Podcasts and Videos

Is prewriting like pre-cooking?

cars-cookingSometimes when we’re making dinner, we need to do some pre-cooking.  This  involves an element of preparation that has to happen before the dish can be assembled.  So how is prewriting like pre-cooking?  Here’s an excellent 15 minute podcast which looks at the process of prewriting.  There are some great ideas here about how to prepare even before putting words on the page: freewriting, research, writing monologues for your characters, plotting and outlining. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Literary Dystopias

This week, I’m posting a podcast on literary dystopias (from the Guardian Books series), with Canadian author Emily St John Mandel and Clemens J Setz.

I’ve always loved novels that look to the future, reconfiguring how society is organised and how technology impacts on daily life.   [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity and the myth of genius

October 29, 2014

 http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius   ‘Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your […]

Read the full article →

Glasgow Women’s Library: 21 Revolutions, Jackie Kay

October 22, 2014

Over the past year, Glasgow Women’s Library have been running a brilliant project to celebrate women’s lives – by having contemporary Scottish women writers respond to pieces in the library as inspiration for their work.  Here’s a podcast from the fabulous Jackie Kay, reading the pieces inspired by the collection (scroll down the page a bit […]

Read the full article →