Craft

Even if we don’t write historical stories, or military suspense with technical details, all writers have one subject which they must all research: happiness and how humans pursue it. Even the most evil of evil villains, we believe, is motivated by their own belief that their actions will bring them some form of happiness. In this fascinating talk, Nancy Etcoff  gives some insights into the subject from the field of cognitive science. About a decade ago, I witnessed an Australian... More...

A post at Betsy Lerner’s wonderful blog, today, asked why those of us afflicted with narrative disorder at a young age began to write. It sparked a memory of the very first time I ever showed my writing to anyone and, since upon leaving Japan this blog will return to focusing more on its original topic: writing and chasing publication, I thought... More...

For those of you in the midst of NaNoWriMo and for the rest of us in the midst of writing anything, here is J.J. Abrams talking about the blank page as the ultimate “mystery box” and how technology inspires him. What mystery boxes are you creating for your audience? Enjoy! And, yes, I’m aware that these TED Tuesdays are being... More...

This week’s talk is from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat,Pray, Love” and many others and is a must watch for all writers or anyone who loves a writer (or artist for that matter) and would like to understand them a little better. Let me explain. Each week from 7-10pm Sunday GMT (5am Monday, Japan time) there is a Tweetchat under the hashtag... More...

In my RSS travels, I recently discovered a source of inspiration about which I am no doubt very, very late on  the uptake. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) I just didn’t know there was a place we could go to hear the speakers (rather than hoping the ABC would include them in Big Ideas broadcasts lol.)... More...

SHELDON It must be an emergency; everyone at the university knows that I eat my breakfast at 8 and move my bowels at 8:20 LEONARD Yes, how did we live before Twitter? - from The Big Bang Theory, S.2, Ep.23,The Monopolar Expedition. When even the boys of The Big Bang Theory, champions of all things techie and geeky, appear to use Twitter merely... More...

I have several blogs on my RSS reader by working writers and editors. Recently, I started following a new blog put together by several of those publishing-types called The Blood Red Pencil and I’m loving it! Posts vary from answering letters and questions from readers and observations from their working-editor lives. Today’s post, Things... More...

This is how you make a movie about coming to terms with  disability into a gripping, edge-of-the-seat action flick. This is how you make a movie about a shoot-em-up bank heist into a subtle study of humanity. This is how you make a movie. Writer/Director: Scott Frank Main Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode Overall Rating:... More...

I have finally struggled through to the end of this book but I have to admit that at least the last 150 pages (yes that’s close to half of it) was to find out if it would EVER get round to the point of the plot-line which is advertised on the back of the book. I have not read James Patterson’s "Murder Club" books but if he really... More...

Death Note is one of the many anime/animations Superman and I used to enjoy on the adult swim site before it was geo-locked (whereby streaming content is blocked to IP addresses accessing websites from outside particular geographical areas – grrrr.) We were barely through the first season of this anime but in Asia has already been treated to... More...