Category «Miscellany»

Knobbly monsters

Do you know what a knobbly monster is? Having just a few weeks ago come across the term, I’m not ashamed to say that until then I hadn’t a clue — and this, two decades into a career in journalism and writing. So on the basis that surely I can’t be the only one, here’s …

When can you call yourself a writer?

When I tutored writing students, I would get asked this question regularly. When can I call myself a writer? It’s not a straightforward one to answer. Yet on social media, I periodically see established writers be bluntly dogmatic about it: “If you write you’re a writer!” they insist. “End of!” Except no, not ‘end of’ …

Do you want what you think you want?

“All writers dream of writing a best-seller” is a line I’ve read, and heard, many times during my decades of both reading and writing. Do they? Do I? Do I want the stress of writing the thing in the first place, of sacrificing months, possibly years, of my life, under the additional pressure of high …

Three writing blogs

Following the publication of the paperbacks of my books 50 Mistakes Beginner Writers Make and 50 More Mistakes Beginner Writers Make last month I have been pretty busy writing about writerly errors and answering questions about non-fiction. Allow me to direct you towards it all … 1/ First off, Patsy Collins, who runs both her …

What Geoffrey Owens can teach us

At the beginning of this month, actor Geoffrey Owens made the news for being photographed working in Trader Joe’s, a US grocery chain. Monstrous purveyors of fetid journalism the Daily Mail appeared to take pleasure in this purported downfall. “From learning lines to serving the long line!” they sneered, not passing up the opportunity to remark …

Are W and Y vowels?

I am bereft. This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were meant to agree with me. The defeat is even more crushing than it appears, because I voted for myself from an other account. (Cheat.) By my calculations, this means only one voter agreed with my POV. Make yourself known to me, friend; we can set …

Reverse dictionary

I don’t know why I’ve not written about reverse dictionaries before. The subject sprung to mind recently during the weekly Twitter #writingchat — which turned out to be about gifts for writers. Trust me, a reverse dictionary would make a great gift for any writer — but one should be on your own bookshelf too. …

Bloglovin’ and unpaid contributors

Bloglovin’ are looking for contributors. Here, they say they’re after a ‘wave of talented food writers/curators’ willing to contribute ‘1-2 articles per week [unpaid]’ Here, more recently, they’re looking for a ‘wave of talented home decor writers/curators’ willing to contribute ‘1-2 articles per week [unpaid]’. Having secured $7m investment a couple of years ago, I …