John Baker’s Blog

It wasn’t an everyday event. Bodies weren’t. Altogether, not in this part of the country. You could be a serving officer for your whole life and not come into contact with a body. Maybe in London, Manchester, Birmingham, big cities. In those places you would have to deal with bodies, still not every day, but [...]

I have a note about a small old people’s home, situated somewhere in the south of Germany. I do know exactly where it is but will not divulge this information to protect the innocent. The note is about a geriatric couple who have insisted on sitting next to each other on the ward for some [...]

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 [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
For some years I have been writing mainly poetry even though I started writing fiction. I’d say the planning is very similar. I have an idea, write it down.The first phase is to decide how it will begin and how it will end. A [...]