Writing about cultures you don’t know personally and places you’ve never visited is a hard task. Some people say you shouldn’t even try, that getting it wrong is the fastest way to loose readers and ruin your career before it even begins. Just dodge writing about places you’ve never been. Who wants that grenade to…
In Support of Black Lives: An Anthology for Change
Like many people when they saw the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, I was shocked, appalled, and unsurprised. I was disgusted at how unsurprised I was. This has happened far too often to be truly shocking anymore.
Don’t Call Yourself a Writer
A writer’s natural habitat is the centre of a thousand scraps of loose paper, pouring cement words into deep plot holes, and constantly doubting if they’re doing the right thing. I think writers are a lot more insecure than we give them credit for. If they were more confident, they’d be in the room and telling you the story, not handing you a piece of paper and murmuring ‘enjoy’ with various forms of social media marketing.
Finishing my Manuscript in a Pandemic- Why, How, WHY?!
I’m not proud of a lot of my pandemic life- the constant Doritos-dust fingers, the growing addiction to YouTube, and the frankly uncomfortable amount of time distant relatives have spent inviting me to family zoom meetings, despite the fact we haven’t talked in years (Do you really suddenly miss me, Auntie S? Or do you just miss having a captive audience to rant to about your personal problems?)
Be a Bad Writer at the Right Moment
God, it was therapeutic. I wrote 40,000 words in two weeks. This must be how vegan youtubers feel when they drink green slime for a fortnight- cleansed, ready to start each day with a fresh sheen of annoying optimism and clear skin.
Stop, Write, Now!
Whenever we see a beautiful piece of animation or art, especially if it looks hyperrealistic, our breath is taken away. Disney spent millions of dollars and the better part of the last two decades developing software so things like the water in Moana look realistic. Artists spend entire days, weeks, months, adding layer after layer…
Writer Talk: Representation is Scary
In the weeks since I finished my first novel draft (hold your applause for another year, please), I’ve forced myself to take a break and just write whatever I want for a while. Lately, that’s been fanfiction. What? It’s anonymous, and I can just rant-write whatever I want to happen to the best characters from…
They Don’t Really Care About Us
“I am the voice of the accused and the attacked. I am the voice of everyone. I am the skinhead, I am the Jew, I am the black man, I am the white man. I am not the one who was attacking. It is about the injustices to young people and how the system can wrongfully accuse them. I am angry and outraged that I could be so misinterpreted.” – Micheal Jackson
Why Adults Should Do More Arts ‘n Crafts
Something occurred to me the other week, when I was hotly debating with my seven year-old student about whose turn it was to use the red play-dough…
Words We’ve Nicked from Other Languages- 5
‘BOURGEOIS’ While today ‘bourgeois’ means a self-made, wealthy, middle-class person, in the old days it emerged from the French word ‘burgeis’, meaning ‘townsperson’. Karl Marx popularised the term, and there is a popular misconception he used the word to negatively label the upper classes- NOT SO! However, the myth persists. Even though Marx only ever…
‘I’m Wishing’ in Snow White is Everything My Childhood Didn’t Need
When you think about Disney’s Snow White, you probably think about that iconic final shot of Snow and her Unnamed Prince riding into the sunset.
My opinion of the movie used to be like that.
Creativity in Captivity: Top 5 Books for Uninspired Writers
It’s hard to have ideas when you haven’t got outside influences to inspire you. Here are the best books for when you want to write during quarantine but can’t figure out what to write about.
LitLangIsLife 