A blogger, by Terry Freedman
In my recent blogging course, I abandoned my carefully-prepared lesson, or part pf it, threw caution to the winds, and suggested to the class that we experiment with using AI for writing blog posts. Here’s a partial blog post it came up with, which you will agree is utter rubbish…
Read MoreTravelling back from my saxophone lesson on Saturday, a very attractive young woman kept looking at me. Did I finally have sax appeal I asked myself.
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Photo by Terry Freedman
Last week, Elaine, a friend of hers (D) and I went to an art gallery. On our return we caught the Overground train at Highbury and Islington, heading towards Stratford….
Read MoreThis is a transcript of a conversation between Fred Terryman and myself. It’s been lightly edited, with the pauses taken out for ease of reading.
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This beautifully illustrated volume has relevance to several different curriculum areas, containing as it does accounts of intrepid historical journeys that range from 16th century seafaring voyages to Arctic crossings and even the surveys undertaken to facilitate the moon landings.
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Perhaps the second hardest thing for a writer to do (after commencing work in the first place) is to delete parts of what they’ve written.
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My writing-related filing cabinets, by Terry Freedman
I think evaluations are very odd devices to be honest. Someone once “marked me down” on her evaluation of a one day course I was running on the grounds that the traffic was terrible.
Read MoreOne of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. In today’s experiment I’d like to tell the story in the style of a review of an art exhibition.
Read MoreIn London on June 8th I’ll be teaching a course called Creative Writing Using Constraints, an introduction to the world of the Oulipo. This is a round-up of some of the books I’ll be referring to and talking about.
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Terry Freedman. Photo by Elaine Freedman.
On the 8th June I’ll be teaching a course called Creative Writing with Constraints. (Note the word “constraints”, not “restraints”.) This article outlines how I prepared for it.
Read MoreA book on temporal adventures may seem like an odd inclusion here, but it can actually be used in many ways.
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David Crystal has triumphed again. This is a fascinating book containing hundreds of concise entries on quirky occasions, literary facts and significant events.
Read MoreHolmes and I were in our lodgings in Baker Street. He was drawing out a melancholy tune on his violin, whilst I was reading the latest edition of The Lancet. The silence was unexpectedly broken by the ringing of the bell.
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At a time when even Noddy books have been declared ‘problematic’ due to their use of archaic terms such as ‘swot’ (since changed to ‘bookworm’), some of us might may feel the temptation to unleash our inner ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ in response.
Read MoreIn Handwritten we get to see handwritten manuscripts by monarchs, poets, novelists, scientists and many others.
Read MoreI clambered out of the four poster, but at altogether the wrong angle, so blowed if I didn't go careering straight into the wall. I tell you. I tried to ignore it and dragoon the well-known Freedman stiff upper lip into service, but the old noggin was having none of it.
Read More“You’ve been speaking to that blasted Freedman, haven’t you?!”
Read MoreThis course will look at examples of constraints created by some of the Oulipo’s main proponents, with work including the Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets, the Metro Poem, and others. Course participants will have the opportunity to try out several techniques, and invent one or two of their own.
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Photo by Terry Freedman
This is an updated version of an article I published on this website in 2015. In my experience, it absolutely applies to artists, teachers and other creatives as well as writers or consultants.
Read MoreI’m familiar with a few of the stories in this volume, which features some well-known names such as Raymond Carver, George Saunders, Grace Paley, Ursula Le Guin and Susan Sontag.
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