Walking the Line

"Say what happened, and let the reader know when it happened and what caused it and what the consequences were, and tell me where the characters were and who else was present – and while you're at it, I'd like to know what they looked like and whether it was raining." - Philip Pullman The above...

Writing and Technophilia

I love technology This feels like some kind of ‘Technophiliacs Anonymous’ group meeting: “Hi, my name’s Matt and I love technology.” To many of my friends and associates, technology is a dirty word. They don’t see the benefit in fiddling around with a computer or a smartphone when a piece of paper never runs out...

All Writers are Terrible Writers

You don't have to be a great writer to get published. You don't even have to be a particularly good writer. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that talent has very little bearing on one's chances of getting published. Let me qualify my statement. Firstly, I'm not complaining. This isn't another one...

The Life of an Imaginary Friend

Or, The oddness of characters. Characters are funny old things. We dream them up, give them lives, names, faces,bodies, likes, dislikes, all manner of mannerisms, friends, families, wants, desires, needs, passions; and yet, for all that, they can remain stubbornly two-dimensional, trapped in the words on the page, struggling to come to life. This is...

A Rose By Any Other Name

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene ii The above lines from Romeo and Juliet are often taken by writers...