Author Intrusion

Great writers - nature or nurture?

2011-05-11T09:18:00.005+01:00

Are writers taught or are they made? Is the ability to produce a great novel somehow derived from the genes, or is it a craft that can be learned through effort and good teaching?

Like all such questions, this is a false dichotomy. For a truly great writer, innate ability is surely needed. But learning the craft also. I have been privileged to witness so many students developing their capacity to write beautiful, powerful prose that I am convinced of the importance of good teaching in this process and that the innate ability is not as rare as some people claim.

There is a problem however. I have seen people postpone writing their first novel because they feel they are not quite ready. Instead, they do another writing course. And another. And another. Courses become a thing to do INSTEAD of writing.

You can't learn to write novels without writing novels.

Last night I gave the first in a series of classes designed to combat that problem. The deal is this: each student works on their novel through the week. This is the process from which they will derive most of their learning. And on Tuesday evening we all come together to talk about their progress, share samples of their work, answer problems that have arisen, give suggestions and encouragement. Each class will be 50% taught and 50% manuscript workshop.

With 14 students, the class is full. We couldn't fit anyone else in the room. I discovered that, curiously, there are 13 female participants and only one male. (Writing courses do typically attract more women than men, but this is more asymmetric than usual).

Everyone seemed focused on the prospect of writing and I sensed a creative excitement in the air. Novel writing gives that - a sense of excitement. It is a journey into the unknown. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this course.

Six things you should never do... if you are in a movie

2011-05-09T11:08:00.007+01:00

1. If there has been a murder recently, trust the police to look into it rather than starting an investigation of your own. Follow this instruction even if you knew the victim.

2. Just because a building is creepy it doesn’t mean you have any right to break into it on a whim.

3. Just because the front door opens when you push it, doesn’t mean it is a good idea to step inside and look around. Consider the possibility that the opposite may be true.

4. On finding an old book or box in the house, don’t take a deep breath and blow the dust off the top. A slightly damp cloth will do the job far better without giving you or your fellow searchers an asthma attack.

5. However much time you feel it will save you in your search, never say, “let’s split up.”

6. On tripping over body in the dark, immediately call the police (see point 1). They may remind you of points 2 and 3, but will realise you are more likely to be a stupid person than a killer.

Four Plot Problems

2011-05-09T10:34:00.004+01:00

There comes a time when the novel or screenplay gets pitched. That's when the product of our imagination and perspiration gets boiled down to a few short lines of prose - the story in a nutshell.

With all the gorgeous imagery stripped away, with all the texture, twists, turns and sub-plots gone, the producer, agent or publisher see our stories laid bare. It is an unforgiving moment - one in which any fundamental plot problems will probably be exposed. These are issues I try to anticipate BEFORE getting to the end of the writing process.

Here are four classic plot problems that should be clear by the time 25% of the story has been written.

We don’t identify with the protagonist. She/he may be in danger, in love or in pain but ultimately we don’t care.

The trigger is not big enough to make us believe the protagonist will do the things she/he will need to do in the story.

The trigger is reversible, so we do not believe the protagonist will stay the course when things get really tough. She/he should simply turn around and go back home to live a quiet life.

The protagonist is too passive – events happen and the protagonist reacts. The protagonist has become a character drifting down a river rather than actively swimming, someone that events happen to rather than a person who initiates change.

Strangeness in Stories

2011-05-06T11:59:00.007+01:00

I'm putting together a workshop on storycraft for inclusion in a filmmaking course later in the year. Preparing the worksheets has set me thinking about the question of 'strangeness' in stories.

When people describe the archetypal patterns found in traditional stories they sometimes talk about the 'ordinary world' and the 'strange world'. The ordinary world is the home life of the protagonist before he/she starts the quest. The strange world is the unfamiliar landscape the protagonist will pass through before reaching the goal, whatever that may be.

This transition from ordinary to strange isn't confined to traditional hero epics. It comes up again and again in modern movies and novels.

The ordinary world may not be ordinary to us, the audience. But it is ordinary to the protagonist. If the protagonist is a racing driver, 'ordinary' means hurtling around the track at 150mph.

In a similar way, the strange world may not be strange to us, the audience, but will definitely be strange to the protagonist. One of the most important qualities of the strange world is that the rules the protagonist used to live by no longer hold good.

Lies, damn lies and referendums

2011-05-01T14:50:00.004+01:00

The UK referendum on voting reform is almost here. I find myself increasingly annoyed with various advocates of the ‘No’ and the ‘Yes’ campaigns, who are being so conspicuously economical with the actualité. Some of the campaigning literature posted through my letterbox in the last couple of weeks has been risible.

