Libby

That’s brilliant, Sandra. I still have a couple of books on my TBR list from last year’s festival.

In the end I didn’t sign up for this year’s Edinburgh events as I diverted my money to doing the School — Galley Beggar Press critical reading course.

Thank you for a fascinating blog, Richard.

I don’t know that things improved when coal was nationalised. The Aberfan disaster suggests not but I don’t know the details. It seems that in general workers in all industries had to wait for health and safety legislation and that the general public sill has a long road ahead of applying pressure when…[Read more]

Hi @Daedalus

Thanks for taking time out to answer my thoughts.

I hadn’t thought of it that way before, that film/video is better at placing significant information in the background of shots. That’s something that can be difficult in writing — at least I find it difficult — and often requires a setting to be introduced earlier than the.…[Read more]

Brilliant news, Richard! Many congratulations.

And Kate too. Really good.

Congratulations @alex . Well deserved.

I loved Ath’s and Knicks’ stories too. So atmospheric and full of life’s complications.

Congratulations to both of you. Good luck for the shortlist.

I think ‘potentially static’ probably referenced one of those generalised statements that crop up when creative writing is discussed. There could be a nugget of wisdom in there but as shorthand it’s too cryptic to decipher and I couldn’t reverse engineer it to anything that might be a pitfall we should be aware of. It doesn’t seem to be like the…[Read more]

It is odd. Almost as if the commentator was doing a list for a creative writing course: what are the pros and cons of etc etc. But among the reasons I have for not enjoying a novel or short story, static-ness (?) isn’t among them. Slowness, yes of course, and an apparent lack of narrative thread, and straightforward dullness, but I don’t think…[Read more]

Hmm, essay alert — me pontificating. I think Modernists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf had an excellent  grasp on the categories of psychic distance, although they probably didn’t call it that, going instead for stream of consciousness, free indirect style and omniscience. They announced themselves to be influenced by cinema and used it…[Read more]