A.E. Shaw's Blog, page 3

This Week’s Distraction: In Praise Of NBC’s Dracula

It’s only taken three episodes (although, to be perfectly honest, I was captivated within the five seconds of the first episode), but I am quite clearly and officially in love with NBC/Sky Living’s reimagining of Dracula.

There are three reasons that this isn’t surprising.

1) When I was 15, I fell utterly in love with a young Jonathan Rhys Meyers when he got in the way of my Liam Neeson infatuation by featuring in Michael Collins. He may well remain the only actor who has never let me down in t...

Planning vs. Pantsing

It’s the infinite NaNoWriMo question. I’ve tried both, and would say I’ve had considerably more success pantsing, but that planning is easier. Make sense? About as much sense as the process of making things up and writing things down can, I suppose. Here’s my pro-con list, in which each method’s pro has its con in the opposing method’s pro. Eh.

PANTSING:

No prep work. Perfect for the lazy/disorganised.
No restrictions. Want to flip from technobabble to dinosaurs? No problem! Gritty inner-city mo...

Write the Next Word, then the One After That.

This is my old writing office. You don’t need one of these.

I have a great many things to discuss, but this is not the post for those because the most important thing about November, which today I must considerably address, is that it is, at last, NaNoWriMo! One of my very favourite times of the year, although there are many moments in the depths of forcing one word out to the tune of another where I wonder how and why I ever thought it a good idea.

But, it’s always a good idea. I like to think...

Thaumatropes, Cats and Quotes – How to Accessorise This Autumn

You may or may not know that I am the minion of the Mymble’s Daughter, and, as such, it is my duty to publicise and promote her glorious creations, an undertaking I find to be utterly joyous, for her things are beautiful, affordable, expertly crafted and designed, and, basically, the best thing you could give another human, or, indeed, yourself. So! I’ll be doing a few such posts over the next couple of months because seasonal shopping is a thing, and because I love to share, and because va...

The Marvel of Study

I discovered Coursera a couple of weeks ago. It’s true, distance learning has been around forever, and there are plenty of archives around and about where you can access whole glorious degree courses of everything from all over the world, but I’ve never quite got a handle on the discipline of following an entire course like that on my own. I like to be spoonfed things, to have organised access to stuff, and, preferably, to be tested on what I’ve learnt throughout. So it was like a half-dozen...

My Coffee Judges You

Let’s see, what was this post for? Housekeeping and attempting to stocktake my brain, I think. Lots of loose ends around, and some writerly tribulations.

First up, wtf is with the so-many-views from Mumsnet?! I can’t even see how or what or…strange, super strange. But hi!

Second up, I see now why people who don’t work from home and have the luxury of structuring their day however they would like to fall behind on their TV-watching. I am particularly doing so as I have literally no time or spac...

Don’t Wait to Send the Letter

I love Proper Letters. On stationery, whether it’s plain, stolen from an hotel, or Sanrio, leaking kitties and wabbits in its wake, trawling glitter irritatingly from the first pull-apart of the envelope.

I love them. I love to receive them. I love to write them. But…I suck at sending them. I’m in the middle of a letter to a dear friend. We text, Whatsapp, email aplenty, but she went to a festival about which I wanted to hear and so I said, hey, write me a letter. She did. It’s fantastic. Ful...

Read Me Poetry, Please – 4 Short Poems, Spoken By Me

I have never been much of a fan of poetry. Like most people who did English GCSE in the late ’90s, I had a book with a selected slew of poetry which we studied, dissected and ground into meaninglessness, regurgitated arguments and learnt to be annoyed, rather than delighted, by someone’s careful choices of words.

Such is my love for every other form of word usage that I’ve never really re-engaged with poetry. I haven’t tried, I suppose, or found anything I liked, bar the John Betjeman and Pam...

What Would C.J. Cregg Do?

Get to work, really. That’s most likely the answer.

It’s been a difficult week, interspersed with a lot of feelings and panic and wondering how on earth to keep kicking myself onwards. It’s much easier to kick yourself onwards when you’re doing things for a loved one, or working for something you believe in, like, say, Martin Sheen as the President of the United States. I think that’s part of the trick, isn’t it? Having something, someone, for whom you do things that you believe aren’t just wo...

Watching Yourself Fail

It’s a horrible thing.

The thing you think about when you’re trying to calmly drink your coffee and watch The West Wing, and you realise you’ll never, ever, be as awesome as C.J. Cregg. You’ll be lucky to be 5% as awesome in your entire life as C.J. Cregg.

The thing you think about when you’re about to pay for something in a shop, and the assistant asks you “How are you today?” and you open your mouth to reply and say “Fine, good, yes, ” but your brain is capslocking I JUST SUCK I’M SO SORRY P...