As many of you know, my first collection of essays, Waterlines, has been out in a limited way since late last year. I am now getting ready to do a small print run so that I can provide you with personally signed copies. Rest assured it's been well proofed I’m ordering the first batch in South Africa specifically so I can sign them for you before I head back to the UK. It is a bit of a race against the calendar to get them done before I leave, so if you’d like a signed copy, please let us know...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Every writer has heard the injunction show, don't tell. Most have heard it so many times it has lost whatever pertinence or, at least, edge, it once had. So, let's take it as read, move past it, and talk about the trap that waits on the other side. Because there is one. This week off the water Writers who've absorbed the show-don’t-tell lesson often find themselves reaching for what you might call illustrated explanation – a gesture that is really just a showy word or phrase dressed up in...
8 days ago • 6 min read
There's a principle in physics called the inverse square law. You'll have encountered it in school: the intensity of light, or gravity, or sound, diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance from its source. Double the distance, the effect doesn't halve – it quarters. It's a ruthless relationship. This week off the water I've been thinking lately about whether something similar operates in what you might call the information economy of a thriller or a mystery. Not as a precise...
15 days ago • 7 min read
Hello Reader, My stomach hurt. That wasn’t a good sign. But I couldn’t bail. Not at this late stage. This week under the water I’d signed up for this, so I must’ve thought I could do it. But, could I? I’d never swum quite this far – and there was a stretch, from Windmill Beach to Fisherman’s, I’d never tackled at all. But I’d always, always wanted to. Okay, eat something. Not too much. You don’t want to feel heavy. Skins or wetsuit? Skins or wetsuit? Easier in skins, but it would be a long...
18 days ago • 6 min read
Hello Reader, Thank you so much for joining us for our memoir writing webinar, Get Stuck Into Your Life. What a session it was. We were moved and inspired by how many of you shared your reasons for wanting to write your memoir – from leaving a legacy for family, to making sense of life’s turning points, to finding the courage to tell stories that need to be heard. The chat was alive with powerful, honest responses, and it reminded us just how rich and varied the stories in our community are....
20 days ago • 1 min read
Sustained writing takes at least two kinds of energy, two acts of commitment, if you like. This week on the water You start with the tendril of an idea, a whisper of a story, something that, for reasons that are frequently inexplicable, excite your imagination. It doesn’t have to be much, but there’s something about it that beckons you, that says: “This is worth thinking about,” or, perhaps better, “This is something that generates a particular feeling in me that I want to explore, in a...
22 days ago • 6 min read
Hello Reader, Write the Memoir You've Always Dreamt of Have you been sitting on your story? It's time to get stuck in. There's a moment in every would-be memoirist's life when the urge to tell your story becomes impossible to ignore. Maybe you've been thinking about it for years. Maybe something happened recently that made you realise: this needs to be written. But where do you start? Which slice of your life matters most? And what will you do when the obstacles inevitably appear? Join Joanne...
27 days ago • 1 min read
Robert Pirosh was an Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter who penned either alone or with writing partners some of Tinseltown’s most famous productions, including the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera, The Wizard of Oz, I Married a Witch, and the television series which later inspired the film, The Fugitive. This week on the water He started out in New York as a copywriter for an ad agency – but he had always longed to emigrate to Los Angeles and make his name in the capital of celluloid....
29 days ago • 4 min read
In last week's webinar, we asked our audience, among other things, to identify the single biggest obstacle standing between them and their writing goals for this year. I expected a scatter of responses – time management, plotting problems, finding an agent. Instead, person after person named the same thing: the inner critic. That voice telling them they're not good enough, that they're imposters, that they lack real talent. This week on the water I've been thinking about this all week,...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read