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- First drafts: allowing the worm to navigate the soils of your mind
- The boy whose butter I ate: writing from the inside out
- All a writer can ask
- Throwing away material without a sense of failure
- Playful child and iron teacher: the two halves of the writer
- What happens when a character’s skirt gets hitched in her knickers?
- It’s an anxious job, pulling out of the comfort zone
- Write of things you love
- Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
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Category Archives: Essay
Throwing away material without a sense of failure
When I finished my Masters in Creative Writing, three agents wanted to meet and talk about my novel. I remember thinking: I’ve made it! Despite being tongue-tied in one interview, turning up a week early for another, and being paranoid … Continue reading
Trying to submerge a plastic bag with an air pocket
I have several recurring dreams. In one of them, I’m at university, faced with having to find a group to move in with for the coming academic year. But I’ve left it too late. Everyone has already made their plans … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Fiction, Memoir
Tagged Acting, denial, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Interpretting dreams, Letting go, Lucid dreaming, Memoir, Osteopathy, Recurring dreams, Resolutions, short story, Tension, Writing
34 Comments
The boy whose butter I ate: writing from the inside out
When I was fifteen, I wanted, with a desperate force, to fall in love. This desire was mirrored over a decade later – though it wasn’t love I was urgently wishing for, but a career as a writer. In the … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged denial, editing, essay, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Love, Memoir, truth, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
62 Comments
All a writer can ask
The first Christmas I remember, I was four. My dad was working on a project in Malawi to develop coffee production for those with smallholdings. My mother took me and my brother out to Africa for the holidays. (This is … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Africa, Awards, blogging, Christmas, followers, Gabriela Blandy, Holidays, how to write, Interconnection, Malawi, readers, travelling, winter, Writing
32 Comments
An unexpected comfort
I’ve been in pain this week. Over the weekend, someone I trusted said many hurtful things, including unkind words about my writing. I’ve noticed the days going by – a reluctance to post on my blog, even though it has … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged Betrayal, comfort, Gabriela Blandy, Grief, how to write, Kahlil Gibran, Pain, The Prophet, Writing
56 Comments
The blank page is like a first kiss
I live in the student heart of Oxford. The supermarket is always filled with groups of young twenty year olds, wearing coats over their pyjamas – shopping baskets filled with jumbo bags of pasta. Some of them are discovering each … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Memoir
Tagged drama, first love, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Kiss, Oxford, Relationship, the blank page, the writer's voice, the writing process, truth, Writing
35 Comments
What we write about when we write
A sheet of A4 is pinned beside the bar. It hangs loose against the stone wall. There’s an image of a four or five year old in an orange sundress. I notice a plaster at the top of her arm. … Continue reading
Honesty, and how we might write
My thoughtful readers and all the pioneer bloggers out there have brought my attention to something. Firstly, the draw of honesty, and secondly, how we might write. Perhaps, they are the same thing. So far, my writing journey has lasted nine … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Fiction, Memoir
Tagged advice, breathing, Creative writing, drama school, fear, Fiction, Gabriela Blandy, honesty, how to write, short story, Writing process
21 Comments
Gabriela Blandy - The sense of a journey 