When I’m feeling disheartened by the fiction I’ve been reading (it happens), I reach for something by Philip Roth. He never lets me down. It’s not that his books are all masterpieces of the order of Sabbath’s Theater or The Counterlife, but that, even when he misfired (Our Gang, the Nixon satire, or the disastrous… Continue reading Philip Roth: ‘It was my good luck that happiness didn’t matter to me….’
Read moreWriting, like life, has a nasty habit of turning around to bite you in the bum when you least expect it. So it has been while I was gently pondering what to write in this column. Rather to my surprise, I found that I had never written about that constant companion of a writer’s life,… Continue reading The Seven Rules of Rejection
Read more1 Even as a mewling and puking infant, he shows signs that one day he will be an author. There is something about how he grips his copy of The Cuddly Cloth Kitten in his little hand, the way he looks out of his cot, observing the world around him with oddly knowing eyes. She,… Continue reading The Seven Ages of Authorhood
Read moreOn a home-alone New Year’s Eve, I find myself sternly noting resolutions to myself for the creative year ahead (the personal resolutions can wait). Of course, they may not work for everyone… Enjoy yourself at work. Even when it is deadly serious, writing should have a bit of skittishness and fun to it. … Continue reading My 10 Writer’s Resolutions for 2015
Read moreIt will catch any serious writer in the end: that familiar dread of the blank or page or screen as it stares back at you, daring you to give it some words which, the blank page just knows, will be disappointing, or surprisingly weak, or in some way inferior to everything you have written before.… Continue reading Top Nine Writer’s Rules #7: Fear
Read moreIt is an undeniable (and frankly rather unattractive) aspect of a writer’s character that it needs to be finely balanced between arrogance and insecurity. Confidence is needed to write in the first place; a degree of self-doubt is necessary for what is written not to be preeningly complacent and indulgent. From Anthony Trollope to Caitlin… Continue reading Top Nine Writer’s Rules #6: Confidence
Read moreLook at the first of these two rules, and you’ll see that nothing divides authorly opinion like writer’s block. Most of these insights are either self-pitying or briskly unsympathetic – successful writers seem to believe in tough love when dispensing advice – but there is one piece of caring practical advice. Surprisingly, that comes from… Continue reading Top Nine Writer’s Rules: #5 Block
Read moreThis the second of my Top Nine Writer’s Rules, a series of blogs with which writers, would-be writers and readers will eventually be able to build their own rulebook for writing, based on the words of authors past and the present. Today’s theme answers a question familiar to any writer who has answered questions from… Continue reading Top Nine Writer’s Rules: #2: Inspiration
Read moreFor many years, I have collected the thoughts and observations of writers about the process and the profession of writing. The authors can be dead or alive, famous or obscure, literary titans or contemporary crowd-pleasers. If they have something interesting, funny or perceptive to say about the strange business of creating in words, then I… Continue reading The Top Nine Writer’s Rules (the tenth is yours) #1. STARTING
Read more
