Creative Content Guy
This simple little writing exercise should help get your creative juices flowing, and also engender a sense of calm. Imagine yourself in the perfect garden. Explore and describe this garden through writing. This is your garden. Don’t be constrained by realities. This garden can be anything and anywhere you want it to be: countryside, urban, … Continue reading The Garden ✍🏻 a Writing Exercise
A valuable companion to morning pages We rush through life: wake up, check the phone, walk the dog, dash to work, grab a coffee, lunch at the desk, trawl through emails, go home, have a quick dinner, watch a bit of telly, then sleep for a few hours until we have to get up and … Continue reading The Evening Check-in ✍🏻 Reflecting on the Day
It’s OK to be you As writers, we observe and analyse, document and comment, our own feelings and opinions thinly veiled behind the exploits of allegedly fictional characters. A certain level of detachment is essential if we’re to be at all effective in our craft. As writers are typically introverts, this tends to come easily. … Continue reading The Writer as Outsider đź“„
Clarify your thoughts, write a great first draft Computers, phones and other gadgets are essential to everyday life. With their convenience and speed, we use them to communicate daily. But for reflective, exploratory writing, writing that’s just for you, I’m a firm believer that writing by hand is much more effective than tapping on a … Continue reading The Benefits of Writing by Hand đź“„
Contains a spoiler. Simplicity of narrative, complexity of character, that’s my mantra. Jimmy McGovern When I heard McGovern say that in an interview some years ago I wrote it down. I’ve long admired his writing, and when I saw the trailer for Time on BBC 1 I knew it was a must-see. The performances were … Continue reading Time, by Jimmy McGovern
I received an email from Andrew Seaman at LinkedIn News. He wants to know my thoughts on the “Great Resignation” some are predicting will occur as a result of COVID-19. Lockdown, working from home and bereavements have changed perspectives regarding work. He wants to know what advice I’d give to those “making a shift right … Continue reading The Big Shift
I received this in a “professional” email from someone who doesn’t know me: Good morning, Hope your well? Problems? Tone: the salutation is simultaneously brusque and overfamiliar. Punctuation: the salutation ends in a comma: in this context, the comma should precede my name, which should then end in a full stop – but my name … Continue reading One email, five words, multiple issues
I have an obsession with time and dates. It’s reflected in everything I write. If when watching telly I see a clock in the background, or can make out the face of someone’s watch, I’ll note the time. If the programme’s old I’ll check out the “first aired” date, then try to work out where … Continue reading Do you remember a guy that’s been?
Martin Sketchley 