What makes a ‘good’ writer?

These are my favourite writers. It took a me a while to come up with this list, mostly because I was constantly second-guessing myself, wrestling with the question of whether they were ‘good writers’ or if their stories just ticked all the right boxes for me, and how much each factor should come into consideration (for more on this, see Part One). I’m going to go through the points which I believe make a great writer- to repeat, I believe, which is probably different to other opinions- illustrated with some examples.

One Lovely Blog Award

*** RULES Thank the person who nominated you Share seven facts about yourself Nominate other bloggers and inform them of the nomination *** Thank you so much to Andy Winder for nominating me!! This is the first award I've ever been nominated in and it really made me feel like part of the blogging community …

Why I find video essays so compelling

I am a big fan of long-form journalism, particularly articles which tell the story of the writer’s personal connection with their subject- whether it’s a person or a piece of media. Now, I get my fix of intellectual-lite pontification via video essays, preferably between twenty and forty minutes in length, which I watch almost daily on YouTube.

The most elegant anime of all time? Perhaps so.

Neo Yokio is the greatest city in the world, or its worst specimen of destructively wasteful consumer capitalism- depending on who you ask. It is also the name of a Japanese-American animated television series which has been the source of much internet controversy and criticism. From the moment I pressed play on the first episode …

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Part One: Animals and Humans Have you ever seen one of those adverts on television, the ones with faded photo montages accompanied by poignant music and a solemn voice informing you that a certain species- of tiger, perhaps, or elephant- is on the verge of extinction, but with a small monthly donation you could help …

How much should we listen to musical criticism?

I generally don’t write about music because, to be honest, I’m always too intimidated to try. To put it bluntly, I don’t want to seem like an idiot talking about a creative practice that I have practically zero technical knowledge of. Unlike other writers, I don’t feel comfortable dropping phrases like ‘electro-pop dubstep’ or criticising …

50th post!

Hey everyone! This is just a little note to mark the fact that I just made my 50th post on this blog! Thank you to everyone who reads and follows this blog, it means a lot to me and I appreciate each and every response I get. I was hesitant to start blogging but every …

Channel 4’s Hunted: Light-hearted entertainment or insidious propaganda?

I’m not a big fan of reality television. I dislike the way it pretends to be an unfiltered representation of ‘real life’, when everyone watching knows perfectly well that it’s about as authentic as a soap opera. I get annoyed at formulaic set ups which try to pass themselves off as uniquely exciting, and generally …

The Bucket-is-Batman List

Exactly what it says on the tin.   1) Dressed in black from head to toe (with guns hidden under his petticoats) “a man in black” 2) Has his own ‘evil double’ in Mr Tulkinghorn, a lá Batman and the Joker 3) Extremely competent at his job, perhaps even a ‘master detective’? 4) Prone to …

American Vandal- satire, silliness and style

I’ll be honest, judging from the summary- “Truth. Justice. Dicks.”-  I was slightly sceptical before I started to watch American Vandal. I’m glad that I persevered after the first few episodes, as it fast became one of those shows when you don’t just want to watch the next episode, you need to. Urgently. Until you’ve …