One Size Fits All

One Size Fits All

by | Jun 3, 2021 | News

You’re trying to be original, but pivot on the idea of one size fits all. In other words, writing genre, but you still have to fail fast, fail often, and pivot, they say. Rinse and repeat until you find what readers like. Inspired by the early adopters of agile...
Twisted Christmas?

Twisted Christmas?

by | Dec 18, 2020 | Articles, News

Who says Christmas can’t be twisted? I’m thrilled to say I had two entries accepted into the latest of the Twisted50 series of ghost horror stories, Twisted Ghosts of Christmas. The writers seem to have added a whole new meaning to ‘Christmas...
How To Make Our Screen Stories Compelling Viewing

How To Make Our Screen Stories Compelling Viewing

by | Nov 7, 2020 | Articles

Here in blighted Blighty we started a new lockdown. What to do? Many writers, being hermits, won’t notice until exasperated family or friend drags them outside when it’s all over. I thought I’d run through some of my favourite recent Netflix UK...
Cartography for Writers

Cartography for Writers

by | Jul 25, 2020 | Articles

World building is a big thing for writers today. Readers and viewers like to escape to the familiar, fantasy or unknown worlds where our characters dwell. As we embark on designing our new world, we’re thinking landscape and orientation, key features and...
New Normal

New Normal

by | Jun 12, 2020 | Articles

What is the New Normal? I cut my hair with kitchen scissors today. Some of you mutter, “That’s not normal.” Which was deliberate on my part, because now I can ask you, “What is normal?” The old one has gone and none of us has any idea...
Ideas About Ideas

Ideas About Ideas

by | Feb 17, 2021 | Articles

Do you believe in Carl Jung’s collective unconscious? To summarise, he believed we share a common inheritance of instincts, memories and archetypes. I think of it as a universally available lending library. It makes sense, but accepting that or not, where do you...
A Writer’s Pandemic

A Writer’s Pandemic

by | Feb 7, 2021 | Articles

Many of us have done a writer’s pandemic for a year (by March), most of it in lockdown, yet in the UK, we may have to brace ourselves for another year of false starts and dashed hopes. How to keep busy and productive? I’ve no idea. Lives are turned upside...
Art Is Never Finished…

Art Is Never Finished…

by | Oct 19, 2020 | Articles

…only abandoned. When IS my screenplay finished? Every time I don’t finish a script, I think of this observation attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. It’s partly the nature of the beast. You keep tweaking, until somebody takes it away from you. Should...
Writer’s Learning Curve

Writer’s Learning Curve

by | Dec 12, 2019 | News

2019: Context, Focus, and Distraction I’ve travelled my latest learning curve in what has been a strange year for me and for most Brits, I think. I won’t be sorry to see the back of it, although things can always get worse. What writer was ever an...
Peak Performance

Peak Performance

by | May 14, 2019 | News

I can’t believe it. We’re almost halfway through 2019. Feels like I haven’t done much these past few months, but I try to measure writing progress in more than output. Thinking time is also writing time, although a working writer needs it on the...