Companion Pieces

I spend five minutes having a quiet crisis about having written a lot on the book without actually having written any of the book, spend 15 minutes writing, and cheer up. Please use the 15 minutes to do your own creative work. Books mentioned: The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, and The Tree that Sat Down by Beverly Nichols. The 15 minutes of quiet sound in this episode is the rain on the roof...

I congratulate you on sticking around for a fourth episode. I talk briefly about how the writing’s going, then spend 15 minutes grappling with the ethics of drinking from a talking skull, and report back. Feel free to use the 15 minutes in the same way, or to work on some other creative project. The quiet minutes in this episode are soundtracked by the crackling of my studio fire (and the wind in...

In this episode, I continue to pursue the voice of one of my main characters and make some discoveries about the otherworld. As usual, you get a bit of chat from me, fifteen minutes of quiet to concentrate on your own work, and a little bit more chat. The sound for the fifteen minutes was recorded under the elder trees in a field near my house. Contains funny partridge noises and a little farm tra...

Five-ish minutes of talking, fifteen minutes of quiet working time, and five-ish minutes of summing up. I talk about my plans for this creative session, spend fifteen minutes writing something different, and then explain why I’m OK with what I wrote anyway. Including references to Elen Caldecott’s book for young people, The Short Knife , the Radiolab episode Brain Balls and the book Londinium: A B...

I talk briefly about the book I’m writing (and why I haven’t written any of it so far this year). I suggest some options for you to get a little bit of writing done even if you’ve come as unprepared to the page as I have. Then there’s 15 minutes of quiet while I write (and fervently wish that you do some form of creative work or play), and a brief summing up. The podcast I mention is Death of 1000...

Introducing Companion Pieces . I propose that I keep you company while we each do a little bit of creative work/play. For anyone who: * wants to do a creative activity, but needs company (in audio form); * is interested in the day-to-day process of writing a novel. In each Piece, I’ll talk to you for about five minutes about the work I’m about to do on writing my novel. Meanwhile, you get ready to...