I was furious with someone today. On my high horse, I sat down at my laptop and trotted out an email, imperiously setting out why I was right and they were wrong. As the rage flew from the keys, I felt so much better about the entire issue.
I was just about to press ‘send’ in triumph when I paused, took a breath, and pressed save instead. Might I regret it – big time – if I sent it?
It reminded me that Continue reading
Is there a fascination about people who write in public? Maybe a narcissistic perception that someone on a train writing things down must obviously be writing about YOU?
Well, maybe. Train journeys can be irritating for all kinds of reasons – but I have to keep reminding myself that there may be something about the laddish conversations, the take-away food odours, or the man beside me who keeps sucking his teeth, which could suggest a character trait or a nightmare sequence in my novel.
The only challenge, I guess, is to hide the observations I’m making in my notebook from the woman beside me with bad breath and fleshy elbows.
When I’m doing creative writing, or even writing a news story or report, I can’t let anything get in the way: not a keyboard that sticks, not a noise in the room that’s annoying, and certainly not a font that’s distracting.
The only font I can use to create is Times New Roman 12pt. Anything else takes up for too much attention and gets in the way of what I’m trying to say – like driving a car and consciously having to think about which gear I’m in.
However, for writers who can’t make up their minds which font to use – for fear it might convey the wrong message – there is a phenomenon called Continue reading
Happy Mother's Day.
I was woken far too early this morning by my bouncy seven-year old daughter, desperate for me to open my Mother’s Day cards and presents. While I wanted a lie-in, it felt exquisite to feel so loved and remembered. I felt special.
A couple of days before, I had debated whether to send my own mother a card; debated, because she has dementia and denies ever having had children, and wouldn’t know who the card was from anyway.
My daughter said to me: “Will she remember us?” I said: “No, but Continue reading
On Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, I heard Monica Ali, author of The Untold Story, having to defend the fact she has written a commercially viable novel.
OK, so the ‘what if’ plot focuses on the imaginary scenario of Princess Diana having faked her death to escape media attention. And, from a marketing point of view, this is perfectly timed – what with the royal wedding of William and Kate a months away. Some of the commentators were shocked that the author of literary, character-driven novel Brick Lane could descend to such depths as writing popular fiction, and that it would “be hard to take the literary hard ground after a book like this”.
Monica responded in the Today interview by saying Continue reading
A worry shared is meant to be a worry halved, but apparently writing down your worries on paper can help ease anxiety and prevent the memory getting blocked (especially before an exam).
Expressive writing – where people can let their problems spill out onto the page, and is known to have psychological benefits in terms of making it easier to cope with issues – is just one of the techniques used by teachers in Washington County to help students deal with test anxiety.
The study tested students about to take their high-school final exams, asking those with high anxiety to write down their fears for 10 minutes before the test. The students who did the writing outperformed their non-writing peers in the test by Continue reading
The Ritz in London's Piccadilly a day after the spending-cuts protest.
It was strange facing the calm after the storm, walking down Piccadilly in London just hours after the riots. What was meant to be a peaceful protest against the UK Government’s spending cuts ended up in chaos, with buildings daubed with paint, windows smashed, and 200 people arrested. It’s not a sight I was used to seeing – and nor was the damage done to the iconic Ritz hotel.
It had been cordoned off and sections of the fascia were boarded up, so workers could clean up the mess and restore it to glory. I felt such a sadness at the meaningless devastation.
Just a few minutes’ walk away, however, Continue reading
Is inspiration all a writer needs...?
Writer’s block is never something that has plagued me. I make a living as a writer and editor, and a deadline makes writers’s block a bit of a joke; there’s no time for such narcissistic indulgences.
Which is why I was intrigued by a story in The New Yorker, brought to my attention by the wonderful The Daily Post, about how a psychotherapist cured a screenwriter from writer’s block. The method, as I understand it, involved Continue reading
I’ve persisted today, even when I felt like giving up.
Sitting with a client suffering from depression two years after a bereavement – who just ‘gets rid of’ her days – makes me appreciate the joy I have in my life. I wanted to escape the chill of her room and the critical sharpness of her gaze. But I stayed.
Just as I have stayed with WordPress (now on my Blackberry) in spite of its technical problems, so I can commit to my postaday.
I feel that if I let it slip just one day, it would give me an excuse to slip others.
And if I abandoned that woman, what other pain would I attempt to escape from?
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
C. S. Lewis
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