Habits are automatic you. They’re actions that you’ve done so often, know so well, that your brain has relegated them to the same place that it keeps the walking, talking, breathing, bicycle-riding and driving. They’re not the same as compulsions, … Continue reading
A mind is a structure for processing memory and sensory information. All the sensory information it processes has been preprocessed by the body and put into the categories: Irrelevant, Um-Hmm, Maybe, Noted and This! Everything except This is kept out … Continue reading
I used to read all kinds of writing about plot. When I started I just wrote whatever was interesting and carried on from where I left off the day before. I ended up with huge amounts of text only loosely … Continue reading
Time’s arrow – our perception of time on a daily basis – goes only one way. It flies at the same speed for everyone. If you are having a great time, it seems to be fast. If you are having … Continue reading
When I was little I asked my mother what happened to all the stinky fumes from cars. She said they just spread out into the air and that there is so much air that the fumes soon are so spread … Continue reading
The extent of human storytelling was something I didn’t fully grasp until quite recently. In the beginning, when I was a child, stories were something that came in books or something that was told. It had an obvious boundary. It … Continue reading
When I moved into my current home eleven years ago there was a feature wall in the bedroom painted a deep, dark purple. It was a nice colour in itself, but I didn’t like it there, so I covered it … Continue reading
Since the referendum I’ve considered the whole sad process of Brexit to be a Death March. Whether you had feelings on it either way and however passionately your feelings about where you belonged nationally and internationally one question only should … Continue reading
The opposite of doubt is certainty but, actually, both are different degrees of confidence. Doubt seems to be the thing I write about most in my fiction. I would say it has had a major impact on my life as well … Continue reading
When I started writing I had no plans of any kind. I just wrote whatever seemed exciting or interesting. I didn’t know anything about how to do this and that, how people liked to put stories together and then take … Continue reading