Clear-Minded Creative
I’ve been a fan of Alex Mathers and his Red Lemon Club blog for quite some time. The site provides really solid advice for freelance creatives of all kinds. Alex’s own speciality is illustration, a topic covered by his other site, Ape on the Moon – so he talks from experience – and of course this […]
Yesterday I left the civil service after almost exactly 10 years to the day I started. You can read some background to this in one of the previous newsletters. Somewhat spookily, given this was my last day of repeating the same routine over and over again, this happened on Groundhog Day. Another coincidence – on […]
Most writers are faced with a difficult decision as October draws to an end – whether to take part in NaNoWriMo (more details below). I’ve never managed it myself and having tried and failed to write a novel when I was younger the thought brings me out in a cold sweat. So for the next […]
I was honoured that top Scottish blog Bella Caledonia recently described this blog as ‘ever-helpful’ and added generously that it “clears all writers’ blocks”. Whilst regular practices like the morning pages really do help with creative problems of all kinds, I have to admit that being blocked still happens to me sometimes – and the […]
When I was about 20 years old, I was totally and utterly lost. I was in my fourth year of studying for a degree and I was disillusioned with the whole process. I could see no clear way forward in terms of finding a job or career at the end of it, and I was […]
At least that’s what Nude Magazine thought, who printed this brief version of my ‘I Was a Swivel Chair’ story: Name: Swivel Chair. Town: Edinburgh, Scotland. Years: 1999-2004 Influences: KLF, Pet Shop Boys, Joy Division. Career Highlight: Our third triumphantly drunken gig.. Lowpoint: Our fourth disastrously drunken gig. Line Up: Craig Low (bass, samples) Milo […]
Michael Caine: photographer unknown Print newspapers, it seems, will soon be no more than a minority medium, and so owners of the big news brands are wondering just how they’re going to make money once their main outlet is via the internet – whether it’s accessed via a computer, a mobile device or one […]
Read part 1, part 2, part 3 A Novel Idea In my final year of college I also started writing lyrics and other random stuff in a bit of a creative outpouring, due perhaps to the fact that I’d kept my creativity bottled up for so long (or drowned it in a sea of booze […]
This is part 2 of the exclusive serialisation of my unwritten creative memoirs (it might make a bit more sense if you read part one) FILM OPENINGS After deciding that I didn’t have the excessively extroverted character necessary for a career in the theatre, I decided that being behind the camera might work better. […]
The documentary Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson about the is an enjoyable, if uneven take on the life of the much-loved gonzo figurehead and “walking monument to misbehaviour” and is both an inspirational and cautionary tale. Disclaimer: What follows is less a review than the thoughts it provoked about the life […]
Clear-Minded Creative