Writing for Some Purpose
June 16, 2013
I am frequently asked to write references. It’s not my favourite task. While happy to help and recommend the individual concerned – I wouldn’t agree to write it otherwise – the task of reference-writing itself is one I never relish. I love writing in general but there is something about writing for this specific purpose …
Poetry or Prose
June 9, 2013
The distinction between poetry and prose has always puzzled me. I have to confess that I have never really ‘got’ poetry, though I want to remedy this. There are some obvious differences but I assume that they are thereby superficial. Poetry usually works within a form or structure. Sometimes this is regimented, as in the …
The Political Power of the Idea
June 2, 2013
Because they can contain ideas, the tyrant will always fear the power of words and images. It may be force that ultimately topples them, but it is always an idea that motivates people to threaten such force. Ideas may be vague or mean many different things – freedom, equality, fairness, change – but if enough …
On Reading Oneself
April 28, 2013
Now that my hair is getting more grey by the day, and it’s long since I was classified as an early-career academic, I have almost 25 years of written research behind me. I recently started tidying my office and have found all sorts of old writings lying around, neglected and mostly unpublished. Some were hand-written …
The Book
February 22, 2013
It lowers the heart rate. It stimulates your mind. It broadens horizons. Is there anything as lovely in life as reading a book, treating oneself to a few hours of escape? A book can be a window on a different world, perhaps a world of ideas. It can be a book of fantastic stories describing …
Feedback and Feed Forward
February 10, 2013
The opinions of others, no matter how much one produces art that pleases oneself, are a matter of pressing importance in relation to any creative endeavour. We want to be productive, because it pleases us to exercise our creative powers, but it cannot be denied that we want also to display our efforts to others. …
Professor Slug
January 27, 2013
Storytelling is a wonderful thing. While it serves no practical purpose it is something that takes our disposable income, for novels, films, plays and comic books. And we all have stories of our own, from favourite anecdotes brought out at family gatherings to the more serious narrative we construct about our lives as a whole. …
Chopsticks
April 3, 2012
On a recent visit to the University of Nottingham campus at Ningbo, China, I came across a creative writing reading group. They take turns to pen very short stories of no more than 600 words that they can discuss together. I mentioned that I loved writing but had never attempted fiction. An invitation – perhaps …
Unspecificity
January 30, 2012
The English language can be infuriating to the creative author. Sometimes it makes no sense. Specificity is a word. Unspecific is a word. One would seem entitled to conclude that unspecificity is a word. When I wrote it into a draft paper the other day, the Word programme gave me the tell-tale squiggly red underlining. …
The Outlet
December 22, 2011
The impulse for an artistic outlet is a common one. In singing, acting, drawing, poetry, prose and in making artefacts, it seems that we are expressing our creative urges. Such instincts are often crushed by situation, if people have to spend a lifetime of drudgery, for instance. But give someone leisure time and resource and …
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