30 Jun 2011
Post Scriptum – June 2011
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Two posts diverged on a writing site, and sorry I could not travel both and be one editor. Here, in our new home, it is time to look to the future. Over in our home for the past five years, I’m saying goodbye. Writing can... read more
29 Jun 2011
Just Add Beer
It’s late on a Saturday afternoon. There are partially drunk beers of varying sizes, colours and shapes on the table. Coats are slung on the backs of chairs, the odd scarf clings to a throat and as though conducting thoughts–one set of hands gesticulates, sometimes tiny movements and other times grandiose passionate gestures… heads nod in time. The topic of discussion is passive voice in... read more
28 Jun 2011
Collaboration
Collaboration. Sharing thoughts, ideas–working together. Creating something from two or minds instead of one. I’ve seen both the good and the bad side of collaborations with the first idea that you must have a clear vision of what you hope to accomplish. What’s the purpose of the project and what’s the future of the project? Those are very important questions to ask. If you’re going... read more
27 Jun 2011
Hell is not other writers
“Hell is other people.” — Jean-Paul Sartre (No Exit: A Play in One Act) Last year I got my first real taste of collaborative prose writing as one of twenty authors included in 2010′s Chinese Whisperings: The Yin and Yang books. The concept of Chinese Whisperings is elegantly simple: short fiction anthologies in which each story ripples into the next. Only with the 2010 offering things... read more
26 Jun 2011
Spoken Sunday #21
Spoken Sunday Submission #21 for 26th of June, 2011 For full details check the page. How To Play: 1. After you have submitted to [Fiction] Friday – or written a passage of around 600 words, record it. 2. On your blog, or audioboo site, post an explanation of your piece (if its a passage from a larger work) or ask readers for specific feedback about it – as well as a link to your recording. 3.... read more
25 Jun 2011
A Connection is Made
You know the stereotype of the writer – a solitary creative hunched over their desk, writing well into the lonely hours of the night, friend only to endless cups of coffee and the incessant voices in their head. They spend their non-writing time fretting over their writing, and their actual writing time is consumed by the taunt of the empty page (or the blinking cursor). Writers themselves are just... read more
24 Jun 2011
[Fiction] Friday Challenge #213
[Fiction] Friday Challenge #213 for June 24th, 2011 Use the image to the right as your inspiration. How Fiction Friday works. It’s easy to do. Check this page for this week’s theme or challenge. Prompts are published each month to give you plenty of notice. Spend at least 5 minutes composing something original based on the theme or challenge. (and keep writing…) But, remember,... read more
23 Jun 2011
Suspension Suspence
I’ve just read this brilliant post. How do you go about building suspension into your fiction? The blog post was adequate, but it was the above tweet leading to the post that grabbed my attention. I’ve been scribbling for years and I never thought of building suspension into my writing. As a former trucker and half-arsed mechanic, I know quite a bit about suspension. These days it’s air suspension on... read more
