Taking the reader from the Middle Ages to more or less the present day, Gray shows how the kind of places we do our shopping in, and what we buy, have changed over the centuries.
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Terry Freedman. Photo by Elaine Freedman.
A typical example of how I prepare for my courses
in Handy hints
On the 21st 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.
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Compare and contrast reviews #1
In this article, I republish a review of mine that was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. Next, there follows the article I actually sent in. The differences are only minor, but I thought you might find it interesting to examine the differences, and consider what difference they make, if any, to your experience and understanding of the review.
Read MoreA few of my reference books
Just because I love technology and spend a lot of time on the web, and writing for the web, doesn’t mean I’ve eschewed books.
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Shoredticth in black and white, by Terry Freedman
Applying constraints to enhance creativity
in Creative Writing, EiS, 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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On this day: Immersive journalism
From the archives: How will Virtual Reality reportage affect our experience of the news? What are the ethical issues involved?
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Nonfiction Notebook: No excuse for poor spelling
Unless you’re so poor at spelling or English in general that a spell-checker wouldn’t do you much good anyway, there isn’t really any excuse for this sort of thing.
Read MoreThe Shakespeare insult generator is still working!
Listen, thou fobbing clapper-clawed clotpole! The internet is useful for more things than mere facts.
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Picture generated in Ideogram.ai
Is it OK to plagiarise yourself?
in Reflections
Yesterday I was going to write an article, using chunks of a couple of articles I’d published before (plus some original material).
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Creative writing using constraints: a course
What is writing with constraints? In a nutshell, it means writing according to specific and tight rules. The “official” name for this is Oulipo, which is a French acronym for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle.
Read MoreOn this day: PhotoPrompt #30: Skies in the time of Covid
“One of the unexpected benefits of the Covid-19 pandemic has been clear blue skies.”
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Blogger, by Terry Freedman
Nonfiction Notebook: Is creative writing teachable?
Some people say "of course creative writing can be taught", while others say the opposite. I take a slightly more nuanced view.
Read MoreA note about AI for writers
I am afraid I cannot agree with those who say “No” to any use of AI whatsoever. I think the issue is more nuanced than that.
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My writing desk, by Terry Freedman
On this day: Review of WordCounter
in Reviews
Here’s my evaluation of WordCounter which, erm, counts words — plus a whole bunch of other stuff.
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Review: The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World
I wrote this review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that optimism is something all writers need a great deal of!
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Review: Small Habits Create Big Change
I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “small habits” approach to writing is something useful to consider.
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Should writing tutors embrace "produictive failure"?
My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it has a little more detail. I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “productive failure” approach to teaching is something I’ve done, to some extent, in my creative writing classes.
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Is Artificial Intelligence actually any good?
I’ve reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. Although my review is written from the standpoint of the question, “how useful is AI in schools?”, I do thiink it has relevance here because many writers, and writers’ organisations, are also scrutinising AI.
Read MoreOn this day: Covid19: who ya gonna trust?
To the extent that people distrust journalists, is it really surprising?
Read MoreNonfiction Notebook: Authors and their rituals
Some research looked at writers’ rituals. Hearing about that made me reflect on my own.
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