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Research: It’s a damn odd job but someone’s got to do it.
Writing requires research. The adage ‘write what you know’ holds very true but I agree with those who say that, in this day and age when information is so easy to find, the adage ‘know what you write’ is truer. It is perfectly possible to write short stories, articles and novels without any research. The…
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If Heaven was a corporation
In our novel, Satan loses his job and is given ‘indefinite leave’ which he is forced to spend on Earth. Such a premise requires that the realm of the afterlife, perhaps both heaven and hell, is run rather like a private company or a large public corporation. The afterlife story arc that runs through…
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A Writer’s Year
Okay, it’s post-Christmas and I’m considering my accomplishments as a writer in 2011. In fact, as it’s the season for lists, I listed them. Now, this is not a bragging list. I’m actually going to make a point here. Here’s the list. Iain’s List Of Writery Things He Did In 2011 1. I began writing…
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Old Harry’s Game – Christmas Special
It’s festive and satanic and funny. And available until 30th December. Merry Christmas from Idle Hands. (only available in the UK. Sorry)
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The Devil and the W.I.
What links the devil with the Women’s Institute? Or, more precisely, who? Go on. I’ll give you ten seconds to work it out. I got thinking about this person whilst doing a spot of research for a chapter of our Clovenhoof novel which features a children’s choir (and animal slaughter, fake blood and credit card…
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Tell me what you think. Be honest. I can take it.
Consider… Scenario A: My wife comes into the house, fresh from the hairdressers and says, “What do you think?” Scenario B: My wife shows me a hairstyle in a magazine that she is thinking of getting herself and says, “What do you think?” Or perhaps consider… Scenario A: My six-year-old daughter brings me a page…
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When real people turn fictional
Inspiration comes from all manner of sources. This is an almost verbatim transcript of an e-mail conversation Heide and I have been having over the past week or so. Heide: I realised last night that for a couple of weeks or maybe more I have unconsciously been picturing Simon from BWG [Birmingham Writers’ Group] when…
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The Story of Job
I am currently plotting chapter 4 of our novel for Heide to write. This chapter has the working title of “Clovenhoof Needs People” and deals with Clovenhoof’s (aka Satan’s) being subjected to the most misery-inducing illness known to science: man-flu. It occurred to me whilst beginning to plot this, that I could make some analogies…
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From Ideas to Planning to Prose
We’ve been blogging at Idle Hands for exactly one month, one week and one day, charting our attempts to write a collaborative comic fantasy novel about Satan’s days in retirements on earth. We’re now in the process of writing some actual prose. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me because I usually…
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Your Satan Song Titles Needed!
So, here’s Satan, alone in his crumby flat (literally; Satan likes biscuits and does not do hoovers). He’s at his desk, the floor around him littered with dozens of screwed up pieces of paper like a flock of crap origami sheep. His pen is poised above a fresh sheet of paper. Yes, Satan is writing…