Category Archives: Critique

Winchester 2010

Posted on 10 July, 2010 by Susan K Franklin

Winchester 2010 with Plenary Speaker Sir Terry Pratchett OBE This year the Winchester Writers’ Conference was celebrating 30 years of inspiring, encouraging and educating aspiring authors. The conference ran over three days. During this time workshops, seminars, networking, midnight reads … Continue reading →

Posted in Competitions and festivals, Reviews | Leave a comment

Knowing why we cry

Posted on 3 July, 2010 by Ian Cundell

I have been thinking about last week’s finale of Dr Who (or rather the last two weeks, it was a two parter). I know what you’re thinking: a) you sad git and b) what’s that got to do with crying? … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Film and TV scriptwriting, Inspiration, Technique | Leave a comment

Oh, sod off

Posted on 7 June, 2010 by Ian Cundell

It is because we don’t have one of these that English is the global language. In the English language, the rules are, as often as not, more honor’d in the breach than the observance.

Posted in Analysis, Pet Peeve | 1 Comment

Memo to fans: let the storyteller tell it

Posted on 25 May, 2010 by Ian Cundell

The past week has seen the conclusion of two popular (probably influential, arguably seminal) TV series, the BBC’s Life on Mars/ Ashes to Ashes and ABC’s Lost. Both series dealt with strikingly similar themes (I’ll put them under the broad … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Film and broadcast, Technique | Leave a comment

A short dilemma

Posted on 17 May, 2010 by Jenny Barden

A short story is ‘a world seen in a quick glancing light,’ so said Alice Munro. It’s a ‘glance at the miraculous,’ according to Joseph O’Connor (in his introduction to the 1997 Fish Anthology). It allows ‘a glimpse into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Technique, The hard slog | 4 Comments

Everything you need to know about why “The Phantom Menace” is such a terrible film

Posted on 18 April, 2010 by Jon Pinnock

(via @JM71 – I love the random stuff that people turn up on Twitter …) I think this is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen lately. I take it that most of us have seen “The Phantom Menace”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Critique, Film and TV scriptwriting, Film and broadcast | Leave a comment

Accuracy in writing

Posted on 11 April, 2010 by Kevin Bennett

Why we need proofreaders – or writers’ circles - using our old whipping horse Dan Brown as an example!

Posted in Analysis, Critique, Technique, The hard slog, Writers in action | 3 Comments

5 things that Science Fiction and Fantasy could do without

Posted on 1 April, 2010 by Toby Frost

1. False moral quandaries. The ability of SFF to distort reality and then claim to be addressing real-world issues is rarely raised, but it can lead to false morals being drawn. Say our hero uses a spell to kill all … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Pet Peeve, Technique | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

I’ll be the judge of that

Posted on 14 March, 2010 by Sandra Norval

This week saw the adjudication of the annual President’s Competition, one of the four regular competitions open to our members. Back in January during one of the many bouts of freezing weather Nick Cook,  VWC President, set the theme as ‘Snow’. The story … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Competitions and festivals | 3 Comments

Oh great. Just great.

Posted on 29 October, 2009 by Ian Cundell

So what brain dead halfwit thought this would be a good idea? Fantasy author to write ‘new’ Asimov novels

Posted in Analysis, Pet Peeve | 1 Comment