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Music for Writing

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How do you write? In silence? Or with heavy metal blasting out at full blast? I used to be able to write with my favourite music playing (usually on my headphones, especially if the kids were in bed). But in recent times I've found it increasingly hard to concentrate with music, particularly music with lyrics. Quite often now I will play a movie score soundtrack. Batman Begins is a favourite, as is John Carter . Recently, though, I've discovered some even more useful musical accompaniment on YouTube. The video below is a good place to start. Not quite 'ambient', more... 'atmospheric'. Puts me in just the right mood for composing prose. ['Comprosing'? Err, no.] Check it out. And if you don't like this one, there are plenty more to choose from.
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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams . . .

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Twelve months ago I was in a bad place. The New Year was looming, I had some personal problems that were kicking my behind, and my writing career was not progressing the way I'd hoped. Then, on Jan 2nd, I received a late night phone call from America. It was Joni Labaqui from the Writers of the Future Contest. The story I had entered almost four months previous (and which, to be honest, I had forgotten about) had reached the final 8 of the quarter. Ms Labaqui assured me that my story was really good and that I was a talented writer. I almost cried. As it happens, the story didn't make the all-important Final 3 but shortly after I went on to sell it to Realms of Fantasy Magazine* . [*That's another story.] Anyhoo, this episode taught me a couple of things. One, I can do this . I've "got the chops", as they say. Two, I started telling myself to stop waiting around for things to happen. Make your own opportunities . At the time, I didn't quite know what tha...
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Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy: An Appreciation

Part 1: Batman Begins (2005) Before I was a movie fan I was a comic fan. There's a geek moment in my life I recall even to this day with utter clarity. It's a Wednesday morning, about 7.30 AM. I'm sitting on the steps outside my friendly neighbourhood newsagents. Said newsagent, Mr Chidlow, comes around the corner and on seeing me does a little double-take. "Blimey, you're up early, lad," he says. Yes, I am up early. And the reason I'm there at such an ungodly hour on his doorstep? It's Wednesday morning and that means the new issue of Spider-Man is out. I can't wait a minute longer. I have to know what happens next. Looking back as a man of forty, it's hard to reconcile myself with that 10 year-old kid, an age when you could love something as simple as a comic book with the same passion you might reserve for a religion and no one thought you were strange in doing so. Okay, maybe they thought you were a little strange. In the interveni...
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