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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
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- Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
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Tag Archives: writing advice
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
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
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
Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
When I left drama school, I expected to become a successful actress immediately. I sent my headshot to directors and agents. Every time the phone rang, my heart convulsed, but usually it was my mother, wanting to know about my … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir
Tagged Acting, Autobiography, drama school, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Memoir, short story, writing advice, Writing process
72 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
The magical act of returning
The sky is beginning to drop its heavy white. Clumps of fog tumble down from the mountaintops into the valley where the cottage is. I stand by the window with my dad. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to … Continue reading
Posted in History, Memoir
Tagged Adventure, Battle of Camlann, Bedivere, climbing, Excalibur, Gabriela Blandy, happiness, Hiking, how to write, King Arthur, Llyn Ogwen, Memoir, Mexico, North Wales, travelling, Writing, writing advice
25 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
Gabriela Blandy - The sense of a journey 