20 years into making my living as a writer, I’m neccessarily a sentence obsessive. I chose to spend my weekend revising sentence structure, a task I undertook with the help of Brooks Landons’ Building Great Sentences, my favorite text on the subject. Sentence revision filled my Saturday and Sunday for two reasons; I’m planning aContinue reading “Your Voice Is In The Sentences You Write”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
Tolkien’s myths are a political fantasy
In a world built on myth, we can’t ignore the reactionary politics at the heart of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. What is the Rhetoric of Story? It’s a double-edged magical sword, being a fan of JRR Tolkien. On one hand we’ve had the joy of watching Lord of the Rings go from cult success to, arguably,Continue reading “Tolkien’s myths are a political fantasy”
Why teach writing? To learn of course.
There’s a story of a lazy Buddhist adept, whose name escapes me, who was made to teach a lesson by his master. The student never paid attention in class, or did his chores around the monastery. But when made to teach, he gave a long lecture on compassion, that remains a high Buddhist teaching toContinue reading “Why teach writing? To learn of course.”
Game of Thrones is epic fantasy for social justice warriors
Game of Thrones and Hilary Mantell’s Wolf Hall offer two different takes on how social justice overpowers aristocratic elites. In the age of Trump, we need these social justice metaphors more than ever. The cosmetic similarities between Game of Thrones and Wolf Hall are not hard to list. Both occupy a similar period in history,Continue reading “Game of Thrones is epic fantasy for social justice warriors”
How do stories work?
The Rhetoric of Story isn’t a writing a course. It’s the answer to a question that has fascinated me for over a decade. How do stories work? How do a few words on a page, some flickering images on a screen, convince us for a time that we are a different person, living a differentContinue reading “How do stories work?”
Game of Thrones: 6 predictions for season 7
Just watched episode one of season 7 and RAWWWWR that’s some powerful storytelling. George has been skillfully setting up these epic conflicts, getting us emotionally invested in every one, and now they’re all about to pay off. Ice and Fire are ready to clash at last. The only question now is, what twists will GRRMContinue reading “Game of Thrones: 6 predictions for season 7”
The principle of creative opposition
I’m reading Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had reading a Pynchon novel. And I think I know why. Creative. Opposition. Pynchon is an ideas man. High-concept, conspiracy theorist, humanity as an organic mishap in a grinding clockwork universe kind of ideas. Inherent Vice is a small scale, comedy ofContinue reading “The principle of creative opposition”
The poetics of SF
Science fiction is scared of language. It’s practitioners come, in bulk, from the numbered disciplines. Physicists. Engineers. Coders. The number is absolute. Seven is seven is seven is seven. It’s not six and it’s not eight. This is the whole point of whole numbers.
Is another world possible?
I grew up with these words, “another world is possible”. On the two council estates I lived on until I was 18. At the radical bookshops I found in my late teens. In the ant-capitalist protests I joined in my 20s. Working for New Internationalist, then Amnesty. And now, I see the idea has madeContinue reading “Is another world possible?”
DAMO: Rebranded
My general approach to productivity is: if I don’t remember to do it, it’s probably better undone. But I do handwrite a ToDo list every couple of weeks. Not to remember things, but to forget them. A swirl of tasks in the mind gets in the way of more creative thinking. Writing them out asContinue reading “DAMO: Rebranded”
The trouble with intersectional political alliances as illustrated in Star Wars
Intersectionality is a powerful idea conveyed in an overcomplicated word. But Star Wars is a great way to understand it better. One thing I love about scifi? It provides all the best metaphors to help folks understand the fierce complexities of contemporary politics. Mid-way through the snap UK general election a lot of Harry-Potter-as-political-metaphor memesContinue reading “The trouble with intersectional political alliances as illustrated in Star Wars”
Rhetoric of Story weekend sale!
A year ago I began recording a set of 7 talks for the Rhetoric of Story. This week I recorded the seventh. The large gap between the 6th talk, recorded last September, and the 7th talk, came for a simple reason. I got very sick in January. I’m fine now, but while I was recoveringContinue reading “Rhetoric of Story weekend sale!”
Damien Walter 