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In: On the Road, Uncategorized

I have no doubt getting out and about clears the stale ideas and makes way for new ones.  Travel is such a tonic, don’t you think?  Particularly for writers.  It’s not only about different places, it’s about different rhythms.  My days are not going to plan.  Things happen that cure me of excessive planning.  Not only do I not get my cup of coffee at ten o’clock as I am accustomed, I have not managed this once since my journey began.  Not once, and while this would throw me into a rage at home, I’m not much bothered.  Strangely, it doesn’t stop me in myRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.  Mostly I think about it in terms of characters.  To breathe life into a complete invention, there needs to be a back story,  if only in the author’s head.  It’s a reverse engineering of sorts.  We go backwards to justify the present.  We see the parts to justify the whole.  But what of real people?  What would we be…who would we be, if we didn’t live where we do, have the families we have, have made the decisions we have made or been required to do the things we have done?  Who would we be? Writers play with theseRead More →

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In: The Making of Numb, Uncategorized

It’s a marathon this novel writing thing, even if it can resemble a hysterical dash and a collapse over the finish line.  What is the writer equivalent of lactic acid build-up I wonder?   My brain is just as fried, my arse is numb and my shoulders are frozen so now I look like a person who shrugs….And all is the result of my groping and spewing and cajoling myself toward ‘THE END’. Sometimes it feels like I don’t care anymore, particularly when I’m so very close to finishing the first draft.  I want it over now, so I can amputate it and move on.  If truth be told,Read More →

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In: Creativity, Human Nature, Writing

It’s one thing having a great idea.  It’s another to capture it in a way which will resonate with you hours, days, weeks or even years later.  It’s what’s needed though for sometimes it takes that long for an idea to find its way into a story.  In fact, I contend that those writerly notes, which still inspire us to make something of them years later are the best of the best.  That is note-taking done well. The writerly note is not just about what happens or who it happens to, even though it may contain plot points and quick character sketches.  It may beRead More →

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In: Uncategorized

  Taking notice, being attentive, bearing witness, practicing mindfulness.  What is this hocus-pocus?  Being present is hard.  We have not trained for it, or else we did as children and then forgot it all when we became practiced in presuming.  I am thinking that to live a mindful life is what a writer must do even if their job is to create fantastic or futuristic worlds. I am thinking the creation of worlds may be a transformative process, which begins in this realm and grows beyond it.  Our imaginary worlds may echo with today.  These echoes could be the bridge or portal through which the reader steps and so weRead More →

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In: Creativity, Reading, Writing

  We draw them.  We colour them in.  We make them do things and somewhere along the line, we breathe life into them.  They start to move around in our minds.  They talk to us, making their preferences clear.  “Yes, I’ll do that, but not this.”  They develop proclivities and phobias.  They live. It is the weirdest thing.  In any other job, there would be alarm followed by a long ‘holiday’.  There would be flowers sent and whispers following us down hallways upon release.  Because it is weird, right? American children’s book writer, Lois Lowry says, “When I create characters, I create a world to inhabitRead More →

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In: Human Nature, Stories, Writing

Imagine laying beside a pool in Maui, enduring a conversation between an aggressively lazy boyfriend telling his partner that if he had booked their holiday, there would have been no confusion over their zip-line adventure tickets. “There would be one point of contact, if I’d organised it,” he says, stretched out on his pool chair, while his girlfriend’s phone trills and she attempts to explain the mix up again to perhaps her tenth point of contact. “You’ve got a big ass,” he decides, when she sits down again.  At this point my partner goes to the bar for a drink because I don’t think he can bearRead More →

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In: Happiness, Human Nature, Science

So desired and yet so illusive. Look it in the eye, demand a piece of it and more than likely it will disappear and we are left wondering if it was there at all. It’s like catching glimpses of  beauty across a crowded room, being caught out and feeling like a stalker.   Our desire for happiness becomes our downfall. I blame Aristotle and his down-to-earth practicalities.  He was one of the first to dangle it out there. In following a line of enquiry, this philosopher asked “Why?” again and again in response to reasons for many human endeavours, until to ask, “Why?” one more time became ridiculous.Read More →

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In: Human Nature, Reading, Science, Stories, Writing

It’s a tough question and if you are not feeling on top of your game, its a hand grenade.  Still, its the beginning of the year and in the spirit of continuing on with some kind of rationale, I have been attempting to answer this question for myself, but the more I have tried to answer it the more I found reasons not to do it. Reasons Not to Let’s face it!  It’s not an essential industry – well not like brain or heart surgery – not really. It’s not like farming.  Those indefatigable people who toil day in and day out to bring food to the table.Read More →

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In: Human Nature, Love, Science

We say,  “It hurts.”  “Our hearts are broken.”   “It was like being punched in the gut.”  This is the language we use when we attempt to describe how it feels to lose connection with people we love.  Whether it be a romantic break-up, a loss of a friendship or the death of loved one, we talk of the experience in terms of physical pain.  What if the way we describe rejection and loss is not just a metaphor? Neuroscientist, Matthew Lieberman, and social psychologist, Naomi Eisenberger, set out to explore this question using an fMRI machine and a virtual ball tossing game.  To simulate social rejection and what is termed ‘socialRead More →