How many ways can you organise a library?
Read MorePaul Braffort's Imaginary libraries
in Creative Writing, Oulipo, Events
Sale, by Terry Freedman
15% off courses at the City Lit
in Creative Writing, Oulipo, Events
My courses running in June and July at the City Lit can now be applied for using a 15% discount code. In fact, you can use the discount code on courses to the value of between £99 and £500 running in June, July and August.
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How to create a magazine cover -- old-fashioned but still OK!
I wrote this 12 years ago. The program referred to still appears to work. It just seems old-fashioned and has several annoying pop-ups and other distractions.
Read MoreWrite like you mean it -- courses flyer
I asked Claude.AI to convert all of my courses information to a single page zine-style information bulletin. Tjhis is what it came up with.
Read MoreThe deeper meaning of A Void
Georges Perec famously wrote a novel without using the letter ‘e’. A cool literary trick, but what did it really signify?
Read MoreCreative writing courses coming up
When I decided that I would like to create a flyer for my forthcoming creative writing courses, and that I would like it to have the look of a zine, it made sense to me to enlist the services of artificial intelligence..
Read MoreMea Culpa: I used AI to help me write something -- but it's not as bad as that sounds
In a couple of weeks’ time I shall be teaching a course called Creative Writing Using Constraints, at the City Lit in London. I felt that the blurb on the City Lit’s website was a bit mundane. So I got AI to write a better one.
Read MoreVote with your feet -- aka life's too short
Some years ago I stopped accepting work from editors who liked everything about my work apart from paying me.
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Question mark, by Terry Freedman
First or firstly? A reminder
in Handy hints
Is it first, second etc, or firstly, secondly etc?
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Photo by Terry Freedman
A slow motion rejection -- I got the kill fee, but...
in News & views
Just in case I might get too complacent, a malignant Fate decreed that an article I’ve spent hours on has been rejected — by the person who commissioned it.
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Shoreditch in black and white, by Terry Freedman
Imposing limits on yourself in order to enhance your creativity
in Creative Writing, Events, Oulipo
The standard advice for writers who are feeling uninspired or blocked is to allow your mind to wander where it will or to just start writing aimlessly to see what happens. Therefore to suggest the opposite approach, that of imposing some constraints on your thinking, seems completely counterintuitive.
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Click the pic to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)
Review: Accustomed as I am...
in Bookshelf, Back Catalogue, Memoir, Reviews
As the title suggests, it’s about Basil Boothroyd’s (mis) adventures as a public speaker. In an anecdote I found particularly amusing …
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Notebook, by Terry Freedman
4 reasons to work with pen and paper (updated)
I often find that working on paper is better than working on a computer. For the initial outline anyway.
There are several reasons why working on – and with – paper is beneficial.
Read MoreReview: The Mathematician's Library - two reviews in one!
This wide-ranging book takes in probability, fractals, astronomy, Babbage, Lovelace, and a host of other areas and people.
Read MoreReview: Hotel Exile -- two reviews in one!
You settle down to read, and the subject of this particular vignette could be you: a teacher, a student, a mother, a brother.
Read MoreReview: Weimar -- two reviews in one!
Weimar, the birthplace of the optimistic but short-lived republic of the same name, a place called “home” by Goethe, Liszt and Nietzsche and a mere eight kilometres from Buchenwald.
Read MoreReview: Verb Your Enthusiasm: Two reviews in one!
No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?
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Think outside the box, by Terry Freedman
Constraints are good for you!
in Oulipo, Short form
When it comes to communication, being restricted is definitely better, ie more conducive to effectiveness, than having no limits at all.
Read More3 versions of an article: a masterclass in organisation and reduction
Consider this a sort of masterclass if you like. I was commissioned to write a blog post for the City Lit Adult Ed Institute in London…
Read MoreIf you need to convert an offline course to an online one, read on
in How to
When teaching a course online at an adult education institute I would say that proficiency in using the technology to teach a lesson online is an obvious prerequisite of success. In addition, an understanding of good practice in teaching adults is also essential.
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