Rob, our creative writing tutor, set us an interesting challenge this week. He made each of us write a 26-word story so that the first word began with A, the second with B, etc., and the 26th with Z. Most…

I’ve always eschewed microfiction; I’m too verbose. I’ve refused to enter speed-writing competitions. But our creative writing tutor is nothing if not persuasive. Last week he gave us a challenge, reading out the opening lines of a story and demanding…

It’s a well known adage that writers have to read. The advice is indispensable. There’s a corollary: if you want to write well, read what’s well-written. By analogy, a storyteller needs to listen to stories – and if you want…

… And no material change in the demands on me. In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass the Red Queen explains to Alice that she has to run as fast as she can to stay where she is; to get…

You might recall that back in November (2013) I sent the draft manuscript of National Cake Day in Ruritania to a literary consultant for a critique – along with the requisite payment, which required no critique at all. I was…