Writing Lessons From…

  • Writing Lessons From Gravity

    Writing Lessons From Gravity

    I often say that Avatar was the first film I saw in 3D but that’s not true. It was a space documentary narrated by Tom Cruise in the London IMAX. So it’s quite fitting that when I finally saw Gravity it was in 3D; I’ve come full circle. Gravity, of course, looked a lot better.…

  • Writing Lessons From The Hobbit

    Writing Lessons From The Hobbit

    I wasn’t a fan of The Hobbit. There, I said it. I loved Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, but The Hobbit felt bloated, poorly paced and, quite frankly, it bored me. But there’s writing tips in everything, even ill-judged sequel/prequel trilogies. It’s got spoilers in its pocketses, preciousss… Don’t Overwhelm the Audience…

  • Writing Lessons from One Fan at Hard Rock Calling

    Writing Lessons from One Fan at Hard Rock Calling

    There were plenty of banners at Bruce Springsteen’s concert at Hyde Park, song titles held above heads in an effort to persuade him to play them. He’s known to do it and so their efforts aren’t in vain. But one man had put in so much effort it actually moved me. This man was holding…

  • Writing Lessons from Joss Whedon

    Writing Lessons from Joss Whedon

    With the frankly wild and unexpected success of The Avengers, Joss Whedon has never been held in such high esteem (not even when he was helming Buffy). But he’s long been the king of the geeks and I swore fealty a long time ago. He’s one of the few TV writers that I will always…

  • Writing Lessons from George Lucas

    Writing Lessons from George Lucas

    A friend of mine called this purchase the geekiest thing he had ever heard of. But, as a huge Star Wars fan, there was no way I wasn’t going to love Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. The book contains the scripts to Episodes IV, V, and VII, alongside commentary and excerpts from earlier drafts that…

  • Writing Lessons from Da Vinci

    Writing Lessons from Da Vinci

    Having been to the National Gallery’s Da Vinci exhibit, one of the things that struck me is the number of works he left unfinished. St Jerome in the Wilderness. The Adoration of the Magi. The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. They weren’t interrupted by illness or death; they were…

  • Writing Lessons from Writing A Novel

    Writing Lessons from Writing A Novel

    There’s no greater writing teacher than writing itself. An ironic statement for a blog post about writing lessons, isn’t it? But I’ve learnt a lot from the novels I’ve written, they were lessons learnt the hard way. By sharing them here, perhaps I can help you avoid the uphill struggle I had. That way you’ve…