Creativity is non-acceptance, wonder, rebellion
In the story and creative world, there's two fairly obvious things wrong with stereotypes: They tend to reinforce prejudice and discrimination, and reduce the particular group of humans down to just a few elements (but people are complex and aren't just their appearance or intelligence or food choices). They are boring to read and don't... Continue Reading →
I like how her poems etch out a determined resistance using nature-based and human metaphors that link the personal with the political. Dreamwood In the old, scratched, cheap wood of the typing stand there is a landscape, veined, which only a child can see or the child’s older self, a poet, a woman dreaming when... Continue Reading →
In these times where we are bombarded with bullshit, where news is advertising and advertising is entertainment and our minds have been made into sloth juice by meme-life and quick-fix social media, we have a duty to be unfashionable writers. In these times where what we read - the food our brain is fed -... Continue Reading →
Many people would put creative writers (novelists, poets, investigative journalists, satire writers etc) in the hobby basket, alongside people who like camping, stamp collectors, and amateur basketball players. And for many creative writers, that might well be the case. But for others, writing is not a side gig, a Sunday morning past time, or a... Continue Reading →
Ask a friend, or someone you know who feels comfortable with you- ideally a person feeling pain or suffering in some way - if you can word-draw them. The idea is that they sit in front of you, quietly, and you can observe them. Instead of drawing, you'll write down words. Maybe you'll notice the... Continue Reading →
OneLook: This is a beautiful, multi-functional thesaurus, and reverse dictionary. Look up the description of that word you can't think of, and the site makes at least 100 suggestions. You can also look up single words, and the site suggests synonyms that can be sorted by the letter they start with, rhymes with..., primary vowel,... Continue Reading →
The purpose of this exercise is to have some fun, play with those creative juices, and get them flowing for ideas to come. We're going to use someone else's poem though, so the product coming out of this obviously can't be used elsewhere: but in the process of doing this exercise or afterwards, who knows... Continue Reading →
Ages ago in 1991, Sinead O'Conner refused to participate in the Grammies, because the music industry, "(has) created a great respect among artists for material gain - by honouring us and exalting us when we achieve it, ignoring for the most part those of us who have not." That is, in an industry oriented towards... Continue Reading →
I admit I have a longstanding fear of being boring. Or I'm convinced that my writing (and my conversation) is artless and unoriginal. The reality though, is far from that, and in life and in writing, I seem to break most of the rules. I guess in this sense, I'm most sensitive about something that... Continue Reading →
Here are some writing prompts for a story, poem, vignette, spoken word... taken from the current news. Rebel! Imagine! What would that be like? What could happen instead?Or what's the worst or best that can happen? A French police officer accidentally fired a gun during the president's speech. Then.. A woman who kept a £20... Continue Reading →
Writers don't usually the see the impact they have. On Saturday, some friends who were visiting Mexico wanted to see the Frida Kahlo museum. It has gotten pretty intense since I visited it in 2009: now you either have to pay for your tickets online first, or wait in a very long queue. There are... Continue Reading →
Horror films are often allegories for what we most fear - and what we most fear is often political (nuclear wars, war and violence, disappearances, sexual violence, or even just not being heard or listened to). In this exercise, we're going to use similar sorts of metaphors to look at issues (personal or political... Continue Reading →
So we know that more men get published, reviewed, and read, than female writers. And we know that few books from poor countries are published or translated. We also know most writers are not paid for the work they do, and that many books aren't written because some people are too busy trying to stay... Continue Reading →
Not only do cliches tend to reinforce the status quo and stereotypes, they are also pretty boring. Here is an exercise to practice doing without: 1) Chose a any word... eg love, old, sky.. 2) For the word, list the 6 most obvious associated words. Eg Love: romance, heart, couple, kiss, date .. Old: wrinkles,... Continue Reading →
Sometimes some people mishandle their anger, but the feeling itself is legit. Though global injustice is wretched and ongoing, today many people are feeling an impotent anger and a lot of dread that is leaving them with low energy and struggling to think clearly. Here is an exercise to vent that anger, and perhaps even... Continue Reading →
I painted (in Spanish) "Poetry is like bread, for everyone" on my wall above my desk. It's a quote from Dalton - and its something I passionately believe in. Poetry, literature, art, stories, journalism, should be by everyone, for everyone. But what if you just can't get into poetry, either reading it or writing it?... Continue Reading →
Fun characters, an intriguing plot, the excitement of a murder and an affair... is it okay to write a novel, story, or article, purely in order to entertain the reader? To distract them? In a world of rife and normalised injustice, I confess I often feel like distraction is out of order and those with... Continue Reading →
Changing the world, revolution, struggle, organisation: they are among the hardest things we will ever do or try. Not just because we do this stuff on top of work and other commitments, not just because sometimes we are attacked by police, arrested, or bullied by rightwing people, but because of the emotional stamina it takes... Continue Reading →
There is a magical relationship between writers that have never met. It has something to do with shared experience and solidarity and a common cause, and what happens when poetic minds join. Toni Morrison captured one such relationship so perfectly, in this tiny story: Two-Minute Seduction I took my heart out and gave it to... Continue Reading →
The stress of the world, of rushed long work days, of all the injustice, the organized routine hypocrisy makes aching holes in your chest and labours your breathing and hangs from your cheeks as a disproportionate, unreasonable, impossible weight. Then you read something - a poem, a story - little drops of humanity - and... Continue Reading →
resistance words 