The First Draft
There are many ways to start writing a book, both fiction and non-fiction. Without a first draft, you don’t have a book, just an idea. But a completed first draft is just that – a beginning and not an end.
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Review: The Man Who Saves Life Stories
“Irving Finkel collects ordinary people’s lives. He hoards their life stories in diary form and has amassed a collection of hundreds of handwritten volumes. But Irving has a problem. What should he do with them? The diaries are crammed onto shelves and piled up in corners of his small office. Irving’s day job is Assistant Keeper in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum.”
The Man Who Saves Life Stories was one of those little gems that Radio 4 produces; the story of a museum curator and British eccentric who fell into collecting diaries and is now trying to house that collection as a ‘people’s history’ thing. …
Event: National Writing Day 26 June 2019
“National Writing Day is an annual celebration of writing designed to inspire people across the UK to get writing. Our message is simple: everyone has a story to tell and sharing it can be a source of pleasure and power.” …
Get Writing tips – the daily discipline
The BBC used to have an educational site called Get Writing, no longer live but some of the content migrated into BBC Writers’ Room.
Get Writing was a fantastic resource for aspiring writers and would regularly post tips, exercises and how-to’s from renowned authors. One of these concerned the discipline of writing regularly.
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Editing Tips for Creative Writing
Everyone teaches ‘Creative Writing’ these days, but where are the editing tips for creative writing? We’re all led to believe that creative writing flows effortlessly from our finger tips in an unbroken stream of consciousness. It doesn’t. Good writing is hard work; good, finished writing is down to good, solid editing.
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My Rules for Social Networking
Accept a little self-help from my rules for social networking.
First, I got hold of a little booklet by Hampshire Linux User Group member Damian Brasher, Damian’s Social Networking Rules.
Second, I saw the call for a Bloggers’ Code of Conduct over at O’Reilly.
Inspired, I decided to write out my (short) set of rules for social media. Apologies if this reads like Baz Luhrman’s self-help record Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) …
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Event: World Book Day 7 March 2019
World Book Day 2019 will take place on Thursday 7th March 2019 and aside from the World Book Day books, the theme is ‘Share a Story’, with a range of new initiatives that will help to get even more books directly into the hands of children and young people, especially those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them. …
Review: Front Row – Do we publish too many books?
BBC Radio 4, Front Row Hay Festival debate: “Do we publish too many books?”
Podcast Fri, 29 May 2015, duration 29 mins
From the Hay Literary Festival, BBC Radio 4’s arts show Front Row asks the question “Do we publish too many books?” In a lively panel discussion, Samira Ahmed heads a panel of publishers, journalists and authors: Philip Jones editor of the trade journal The Bookseller, Crystal Mahey-Morgan Digital Sales and Marketing Director at Zed Books, Alexandra Pringle, the group editor in chief of Bloomsbury and Ali Sparks author of 41 books for children. …
Review: Front Row – Do we publish too many books?Read More »
How-to: Write Good by Frank L. Visco
Write Good by Frank L. Visco is a set of rules originally published in the June 1986 issue of Writers’ digest.
My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules: …
Grandfathers
Two grandfathers. One tall, straight, cheerful. Always sunny. One, short, slumped, slightly mournful, slightly sad. They had both been through the War.
The tall one pulled his comrades out of the water when the landing craft beached at Normandy, dragged a few of the drowning and wounded up the beach at Normandy through a hail of bullets. This one came back to work at Watneys, but never drank. Retirement was never enough, he got a job at Tescos in the Arndale; talk to anyone, friends with anyone. The hospital screwed up and he died young at sixty-two. …