Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s no getting away from it – it’s a tough moment in time for young people. The life landmarks our parents ticked off in their twenties are being swept aside thanks to economic crises much bigger than ourselves, and the choices we make for ourselves in reaction to these circumstances are laughed at or criticised by… Read more »
Reading Time: 6 minutes Why would an Aussie library get its designers to build a drag and drop comics website? Aren’t there already plenty of free comic makers online? What are you even playing at? Last year, Talia Yat and Phil Gullberg of the State Library of Queensland’s innovation space the Edge built the Fun Palaces Comic Maker. It was… Read more »
Reading Time: 7 minutes Since taking on my role in the team building the Digital Literary Atlas of Wales, I’ve been lucky enough to visit some spectacularly uninteresting places: motorway service stations, forgettable B&Bs, generic fast food outlets, characterless pubs. I’ve spent countless hours in my battered little blue car, crawling behind tractors on snaking mid-Welsh B-roads, swearing loudly… Read more »
Reading Time: 3 minutes Whether you’re typing into Novlr, downloading via Kindle, self-publishing through Reedsy or reading on Wattpad tech is everywhere. But bar the odd writing app, the process of getting words down remains tech-free. For most writers engaged in writing, tech is at best peripheral and at worst a distraction. But can tech be more than something… Read more »
Reading Time: 5 minutes Simon Appleby, director of digital agency Bookswarm, highlights ten more websites that do their authors justice on the web. Back in 2013, I blogged for The Writing Platform about ten author websites I really liked. They were my personal picks – I was interested in sites for how they looked, how they worked or what… Read more »
Reading Time: 6 minutes Books aren’t sold by weight. Creative work is intangible – it doesn’t have real mass – and society deals with that problem with the concept of copyright. It’s a common word, but most people misunderstand what that means. Reading this article, I want you to stop for a moment and consider what you have created, and what… Read more »
Reading Time: 2 minutes This article first appeared in Write: The Magazine of The Writers’ Union of Canada, and is reproduced here with kind permission of the author. How do you create strong disabled characters? The question goads me. Where disability’s concerned, there’s so much banal, shitty writing out there. Countless authors have resorted to clichés and stereotypes when creating… Read more »
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Writing Platform has partnered with Arts Council England to run an advice session about funding for digital writers. The event is taking place on Wednesday 8th April, 6.30pm – 8.30pm at Arts Council’s London offices 21 Bloomsbury street, London, WC1B 3HF Places are free but limited to 20. To book your place email Charlotte Aston on… Read more »
Reading Time: 5 minutes I often hear newer writers (of varying ages) say they want their writing to speak for itself. They’re filled with disdain for publishers who look for an online presence, and utterly scornful of writers who actively and efficiently use social media to their advantage. What I generally say to such writers (after I stop laughing)… Read more »
Reading Time: 5 minutes When The Writing Platform asked me if I would be so kind as to write something about how you lovely writers out there could approach bloggers I was really honoured. Yet after I had written down my initial ‘top tips’ I started to worry. You see in this article you may see the word ‘don’t’… Read more »