June 29, 2011, by Jon McGregor

It’s an honour

Recently, I was appointed an honorary lecturer in the School of English Studies at Nottingham University. Which was nice. I’m still in the process of establishing just what this will mean in practice; probably a couple of lectures each year, a seminar, a reading, some coffee-drinking with staff and students. Possibly some rowing on the lake.

But I thought I’d also start things off with this blog, which will be my way of processing the only sensible advice I offer when people ask about learning to write: read more. Read more widely, more deeply, more thoughtfully, more carefully. Read with an eye to what the writer is trying to do, and how they’re doing it, and how you can draw on that in your own writing.

So this blog will be, mostly, where I post my thoughts and reflections on what I’m reading and what other people are reading; an attempt to link that reading to the job and the process of writing, and, hopefully, a way of sparking off a few conversations with the staff and students at the School of English Studies – as well as anyone else who wants to join in.

I won’t lie to you though. There may also, from time to time, be some funny pictures of cats.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn