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Burroughs and Bowie- Using The Cut Up Technique. Part 2 thumb

Burroughs and Bowie- Using The Cut Up Technique. Part 2

The Cut-Up technique- in which words, or fragments of ideas are combined in random combinations- has a long artistic tradition. It is popularly associated with William Burroughs (although it can be traced to the Dadaist artistic movement, who used surprise, shock and absurdity to confront the audience in new and often frightening ways). The cut-up […]

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Using the cut up technique. Part 1. thumb

Using the cut up technique. Part 1.

The idea is that you can ‘use the site to read and/or write stories that take advantage of the possibilities of the digital medium by building in a lot of randomisation, so that a given story is different each time you load it.’

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Letting a book settle thumb

Letting a book settle

It’s only since I’ve been regularly reviewing books every month for a magazine that I’ve started to think about how I read, as well as how I write

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Only Artists thumb

Only Artists

Although all the artists have fascinating things to say, as a creative writer I prick up my ears when writers are talking, to see if I can pick up any tips, or just have that moment where you think…yes, that’s so true!

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Women’s History Month: Aemilia Lanyer thumb

Women’s History Month: Aemilia Lanyer

Since March is Women’s History Month it seems like a good time to celebrate the work of women writers from an earlier age. Fortuitously, as joint editor of NAWE’s Higher Education Journal, Writing in Practice No 5, I read an article by Sally O’Reilly analysing her approach to writing a historical novel, Dark Aemelia,  (Myriad Editions, 2015) about Shakespeare and his relationship with Aemilia Lanyer, a contemporary poet, and a possible identity for the Dark Lady of his sonnets.

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Writing Tales: Amos Oz (1939 – 2018) Israeli writer of novels, tales, poems and essays. thumb

Writing Tales: Amos Oz (1939 – 2018) Israeli writer of novels, tales, poems and essays.

Amos Oz, who died in December 2018,  has always been an important writer for me, not only because of his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, but also because of his multi-part solutions to writing, whether it be with reference to subject matter, context, genre or viewpoint.

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Creative writing- dealing with shifts in time. Part 2. thumb

Creative writing- dealing with shifts in time. Part 2.

In a modular story, jumps across the time frame are presumably happening for a reason- to flesh out one character through a new perspective, or to offer contrasting accounts, perhaps in a cat and mouse style story. This demands that the reader conceptually organise what is going on. The way to use time in a modular story will be apparent depending on why you have chosen the modular form!

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Creative writing- dealing with shifts in time. Part 1. thumb

Creative writing- dealing with shifts in time. Part 1.

But one area is often missed. It’s an area of uncertainty I’ve noticed a few students enquire about- and that’s how to handle the time frame. Particularly the transitions between scenes.

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Writers and the world of work , or that’s not a job! thumb

Writers and the world of work , or that’s not a job!

A friend once introduced me to some people at a party as a poet, and straight away someone loudly responded with that’s not a job!

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Transitioning thumb

Transitioning

My old school. Well they’ve still got the 11+ but never mind, I’ll  go along all the same, do a talk and maybe a workshop. They still sing the Harrow School Song as their school song: the tramp of the 22 men  in a single sex girls’ school. Well maybe they are transitioning. After all this is LGBT history month.

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