Here I am. The damn Charlotte thing is over, it went much better than I feared, and I’ve murdered nobody. Admirable self-restraint, if I say so myself.

And now that the rest of September is mine, let’s go back to sensible things, such as a new wonderful writing blog.

I attended Emma Darwin and James Aitcheson’s masterclass on point of view in Oxford, and fell in love with Emma’s theory of psychic distance. It’s a far more nuanced approach to narrating voices than the good old third omniscient/third limited distinction. I’ve always struggled with that, always found it good enough in theory, but quite insufficient once you start writing…

Well, Emma offers a deeper, broader, more dynamic way of looking at it – and doing it. I love the notion, and when I went in search of more, I found her lovely blog, This Itch of Writing, chock-full of good, practical, clever insight – and very pleasant to read, too. Now that the troubled Brontës are behind me, I fully intend to catch up, beginning with the Toolkit – one post a day.

One of the many good things I brought back from Oxford.