This is the fourth instalment in my reread of Dorothea Brande’s remarkable 1934 book, Becoming a Writer. You can find part one here. In part one Dorothea Brande described the four key difficulties that prevent a person from writing. In the second chapter, she takes a closer look at what functional, professional writers are (generally speaking) like as a group. In part three, Dorothea takes a closer look at the advantages of splitting yourself into two people in your writing life. Continue reading
Author Archives: Christopher Johnstone
Tom Shippey Discusses Tolkien: Book to Film
I read Tom Shippey’s The Road to Middle-Earth years ago, back when The Fellowship of the Ring was filming. I remember being sort of just stunned at the depth of insight in the work. It added whole new layers to the Middle-Earth story for me. Shippey has since gone on to be recognised as the world’s foremost Tolkien scholar. Continue reading
Why Is Game Fiction Often So Terrible?
At first glance this might either puzzle you, or it might ring gongs of accord, and yet still puzzle you. By ‘game fiction’ I mean the sort of fiction either produced by game companies (though in particular pencil and paper roleplaying game companies), and in particular, in particular, the fiction that would actually be somewhere in the rules book itself. Continue reading
Through Woods Of Eerie Names
HOBGOBLIN AND SWEET PUCK: FAIRY NAMES AND NATURES
Gillian Edwards (1974) ISBN: 0713807105
Hobgoblin and Sweet Puck is one of those books that I’ve picked up a couple times in libraries but just managed somehow to read the wrong passages, then put it down again with an odd feeling that I ought to want to read it, but didn’t in particular. Continue reading
An Insightful Examination Of An Unusual Path
Elizabeth Hyde Stevens 2013 ISBN 9781477817384
My attention was first drawn to this book when Mary Robinette Kowal mentioned on Writing Excuses that she had recently recorded the audiobook version. The idea sounded fascinating – an examination of how Jim Henson balanced the art side of his work against the business side of his work, and yet somehow managed to do the miraculous, and wildly succeed at both. Continue reading
Self-Publishing In The Age of Information Overload #2
This is the second in my series on self-publishing. To begin with I wanted to have a quick look at what sorts of self-publishing options exist, both electronic and not electronic. You can read the first post in this series here.
I’m going to divide publishing options into four broad categories, outlined below: Continue reading
Murder Your Darlings
This is the final in my short series where I’ve attempted to root out the origin of some writing adages and put them in context. It seems more than likely that “murder your darlings” should be the easiest of these to hunt down. Continue reading
Show Don’t Tell
After hunting up an early reference to Write What You Know, I thought I’d have a quick hunt for that other old adage of writing advice, Show Don’t Tell. This is another piece of advice that is useful in some but not all instances for some but not all writers.
If you tend to over-labour your writing and use too much description then you might well need to tell not show, after all. Usually telling is required when you need to keep the pace going quickly and when the immediate scene is of less importance, either to the story or the character. You can think of this as a ‘zoom’ even. Continue reading
Write What You Know
I was listening to an author interview today when the interviewer mentioned that old adage from writing school – write what you know. As far as writing what you know about emotionally this bit of advice sort of makes sense, though it is more often taken far more literally both by would-be writers and their teachers. When taken literally the adage makes little sense. Continue reading
Perhaps We Could Make Signs? Mine Would Say: Australians Wear Hats!
The Miles Franklin Award was announced this week, going to Evie Wyld for All the Birds, Singing. The Miles Franklin is a very long-standing award and its announcement put me in mind of past controversies. I wondered if there was already a controversy around Evie Wyld’s win – a half-hearted Google rummage doesn’t seem to turn up rancour thus far at least. Nonetheless, it is the Miles Franklin after all, and sooner or later someone will complain about something. Continue reading
Becoming A Writer Reread #3
Dorothea Brande
This is the third instalment in my reread of Dorothea Brande’s remarkable 1934 book, Becoming a Writer. You can find part one here. In part one Dorothea Brande described the four key difficulties that prevent a person from writing. In the second chapter, she takes a closer look at what functional, professional writers are (generally speaking) like as a group. In part three, Dorothea takes a closer look at the advantages of splitting yourself into two people in your writing life. Continue reading
A Darkly Restrained Elegance Of Storytelling
Emily Carroll
The Hole the fox did make is an elegant, beautiful and restrained ghostly tale presented as a drawn story. Saying too much will give away too much, and in any instance, Hole the fox did make is short enough that you can and should just go ahead and read it right away.
If you like that, the author, Emily Carroll has several other charming, scary, radiant stories at her site. The art style is strongly modern with what might almost be a pop art / literary vibe to it. In terms of art, I’m reminded of something partway between You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack and Hark, a Vagrant, but with a clear strong storyteller’s voice rather than one-off humorous jibes.