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a busy period
I’m coming into a busy couple of weeks and I’m unsure of how much time I’ll have to allocate to blogging. While there is a certain requirement these days for people to blog/tweet/etc. on a regular basis, it does impinge upon my allotted ‘free’ time. Over the coming two weeks that free time is shrinking considerably as a large project with a tight deadline just landed with a thud on my desk. I also have two active projects that are simmering, with one of them coming up to a whistling boil. So, here’s a photo I took in Stockholm, during my recent trip. It’s one of a series of murals…
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the finish line
NaNoWriMo ended yesterday, and I passed the finish line by writing 50,000 words in a month. I’m pleased that I hit the goal, and the challenge highlighted the fact that there is always time to write if I cut back on the time-wasting activities and ensure that writing is a priority. One of the problems I encountered with keeping to the schedule was a creeping sense of boredom began to pervade my day. I realised that I had to introduce some variety into my schedule, and having the same writing time every day just doesn’t suit my temperament. An interesting side-effect is that I hardly drank any alcohol during November…
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three secrets of writing
The picture on the right is Sir Terry Pratchett twenty years ago when he attended the first Octocon convention in Ireland as Guest of Honour. It was early in his career, and I remember him as affable, friendly and willing to socialise with the fans (not always the case with authors). The convention introduced me to his work, and I’ve been an admirer of his Discworld novels ever since. Today, Pratchett has sold over 70 million books worldwide and his hair is much whiter. He’s also coping with early-onset Alzheimer’s with rare honesty, as evidenced in last year’s two-part BBC documentary. Pratchett is currently in Trinity College Dublin for a…
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the drum is the most important instrument
I was chatting with a guy I know about films tonight. He makes documentaries, and has a tremendous knowledge of cinema, but has a definite bias towards arthouse films with something to say. It’s great discussing movies with him because he knows so much about alternative films, especially those made in the 1970s – the last decade when avant garde cinema was considered a viable, and even necessary, market. We have a lot of overlap in taste, but I also enjoy the cinema of pure entertainment, which doesn’t appeal to him at all. It’s an interesting conundrum when you consider writing for film. Do you tackle the project that you…
