So here I am, sitting at a desk, wondering in which direction I should let my mind wander. Here’s my problem: I recently finished a first draft; it’s out there sloshing from slush pile to slush pile, no doubt so wet by now that the ink has smudged and it’s hard to read the words.Continue reading “What to Write Next – the Author’s dilemma”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Working on a new book with a new theory
Today, I have a new theory about plot. Succinctly stated, it goes like this: There are only three questions that can hook the reader: what’s happened, what’s happening and what’s going to happen next? It goes along with a new theory of what questions engage readers with character: who are they, why are they likeContinue reading “Working on a new book with a new theory”
Post-Olympic Depression
OK, so the Olympics are over and we’re into the endless analysis by our endlessly illogical media who wouldn’t recognise either truth or rationality if it turned into a dog and bit them in the street. Usually, I ignore all this, but this time it’s got my heckles up. Time to man up before theContinue reading “Post-Olympic Depression”
Orthogonate Maths
Just putting the finishing touches to a chapter of my latest project, the Time Traders and stumbled upon this interesting definition: “Orthogonate Maths is the branch of mathematics in which all new quantities are assumed to exist in their own dimension, orthogonal (i.e. at ninety-degrees) to all other dimensions. Thus Orthogonate Maths applies Pythagoras’s TheorumContinue reading “Orthogonate Maths”
Middle Stanley
Just come back from a wonderful weekend at Middle Stanley Farm on a writers retreat with my inspiring colleagues from Leicester Writers’ Club. Two and a half days of eating, talking and writing amongst good company and the background of the Cotswolds. Even the weather couldn’t dampen the proceedings, though it had a damn good goContinue reading “Middle Stanley”
