Author of the novel, A is for Angelica. Freelance writer and content producer.
George Saunders is one of those authors I’ve heard other people rave about for years but never read myself. After rewatching his brilliant advice on storytelling, I decided to give him a go. Drawn in by the amazing cover and title, I chose a single short story aimed at both young readers and adults: The […]
This is a gorgeous short film by Daniel Cordero. It outlines the idea that creativity comes from the artists and art that inspire us – that we ‘steal’ it to make something new. Creation is not inspired by one man, woman or one thing. We are influenced by our daily fair, diverse artists etc. I […]
I’m trying to make sure I read more in 2017. One way of doing that is to share some short thoughts about the books I get through here on the site. Let’s get cracking. The $100 Startup is both a book and the kind of thing that sounds really rather appealing. Lots of people want […]
This is the only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf. She’s reciting the opening of an essay on how to read literature, but there’s some incredible stuff on writing too. It’s a fascinating insight. I quite liked this pointed section: “Think what it would mean if you could teach, or if you could learn, the art […]
This is a great TED-Ed video by Kate Messner. And this is the important bit: “Just like real life, fictional worlds operate consistently within a spectrum of physical and societal rules. That’s what makes these worlds believable, comprehensible and worth exploring.” It doesn’t really matter what you write, whether it’s fantasy, science fiction, erotica or […]
There are two things I like about this clip of Ricky Gervais talking about the writing advice he received at school. First, the larking about at the start and suggestion that no one writer’s process is any more interesting or important than any other’s. Second, that there is truth in the everyday – the boring: […]
So if I’m going to start sharing the good stuff with you here on the site, it’s going to have to be the good stuff. And it doesn’t get much better than this video of George Saunders talking about storytelling and the writing process. This resonates with me: “My experience is to have some idea […]
I do tend to give myself goals at the start of each year, but I don’t often write them down and I’ve never shared then publicly before. But then this year does feel different, somehow. I don’t know why. Work I’ve spent the last year doing content strategy and managing some ace projects at Yoomee, […]
Have you ever spent months, maybe years, either thinking about or working on an idea that you’ve been completely unsure of? Where you frequently move between, ‘This is brilliant,’ and ‘What on Earth am I doing?’ That was me for far too long, so I decided to do something about it. I had an idea […]
A few days before the EU referendum vote, someone close to me said that they were probably going to vote Leave. I was flabbergasted. First, I could see no logical reason for it. They were intelligent, comfortably middle class, apparently liberal-minded and entirely unaffected by immigration. There was no protest to be had. When pressed, […]
