Guestbook

Got something to say? Feedback, ideas, artwork, insights, tips, tools, links, jokes, stories… all are all welcomed in the BLOG GUESTBOOK COMMENT BOX here. Oh all right, gripes too, if you must.

The Answer.

Here is a small poem about a big subject:

“Listen, my parents,
the grasses are crawling,
the trees are all thrumming.
Soon, birds won’t be able to sing.
Listen. Hear me. Our time  Read the whole post »

Ideas of the Decade

For their 10th-anniversary issue The Chronicle Review, the US higher-education journal, asked scholars and illustrators to answer  this  question: What will be the defining idea of the coming decade, and why?

Here’s an excerpt from the response by Camille Paglia, taking the words out of my mouth, while spicing them up and spitting them at her colleagues and students in true Paglia style:

“…The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious Read the whole post »

Ten Steps Along The Creative Way.

Creation is not a thing, it’s a way; not an object but an attitude.

Sure, it’s important to think what (product) but much more important to act how (practice).

To choose the creative way is to choose to be:

1. Engaged (not apathetic)
2. Attentive (not habitual/routine) Read the whole post »

Gather Your Greats.

In 1159, John of Salisbury quoted an observation by a colleague that still makes sense  a millenium later.  ’Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any… Read the whole post »

How NOT to Pitch.

See how many things you can spot that are wrong with this screenplay query letter from Prepare Yourself For The Pitch.

And if you think it’s an exaggeration, I’m sorry to say I received many a one even worse than this in my days as a literary agent:

Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing to tell you about my screenplay which I have written or rather written half of and I am trying to find a producer or Read the whole post »

Art Can Do Anything.

When he was 15, Irish novelist Paul Murray first saw David Lynch’s surreal murder-mystery-soap-opera, Twin Peaks. It changed his mind about what art can do.

“I’d found the suburbs of Dublin where I grew up almost terminally boring. They were art-proof; there was nothing interesting you could say about them – or so I thought. Lynch’s dreamlike vision of suburbia uncovered the violence, mystery and dark magic of a world that I, in my naivety, had dismissed.

“Look Lynch up on YouTube and you’ll find a Read the whole post »

Take Their Timing.

When Archibald Leach was turning himself into Cary Grant, his theatre work brought him to George Burns and Gracie Allen.  He was fascinated by the comic duo’s act: the interplay between George’s dead-pan calm in the face of Gracie’s manic stupidity and dizzy, ceaseless chatter.

Obviously agreeing with Salvador Dali that ‘those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing’, Grant spent hours watching  Read the whole post »

F-R-E-E-Writing Tutorial Part 3

Seeking inspiration? Time for a F-R-E-E-Writing session.  Go get yourself a pen, an A4 size (21 X 29.7cm) notebook  - small notebooks can lead to small thoughts! – and a clock.

Before.

Read through the F-R-E-E-Writing Tutorial (Part One). Then sit, in stillness and quiet, with your pen and notebook before you. For one full minute, sit with this silence, letting your breathing become progressively slower and deeper. Let your thoughts rest, focussing only on your breathing, waiting to begin.

At the end of the minute, take up your pen and begin to write. Whatever form the words take, let them Read the whole post »

A letter from John Steinbeck.

Dear Short Story Writer:

“Although it must be a thousand years ago that I sat in a class in story writing at Stanford, I remember the experience very clearly. I was bright-eyed and bushy-brained and prepared to absorb the secret formula for writing good short stories, even great short stories. This illusion was canceled very quickly…

“A story could be about anything and could use any means and any technique at all – so long as it was effective. As a subhead to this rule, it seemed to be necessary for the writer to Read the whole post »

Me Me Me. You. Or Me and You.

Creatives, like everybody else, come in three broad types, as is beautifully illustrated by this account of Spandau Ballet’s appearance at Live Aid by Gary Kemp:

“Live Aid was…the highest point of that golden age of British pop music. I don’t actually remember our performance, just the bits around it, like seeing Pete Townshend, David Bowie, all these extraordinary people.

I thought I’d speak to Bowie,   Read the whole post »