• Life of the Mind

    The Write Equation

    Why do you write? That’s a question I’m asked often enough. I don’t know. Well, that’s not exactly true. If I really had to think about it, it’s because I have stories I want to tell. The ideas are lined up – novels, screenplays, short stories … they all want to be written. I can’t imagine I’ll live long enough. People get passionate about all sorts of things. It might be about managing their own business, or sex, or gardening – I mention three entirely disparate things because people’s tastes are eclectic, and range from the professional to the personal. I’m passionate about storytelling. The thing with writing is that…

  • The Story Behind the Book

    Dealing with Reviews

    I write reviews. And I write some scathing reviews. But when I do that, I try and deconstruct why I don’t believe the story works. There can be a lot of reasons for this: from bad plotting to thin characterisations to tonal inconsistency (and then lots of stuff in-between). The overriding priority is identifying what the story’s trying to do. This comes from my years as an editor. When I ran editing workshops, I’d instruct the participants to talk to the author and understand what they’re attempting. Disaster looms when the author and the editor aren’t simpatico. For example, if the author’s written a book they believe is a a…