* Did you dream of being a famous and successful writer, when you were little? * By the time you reached the age you are now, how famous and successful did you imagine yourself being? * And when you really think about that last question, does it provoke an emotional or physical reaction? Tension...
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For as long as I can remember I’ve had a love affair with Paris. Maybe it’s the streamlined trees, the stylish waifs cycling in heels, or the crunch of a baguette topped with warm camembert…with the abundance of Parisian clichés it’s easy to romanticise the City of Light. My most significant trip to Paris...
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It would be wonderful, more than a decade into the 21st Century, to be able to answer this question in the negative, but recent figures released by VIDA demonstrate that one is much more likely to feature in the most respected literary journals if you are a man. For many of us women, this...
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In her writer’s blog, The View from the Shed, Sally Quilford recently bemoaned the resentment of unpublished writers towards published ones. The post received many comments, including one from a writer who had received unpleasant messages on Facebook and Twitter when she made a competition shortlist, from those who hadn’t. Author of A Secret...
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The belief “I’m not a real writer” is one of the biggest emotional monsters living in the writer’s psyche. It’s not just new or unpublished writers who feel or think like this, ALL writers can sit in this category including those with several books under their name: journalists who wish they could write fiction,...
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