If I'm lucky, every week I spend a number of happy hours by myself, writing. Music is often my only companion. If I'm really concentrating - trying to craft a particularly tricky sentence, or juggling a complicated plot sequence, I turn it off, but most of the time it is the perfect accompaniment. I'm like Pavlov's dogs: the minute…
Characterisation – The Naked Truth
Some of you will be aware that I do musical theatre. I've performed in many shows through the years including Chess, Blood Brothers, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. My latest role, however, is making me feel rather vulnerable. You'll understand why in a minute, but first let me take you back a few…
A Posy of Poems
It's been a while, but here I am at last. Some time ago I wrote a post listing some of my favourite books. I badly need to update it and will do so before too long. But today, given it is National Poetry Day here in NZ, I want to talk poetry. I love reading poetry…
One Down, Eight To Go
Nobody, not even the rain, has such small paws. Sorry E.E. Cummings, I have ever so slightly edited a line of your masterpiece (the wonderful poem "somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond") in honour of my cat. I have two cats - Sam (who is always presumed to be a boy, but is in fact Samantha)…
The Bank of Words
Robert Southey said: "It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." Short fiction - good short fiction - can have an emotional impact and resonance not found in quite the same way in longer fiction. That is why I love it. The trouble is, it's fecking hard…
Elizabeth Goes Shopping
One day Elizabeth woke up and decided to go shopping. She dressed in trousers and an anorak and wrapped a paisley scarf around her hair. After breakfast she ducked through the kitchen, out the gates and was on the No. 32 bus before anyone had noticed she was gone. First stop, Boots the Chemist for…
Crossing Over
Just for fun: I've written the same story, first in under 150 words, and then in under 300 words. I've entered both in different Flash Fiction competitions. Which do you think is best? Why? Crossing Over (150 words) We spear through the pre-dawn. As we shoot down the last hill before the pier, all wheels…
A Short Short Story
As I have previously pointed out, I love writing short fiction. Perhaps still high on my success in the 2013 Reader's Digest 100-word story competition (I came runner-up), I've just entered the BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) Literary Awards, in the Short Short Story category (150 words). As long as your story is deemed eligible, it's published…
Brightness
It is Miss B's birthday today. I wrote her a poem not long ago (see "My daughter's bedside, 3am." Today, however, I bow to the superior talent of New Zealand poet Denis Glover (Dec 1912 - Aug 1980). For you, my darling daughter. Happy Birthday. Brightness I am bright with the wonder of you And the…
Write true, write cheap
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…
Patricia Bell, Author 