It’s that time of year again when I have to cough up for a writing market yearbook. I started buying these books six years ago with The Writer’s Handbook being my tome of choice. But in those days I was focused on fiction writing and writing for magazines. About three years ago I switched to the The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook when I broadened my writing to include stage, screen and radio. I felt that it offered more for scriptwriters than the Writers’ Handbook. As I also write for and teach writing for children, I started buying the Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook as well – all tax deductable, of course! This year, I’ve been asked to review the Writer’s Market UK. Continue reading ‘Writer’s Market UK 2009 – Review’
Archive for May, 2008
Steve Chambers has written for theatre, radio, TV and film – his feature film Hold Back the Night won the audience prize at Cannes ’99 Critics Week. He has written episodes for Casualty and Byker Grove and adapted ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ for BBC Radio 4’s Classic Serial. He is currently developing a number of new ideas for broadcast and in development with a new feature film with NE film-maker Sarah McCarthy. A director of Bruvvers Theatre Co as well as New Writing North, he also works as a script mentor and teacher of dramatic narrative fiction. Steve was kind enough to answer some of our questions about writing for radio: Continue reading ‘Writing for Radio’
You may or may not be aware of the ongoing debate about the merits of full versus partial RSS feeds. After favouring partial up to this point, The Crafty Writer has decided to change tack and switch to a full feed.
In case you don’t know, this enables you to read the content of a website through a feed reader application (similar to an email program) without having to visit the site directly, and is typically used by people who have a large number of sites they like to keep tabs on.
Our main reason for favouring partial initially was that we wanted to try and draw people into the site, as we feel it offers a richer experience. And don’t get us wrong – we still want that. But apparently there is not much difference in the rate in which people click through to a site from a partial feed versus that of a full feed. So in this case it appears we can all have our cake and eat it too!
What this means for you, the reader, is simply that you have more choice when it comes to how you read The Crafty Writer; come to the site if you like, or use the feed. Either way, you’re very welcome. Oh yes, and tell all your friends too!
If you have no idea what we’re going on about (Fiona doesn’t!), you may want to check out this explanation of RSS.
Peter Dillon has written for the stage, radio, theatre and film. He is a co-director of Wildcat Films for whom he has script edited and co-produced a number of films – several of them, shorts. Peter teaches screenwriting at Northumbria University and runs an Introduction to Screenwriting Course at the Tyneside Cinema. He’s completed a draft of a stage play called ‘Guts’ and is working on a film script for Airship Productions called ‘Where’s Charlie?’. Continue reading ‘Writing Short Films’
Book Club participants who enjoyed Val McDermid’s The Grave Tattoo will be interested to hear that it has been longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award (2008). Val was the winner of this award in 2006 for The Torment of Others. This year her fellow nominees include Alexander McCall Smith, Stef Penny and Christopher Brookmyre. You can vote for The Grave Tattoo over at Waterstones. Continue reading ‘Grave Tattoo on Crime Award Longlist’
It’s been 75 years since the infamous book burnings in Nazi Germany in 1933, which coincidentally forms part of the plot of this month’s Crafty Writer Book Club book. Books that were considered antagonistic towards Nazi philosophy were piled up in town squares and burnt in a frenzy of apparent public support for Nazism. Check out this BBC clip for original footage and modern-day reflections on the burnings. Continue reading ‘Book burnings’
Now that I’ve wiped the tears from my eyes, I can finally put together a post on this beautiful book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
For those of you new to the Book Club, we discuss best-selling novels from a writer’s perspective to see what makes them tick. As in the last Book Club discussion, I’ll pose some questions under the following headings:
