Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be a post about my New Year's resolutions, or my plans to conquer 2025, or pictures of me swimming in the sea. (This wouldn’t even be safe as it’s still dark and a storm warning is in place!) In fact, I don’t have any resolutions. Instead, I just want … Continue reading New Year’s Day 2025
Routine
Preservation: Renewal and Rebirth
Uncle Davy, my grandmother's brother, owned an old farmhouse in Moss-side. A unique place, but after his passing, it fell into disrepair. It was surely, destined for demolition, the bucket of a digger and a replacement dwelling. I’d great memories of it, the visits with my granny and granda: wading across the river, the animals, … Continue reading Preservation: Renewal and Rebirth
Featured
#Leid25 – Starting Now
This might just seem a wee bit early; as the year hasn’t turned; but I’ve started working on my main project for Leid Week 2025, (or perhaps before it). So far, I’ve: A wheen oo thoughts jotted doon. A few lines of prose, poetry an even lyrics. A wheen oo melodies worked oot. A few … Continue reading #Leid25 – Starting Now
Highland Dance Code Breaking
During WWII, a large group of soldiers from the Argyle and Sutherland Fusiliers were captured by the Germans. Whilst in their POW camp, and having some time to kill, they devised a new Highland dance reel. The dance setting was sent home but intercepted by the Germans. Then for the rest of the war, the Germans tried to crack the code, which they couldn’t, obviously.
Think even better! (80/20 + Eisenhower Matrix = ?)
Wednesday Recap #17 07.08.24 I’ve a lot of creative stuff knocking about that I have made and that I know is good. I’m not being pompous or delusional, I don’t think everything I do is good, most of my work has ended up filed in the trash, literally or electronically! The next biggest heap is … Continue reading Think even better! (80/20 + Eisenhower Matrix = ?)
Creative Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower / Priority Matrix is a very helpful mental model for creatives. Sometimes the most urgent and important task is letting our minds wander and dipping into every last thing that catches our attention. But once we’ve found something worth doing we need to focus on it. That is get it done!
Surviving the summer as a creative and parent.
Wednesday Recap #15 31.07.24 How do you Survive the Summer as a Creative (and a Parent) Let’s start with a definition. Flow state is when you completely focus on one activity, it completely captivates your attention so that your focus is solely on that one thing. This does not describe the summer holidays! Rather Go … Continue reading Surviving the summer as a creative and parent.
Keep Showing Up
Last Sunday morning I saw three deer on the top of the hill near where I live. If you live somewhere that deer live, that’s no big deal. If you live somewhere that deer aren’t supposed to live, then that’s pretty cool!
100 days of……
Wednesday Recap #14 17.07.24 I’ve started a #100DayChallenge on speaking and acting! My greatest creative joy comes from telling my stories. When you tell your stories yourself they are more than just the words you wrote. Normally words you wrote on your own, with no audience of listening ears, or seeing eyes! During this part … Continue reading 100 days of……
Old Ways on the New Web – people who believe in you.
I’m an old guy and can remember old style blogs, blogs with blog lists of other people’s blogs on the side bar. This was amazing for finding cool or interesting new stuff. No algorithm, no advertising, just personal unpaid endorsements, can you imagine a world like that!
When the process works – keep doing it!
…imagine a piece of ground that is really fertile, but it is really fertile because you have a structure for looking after it: feeding it, weeding it, draining it, watering it and a whole heap of other things you need to do to it. But then you assume the ground IS fertile rather than having been made fertile. You stop doing. You assume. You get on with other things. The residual fertility keeps it going for a while but then fertility of the ground quickly fades and you’ve no idea why!
Agent – Secret, Estate, Literary???
Wednesday Recap #12 26.06.24 When I think of an agent, I think of a secret agent: James Bond, George Smiley, Johnny English, you get the idea. Or less excitingly an estate agent. But the arts also have agents. So what is an agent? Or what does it mean? In Latin, where we get the word … Continue reading Agent – Secret, Estate, Literary???
