-
-
Find a book club
Find a Book Club, a club that does what it says on the tin, asked me to recommend 10 books for book clubs (including two of my own).
Tag Archives: MATs
Writing, not Posting
I am writing or, more to the point, doing this before I write. I have laid the foundations and now I’m building the trellises and the supports around which the plants of my story will grow. (image found here) I … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged arbours, John Fowles, MATs, not posting, pergolas, planning, The French Lieutenant's Woman, trellises
3 Comments
When is a MAT harder than writing? …
… when it results in this: Describe your five strengths as a writer I found the challenge HERE and because I was busy MATing (reading readers’ and writers’ blogs to avoid writing) I told myself that I would do it, … Continue reading
Tagged Five writing strengths, MATs
1 Comment
A new relationship with my writing …
… is what I need. I realised over the weekend, while thinking about other relationships in my life, that the relationship I have with my writing is one of dread fuelled by the certainty that it will be a struggle: … Continue reading
Tagged dread, MATs, new writing relationship
1 Comment
When is writing also a MAT?
When it’s another piece of writing. I managed to stop writing the short story (the one that was a novel, you remember) this week so that I could resurrect the idea for a children’s novel from a horrible first draft … Continue reading
Tagged Fidra Books, MATs, The Archers
Comments Off on When is writing also a MAT?
Emily Young’s Wounded Angel
sculpture copyright Emily Young, photograph copyright Angelo Plantamura You can see this beautiful angel (called Wounded Angel I) in Kew Gardens, in London, or you can see a photograph of him in Tacit Hill’s A Light Touch and a Long … Continue reading
Tagged Emily Young, MATs, Wounded Angel I
Comments Off on Emily Young’s Wounded Angel
Editing, MATs and piles of paper
Most writers, in fact surely all of us except those with humungous sales, earn their living by doing something else (obviously not by MATing). I earn mine by editing other people’s non-fiction, and/or proofreading it. I have just quoted for … Continue reading
Orchids for Simon
I am overwhelmed. This orchid is for Simon at Stuck in a Book for his overwhelming review of Speaking of Love. See The word on … at the top on the right. Orchids, according to Clare Florists’ flower meanings are … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged dovegreyreader, indie publishers, Mark Thornton, MATs, Mostly Books, Orchids, review for Speaking of Love, Stuck in a Book
1 Comment
Writing, MATs and ticker-tape turn ups
On Friday morning, in the bath, before I started work (a bath can be a MAT, but only if I’m still in it after the practical stuff is over), the sentence, ‘On the whole we resist falling in love’ turned … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged MATs, ticker-tape turn ups
Comments Off on Writing, MATs and ticker-tape turn ups
Making the language sing
So … I spent yesterday rewriting the first seven pages of the short-story-that-was-a-novel. Or, as I prefer to call it, making the language sing. Now that’s not a full-scale opera you understand, just one short under-rehearsed aria, but I hate … Continue reading
Tagged Making the language sing, MATs
1 Comment
Man Booker Longlist, MATs and Natalie Goldberg
So … the Booker Longlist is out and it includes four first novels which can only be good news for those of us with books which have cleared the finding-a-publisher-for-the-first-novel hurdle. I looked in vain for Speaking of Love, knowing … Continue reading
Thomas Keneally and the fear that haunts all writers
Did you hear Thomas Keneally this morning on Desert Island Discs? He was magnificent. He didn’t mention MATs (multiple avoidance – of writing – techniques), but he talked about the most stultifying thing for a writer: FEAR. He said, I … Continue reading
Tagged Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Clive James, fear, MATs, Thomas Keneally
Comments Off on Thomas Keneally and the fear that haunts all writers
Life in my writing room
The walls are covered with quotations, this is one of my favourites: ‘A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.’ Thomas Mann. My head is always full of words but, this afternoon, … Continue reading
