Index: On the Craft of Writing

Just Do It!
Bag Lady in the City of Fiction (2/6/05)
When to Stop Making Excuses (10/10/05)
Reprise: Air and Light and Time and Space (26/10/05)
The Secret Author (3/9/06)
You're a Writer, Nathan (21/12/07)
Extracting Stories (9/9/07)

Why Write?
Orhan's Medicine (28/10/06)
Frantic Fanarcists (17/4/07) (About Neil Gaiman)
Hari's Secret (11/7/07)

The Creative Process and Finding Ideas
Kobayashi on Haiku (30/3/05)
Crazy Dumbsaints Unite (25/3/05)
Where Do Little Stories Come From, Mummy? (23/07/05)
Litt-craft: the Art of Writing Recklessly (13/3/05)
From Fragment to Novel (31/5/07) (About Michael Ondaatje)
Extracting Stories (9/9/07)
Authors - Protect Your Space (24/11/08)

Drawing on Real Life Relationships for your Writing
The Vampire and the Alimony Whore (16/5/06)
Fictionalising Family (19/5/06)
Why She Writes (5/3/07) (About Beryl Bainbridge)
Castro on Writing (24/4/07)
Yasmin has Something to Tell You (8/3/08)

Tools of the Trade (Pen, paper, typewriter, computer, writing desk etc.)
Whose Desk? (11/2/07)
Writing by Voice ... and by Mobile Phone (8/1/07)
Software Tools for Writers (10/6/07)
Another 50th Anniversary (30/8/07) (about Keroac's "scrolls")

Yes, But You've Got to Practice
Ian Banks' Advice (8/2/07)

Creating Characters
Bringing Characters to Life (31/5/07)
Characters in Just a Few Brushstrokes (28/1/08)
His Inestimable Self (9/2/08)

Naming Your Characters (and Yourself)
What's in a Name? The Curse of Scrofa (2/7/05)
A Character By One's Own Name (21/11/07)

Writing Dialogue
Perverted Commas? (17/1/07)

Voice
It Jist Comes Oot (11/8/07)

Writing About Memory/ Flashbacks
Enright and the Workings of Memory (4/12/07)

Theme
What's Your Theme? (22/11/07)

Researching
Home on the Range (13/12/04)

Getting Past the Critic
Closet 7/6/05
That Pesky Inner Critic (16/9/05)
In Praise of Truly Awful Writing (26/9/05)
On Writer's Block (30/1/06)
Twaddle is Good Too (10/3/06)
Writers Who Can't ... or Won't (3/5/06)
Writing the World (5/11/07)

Writing with a Partner
Writing in Tandem (20/9/07)

Style
Neurological Opiates and Agatha Christie (19/12/05)
Lexical Choices (15/12/2007)
His Inestimable Self (9/2/08) (Peter Carey's comments about punctuation.)

Audience
Who Do You Write For? (11/4/06)
The Ideal Reader (29/10/06)

Reading for Writers
You are What you Read (21/7/05)
A Writer's Reading List (13/7/06)

Health Tips for Writers
Writing that Marathon (6/11/05)

Writing Different Genres
Stories that Go Bump in the Night (4/9/07)

Getting Rejected/ Accepting Criticism
Rejected Not Dejected (13/7/05)
A Post on Kindness and Criticism Written in Horribly Clashing Metaphors (26/12/08)

Revising
Romesh Revising (24/3/06)

Proofreading
Nuke Them Darn Apostrophes (4/7/07) (About Cormac Mc Carthy)
Where are all the Blooper Catchers? (15/8/07)
Daphne's Rap on the Knuckles (2/9/07)

Submitting Manuscripts
From the Lips of an Editor (19/10/06)

Backing Up Your Writing
Ibsen in the Afternoon (24/7/06)

Writers Talking About How the Process Works for Them
Word Weavers (12/10/06)
Anita Desai's Advice to Writers (15/10/06)

Working with an Editor
When an Editor has to be Hands Off (23/9/07)

Doing the Nanowrimo
Nanowrimo (19/10/04)
Thoughts on Winning Nanowrimo (30/11/04)
NaNoTechnology (21/8/05)
Agent Smith Endorses Nanowrimo (6/10/05)
The Jesper Fanclub (29/10/05)
At the Starting Line Waiting for the Pistol (31/10/05)
Sit Vacant for Nanowrimo ML (25/8/06)
Go, Nanuts, Go! (31/10/06)

Blogging to Develop Writing Skills
Blogs Help Develop Writers (5/1/08)

Doing a Creative Writing Course
Ian Banks' Advice (8/2/07)

(Last updated 8/3/07)