Category Archives: Writing Journal

The Death of Advertising

Autoplay video ads are popping up all over the internet. Facebook will be putting them in your feed soon (yet another reason to vacate Facebook for any serious purpose) But don’t take this as a sign of behemoth advertising dominating the internet. It’s the last gasp of a dying industry. The real money in advertisingContinue reading “The Death of Advertising”

Your Government vs. Your Tech Provider

We might be facing the most largest tectonic shift in the power structures in the modern era since World War One finally ended the old empires of Europe. But this isn’t a conflict between the interests of nation states. It’s a power struggle over you, and the question of to who you owe your primaryContinue reading “Your Government vs. Your Tech Provider”

Why stories compel the human soul

Stories don’t just distract us. Walk in to the average home and see how many ways we give ourselves to escape in to stories. Break down the 24 hours of the day and see how many of them we spend immersed in fictional worlds. Stories are a compulsion. For some, an addiction. If politicians everContinue reading “Why stories compel the human soul”

All our genres be broken

Take a look at this marvellous think piece by Gareth L Powell on the problems with defining science fiction by its Golden Age origins. (I should add that the Golden Age isn’t the origin of science fiction any more than McDonalds was the origin of the burger. It’s just the moment it got reduced inContinue reading “All our genres be broken”

How difficult is it to write a good book?

Here’s an interesting experiment you can replicate if you ever have a class of creative writing students. I’ve tried it a number of times. Give the students a set of writing samples. Have them sort through the samples and categorise them as “good” or “not good”. Regardless of the level of experience of the students,Continue reading “How difficult is it to write a good book?”

Had. Or, why do we accept sub-standard prose?

So. For a series of odd reasons now forgotten I was reading the opening passage of Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey on Amazon, which lead me to comment on the annoying use of the word ‘had’ and various contractions based upon it (she’d, who’d etc) that the author employs. I don’t often dissectContinue reading “Had. Or, why do we accept sub-standard prose?”

There is no such thing as exposure

There is one absolute and inalienable fact about creativity; your success as a creator is 100% dependent on how good you are. I say this as a pre-cursor to talking about one of the most pernicious problems creators are faced with. Being asked to work for free. The shady types who make these requests rarelyContinue reading “There is no such thing as exposure”

How to be in the moment and write better words

Where is your mind when you write? We immediately think that our mind is far away. Away with the fairies. Gone to another world. The world of the story. Our mind is inside the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters. Inside another mind. Have you ever begun to write and realised you’ve been justContinue reading “How to be in the moment and write better words”

The revolution will not be realism

We live in times of immense change. Technology is a tool of change, but it’s the lives and desires of all seven billion humans on the planet really driving change. And, whether you welcome the change or not (I’m among those greeting it with open arms) you can’t doubt that it is very real. ButContinue reading “The revolution will not be realism”

On being bossed around by Neil Gaiman

I’ve been outlandishly busy in recent weeks. So much so that I haven’t been able to post anything personal here on my blog. One of the costs of having more freelance writing than you can do is that it squeezes out the personal projects that you love. So here’s a round-up on some of whatContinue reading “On being bossed around by Neil Gaiman”