Dealing with fears – the myth of the curve Vanessa asked about the insidious voice, a personality that emerges from the ‘inner editor’ and tells us that we’ll never write something so good again, that we fluked our last success and really, deep down, we know we’re not good enough to sustain our publication record. […]

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You’ve started … but will you finish? I would guess that a third of the people I coach have issues with finishing work and/or writer’s block. It would be a lot higher, but I limit my exposure to these problems, as they drain the coach more than anything else, and it affects my writing if […]

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The virtues of organisation Earlier this week I had a submission returned through the post. Apparently I had sent it to the wrong address, although it was impossible to tell as the recipient had stuck a nice big label over the address area, and when I tried to peel it off, the envelope tore. By […]

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Winter solstice Should be loads of inspiring things to say today, but in fact I’m just hacked off. Talented friends are being disappointed in their literary careers, (me too), it’s been dark since 2pm, and I have a migraine. Upbeat service will be resumed as soon as possible.

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This isn’t what I was going to blog about … But since Titania asked, I’ll answer. Do I recommend Zoetrope Virtual Studios as an online workshop for writers? Yes I do. With reservations. I came to Zoe in 2003, as a result of placing second in a contest. I contacted the winner to congratulate her […]

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Still nothing … From One Chapter Promotions – obviously they just don’t respond to emails. I wonder if the people who pay them £10 for their contest would feel to know that this competition organiser can’t even be bothered to answer simple questions when they are asked politely – let along the folk who hand […]

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Listening to Alan Bennett As you do, when you are writing a novel in a month and you’re supposed to be writing an article about greenhouses but you want to boost your novel wordcount, and Mr Bennett turns up on Radio 4 reading from his diaries. And what did he say about writing? He said […]

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The Panic Jar and the fading away folk There is less than a week of November left now, and that means National Novel Writing Month is three quarters over. The Panic Jar has proved a popular item, although people seem much keener to put stuff into it, than take stuff out. We did use it […]

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Caveat Emptor Here’s an interesting thing. I heard about a new British contest through a writer who’s based in the USA. I rather pride myself on knowing what is going on, so I thought I’d better find out who Chapter One were, and what chance I, or any other writer, might have at winning their […]

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