I have always written poetry. I remember from when I was young I had poem framed and put on the wall of the Gosport City Museum, and a masterpiece entitled "Stan, Stan, the Crackpot Man" that had them rolling in the aisles of my year seven English Class… Poetry is great. It allows you to … Continue reading About: “Collected Poems”
About: “The Big Frog Theory”
It took me maybe three months to draft the whole 120,000 words of "The Big Frog Theory" - known colloquially as "Nev". Largely because of a fantastically positive change in personal circumstances one February about twenty two years ago, I just sat down and started - 'In a Malvern tea-shop he sat, watching the steam … Continue reading About: “The Big Frog Theory”
About: “Mirrors”
The boring bits first: this is a big book (172k words, 500 pages), and took a long time to write. Well, not exactly a long time in terms of the physical process of writing those 172k words, but in elapsed time. Many years, in fact. I had the original idea way back and maybe wrote … Continue reading About: “Mirrors”
About: “Writing to Gisella”
Write what you know about they say. To a certain extent, if you only do that then you’re writing autobiography all the time. But if you take what you know - however practical, real, physical, emotional etc. - and then extrapolate it, play with it…well, then the world’s your oyster. Lucca is one of my … Continue reading About: “Writing to Gisella”
About: “Losing Moby Dick”
Bizarrely perhaps, the motivation for the story - and the initial situation Jack finds himself in - is entirely based on my own experience i.e. one day I realised "Moby Dick" was missing from my bookshelves and it should have been there. I had no idea why it wasn’t there. I never throw books away… … Continue reading About: “Losing Moby Dick”
About: “Riding the Escalators”
One of the things I like about Magic Realism is that there are no boundaries. You can put your characters in whatever situations you choose, and have them react however you want them to. As a writer, this can be quite freeing, removed from the need to be 'true to life' - whatever that means. … Continue reading About: “Riding the Escalators”
“A Perforated Soul” – 100-word challenge
A scruffy young man, tattooed about the neck, pushing a BMX, limps badly, unable to put weight on his left heel as if his shoe has been penetrated by the mother of all nails. He could - or should - be going to the Doctor’s, but he doesn’t look the sort; he looks disenfranchised, an … Continue reading “A Perforated Soul” – 100-word challenge
In your hands
The challenge is not being prolific, nor having ideas and turning them into something tangible - the challenge is the validation of that output. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that validation is clearly measurable these days. It's visible in the numbers: of reads, of likes, of followers, of - heaven forbid! - sales... That validation - "the scores … Continue reading In your hands
“Unveiling” – 100-word challenge
When the fog finally lifted the world looked different. Perhaps it was the way in which the land emerged, slowly divesting itself of the cloak it had been wearing. Because it happened in slow motion, you were forced to focus on one thing at a time: a church spire, or the tops of the trees … Continue reading “Unveiling” – 100-word challenge
I have two lives…
...one is the normal, 'professional' one I have been living for an awfully long time. The other was born in the freedom days of youth many years ago only to enter some kind of hibernation from which it might be roused at irregular intervals to put in a surprise appearance - surprise to me, if no-one else! … Continue reading I have two lives…
Ian Gouge - Writer 