A while ago, I wrote a novel – a ghost story… Lilian’s Spell Book was written compulsively, under the power of the story, which was – at the same time – very complicated and very simple. I was hoping to publish it under a pseudonym – Alex Warden. And it went out to editors, […]
Tag Archives: amwriting
EUSTON STATION A year or so ago, inside Euston Station, I bumped into a former student from the Birkbeck Creative Writing MA – Nicole Burstein. Since I first met Nicole she had gone, I hope she won’t mind me saying, from submitting some very angsty, introspective, scrappy prose for her first Writing and Reading workshop to […]
Normally, when people come along to a creative writing class, they are hoping to learn how to write better, not how to save the planet. A couple of years ago, I was teaching a Guardian Masterclass on ‘Storytelling Secrets’. Among those attending were three representatives of an international environmental activist network. They were young, casually […]
I wrote this little essay on fame, bands, Jack Nicholson and new writing as the introduction to Birkbeck’s annual short-story anthology MIR13 (The Mechanics’ Institute REVIEW). A new issue of this, MIR14, is being compiled right now. It is taking UK wide submissions until Friday 10 February 2017. Details on how to submit here. So, […]
I THINK THIS STUFF REALLY MATTERS How you lay out your work is how you first appear, as a writer, to everyone reading you for the first time. They open the document or turn the page, and they see you. They have a first impression – Is this good? Do I want to read more? […]
The first thing you need to write a novel is… Time. The second thing you need to write a novel is… More Time. And the third thing you need to write a novel is… Even More Time. This perhaps seems a bit obvious. But let me explain. Time, More Time and Even More Time are all necessary. […]
It’s NaNoWriMo 2016, so I’ve quickly put together these 9 Things Not to Do in NaNoWriMo, along with reposting my 9 Things You Need to Write a Novel. I hope you find them useful. They’re based on the bits of advice I most often find myself giving students. Any comments, or additional don’ts, welcomed. 1. Don’t Bore […]
Here is what’s been happening. Mutants, the book of Selected Essays I have been working on (without always realising it) for sixteen years, is out. It can be bought from The Hive. It was published by the wonderful Seagull Books, Calcutta, who also published Life-Like. The editor was Naveen Kishore. I’m extremely grateful he gave me the […]
This talk was first delivered to students of the Creative Writing MA at Birkbeck on May 3rd 2016. Leicester City won the Premier League, and since then a great deal of the national conversation – online, in newspapers, in corridors – has been, ‘How did they do it?’ The next thing after that, of course, is, […]
As a follow-up to What is Literature?, I’ve gathered together some of the best accessible things of Keston Sutherland’s. You could find these yourself, but I’m putting them together into a suggested order. You could begin by buying Poems 1999-2015, published by Enitharmon. (Odes to TL61P is still available. Most of the pamphlets are out of print.) […]
