This is the usual way of doing things. Someone writes a book, or a poem or whatever. Then (with a bit of luck) someone reviews it.
A fellow writer, Nathan, and I decided to do it the other way around. He wrote a review of something I hadn’t written yet. Then I wrote it!
Read MoreWhy do some writers write badly? Plus links to examples of bad writing.
Read MoreMost books on creative writing tend to be less technical, at least in appearance, than ‘Sentence models’.
Read MoreSome of the essay topics may be a little dated – the failure of the Italian novel being one – but such is the clarity and variety of his work that the actual subject matter starts to feel immaterial.
Read MoreI wrote this article in 2020. Having read it again, I still agree with the views I expressed then. In fact, I’d go further. When anyone who has achieved the benefits potentially offered by X tells you that you don’t need X, I think a huge dollop of cynicism is in order.
Read MoreOulipo techniques are great for dispelling writer’s block, and generating new works.
Read MoreSome time ago I wrote: “Paradoxically, a spell-checker is only useful if you can spell! It's a common misunderstanding that if you can't spell, a spell-checker will sort things out for you. It won't.” Is this still true?
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Three reviews in one article, plus a couple of news announcements.
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London Book Fair Hi-Res, by Terry Freedman
London Book Fair 23 Directory and social media links.
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London Book Fair, by Terry Freedman
These are the sessions that especially appeal to me
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London Book Fair, by Terry Freedman
The London Book Fair is back again this year, in Olympia. As usual there are loads of seminars and even more stands. And if you’re an author, there is even more reason to attend.
Read MoreYou might think that recording an interview, and then transcribing it using an app like Otter, would be much faster than writing everything down at the time.
Read MoreWhy I can’t read Lolita, but am reading Nabokov’s short stories.
Read MoreWhere do authors’ ideas come from? Even Stephen King finds that a difficult question to answer. One possible answer might be ‘Everything they see on their travels’, because as Roland Barthes once suggested, writers are never truly on holiday…
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Image created by Dall-E for Terry Freedman
This post is a puzzle for you, and an experiment for me.
Read MoreNews of a new version of this original post featuring websites where you can find high quality pictures that are free to use on your own website or blog. I’ve listed more than 25 resources.
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Image created by Dall-E for Terry Freedman
“Terry has a great ability to grasp and capture the everyday, as well as an excellent feel for the quotidian conversations and dialogues that make up so much of our ordinary lives out in the real world. And from this he is able to mine real meaning and insight.” From Tom Bevan’s introduction to this essay.
Read MoreShould we rewrite the classics? My view is: Yes, kind of, but not in the way you might think.
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Rainham Marshes, by Terry Freedman
Can you spot the hidden theme word?
Read MoreIt is bordering on the preposterous to think that a writer best known for his fiction, and who died nearly thirty years ago, has anything relevant to say to us today.
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