Authors Electric

I have been a writer for a long time and yet sometimes it is as if I've never done it before. The blank page is still the blank page and though I like the potential of white space, the process of filling it with words is no easier than when I first started. Indeed it may be harder because the great thing about being a beginner is the naive tendency to underestimate weaknesses and overestimate the chances of securing a six figure book deal. To all of us the blank page is often more fantasy than the fantasy we intend to write. When I teach, students are keen to tell me what they are going to do with the blank page, the misunderstandings they will clarify, the profound emotion they will convey, the subtly delineated transformations their characters will undergo: the blank page is so full of potential. I have blogged before about my love of the blank page when writing fiction. I enjoy the moment before I've messed everything up. I am familiar with the delete button and the deadzon...

   I like to think I have a good memory - you wouldn’t want me on your quiz team - I don’t remember facts, but I have a good episodic memory. I remember moments, feelings, clothes, interiors, conversation; the light on the field where my husband proposed, the colour of the curtains in the maternity suite - transient things. Then tonight I was looking through the chaos of my old photos - and I saw just how much I have forgotten.       I don’t remember the day that this photograph was taken and it is full of mysteries:   I am wearing a blouse of my mother’s which is odd. I am also wearing a long skirt and court shoes when everyone else is in shorts. Why? What am I doing with my legs and was it entirely wise when balancing a four year old on my hip? Who is taking this shot? Why are we all looking in different directions? I look miserable, but I know that this was a happy time, full of nappies, and milk, bedtime stories, incomprehensible childhood p...

Every serious writer is a master of procrastination. I am sure that, if you are reading this, you are  already on track. However, if you are running out of ideas, I would like to share with you my top procrastination tips. I can guarantee that if you follow these, you will never finish a novel again. 1.      Make a ‘to do’ list. If you think list-making helps avoid procrastination, you are doing it wrong.     There is only one possible pad you can use for list making and only one pen. You keep them in any one of several places about the house. To find them you will have to clean your office/workspace, reorganise your bedside cabinet and clear all kitchen surfaces. Clearing kitchen surfaces necessitates making room in your cupboards. Your pen is obviously a cartridge pen which takes only one (obscure) brand of cartridges which are rarely in stock anywhere, necessitating several hours online and/or a shopping expedition.    ...

  From BBC archive Churchill Theatre's Cinderella. When I was a child my grandmother would take me to the  panto in Cardiff each Christmas. I would squirm with embarrassment at the audience participation, but I adored the transformation  scenes when the lights would change to flood the stage with magic; a pumpkin became a coach, a servant girl  a princess, and the beast  the handsome prince. I’ll be honest Panto is not a great preparation for life - don’t get me started on frog kissing, or on lying around on a bed of thorns waiting to be rescued -  but it fed my imagination as a writer.  Everyone knows that writing is all about transformation. Words on a page transform into story, the story transforms into a book and the humble scribe, by dint of performing a set of obscure magical tasks, is, with publication, transformed into a real writer just as surely as Pinoccio becomes a real boy. Once I accepted the logic of this, as I accepted that a...