Tag Archives: writing
From the Trenches
From the Trenches: Submission Beach
Writing is a battlefield. Our new column, ‘From the Trenches’, brings you tales from the front line. In this instalment, Kent MacCarter ponders the necessary evil of submissions. I am stuck in a birth canal. Our birth canal: the passage that guides its subjects into some semblance … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
Podcast
Podcast: Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family Needed
Steven Amsterdam is the author of acclaimed novel Things We Didn’t See Coming, and his new book, What the Family Needed, has been called ‘a wonderfully fresh perspective on families’, as well as ‘a probing exploration of familial love and forbearance’. In What the Family Needed, members … Read more
On Writing
On writing: Kate Holden
I always imagined writers worked in sunny, airy offices, green leaves waving beyond the window, a ray of golden light striking the writer’s unfurrowed brow, a teapot and a bunch of jonquils beside them on the desk, a little light Mozart on the stereo, thoughts beaming from … Read more
Books
I, Vandal
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. Only with a pencil, but still, I’m incurable. Every book I read, I scribble in the margins. With library books I do it lightly and always erase after the event – promise. With books I own, the doodles lie wantonly … Read more
Comment
The death of the long sentence
When did the long sentence die? There is no anniversary on which to mourn its gentle passing. Clearly, it was still alive and well in the first half of the twentieth century – some of my favourite proponents of the long sentence published their unwieldy masterpieces in … Read more
From the Trenches
Getting IT right
Writing is a battlefield. Our new column, ‘From the Trenches’, brings you tales from the front line. In our first instalment, ex-copywriter Liz Chomiak recalls her attempts to help the lonely find love online. Writing for the web is not a lot of fun for someone who … Read more
On Writing
On Writing: Fiona Wright
Apparently there’s a look to it. A kind of half-smirk, with a stare that’s a bit glazed and hazy, a tilted head. To me, it sounds like the face of a fox terrier with chewtoys on its mind. But my friend calls it the Poemface, and has … Read more
Guest Posts
Sleuthing story ideas
At university I studied ‘creative advertising’. The course was designed to teach us clever ways to sell sneakers, toothpaste and chocolate bars, but the lateral thinking techniques we learned can be useful for brainstorming story ideas. Let me share some tools. Read more
Comment
What are writers worth?
How much does a writer get paid? It’s no secret that the most avid readers of freelance literary writing are writers themselves. And so I’m sure many of you have found yourself reading a story in Granta or a poem in Overland and wondering ‘What is that … Read more
