So, it was the NeNaNoWriMoMe today in Newcastle, at Caffe Nero in Newcastle. With the event set to kick off at 2pm, I made sure I got there a little early — a smidge before ten to — and looked around for the obvious bohemian types. There didn’t appear to be anyone furiously scribbling away [...]

So as the start of National Novel Writing month approaches, I’ve allowed my mind to wander to the likes of plot from time to time. I’ve got two current ideas that I’m tossing around — one being a sword & sorcery caper that is an affectionate (but slightly piss-taking) look at dungeons and dragons and [...]

I’m taking part in National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo, which sounds very Mork & Mindy) again this year. Well, I say again. Last year I signed up to it and I think I managed to write a total of approximately no words towards a novel, so this year I am hoping to [...]

I’ll start with my first entry: tweet your haiku to @kingsplace King’s Cross Station haiku competition ThePickards [1] (Although technically this is a cheat, as I make it 18 syllables upon manual checking [5-7-6], but one of the automated counters said 17 so I’m having it here…) I’ve always liked the poetry form Haiku, where [...]

No, it’s not some kind of mis-spelled Mork and Mindy reference. No, it’s that I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. As Steve points out (a fellow NaBloPoMo participant), these sound like sections of Judoon dialogue. However, they are in fact writing challenges. I’ll start with the simplest. This is NaBloPoMo, which I am taking [...]

So far as I am aware, there were three entries written for the Halloween Lovecraft Challenge. These were: Chartroose’s The Sandwhich Whore (based on The Dunwich Horror) Softdrink’s where chartroose becomes a lovecraftian god (based on Nyarlathotep) And my own piece, Where do you get your ideas? (based on Pickman’s Model) It’s not too late [...]

I do not think that I could find the place again, even if I would wish to. It is sufficient for our narration to note that the bar was in London, and not on any of the main streets. Oh, if only I had chosen to stay on the main streets, instead of walking down [...]

Myself and Chartroose have cooked up Jack And Chartroose’s H. P. Lovecraft Short Story Challenge, more or less by accident. The basic premise is that you have to rewrite one of H. P. Lovecraft’s short stories and publish it on your blog. For Halloween, so you’ve got just under a week. And on the bright [...]

Take one of the characters you made up a history for in the last exercise and write a monologue for that character of about 200 words. When you’ve done this, see if the way they speak has something unique about it. Take another character, one who is very different, and do the same again. Have [...]

Go somewhere public, like a café or a shopping centre. Take a notebook with you, and spend half an hour making notes on some of the interesting people that you see around you. You might want to start with a physical description, then go on to create a short imagined history for each one. Make [...]