This book aims to change that by providing insights into the writing process from several very different genres.
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Bookshelf
Review of Why They Can't Write
Does the enormous amount of help that teachers give to students to help them learn how to write, help them to learn how to write?
Read MoreReview: The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
I loved the writing. Some of it is very funny, all of it is well-observed.
Read MoreReview: The Kreutzer Sonata, by Tolstoy
The real question is: was she or wasn’t she?
Read MoreReview: First Love, by Turgenev
This is the story of a boy of 15 falling in love for the first time, as related by his middle-aged self. What can I say?
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Writer's Block, by Terry Freedman
An interesting way of dealing with writer's block
How did the English comedian Spike Milligan break through writer’s block?
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Prose Poem
Two reviews of The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem
As I’ve written two reviews of this book, I thought I’d publish the links to them in one place — which is here!
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The Ministry of Truth, by Terry Freedman
Hidden truths in journalism
Journalistic integrity and reader manipulation.
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Book review: Bird By Bird
It's not often one comes across a book which purports to contain instructions on both writing and life. Does the concept work?
Read MoreQuick look: Audio for Authors
in Audio, Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This book provides compelling reasons for including audio as an integral part of the writer’s portfolio and tools of the trade, not merely an add-on or afterthought.
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Review: A-Z of Storytelling Techniques
As the title suggests, this book comprises 50 “techniques” of storytelling.
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Review: My very first Updike
Inside a second-hand bookshop, by Terry Freedman
Not quite nearly fine: some terms used by antiquarian booksellers
Like all professions, book selling has its own peculiar nomenclature.
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Book review: All That Is Evident Is Suspect
in Bookshelf, Oulipo, Reviews, Audio, Oulipo book
Review of a collection of writings from the Oulipo, including minutes of meetings, lectures and correspondence.
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Review: Writers' London
A great reference book for those who love London, and are interested in the places associated with well-known writers dating from centuries ago to the present day.
Read MoreReview: Write Your Book In A Flash
UPDATED! Now includes an audio version. The next time I write a book, WYBIAF is going to be open right there on my Kindle for easy reference.
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Covid-19: Time to read The Plague?
in Bookshelf, Video, Short form, News & views
In his novel The Plague, Camus described fairly accurately people’s attitudes and behaviour during a plague. It seems rather apposite in our current circumstances.
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Books, by Terry Freedman
World Book Day today -- free books!
Free books!
Read MoreReview: Oulipo and Modern Thought
If your interest in the Oulipo goes beyond simply trying out their techniques, and you wish to learn about the context in which it was conceived and the developments in went through, you will find this book very useful.
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Review: Alastair Humphreys' Great Adventurers
The stories in Great Adventurers are designed to help the reader believe that they can do it too, backed up by much more substantial evidence than vague and vacuous pronouncements like "You're wonderful, you can do anything."
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