Currently Browsing: Adam Byatt
20 Dec 2012
The End of the Toilet Roll
The end of the year suddenly appears like the end of the roll of toilet paper. Life is going happily and you think there are plenty of months and weeks and days left. Then suddenly: the end. And you are left holding a scrap of paper you wouldn’t dare blow your nose into let alone using it to perform your ablutions. For some unknown reason, with the ending of a year comes serious introspection, which... read more
6 Dec 2012
When To Shut Down A Creative Life
As the calendar year draws to a close, and as Write Anything also comes to a close, it prompted the exploration of when to shut down a creative life. In this case, a life of writing. As creative people, the idea of shutting down our creative life is akin to hacking a limb off or stopping breathing. While it might appear to be the opposite thing to do, it may in fact be apposite. A writer needs to evaluate... read more
26 Nov 2012
Interpreting A Character Via Reader Comments
Since January of this year, Jodi Cleghorn and I have been writing letters for our collaborative project, Post Marked: Piper’s Reach. It is a very organic process by which we do not talk about the plot developments. We simply write the letter, post it, wait for the other to read it, then deconstruct it over social media. We talk character motivation, what the character was thinking and understanding (or... read more
12 Nov 2012
The Curtains Are Simply Blue
Q: How is receiving a compliment (or criticism) like wetting yourself when wearing light coloured pants? A: Everyone can see what happened, but only you know how it feels. As the creator and author of a piece of work, you intimately understand the world you created, the idiosyncrasies and foibles of the characters, the finer details of the plot, thematic structure and symbolism. You agonized over the... read more
24 Oct 2012
What Does It Mean to be Published?
Whenever I post work to my own blog, or write a post for Write Anything, there is a little button towards the bottom of the page that has remarkable power. It says “Publish.” With the single click of a button I can send my words out into the maelstrom of digital delights to be caught up with all the other words published into existence. I imagine all the words published on any given day looks and... read more
9 Oct 2012
Creating Momentum in Writing
One of the hardest aspects of being a new and emerging writer is creating momentum in your writing: the ability to make writing a consistent part of your creative life, whether it be starting a new project or maintaining a current work in progress. In a new and emerging writer, the first spark of creativity produces a flurry of activity and a rush of new ideas, but no momentum because the practice,... read more
26 Sep 2012
Cheer Squads and Coaches
J.R.R. Tolkien abhorred analogy in all forms, particularly when people applied it to his works of Middle Earth, but succumbed to the pressure in his short story “Leaf, by Niggle”. The character Niggle embarks on a grand painting: a masterpiece, the culmination of his life’s work. It is to be a painting of a tree with a forest in the distance. Each leaf is imbibed with exquisite detail, a... read more
6 Sep 2012
Try Something Different
Creativity can be a dry and dusty mouthful of the crunched up morsels at the bottom of the cereal box no one ever wants to eat. Sometimes you need to pour on something different, like strawberry milk (if it’s not from a teat, it’s not milk. I’m looking at you, soy.) Writing, like all creative endeavours, benefits from doing things a little differently from time to time. Over on my blog,... read more
