Yesterday afternoon I had my first tutorial with my scriptwriting teacher at my university. He teaches the craft of playwriting and screenwriting. Of course, at 4 pm on the train into town, I told myself I mustn’t get emotional during the 30-minute tutorial but of course I did. Not because I’m a woman (don’t go there). … More Dreams are Made of This
Just because someone is quiet it does not mean that they are not thinking or feeling something meaningful. It is their choice when and what they say and do. Artists go through cycles of silence and speech. In the silence they are listening, reading, gathering, planning, creating. The speech comes in all forms. The Arts … More Silence is Golden
This morning I sought out some good old-fashioned inspiration by investing a good half an hour or so wandering around the store Planet Organic in the village-style suburb of Muswell Hill in North London. It is an especially good place for health-conscious people, vegans, vegetarians and anyone seeking to eat organic and natural foods. The PALEO Way … More The North and South Divide: The Quest for Mind and Body Co-operation
There is no getting away from it. Numbers in all sorts of configurations accompany us from the moment we are born to the moment we have to say goodbye. The earlier in our lives that we accept this reality and learn how to manage the accounting process of how to manage our time, energy and … More Life is a Numbers Game
I just read a new work of fiction by an established writer; it is his ninth book. But, I am feeling a little sad about this new release, the only one of his books I have read. The story has left me somewhat concerned about the state of fiction in 2017. While the book is … More What Would Max Say?
John Le Carré explains in a Guardian newspaper online feature: ‘I wrote The Spy Who Came in From the Cold at the age of 30 under intense, unshared, personal stress, and in extreme privacy.’ Within six weeks the novel was completed. In the midst of the writing process, Le Carré knew this novel would change the direction … More Desperate Times, Desperate Measures and The Literary Impetus
‘Nice? It’s the only thing,’ said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. ‘Believe me, my young friend; there is nothing – absolutely nothing- half as much worth doing as simply messing, about in boats. Simply messing,’ he went on dreamily: ‘messing – about – in – boats; messing –’ Excerpt … More Boys, Boats and The Bounty of Literature
This is a film review that looks at the craft techniques in Fill the Void (2012) and The Wedding (2016) by American screenwriter and director Rama Burshtein. Burshtein was born in New York City; she now lives in Israel. If you can, before reading this feature I would recommend you read an online synopsis of … More Modest Ways to Tell Touching Stories
‘The secret of it all is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things done without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for the fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, … More Heartbeat of Life in The Writings of Whitman
My former professor would not be pleased if she turned over the pages of my copy of David Mamet’s On Directing Film (1991, Penguin, New York). In a conversation, during a walk to the English Faculty on a fine autumn day in 2014 in my first semester at University of Oxford she made it crystal … More Mamet and Me: What I gained from David Mamet’s ‘On Directing Film’
