“Do not ask for what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and do it. For what the world needs is people who are fully alive.”-Howard Thurman 'But you're not thinking like an entrepreneur!' This was a (well-intentioned) observation made to a friend of mine recently. He had shared with a group of…
Drink, Smoke, Snort, Stroke
I don't normally dedicate a whole post to a book I've edited ... but I've made an exception for this one. I'm so proud to have edited this book for Willy de Wit, one of the most prominent names in New Zealand comedy and a man who has faced addiction, despair, depression, and a brush…
Quick Tips #7: How to write better sentences
Consider the following sentence: The green grass was full of doctors, all dressed in their dazzlingly white surgical coats. Now consider Sylvia Plath's version: The lawn was white with doctors. (from The Bell Jar) I don't think you'll even have to think about it when I ask: Which is the better sentence? But what about…
Throat Clearing
Today I want to suggest one way you can improve your short fiction. Stop clearing your throat. Throat clearing is what many writers do at the beginning of a short story. They set the scene. They ease us in. But as the name of the concept implies, much of it is an unnecessary and ineffectual prelude to the good…
Welcome to my new website
I've had a facelift! Welcome to my refreshed website, with a giant photo of me on it. (I paid a professional for that photo shoot, so I'm jolly well going to plaster the results wherever I can.) You'll notice a few changes to navigation: the menu of categories, plus a few other features, are at…
Escaping Ourselves
“But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.”–Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao If you’ve pottered around my site for long enough you will know that I've been writing a novel. It's finished now, and I'm in the…
Left Brain, Right Brain – can you be an editor and a writer?
I often get asked how I can be an editor/proofreader and write creatively. How do I switch from analytical precision to free-flowing creativity? One activity seems very left brain, the other right. When I launched my proofreading and editing business I did wonder at first whether my anal retentiveness and perfectionism when it comes to…
Endings
Today I'd like to say a brief word about endings. We hear a lot about beginnings, and how difficult/important they are. "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." (Lao Tzu) "The beginning is the most important part of the work." (Plato) "Every moment is a fresh beginning." (T.S. Eliot) "For fucksake…
The most usual lie
I wrote this poem some years ago, but I have taken it out today and dusted it off, editing it here and there. I removed a whole verse and changed words and line structure and some punctuation. It feels more authentic now. Sometimes revisiting a piece reminds us how far we have come, and how…
Punctuation is SEXY (and using it properly will get you more dates online)
So I have a gripe. A grammarian gripe, if you will. A punctuation protestation. I'm pissed off. I'm aghast. I'm fed up. I'm THIS CLOSE to giving an unsuspecting passer-by a good slap. And you, lucky readers, are about to hear all about it. Read that sentence again. Take particular note of the plural: readers.…
Patricia Bell, Author 