John Baker’s Blog

A character blog is a blog written in the voice of a fictional narrator, of which there are several examples currently on the internet.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one, another is the more recent Bono’s Blog (Saving the world one song at a time). Neither of these blogs are written by the person [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
Each story begins for me with an initial premise; a body found on the border, a born again ex-con, a gold mine in the Donegal hills. The premise will float about in my head for a while, during which time I build the layers around it; [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
‘Phases’ is much too neat a word. I don’t think I have phases. A former husband, a doctor and an academic, who when he wrote himself, progressed neatly from A to Z. was appalled by the way I worked. ‘It’s all afterthoughts,’ he said.
This is not [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
In terms of my experience of creating a story, the framed Beckett quote ripped from a magazine that hangs over my desk offers a rough guide: ‘Try again, fail again, fail better.’
As to how that translates into the phases of creating a text, I’m almost embarrassed [...]