Following on from my notes about the comedy workshop I attended, I thought it might be a good idea to share some of the material from the session. Two intensive scripting exercises were set during the day, in between talking, “workshopping,” and watching the first episode of Modern Family. The first was a…
Category: Journal
Chipping Away at the Coal Face of Comedy
Odd thing about this blog is that I find it hard to just be me, rather than the writer guy who is doing well. Guiding people through the world of tech is one thing. It’s not what I see myself doing long-term, however. Instead, I want to write novels. Maybe comic strips. Perhaps…
All My Tech Blogging Tips
Beyond the worlds of Doctor Who and trying to write comedy (more on that in a later post), you may know that I write extensively about technology. This is my primary income, and currently ranges from writing for Linux Format (Future plc) to contributing and editing at MakeUseOf.com, as well as producing a…
Keep Going When Writer’s Block Strikes
It’s true of anything. At some point, you’re going to wake up one morning and hit The Wall. You can’t be bothered. It’s not working out.You just can’t get started. And then the self doubt arrives. Was it all a mistake? Have you been punching above your weight this entire time? Are you…
Revive Your Darlings: Reusing Old Material
The popular mantra, “kill your darlings”, attributed to Allen Ginsberg (or was it Arthur Quiller-Couch?) instructs writers to cut material they’re proud of if it will improve the readability of their manuscript. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be used at all. Whether cut or abandoned, old material still has some worth. A case…
The Email ALL Writers Should Subscribe To
Keeping it much shorter today, I absolutely *had* to share what I think is the most important email newsletter for writers. Produced by the team at FreedomWithWriting.com, the newsletter is a weekly affair with several links to magazines and websites that accept freelance contributions. Sign up here. Better still, Freedom with Writing also produces…
Keeping a Diary – 12 Months Later
It recently occurred to me that that time I’ve put aside to write a diary for the past 12 months — since January 1st 2016 — could just as easily have been used to talk a bit more right here. So I’ve decided to do both. 2016 was a memorable year for many…
SheKnows Nothing
As technology writing and family life have occupied my time over the past few months, I’ve not really been keeping an eye on what www.kasterborous.com – the website that I setup in 2004 with illustrator Anthony Dry – was up to. I’d assumed that a new editor had been installed and that it…
It Feels Like Home
From time to time I mull over the path my life has taken so far. Many of my friends and family went to university. Despite a couple of attempts, I couldn’t focus on it, distracted by the lifestyle, and so set myself back several years (it can be argued that I picked up…
People Still Rewrite Your Articles. Really.
Amazing. People still expend energy on the pointless, low-paying slog that is “article rewriting”. This is, for those of you who don’t know, the “art” of taking an existing article and rewriting it. There’s no additional research; it isn’t being inspired by an article and taking the concepts in a new direction, reinterpreting as…
