Starting as Story TS Eliot Style

In my beginning is my end…I love TS Eliot’s eloquent line from East Coker (The Four Quartets) – the melancholy in it is balanced and weighed and there is an inevitability about it which I find appealing.Eliot’s elegant summary of the trajectory of a...

Top Tips for Starting a Novel

I am – I think – on the threshold of starting my Next Major Work. If you detect a note of caution, it’s because I’m not absolutely certain that I’m ready to begin, even though I started making notes about possible ideas last May, so I’ve...
Your Starter for Ten (or Twelve, Actually)

Your Starter for Ten (or Twelve, Actually)

A new year starting, a mass of writing  resolutions to live up to, a new door opening… Here’s a little exercise to give you some momentum now that 2012 is upon us. Take a random selection of five objects: on my desk at the moment I have a diary, a CD, a...