These poems benefit from being read aloud, even if only to yourself.
Read MoreThe Professional Writer: Negotiating Revisited
Why is negotiating essential for the professional writer?
Read MoreReview: The Wisdom of Charlotte Brontë: Thoughts Gathered from Her Novels -- two reviews in one!
Below you will find two versions of a book review. The first is the one I submitted to the editor of Teach Secondary magazine, while the second is the version he actually published.
Read MoreReview: The shortest history of AI -- two reviews in one!
Below you will find two versions of a book review. The first is the one I submitted to the editor of Teach Secondary magazine, while the second is the version he actually published.
Read MoreReview: Ways of Telling -- three reviews in one!
Three reviews of the same book: a straight version, an outlandish version and the published version.
Read MoreReview: Magic and Mechanics -- two reviews in one!
After each story there is an interview with its author.
Read MoreOK I give up. Several reviews to come -- but not today!
in News & views
I have just four book reviews published in Teach Secondary magazine. Details inside.
Read MorePaul Braffort's Imaginary libraries
in Creative Writing, Oulipo, Events
How many ways can you organise a library?
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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.
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