An interesting reflection by Rob Kitchen on the relationship between academic and fiction writing and storytelling on the Transforming Society blog. He says: The usual approach to writing an academic article or book is to produce a factual, discursive narrative that weaves together theories, observations and findings, contextualising the contentions made with respect to the …
I have just come across this fascinating journal which published its first issue in 2015. Shades of Jorge Luis Borges… You can read some interesting findings on the effects of lockdown in the May 2020 issue Journal of Imaginary Research A key aim of our journal/zine is to encourage academic colleagues to embrace writing simply …
Smith, Zadie. “Fascinated to presume: In defense of fiction.” The New York Review of Books 24 (2019). A really wonderful philosophical reflection by Zadie Smith on the reasons for writing and reading fiction and for an engagement with and inclusion of the diversity of human experience. A few extracts that I found particularly helpful. I …
While looking for resources for the creative writing course I am running this semester, I came across some fantastic sets of rules put together by a number of well-known authors at The Guardian‘s request. The lists are introduced as follows: “Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos …
A reflection below from an interesting article on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s love of American hard boiled detective fiction. Wittgenstein is not known for being an easy read amongst philosophers! Zimmerman provides a nice summation of why we like the fiction we do. This has pretty much always been my own approach to fiction. I …
A useful article in The Guardian on the long standing prejudices against fan fiction and its emergence from the dungeons of dubious subculture particularly since the advent of the internet. From Star Trek to Fifty Shades: how fanfiction went mainstream Mikaella Clements Wed 8 Aug 2018 The divide between a fanfiction writer and an original …
Strong Spoilers. Please note that this discussion will probably only make sense if you are familiar with all the Harry Potter books and films. WARNING: DO NOT READ, if you don’t want to know what happens in the film before seeing it. My rating: **** Imdb link With this action packed and very watchable film, …
NB: Spoiler alert Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, New York: Little, Brown and Co. Books for Young Readers, 2005. My rating: * Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I read this book to see what all the fuss was about, which has been further amplified by the appearance of the films. Twilight and its sequels have spawned a whole …
Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (eds.) 2006. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. My rating: *** My review Quite interesting with some useful if rather rushed definitions of the some of the jargon used by fan fiction writers in the introduction. A large …
Refracted Input 