Authors Electric

I see a lot of posts on social media about   whether  to write in first person or third person, if a story   should  be in past or present tense or if it’s   OK  to use one or more of the above at the same time. I’m not sure why anybody thinks they need permission to do anything. You can do what you like how you like and when you like – although in my opinion it does help to know what the rules actually are, so that you can break them properly and carefully, as opposed to driving a tank through them and leaving the poor little rules squealing on the ground in pain … I find with novels, I’m best using third person past tense. I can’t really sustain anything else for the length and depth of writing that a novel really needs. I have a lot of admiration for writers who can gallop along in first person without tying themselves up in knots, but I can’t do it. I like to get up close and personal with my characters, but they are not me and writing first person seem...

Julia's blog on Monday The Duck, the Hippo and the Goblin, moved me very much and I couldn't help sending in a comment about the extraordinary privilege that writers have to be able to work directly with their readers and perhaps help make a difference for them.  But when I thought deeper about Julia's account I felt that I couldn't possibly match anything so immediate, so direct, so possibly life-changing.  'Oh, you've only got mouldy old creative writing courses to talk about,' I thought and crept into a corner to mope. But not for long, 'What was so mouldy about them?' I thought.  The answer came.  'Nothing.'  I recalled the memories they brought, the extraordinary work the kids produced, beyond anything they -  or we - could have expected, the insights they expressed about the whole experience.  And I also keenly remembered the shared happiness, the feeling of common endeavour, however singular the work each child wrote.  So, not for t...