What You Can Get Away With

Nick Barlow's weblog

Archive for category Writing

Poem: In search of a gilded benefactor

May 15

Posted by Nick in Britain, Humour, Labour, Poetry, Politics, Writing | Comments off

I’ve been messing around with writing poetry recently, and my thoughts went back to those glorious days of yore when artists didn’t have to worry about pleasing the masses. All they sought to do was win the attention of a single wealthy patron, who would shower them with sufficient coin to ensure they could continue to produce their art with only the occasional diversion into hagiography of the patron or their family.

With that in mind, I decided it was time to demonstrate my hagiographical skills, but who should be the lucky recipient? Then, I caught sight of someone who had risen to a position of power with all the skill of a Renaissance Venetian and seemed to be be in possession of great wealth, such that writing cheques for five-figure sums was something she could do without a pause for thought.

So, beneath the cut, please find my tribute to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. I happily accept cheques or cash, and can probably arrange something through PayPal for credit cards.
Read the rest of this entry »

50,000

Dec 1

Posted by Nick in Books, Site announcements, Writing | Comments off

NaNoWriMo winner 2006

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been blogging much since I returned, one of the reasons is that for the last month I’ve been concentrating on writing, specifically taking part in National Novel Writing Month 2006 which challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. As you can see from the graphic to the right, I succeeded. It’s not of any great quality, and needs an extensive bottom-up rewrite before it’s suitable for people I don’t know that well to read, but the important thing is that I succeeded without any ‘well, let me read the Bible to you’ tricks.

I’d recommend trying it to anyone who’s interested – the knowledge that the clock is ticking and you’ve got to produce 1,700 or so words a day to make it to the finish line is a good motivation to shut down your inner editor and just pour every idea out onto the page. Now I just have to find where my editor’s hiding and turn it on again so I can write properly again.