15 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in Scribbling, Stories, Theatre
We all read The Three Musketeers as children, don’t we? And we play make-believe, and watch the movies (and the fact itself that they keep making more of them must mean something), and go on to read Twenty Years Later, and perhaps The Man in the Iron Mask – but this is already where “we” split into two camps, roughly speaking: those who leave behind Dumas as yet another childhood pleasure, and those who do not. Continue reading
10 Thursday Jun 2021
Posted in Books, History, Scribbling
You know those moments – those moments when a book speaks to you? When you read something that might have been written exactly for you to find it? Well, I had a rather peculiar moment of that kind, yesterday… Continue reading
03 Thursday Jun 2021
Posted in Poetry, Scribbling, Theatre
…And “June” hummed a bee
In a Bacchic glee
As he tumbled over and over
Drunk with the honey-dew.
And that was Clinton Scollard. That said… Continue reading
27 Thursday May 2021
Posted in Scribbling
And I’m glad to report that, after the one skip last week, I’ve gone back to being a good little storyadayer. So now I have twenty-five little stories (well past my original minimum goal, and counting), and the end of the challenge is near. Not a bad thing altogether, I suppose – considering my insane rehearsals calendar, and the small fact that Dreaming Alice is debuting in less than 3 weeks – but I think I’ll rather miss the daily story-making… Continue reading
20 Thursday May 2021
Posted in Scribbling
Tags
Well, in truth I skipped just once so far. Last night. I came home late-ish after my longest rehearsals in ages… Hereabouts, they just moved the curfew from 10 to 11 pm, you see. This was yesterday, and my group was the first to take advantage of the new deadline. We celebrated by diving in madly and at length – so much so that I ended up driving home in an even greater hurry than usual, and cut it rather close. It was a small miracle that my car didn’t change back into a pumpkin before I was inside my own gate! Continue reading
13 Thursday May 2021
Posted in Scribbling
Day 12 – and all goes well.
In between teaching my writing course, rehearsing Alice, two editing jobs, and a dozen other things of a more practical nature, I’m happy to say that I’ve managed my twelfth story in a row, last night… Continue reading
06 Thursday May 2021
Posted in History, Scribbling, Stories
Tags
#StoryADayMay, digital maps, Gerogian London, John Rocque, Napoleon, rabbit holes, Richard Horwood
Well, not quite a full week, if you like, as today is just the sixth day… But I have to say: so far, so good. Last night, quite late (after the loveliest Alice rehearsal) I completed the draft of my fifth story, and took a few notes for things to come… Continue reading
29 Thursday Apr 2021
Posted in Scribbling
Yes, yes – I’m doing it again. Because I liked the jolt it gave me last year, and because otherwise, considering the writing course I’m teaching, and the looming Summer Season, and a couple of largish jobs I’ve taken, I might be tempted to push my writing aside for now… Continue reading
15 Thursday Apr 2021
Posted in Scribbling
Oh, the joys of Freewriting…!
Or Timed Writing, or however you like to call it. The deceptively simple act of sitting down with a pen and a piece of paper (or perhaps a keyboard and white screen), set a timer or a goal, and then… just write. Never stop, never edit, never overthink it, never mind grammar of spelling, never go back. Just write, as fast as you can. Just let if flow – until the timer rings, or the goal is met. Continue reading
01 Thursday Apr 2021
Posted in Scribbling
There is always at least one pupil like that.
Whenever I teach a writing course, the first time I give a maximum wordcount for an exercise, someone will look puzzled: how do you even know how many words are in a piece? Continue reading
