You might not notice when you started writing something. An idea can take years to develop, and years more to come to fruition. But looking back can be revealing and help you look forward. If you’ve never tried this, I absolutely recommend it. Inspired by Margy Thomas and Helen Sword in #Acwrimoments8 I decided toContinue reading “Women writing socially in academia: the lineage of an idea”
Tag Archives: writing about writing
Lydia Davis – Essays One
Here is one of those delightful books that lure you into the pages of their fellows. Reading it, I kept wanting to send photos of pages to particular people. And to read what she’s been reading. By the end, I felt I had made a new friend. Lydia Davis is deftly insightful about her ownContinue reading “Lydia Davis – Essays One”
When should you write in a language you learned later in life?
When should you write in a language you learned later in life? Some people never do. They are monolingual and they only write in the one language they learned to speak and listen and read and write in as a child. That is true of fewer people than you might think. Some people always do.Continue reading “When should you write in a language you learned later in life?”
Writing with Pleasure
Writing with Pleasure is a pleasure to read. I whizzed through it on the train down to facilitate a writing retreat. I was travelling to a pleasurable writing experience, with people I had written with before as individuals, though not in the same group. But I also knew the experience would be a pain. IContinue reading “Writing with Pleasure”
Social writing – a guide in Finnish
I am delighted to see this book come into being. Johanna Isosävi’s and Camilla Lindholm’s Yhteisöllisen kirjoittamisen opas (Art House 2023) came out last month. It’s the first guide to social writing in Finnish. The book is both practical and inspirational; it packs a lot into a handy paperback. Lindholm and Isosävi run social writingContinue reading “Social writing – a guide in Finnish”
Bodies, writing
We’ve been online and on screen too long. We need to get off, and get out. We know this, but we don’t do this. We need other people to help us do it, together. It’s three years since Covid-19 hit. I wrote about how it affected our writing then. Now, many things are back toContinue reading “Bodies, writing”
The carrier bag theory of fiction
If you read one thing about writing this year, try this. It’s tiny – but transformative. Ursula Le Guin’s own writing is beautiful and she writes about writing wisely, from Words are my Matter to Steering the Craft. But here she goes back to the first stories at the dawn of time and forward toContinue reading “The carrier bag theory of fiction”
Pitch your book
You have a great idea for a book, you’ve begun writing it, you’re sure your readers will appreciate it. You only have to convince a publisher. Where on earth do you start? I’m going to talk about non-fiction here, particularly about creative non-fiction. That means bringing ideas out of academia to a wider readership. I’llContinue reading “Pitch your book”
101 ways to write
Sometimes imposing restrictions on your writing can be freeing. Translators know about this. We turn other people’s words into new ones in a different language that doesn’t work the same way. To quote Ginger Rogers, we do everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards, in heels. If you want to ginger up your writing, get yourContinue reading “101 ways to write”
When to stop writing
Inspirational unlock-your-inner-novelist books, beware! Here’s a Nobelist to tell you like it is. To be fair to Szymborska, she’s not a grand old man of literature who looks down her nose. And when she was writing the letters published in this book, she did mention the Nobel, but not because she’d won it yet. BecauseContinue reading “When to stop writing”
Ridge Writing Retreats 