This comes out on 2nd November. It has a very readable style, and interestingly the footnotes are in a different font from, and bigger than, the main text.
Read MoreQuick looks: The Notebook
in Quick looks, Reviews
Sentence models for creative writing -- full review
Perhaps I’m judging by my own standards here, but I think a big mistake you could make with this book is to try to ‘get into it’. You can’t, because it hasn’t really been designed to be readable as such. It’s more of a source of reference material and ideas.
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Terrified, by Dall-e
A comic book page by AI
in Creative Writing, EiS
Someone challenged me to write a graphic novel of my short story A Bang on the Head, which forms the basis of my experiments in style, à la Queneau. Well, I’m useless at drawing the kind of comics I like to read, so I thought I’d enlist the help of AI. I used this prompt, mistakenly, with ChatGPT…
Read MoreQuick look: Retroland, by Peter Kemp
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This book arrived recently, and I’m very much enjoying reading it. It’s a kind of guided tour or survey of the types of fiction that have appeared in the last fifty years (mainly).
Read MoreComing soon* Review of How Words Get Good
in News & views
I recently reviewed How Words Get Good for Teach Secondary magazine. It’s a great read, and delves into all the processes that go into producing a book.
Read MoreCreating personas
I asked Claude.AI to create some personas for my writing about different forms of writing. What was the result?
Read MoreLitotes
in EiS
Litotes, pronounced lie-toe-tease, is a literary technique whereby you express things in a negative formulation. What would it look like if a whole story was written in this fashion?
By the way, if you’ve been thinking of taking out a premium subscription for my Eclecticism newsletter, the mega deal of 20% off forever ends tomorrow, 22nd August 2023.
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Picture by Dall-e
Review: Clouds like dust, and other poems, by N. Slake
in Oulipo
Poetry lovers will recall the impact Slake' s first book made. "Tied up in Notts" was, at the time, not merely avant-garde but positively risque. The reason, of course, was Slake's cavalier approach to poetic conventions. For example, his 15 Line Sonnet caused a massive rift in the arts community.
Read MoreBook reviews the wrong way round
in Oulipo
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!
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Why would anyone write badly?
Why do some writers write badly? Plus links to examples of bad writing.
Read MoreReview: Sentence models for creative writing By Christopher Youles
Most books on creative writing tend to be less technical, at least in appearance, than ‘Sentence models’.
Read MoreReview: The Written World and the Unwritten World: Collected Non-fiction, by Italo Calvino
Some 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 MoreWho needs a Creative Writing MA? (Revisited)
I 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 taster course: discount for today only
in News & views, Oulipo
Oulipo techniques are great for dispelling writer’s block, and generating new works.
Read More5 minute tip: Spellchecker blues (Updated)
in 5 Minute Tip
Some 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 collections of Oulipo writing: which is best for you?
in Bookshelf, Oulipo, Oulipo book
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 2023 last day
in Events
London Book Fair 23 Directory and social media links.
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London Book Fair, by Terry Freedman
London Book Fair Wednesday sessions
in Events, News & views
These are the sessions that especially appeal to me
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London Book Fair, by Terry Freedman
London Book Fair 2023
in Events, News & views
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 MoreUsing codes when note-taking -- republished with discussion
You 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.
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