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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Photo by Terry Freedman
Write for you for "exposure"? You're having a laugh, mate!
This is an updated version of an updated version of an article I originally published on this very website in 2015. In my experience, it absolutely applies to artists, teachers and other creatives as well as writers or consultants.
Read MoreLearning the tools of your trade
Observe any specialist, and they know exactly which tool they need for a particular job. Writers, too, should know what tools they need, and how to use them.
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history lesson
Shurely, the MINIMUM requirement to write a drama about schools is to know something about schools?
In England we used to have a weekly soap set in a school called Waterloo Road. This had everything you would hope not to find in a school: inappropriate behaviour, theft, even attempted murder – and that was just the staff.
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stop look listen, by Terry Freedman
No safety net
in Creative Writing, Events, Oulipo
Did you know that Raymond Queneau produced a single sonnet that could be read 100 trillion ways?
Read Morestop look listen, by Terry Freedman
What if the rules were the point? An advert for a creative writing course
in Creative Writing, Events, Oulipo
Lipograms, N+7, the snowball, and other techniques
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"Hugues Merle (French, 1823-1881), 'Hamlet and Ophelia'" by sofi01 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Speech balloons added by Terry Freedman using Phrase it.
Alternative versions of Hamlet
In recent years I’ve become interested in a branch of writing called Oulipo, and have discovered that it’s not only people associated with the theatre or film who have put their individual stamp on Hamlet. Writers too have got in on the act.
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