the UK economy
New figures published yesterday – January 13th – reveal that the Creative Industries are now worth £76.9 billlion per year to the UK economy – an all-time high. That figure … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW…nope can be a verb, an adjective and a noun…
…and lots of other things, especially when used online. I discovered the flexibility of this term when reading Sentence First, the blog of an Irish scientist and linguist who has … Continue reading
Why poetry is essential – Audre Lorde Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
Poetry forms the quality of light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action … Continue reading
Would you fail this writing exercise?
What do you think of these opening lines…do they entice you to read on and find out more? Councillor Brown was on time for the meeting to talk about installing … Continue reading
Writing from the Dark Side: Jane Lythell talks about the flawed characters in her novels
Jane and I belong to the same group of authors – the Beach Hut Writers – and, although we’ve met before, we really got talking when we shared a table … Continue reading
Write for BBC Radio
Once a year a window opens for new writers with no experience of radio to submit a short story to Opening Lines – BBC Radio 4’s showcase for short stories. … Continue reading
10 things Hilary Mantel knows about writing Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
This list is an extract from a post by Hilary Mantel, the international bestselling author, and seems like a good and thought-provoking way to start the new year. It originally … Continue reading
Time away from the workaday world for Scottish writers….
The Scottish Book Trust want Scotland-based novelists, poets, children’s writers, dramatists and screen writers to apply for the Robert Louis Stephenson fellowship. It provides residencies for four fellows for one … Continue reading
Set your own S.M.A.R.T goals for 2015….
S.M.A.R.T is a goal oriented strategy that has been around since the 1980s. I don’t know if it works for every activity but I do know it is good for … Continue reading
Creative Writing Newsletter – December issue going out today
From time to time I send out a newsletter about competitions, publishing opportunities and other writerly things that take my fancy. The third edition is going out later today and … Continue reading
Do you know where Dickens got the character Scrooge from? It was a bit of mistake actually…
It is clear from any Dickens’ novel that the great man enjoyed names. His friend and biographer, John Forster, said that Dickens made “characters real existences, not by describing them … Continue reading
Writers need exercise….quotes for writers (and people who like quotes)
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without … Continue reading
Silent Monks Singing the Hallelujah Chorus – Happy Christmas Everyone
This will put a smile on your face if there isn’t one there already… Performed by a Public High School in America – wish I knew which school and where … Continue reading
A circular Christmas letter written in 1920
I’ve sent out my circular letters to friends and family across the world and received a few in returned. We exchanged news about new homes and old bones, about holidays … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 