Trevor’s Writing

Archive for the 'Writing Hints' Category

Where do you get your ideas for writing?

People starting out in the writing life sometimes ask this question.
Where do ideas come from?
I seem to have no trouble coming up with ideas for writing. They just seem to be everywhere. I usually have far too many story ideas to use myself - that’s why I often feature short story starters here on my […]

Writing challenge

Last week one of my lecturers challenged the group with a fascinating warm-up writing activity.

The challenge: we had to write a paragraph without using the letter “e”.
Now e happens to be the most used letter of the alphabet in English. Mmm… we all rose to the challenge and started scribbling. Below is what I came […]

An accidental story

As I crossed the playground my mind was preoccupied by what was ahead of me. I was lost in thought about the lesson I was about to teach to my class. I was trying to remember the activities I had planned. My head exploded. Well - that’s what it felt and sounded like. The pain […]

An endless fascination with people

“An endless fascination for others is a prerequisite to being a novelist - despite the common view of novelists as egocentric and self-absorbed. The self-absorption comes when you are at your desk writing. The rest of the time, you need to be pathologically curious.” from A Novel in a Year by Louise Doughty.
I like that.
“Pathologically […]

Writing Hint #45: Using your imagination

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid: it jumps from admiration to love. From love to matrimony. It a moment.” Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.
I am writing this post in my daughter’s office. She is a avid Jane Austin devotee. The above quote she has on a bookmark pinned to her notice board in front […]