When writing, keeping a tally of your daily word count can be a great tool to keep up the momentum. My first experience of this was last November, during NaNoWriMo where the aim is to write 50,000 words in a month. To achieve this you need to write, on average, 1667 words EVERY SINGLE DAY. The great thing about NaNoWrimo…
Yes, this penultimate A-Z post is dedicated to YOU, the people that actually make the effort to read and comment and share all of this content that I have been producing. One of the main reasons I wanted to undertake the A-Z challenge was to breathe some life back in to my often neglected old blog. I created the site…
This song was inspired by a BBC documentary I watched a few years ago called ‘How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin‘. It told the story of how, despite being banned from the former Soviet Union, the Fab Four’s music still managed to find it’s way on to the turntables of the oppressed masses – causing a minor musical revolution in…
Common courtesy. What is it? Well, for one thing, it certainly isn’t as common as it used to be (I now realise that statement makes me sound about a hundred years old, and you may now be picturing me smoking a pipe, squinting into the middle distance and chuntering about ‘the good old days’). In reality, I’m a mere 36…
“It’s not where you take things from . . . it’s where you take them to.” The above is a quote from ground-breaking French film maker, Jean-Luc Godard. Godard wasn’t afraid to take influences from his favourite works – be that in film, literature or music – and put them in to his own work. He was supremely confident that…
In a recent interview with the BBC, eccentric and brilliant actress, Miriam Morgolyes was asked a very simple question: “Are you satisfied?” Miriam has had a very successful career, gaining critical and public acclaim, including winning several prestigious awards. She has a wealth of experience in radio, TV, stage and film as well as completing a world tour with her…
I wrote this song a few years ago, not long after Tony Blair left office as UK Prime Minister. At the time it was becoming increasingly clear that he may have greatly exaggerated the truth to ensure that the UK entered the war in Iraq. Like many people, I was angry and shocked at his dismissal of the whole incident…
As a writer we need to have the ability to disappear in to the background. To observe. To extract meaning from body language, action and reaction. To study human relationships. To unearth great dialogue. To ask the ‘what-if’ questions and let our imaginations run free. All in the pursuit of the story. Which means, we need to know when to…
I think we would all agree that the Internet has brought with it a plethora of benefits for both the consumer and the producer of products, music, books and art. As a musician, I can record a song in my garage and 5 minutes later I can have it online ready to be enjoyed by my masses of adoring fans…
As Greta Garbo once famously said, “I want to be alone!” Cue sharp intake of breath from those around you as they stare in stunned silence like you’ve just told them Lassie is dead. Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but why is wanting a little quality time for yourself seen as being just a little strange? How rude! In today’s…