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- First drafts: allowing the worm to navigate the soils of your mind
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- What happens when a character’s skirt gets hitched in her knickers?
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Category Archives: Essay
Shockproof shit detector: the editor’s perspective
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a new kind of fiction, best exemplified by the short story collections of Raymond Carver. In 1981 his best-loved collection was published. ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ recorded the … Continue reading
Balls, heartbreak and the real Jane Austen
The fire throws its warmth across the room and one of the guests has stretched out on the sofa to sleep. Though Miss Bingley has a book in her lap her attention is on Darcy as he reads his own. … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Ball, Book, Catherine Morland, Darcy, Gabriela Blandy, Jane Austen, Jane Austen £10, Love, Memoir, Northanger Abbey, Pride And Prejudice, truth, Writing
25 Comments
The conundrum of being ourselves
During my second term at drama school, we had to face Shakespeare. All the students were frantic as agents from the RSC would be in the audience, scouting for new talent. There were tears after rehearsals. The toilets stank with … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Acting, advice, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, How to be yourself, Lifestyle, Memoir, Performing Arts, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare, truth, Writing
44 Comments
The wisdom of funk and soul, baby
The day before my fifteenth birthday, I’m on the bank of a river, attempting to have sex with a boy I hardly know. He’s a year older and would be the first person who came to mind if I heard … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Facebook, Gabriela Blandy, Lifestyle, Memoir, Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul Festival, Social Networking, writing advice
45 Comments
Which Window? – Point of View in The Valley Walker
Written by West Camel For those of you keen to have your ebook given an editor’s review please leave a comment or pingback below and West will hunt you out! In his preface to the New York Edition of The … Continue reading
What’s the problem with being up a mountain with no phone signal or orienteering skills?
It has begun to rain. The wind comes in cycles – building, building – so that at its peak my body wobbles and I contemplate the steepness below me: images of tumbling headfirst down lumps and bumps, through sharp grass. … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir, Travel
Tagged Adventure, advice, fear, Feeling, Gabriela, Gabriela Blandy, Health, How to, Laurence Sterne, Memoir, North Wales, Thought, travelling, truth, Wales, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
31 Comments
Worry – what’s the worst thing you can imagine?
The year I turned eleven, I joined all-girl choir that my music teacher ran. It was called The Julia Singers. We met once a week for rehearsals and, each term, put on a show. There’d be a tea party beforehand … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged advice, Apprehension, Autobiography, comfort, fear, Fear of Public Speaking, Gabriela Blandy, Memoir, nerves, Public speaking, stagefright, worry, Writing
53 Comments
Shouldn’t I be able to use all my published books as furniture by now?
I have recently been on a hunt for Alice Munro. When I reached the Canadian border the other week, a lady in the passport control booth asked me where I was heading. Goderich, I told her, grinning ludicrously about … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir, Travel
Tagged Alice Munro, Gabriela, Gabriela Blandy, How to, Natalie Goldberg, sense of a journey, short story, Writing
43 Comments
Playful child and iron teacher: the two halves of the writer
I was nine when a new games mistress arrived at my school. She was a grey-haired woman, although she wasn’t old; I could tell because her eyebrows were black. Her bum was boxlike, giving an impression of very little waist. … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged advice, editing, essay, fear, Gabriela, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Memoir, Writer's block, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
39 Comments
What happens when a character’s skirt gets hitched in her knickers?
Character is arguably the single most important component of the novel…nothing can equal the great tradition of the European novel in the richness, variety and psychological depth of its portrayal of human nature. David Lodge When I was ten, … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged advice, Character, Characterisation, David Lodge, editing, essay, Gabriela, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Memoir, short story, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
56 Comments
Gabriela Blandy - The sense of a journey 