writing | Wait until next year

February 12, 2014

Thoughts from your correspondent

The more eagle-eyed of you might have noticed I’ve been enjoying a brief sabbatical from this place. Now, I’m eager to move this post beyond just one of those “I haven’t been posting for a while” posts or one of those “Here’s a bit of a holding message, as I might not be posting a while” posts. There is probably more to it than that. Plus, those posts, certainly when executed by me, aren’t that interesting. The draft post I’ve since scrapped for being boring, self-indulgent and basically pointless is evidence enough of that. This is no guarantee that this post will be any less boring, self-indulgent or pointless. But bear with me. Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments

September 19, 2013

Freshly Pressed – Welcome to all you new folk and a quick question

A big hello and welcome to everyone who has come across this site after seeing my recent post on the WordPress Freshly Pressed page. I hope some of you consider following this blog or subscribing to the RSS feed or just pop back at some point or other in the future. A huge thank you to everyone who has followed/commented/liked already. If you really can’t get enough of my waffling, I’m on Twitter and Tumblr too. Blogging is a huge amount of fun no matter who is reading, but it would be wonderful if some of you great folk could stick around. Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments

April 10, 2013

Bad versions of great writing

As one of those (annoying) people who seems to prefer reading about writing to actual writing (1) I found myself reading this rather exhaustive essay about the writer and editor Gordon Lish. The author collates examples of Lish’s recommendations, thoughts and teachings on how to write, organising them into a coherent methodology for writing Lish-style.
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February 4, 2013

Writing in cafés, writing in brothels

There was a fascinating interview with the author Lee Rourke published today. One response is worth quoting at length: Read the rest of this entry »

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January 14, 2013

Welcome to the working week

Elvis Costello wrote and recorded his first album while also working as a computer operator for the Elizabeth Arden factory, only resigning when his record company agreed to match his salary. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner continued his day job of laying floors even once they became successful. The story went that the group sat down on stage as they would generally all be worn out from their day jobs. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tag: writing