Category Archives: Scribbling

Oxford Thoughts

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

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oxfordSo I’m home.

I’ve had three wonderful days at the lovely and impeccably managed HNS Conference. As I said, it was my first writing conference, so I have no term of comparison – but Richard Lee, Carol McGrath and Jenny Barden created something so very stimulating, well-thought and friendly… I loved every minute of it. I met all sorts of interesting people, attended great talks and lectures, learned a good deal… and I pitched my novel. Twice.

The feedback has been most interesting… Continue reading →

A Scrap of Squared Paper

28 Thursday Apr 2016

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ScrapIt turns up in a book I hadn’t opened in some time. It slips out from between two pages, and flutters its way to the carpet before I can catch it.

It’s a scrap of squared paper, a leaf from some old notepad from my previous life, carrying an ugly yellow logo and covered in many-coloured scribbles.

First of all, written in blue ball-point pen, a snippet of dialogue between Kit Marlowe and Thomas Walsingham… Continue reading →

Notes found!

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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miss_marple_by_lachauvesourisdoree-d52v00zHa, the mystery is solved.

I mean the mystery about the notes I thought I’d taken while watching my play performed, four years ago – and couldn’t find anymore. Or at least, not in the quantity I remember…

Did my storytelling mind make up all the note-taking because it was nice and writerly – the Playwright At Work?

Well, the answer is Yes – and No.

And it went like this: yesterday morning I woke up with a hazy notion that perhaps I had made notes on a printed copy of the play… Continue reading →

Words, Words, Words

02 Saturday Apr 2016

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Shquirrel“Be a dear,” the Drama Teacher said, “and put together something Shakespearean for the Squirrels.”

“What kind of something?”

“Oh, something…”

“Shakespeare chunks within some sort of framing device?”

“That’s my girl!”

And because the Drama Teacher taught me back in the day, and I love her dearly, I said yes, and I’d do it, only please don’t be in haste. This happened more than a month ago but, lacking the sense God gave a duckling, I let time pass, and pass, and pass… Continue reading →

Finished!

31 Thursday Mar 2016

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Rejoice with me: I’ve finished the second draft!

jigG

Right now. At 102784 words – which is a bit too long, especially because I still have a few scenes to add. Some tight editing will be in order – but this is for… oh, the week after the next, I guess.

For now, I’ve finished the second draft! I’ve finished the second draft! I’ve finished the second draft! And so on.

As Miggs says, Ally-loyer!

Lost Notes

21 Monday Mar 2016

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2PSo the time has come to rewrite – or at least significantly rework – Di Uomini e Poeti, that is, Of Men and Poets. It had a good run back in 2012, and it was published, but I’ve always wanted to do something more and better with it.

Now a reprise is in the air, for Mantova’s year as cultural capital of Italy: what better chance for a new version of the play?

So I printed a copy and began searching for the notes I’d made back then… Continue reading →

Of comfort zones and mentors

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

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MentorI must say that I greatly miss my mentor.

He was one of Italy’s great paediatricians, and also a philosopher and the author of a few groundbreaking books about medical ethics. Hardly the right mentor for a historical novelist and playwright, one might think – except that he also was deeply and passionately knowledgeable about opera, literature, theatre, cinema – and the greatest and most enlightened president the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana ever had. Quite the Renaissance man – and a wonderful teacher and mentor to boot… Continue reading →

Too Many Words

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Well, not this despairing...

Well, not this despairing…

Am I still revising?

Oh yes, with a vengeance. See the word-count thingie down there on the left? I’m past 75k words – which would be wonderful if not for the fact that I should by now have reached three quarters of my story… and I haven’t.

My first draft was overlong at over 114000 words, and when embarking on the second draft, I thought I had a lot of words to cut: scenes I didn’t need anymore, flowery descriptions, plot detours, even a couple of characters, you know the sort of things that seem great  at first and then get cut. Continue reading →

Second Language

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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LanguageThis one I’m pilfering straight from Karavansara – where my friend Dave posted a link to Sasha A. Palmer’s article about Five benefits of writing in your second language.

Well, I write in my second language and Joseph Conrad is one of my literary heroes, and whenever I approach a new language, I can’t wait to play games with it, to use it, to tell stories: the article just beckoned – and thank you, D.

Did I find it interesting? Very. Do I agree with Palmer’s view of the matter? Not entirely. Or perhaps, not that much, considering that I can subscribe to two and a half out of her five points… Continue reading →