Blog and Sheds and Sheds and Blogs

Just back from the smoke full of inspirational thoughts garnered from three excellent seminars organised by the Society of Authors. In the light of my ongoing shed odyssey, was thrilled to discover that first on the podium was Alex Johnson, author of the excellent...

Going AWOL

Am off to London for conference on E-Publishing (amongst other things). Hope to come back not much older but considerably wiser.See you next week…
Layer With Flair: What to Do When You Finish the First Draft

Layer With Flair: What to Do When You Finish the First Draft

The plaster on the inside of my house-shaped shed is drying out.  Soon, it will be ready for painting and then the shelves will go up and the desk will go in and I will start to think about what pictures to put on the walls and then, finally, I will be able to start...
The Chaos Theory?

The Chaos Theory?

It’s chaos round our house, absolute chaos. The Steves are meant to be moving on in ten days time, so that we can move back in, but I cannot believe that this is even faintly possible. OK, so the windows have glass in them, the plastering in my house-shaped shed...
How to Be a Lean Mean Writing Machine

How to Be a Lean Mean Writing Machine

Padding is great for sheds – the more of it the better, as far as I’m concerned, because I’m hoping it’s going to keep me warm and toasty the whole winter through. It ain’t so good for novels, though.  There can sometimes be the...
Creative Writing – Thrift not Drift

Creative Writing – Thrift not Drift

As well as stamina, fiction writers need good organisational skills in order to be able to stay the course.  As you are pounding through what can sometimes seem like the interminable stretches of the middle part of your story,  you may find that you write yourself up...
Creative Writing – the Weirdness of the Middle Period

Creative Writing – the Weirdness of the Middle Period

Hmm. Yes. Well. To the untutored eye (mine?) you might think that nothing much was going on in the world of shed-building, but that’s where you’d be wrong, so terribly wrong.  In fact, there’s felt on the roof (held down with bricks, admittedly), the...
On the Inside Looking Out – Writing in the First Person

On the Inside Looking Out – Writing in the First Person

The first person is a difficult gift for a writer, it’s a complex knot of challenges and benefits that can sometimes take several attempts to untangle.  It’s a brilliant conduit right to the heart of the narrator of your story — you can monitor every...
My Viewpoint On Point of View

My Viewpoint On Point of View

I took this picture of my shed from the house, from the outside looking in (note the progress — windows!  walls!)  It’s a particular perspective: it gives me a sense of location and proportion; I’ve got a great idea of how my little bolthole relates...