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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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Tag Archives: Writing process
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
Don’t let fear keep you tied up
My trip is over. It’s hard to return from travelling, shifting from spontaneous movement back into a more fixed routine. But it’s a treat to know how much I’ve been missed. Thank you followers for all your wonderful messages! … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Travel
Tagged Adventure, Alice Munro, Brazil, Canada, Creative writing, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Lake Huron, life, Memoir, New York, Photography, Travel, Workshops, Writers Resources, Writing process
49 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
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
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
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
A place to write
Daphne du Maurier was five when she first discovered Cornwall. That summer, she had watched as the gardener caught a snake in the grass of her Hampstead home. He nailed it to a tree, standing back to watch it writhe. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Memoir
Tagged advice, Daphne DuMaurier, Gabriela Blandy, History, how to write, Manderley, Memoir, Rebecca, Writing, Writing process
27 Comments
Gabriela Blandy - The sense of a journey 