Everything is a story. A poem, a piece of fiction, a piece of non-fiction. I’m not just saying that because I’m a writer. Everyone mythologises the things that happen to them. Whenever you say do you remember that time you …? is you sharing a story. People feed into their diaries; they write letters; they assemble… Read More Friday
You have to create convincing dead ends for your character to go down. Stumbling into the forward motion of a story can sometimes be more lifelike and convincing than something that moves along with no friction. People make plans but life happens and some stories forget that. If a plan went accordingly each time then… Read More Thursday
Taika Watiti is getting to make some very idiosyncractic projects and I don’t think I have seen one that I didn’t like yet. Our Flag Means Death in its best moments makes me think of Blackadder. What We Do In The Shadows is in a similar vein, and also tickles the funnybone. Thor: Ragnarok was my way… Read More Wednesday
The way that Vince Gilligan builds his characters, breaks them slightly, and allows them to stumble on a little. Edging you forward in a way that helps you believe, like the character is believing, that maybe that big break is just around the corner, and he keeps building with that until the character and you… Read More Tuesday
How you tell a story is very important. Have you watched the series Dear … on Apple TV? It is pretty inspiring. It takes you through someone’s biography by looking at how they have influenced others — these others walk you through their lives, in beautifully choreographed ambulations, as they read a letter to the… Read More Monday
There are structures and systems of organisation that you sometimes need in place before creativity can bloom. I am always trying to do that inbetween creating. It can be as simple as organising wires, as having some kind of plan for the day; some kind of idea for what direction you want to go in.… Read More Saturday
Always, so often, getting back in the successful actions that kept you thinking in the right way to produce lots of high-quality work, means seeing quite how much work you have let drop out. Set yourself high goals, but then you have to try and at least meet some of them. That sounds promising, eh?… Read More Friday
It’s been a weird year. For not having succumbed to Covid, I feel like I have had every allergy and leaky body part it is possible to have without bits dropping off. Great way to break into a new post, right? When you haven’t posted in a while, but hey, them are the breaks. My… Read More Friday
I try not to get derailed by what is going on in the world, but sometimes it slams into you and leaves you reeling. Who would have thought that what happened today was possible? I am guilty myself of thinking that there was a lot of empty rhetoric there. I had them pegged as hateful… Read More Wednesday
My wife was suffering from toothache last night. It is one of those unique pains that it is hard to tamp down even with pain killers. She gargled salt water and ACD. We tried all kinds of things. It was getting late, and in order for us both not to be toast the next day… Read More Tuesday