No hacks, No gimmicks, No 10 point plans
Wednesday Recap #11 19.06.24 Every time I think I’ve found something new, I realise I’ve just rediscovered something old! And that’s what has happened, I’ve rediscovered the things that make me better. The elements of this rediscovery are simple, boring, uncomfortable and highly rewarding. So what are these mystical things? Hard cardio, weights (resistance training), … Continue reading No hacks, No gimmicks, No 10 point plans
Nothing steals your time – you give it away
Wednesday Recap #7 29.05.24 Thought Hiking is tremendous fun. Well if you like walking up hills, crossing streams and rivers, trying to work out where you are, carrying everything you need, ringing the water out of your socks, and being on the go for nearly five hours. One of my happiest formative memories was going … Continue reading Nothing steals your time – you give it away
Doing is more than doing
There is doing in the moment, preparation in the run up, and working towards your goal in the long term. Doing isn’t just the moment, doing is everything that makes the doing possible.
Wednesday Recap #4 08.05.24
This week has been about pressing on with the creation of scripts. I’ve other, much more visually creative things I want to do, but I need to get certain specific things finished before I start on to them. 1. George and the Elephant (the version for younger children) got another read through at the tail … Continue reading Wednesday Recap #4 08.05.24
Wednesday Update (01.05.24)
https://youtu.be/HJKuM0VAlRc?si=BMB3oRFFslQnJsYm Wednesday Recap (#3 01/05/24) Whoa the year is flying in…May already! 1. The latest draft of George and the Elephant is now finished. The next part of the process is very easy…leave it for a few weeks, get it out of my mind, and then come back to it fresh. A better way of … Continue reading Wednesday Update (01.05.24)
Play on easy mode
You should aim to play on easy mode. This doesn’t mean you only do easy things…(things that aren’t hard)…it means you purposely do things that make everything you do easier! You will have to do lots of hard, or difficult, or intense things but it means doing the right thing, at the right time, in … Continue reading Play on easy mode
Magic, Mystery, CS Lewis and to Much Christmas
“I am not a trained author, I do not possess GCSE English Lit never mind the thingy majiggy you get from a university. Therefore my writing has been a process. Normally a very simple process: write good sentences. At the start that was good sentences that were understandable and not full of repetition…” #Writing #Author #WritingTips #CSLewis #Narnia #GeorgeandtheElephant #Creativity #Imagination
I could turn unwanted tasks into a game!
What could you do differently? I could turn unwanted tasks into a game! I could pick six unwanted, or avoided, or procrastinated tasks and number them one to six. I’d then pick what to do by throwing a dice. Okay how do I know how long to do it for. Either you do the job … Continue reading I could turn unwanted tasks into a game!
Learning from the 90s
Recently, YouTube’s algorithm kindly suggested a 1994 documentary on selection for officer training in the Royal Marines! It wouldn’t have been my first pick, but there you go. My first shock was the 1990s, the coolest decade ever, looking like a dim, distant far off world, but there you go. The next shock was the … Continue reading Learning from the 90s
(Huge) Marketing Trouble [Hard Truths for Writers]
I’m in (huge) marketing trouble and for the first time I really don’t know what to do! Or maybe that’s the problem, maybe this is the first time I’ve realised that I don’t really know what to do. Anyhow here are some of the problems that have brought me to this point. Lastly firstly I … Continue reading (Huge) Marketing Trouble [Hard Truths for Writers]
Joe Wicks (fortitude)
Joe Wicks - the UK’s most famous fitness coach! The live PE sessions during the lock down for kids; the books; the YouTube channel; the public events; the TV appearances; the MBE! Joe Wicks is good at what he does, he has energy and passion, he has fame and success. But for me the main thing is fortitude in the face of rejection and failure. I remember him telling a story about standing outside a railway station in London handing out fliers for fitness boot camps in local parks; and no one turned up, not a single person! He was young, enthusiastic, hopeful, proactive, and pretty much trying to do what he does now! So how did Joe Wicks become so successful? And here I have to look in from the outside, and as Roy Walker used to say on Catchphrase, “say what you see.”
The Art of Comedy
…the refinement process for public performance is remarkable! The comedian comes up with an idea that might work as a joke, so they think it through and write it down, they tell it to the four walls, they note the changes and do it again, repeatedly, then and only then is it performed to a tiny audience at an obscure venue, and in the full knowledge this must be repeated over and over again, constantly refining, constantly changing, constantly adapting, constantly cutting and dissecting, and constantly being prepared to drop it altogether!
14 days and 6746 words.
I love numbers, connections and patterns. So today after two weeks I am where I should be in one month. I’d better explain that last sentence. As my New Year’s resolution I decided to write 200 words each day through January. This was towards a story I promised to write for my children in the … Continue reading 14 days and 6746 words.
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