The Creative Identity

Intermission

Aptly, for my series on intermissions, I give you the one from the Cavalleria Rusticana. I think this is a piece of music for which the idiom 'pulling at the strings of my heart' was invented. Read more →

Being A Writer

Amongst a plethora of new books at Christmas, I received a particularly beautiful one, Being A Writer. When I returned to work after the break, I chose it as my reading choice for the tube and I veritably flew through its pages. Its contents are arranged into five sections: Becoming A Writer Methods and Means Failing The Art of Writing A Sense of An Ending and include pages and pages of opinions and advice from a hugely disparate number of writers: fiction writers, non-fiction writers, contemporary writers, defunct writers, popular writers, literary writers, screenwriters, short story writers, black writers, Caucasian writers, Asian writers, male and female, young and old. The result is a volume that I did find compelling although, in places, it is also contradictory. There are authors who are quite prescriptive in their love for writing in the silence of the night, while others are quite dismissive of those who do so and make a strong argument for writing almost as a '9-to-5' office-like activity. Just about all though have a non-negotiable message: inspiration is for amateurs. A pro writer sits down at the screen [paper/typewriter] no matter what, and especially in the face of 'lack of inspiration'. Here is a selection for your perusal, after which I would say you really must go out and buy the book. Read over your composition and, when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. Samuel Johnson People say, 'What do you have for people... Read more →