According to a new scientific theory the end of the universe could well be signalled by a ‘Big Rip‘ instead of a ‘Big Crunch’ or just a ‘Big Freeze.’ According to this new theory of doom, as the universe expands it will eventually come to a point where the planets, stars, galaxies, atoms and even space time…
The summer has finally arrived in the UK, and so has the festival season. This weekend it’s the world-famous Glastonbury Festival at Pilton in Somerset. Personally, I’ve never been to Glastonbury for the festival. The closest I ever came was in 1994 when a friend of mine was trusted to buy the tickets for four…
How much time do you have? How much time does anyone have? How much time does the world have before we reach peak oil, or the ecosystem collapses… How do you measure your time? The lifespan of a female mosquito is between 6-8 weeks. The lifespan of some tortoises is more than 150 years. Time is, as a…
Today is Beltane, otherwise known as May Day. It’s a pagan festival that welcomes the move from spring to summer. Novels like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, look at the plight of the old deities in the modern world. What are they doing, behind the scenes, as we become distracted by new religions and even give up our faith altogether?
Sometimes, all you need is an image to spark off a story. Street photography is often a good place to start, as it offers snapshots of life and exposes strange coincidences and the bizarre or beautiful, in the banal and everyday.
Today, everyone watched the skies to glimpse the partial eclipse. People gathered with their watching devices (keep it safe people) as the skies darkened and the birds fell silent and we took a moment to marvel at our place in the solar system.
Even if you don’t enter them, writing competitions can offer inspiration and even a writing prompt, if there’s a theme. So, I’m cheating this week and pointing you towards the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre’s The Page is Printed Competition. Although an empty page can be daunting for writers, this competition asks for a story a page…
At Writers Anon this week, we were talking about mixing the strange with the familiar, as a way of creating a sense of unease. Your writing prompt: Your character wakes up for a regular day…
In a single day, we gain information from a huge number of places. In the morning, most of us may put the radio on and listen to the news and then reach for our smartphones to catch up on emails and texts or social media. We get up and stroll downstairs for breakfast, noticing the morning…
Some writers find dialogue difficult. I’ve even seen new writers avoid dialogue with the overuse of reported speech. But the best way to tackle dialogue is to tackle dialogue. Listen to people out on the street or in cafes and tune into how they speak. Notice how they don’t always use full sentences. How they interrupt…
Writers Anon - Taunton's Writing Group 