LET’S LISTEN
The Wolf Song, Astrid LindgrenLET’S LISTEN to Vargsången (the wolf song) by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren and composer Björn Isfält. This is the second of this year’s Advent Calendar treats. You can find the lyrics in English, and the reason why I decided to make this song the second stop on the guided tour…
LET’S LISTEN
Odysseus, Björn AfzeliusLET’S LISTEN to Odysseus by Swedish singer, songwriter, guitarist and author Björn Afzelius. This is the first of this year’s Advent Calendar treats. You can find the lyrics in English, and the reason why I decided to make this song the first stop on the guided tour of my backwaters,…
ANIMAL CHARACTERS
In Books, Films and GamesANIMAL CHARACTERS A – Z is like a Who’s Who of animals I’ve come across in storytelling. I list the main/central animal characters from books, tv-series, films and games. Because there are so many of them, I won’t be able to list every single animal I’ve spotted in the stories. …
CRITICISM
When To Pay Attention?HEY WRITER, do you know when you need to pay attention to negative feedback? And, by extension, when you should just ignore it? “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and…
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS
DOs and DON’Ts for CriticsHEY WRITER, have ever you been a critique partner? Maybe a member of a writing group? Or, my personal nightmare, had friends and/or family ask you to give them feedback on something they wrote? After all the posts about being on the receiving end of criticism, today, I want to…
REVIEWS & CRITIQUE:
-Can Criticism Be Healthy?HEY WRITER, do you think criticism can ever be healthy? I do, and in this article I’m going to tell you why. “The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” – Norman Vincent Peale When the emphasis of criticism is…
ACT ON CRITICISM?
– You Do You, BooHEY WRITER, do you know that successful people tend to look at criticism as feedback? And no, that doesn’t mean that all criticism is correct. It goes without saying that the word criticism has a negative connotation. It can easily make us defensive and resistant to the benefits we could…
CRITICISM:
-3 Ways It Makes You StrongerHEY WRITER, did you know criticism can make you stronger? Most of us could share quite a few stories about the criticism we’ve received and the mark it left on our psyche. We all know it can leave us feeling weak, misunderstood, and vulnerable, but it can also make us…
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS
3 Reasons We Hate ItMOST PEOPLE hate being criticised, so as writers we’re in good company. It’s just that criticism can sting more when it relates to something you have created. But then again, as Aristotle said: “Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” As writers,…
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS
Who Can You Trust?I CAN’T STRESS this enough: Not all feedback is valid! As I’ve mentioned before, people can’t help themselves. They just love to dish out criticism for all sorts of reasons, whether they know what they’re talking about or not. As a writer, therefore, it is vital to know when to…
BAD REVIEWS
Everybody Gets ThemNO, LOVE, you’re not alone. Every single storyteller (or any other kind of creative person) gets bad reviews. Granted, some get more than others, but generally speaking, we all get our confidences knocked down a peg or two every now and then. But it doesn’t have to be the end of…
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS
Don’t Be A Dick!ONCE UPON A TIME I used to love reading the reviews in The Sunday Times. It was my most precious indulgence while I was a poor single mum living in Sweden. I’d pick up the thick envelope from my newsagents on a Wednesday and put it aside so I could…
LET’S TALK
What Does Fantasy Mean To You?FANTASY IS PROBABLY my favourite genre in storytelling. It gets a bad rep among literary snobs, but fantasy is so versatile it can, literally, be anything. If you think about it, quite a few of the stories that are held up as beacons of Good Literature (or words of a…
MY WORKFLOW
How I Get Inside the StoriesIF YOU WERE wondering how I go about dissecting the stories that interest me, I thought I’d make a post about my workflow. This is a system I have “perfected” over many years analysing different types of texts and finding interesting ways of presenting the information. As I only have…
WELCOME
To My Pandemic Panic Room!HELLO AND WELCOME to my pandemic panic room! This is a fictional writer’s room. A happy place I’ve created to make the solitary confinement of COVID-19 shielding bearable. As of today, my front door is locked. Like millions of other weak and vulnerable people across the globe, I will be…
