RIFF.REBELSOUL DEV

Tag: writing

  • John Fowles: Mischanneling

    John Fowles on the strengths of the novel vs. the screenplay: Why have I got it in for the novel? […] All the purely visual and aural sequences in the modern novel are a bore, both to read and to write. People’s physical appearance, their movements, their sounds, places, moods of places – the camera […]

  • John Fowles: Choosing to Be a Writer

    It would, I believe, be disingenuous to hold a class without offering the unsuited persons in the assembly a chance to leave the room. To be a writer – that is, someone for whom writing is closer to being a aspect of being rather than a particular activity, demands certain distinctions. There are many personal […]

  • John Fowles: Writers are not Doers?

    At the heart of my studies (and my teaching) is the question what is a writer? Certainly, it is not someone who simply writes things down; and nor is it necessarily someone who writes a text. An artist is not someone who daubs canvas with paint any further than frequent flyer is an aerospace engineer. […]

  • Visualising the Creative Process

    I was talking to someone about the creative process once and came up with some imagery for it. I described the initial phase as a kind of nebulous cloud; a haze that lurks around your head. It’s made up from the stuff of your life; here and there are vague forms, a ghost of a […]

  • Creators

    Oh what a tangled web we weave when we seek to conceive Rincewind stared at him, “Who ARE you?” The man took the pencil from behind his ear and looked reflectively at the space around Rincewind. “I makes things,” he said. “What sort of things?” “What sort of things would you like?” “You’re the Creator?” […]

  • Makers

    In this situation I’m a representative. A martyr. Imprisoned, unable to grow. At the mercy of this resentment, this hateful millstone of envy of the Calibans of this world. Because they all hate us, they hate us for being different, for not being them, for their own not being like us. They persecute us, they […]

  • The Magus in Haiku

    Haiku are easy But sometimes they don’t make sense Refrigerator My latest obsession in linguistic dexterity is the Haiku. In its basic form of observing 5-7-5, if not subject. (Alliteration is so last week.) I’ve started translating favourite novels to the measure; and I wonder if this isn’t the most marvellous, healthy exercise: A great […]

  • Review: Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

    Painfully pretentious and drowning in a mess of its failed aspirations, it’s always a bad thing when an author becomes too fond of the sound of their own voice. Characters, ideas, feelings, and stories are lost under the weight of what I can only presume is Winterson’s creative vanity. While arguably intelligent she lacks the […]

  • Review: The Ebony Tower by John Fowles

    Collection of five novellas from the genius that is Fowles. Stunningly brilliant, eloquent and profoundly intelligent. It is surely impossible not to learn from this man about both writing and life itself. This writer took literature towards a new frontier. Amazing.

  • On writing

    A person’s writing is very much them. It’s like looking into a very critical mirror of the soul. Others might not see you; but one certainly sees oneself. The process alone is traumatic; then to be concerned with the result! It’s a terrible thing to see oneself vividly. It’s the most wondrous thing! It is […]

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