28 Saturday Jul 2018
Posted in Scribbling, Things
Do you remember last Saturday’s post, and the prompt with the anthropomorphised cities?
Well, a couple of interesting things happened because of that post. The first is Davide Mana‘s take on the game – which, it seems, has produced not only four lovely sketches, but also the resurrection of an old and intriguing project of his.
And then, in the comments, Davide Tessitore wrote this… Continue reading
21 Saturday Jul 2018
Posted in Scribbling
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There are heaps of writing prompt sites, out there. Really: the Net is a-swarm with them – and, under other circumstances, I might have missed Writing Prompts…
And it would have been a shame – because, you see, I came across it via this prompt…
…And, while I don’t particularly think that London is a teenager, I was definitely hooked. I followed the link, and found the site’s page of prompts for history and social studies, filled with other equally interesting and unusual prompts.
The site’s author, you see, is a teacher, and uses these prompts in the class, but they are perfect for grown-ups too, I find – all the more because it’s not so often that one finds history-geared prompts. I’m most definitely giving a few of them a try – either for my own freewriting, or with my Scribblers group…
What about you, o Readers? What is, for instance, your city? And why?
05 Thursday Jul 2018
Posted in Scribbling
There is this competition, you see – short stories, historical setting… I really, really want to submit. I’ve known about it for quite some time – and, in fact, for some reason, at first I thought the deadline was in late April. So I began brainstorming ideas back in March, and went through old notebooks, mining for those little Could This Be A Story notes, or hastily sketched half-page notions, and wrote down lists of promising ideas… and then hit on something I liked. Something that was tied to my work in progress. Something promising. Continue reading
28 Thursday Jun 2018
Posted in Scribbling
Some twenty years ago, on an early summer day like this, I was sitting in a street café in Pavia, waiting for a friend. I’d just bought myself a book at the bookshop next door – and, anticipating a longish wait, I ordered a grapefruit squash, and started to read.
The book was William Somerset Maugham’s Theatre – quite perfect for me, judging from the back-cover blurb – and so there I sat, very much enjoying the picture: street café, book, summer day… And as I read… Continue reading
14 Thursday Jun 2018
Posted in Scribbling
Once upon a time, I wrote a post about a game I’d played with some friends during a Parisian holiday: every night we’d each choose the one thing that stood up for that day, and tried to put it in one sentence. It could be anything, as long as it could be conceivably scribbled on the back of a large postage stamp. Continue reading
26 Thursday Apr 2018
Posted in Scribbling
Tags
Christabelle Dilks, David Grimm, Jeffery Sweet, Molly Naylor, MOOC, play-writing, Screenwriting, University of East Anglia
It doesn’t qualify as something new – not by any stretch of the imagination – but I’ve enrolled in a MOOC with the University of East Anglia, called Introduction to Screenwriting.
“Were you getting bored?” my friend Mita asked, the tiniest tad sarcastically… And of course not, but it’s a two-week course, small enough to fit into a hectic-ish schedule, right before the school-play-madness begins… And, what’s more, Week One so far is proving full of food for thought. Continue reading
21 Saturday Apr 2018
Posted in Scribbling
I haven’t posted Saturday tidbits in a while – and I really want to go back to doing it… I know it’s not the first time I make this particular resolution, but let’s try again, and see how it goes this time.
I’ll begin again by pointing you to a lovely post on Emma Darwin’s blog, This Itch of Writing. It is about the importance of rhythm in writing, and how there is no one set way to do it. Continue reading
05 Thursday Apr 2018
Posted in Scribbling
So… It’s April already, have you noticed? A quarter of the year has gone past in a whirl – and I have yet to write a single word outside the box.
Oh, I’ve been writing, and editing, and adapting with a vengeance – but I haven’t found anything new to try. Things I’ve never done before, you know – à la Breakfast at Tiffany’s, only writing-wise. Continue reading
15 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted in Scribbling
28 Thursday Dec 2017
Posted in Scribbling, Stories
I emerged from my Reading Days last night, for a trip to town to see The Man Who Invented Christmas – and, unlike the rest of my party, quite loved it.
I admit I’d been wondering a little as I watched: the film is as lovely as a vintage illustration or a Christmas card, and Dan Stevens is vividly endearing as the overimaginative, struggling, high-strung writer – but there are two aspects of the writing that, while very, very appealing to me, are perhaps not made to click with an Italian audience… Continue reading