Electing a government is not the proof of democracy. Democracy is proved when a government is dismissed – without the use of guns. This separation of authority from physical coercion ranks among humanity’s greatest triumphs. It deserves to be taken seriously.

Perhaps that is why I find myself getting so annoyed when people misrepresent the different options before us. They are disrespecting the very democracy they claim to want to uphold.
So here is my summary of the voting options:

• The present system simply returns the candidate who receives the most votes - even if that person is intensely disliked by the majority of voters.

• The AV system tends to return candidates who are not so widely hated, though they might not be the ones with the most first votes.

Either system would be fine. They just lead to slightly different flavours of representation.

Governments tend to accumulate unpopularity over time. Therefore, the AV system would probably make three-term governments less likely. If you think governments are able to do more good through a longer term in power, then you probably want to vote to keep the present system. But if you think that governments are better for having shorter periods in power, then you probably want to vote for a change to AV.

I still haven’t decided.

Not so silent

2011-03-12T06:58:00.003+00:00

It may seem as if I have been silent for a few months, but it is not so. All my blogging recently has been on the Museum Buddies (MuBu) site.

But I will be returning my activities here very soon as the period of my digital writer residency is coming to an end.

In the meantime, this is the kind of thing I have been writing about:

Miles Travelled = 649
Museums Visited = 11
Mood = Hungry

I’ve been travelling around heritage locations in the East Midlands for a few months now and to be honest the only places I’ve been really aware of food were the various museum cafes which have sustained me on the journey – a jacket potato, a cup of tea and perhaps a bar of chocolate.

But that must change today. I’m travelling to Lincoln in the company of...

You can find the full article here at my MuBu blog

Rainbows and Ancient Landscapes

2010-12-03T12:20:00.004+00:00

Readers of this stream may be interested to follow my work for the MuBu project on the Writer's Journey blog. I don't post notification here for every new MuBu article I write, but this one might be of interest.

Travelling in Hope

The name ‘Fosse’ is derived from the Latin word for ‘ditch’ and perhaps echoes its origin as a line of defence. In the years after the Roman invasion in AD 43 it marked the northwest frontier of the empire...

The full article can be accessed on my MuBu Blog.

Dyslexic Success Dyslexic Failure

2010-11-30T12:03:00.006+00:00

Could the non-dyslexic condition be likened to a drop of rain that falls on a wide low valley? However far from the centre it may land, the gentle pull of gravity will attract it towards the middle.

The dyslexic condition by contrast could be seen as a drop of rain that falls on a high ridge of land. Despite the natural psychological tendency for people to want to conform to the ways of society, and however average the starting point, dyslexics find themselves pushed, as if by some strange gravity, away from the middle, towards conspicuous achievement to one side or hopeless failure on the other.

It has been said that people can be divided into two types: those who divide people into two types and those who don’t. A joke that pokes fun at any such simple division. Life can’t be so simple.

And yet, consider these two statistics:

1) The proportion of the prison population in the UK who are dyslexic is far higher than the proportion of the general population who are dyslexic. In other words, something is making it more likely for dyslexics to end up in prison than non-dyslexics.

2) The proportion of entrepreneurial business leaders who are dyslexic is far higher than the proportion of dyslexics in the general population. In other words, something is making it more likely for dyslexics to become successful entrepreneurs.

What condition could predispose people to two such opposite outcomes? A condition that makes it hard for the individual to function in the same way as the bulk of society.

The experience of being dyslexic in a non-dyslexic world is like being constantly out of step. You can see everyone else is marching in time. You desperately want to do the same. But it takes such effort that you quickly fall out of step again.

You have two options:

1) Give up.

2) Try to find a solution.

Finding a solution is something that no one can teach you. Most people are not even aware that there is anything to be taught. If you’re not marching in step you must be lazy, careless or just bad.

The PE teacher shouts to the class. Everyone put your right foot forward and your left foot back. The dyslexic kid gets it wrong. Again. Hasn’t he been listening? Are you lazy? Careless? Obstructive? Are you deaf? The child is concentrating hard, trying to figure out a method for remembering the names to these two sides. The teacher couldn’t teach a method, even if he recognised the problem. The teacher doesn’t have a method to remember left from right. He doesn’t need one.

Nor do any of the others in the class.

The life of a dyslexic is full of such challenges. Finding answers to problems that aren’t problems to anyone else. Learning to battle, to try harder, to mistrust the way things have always been done, to always look beyond the obvious, to find a new path that no one else has seen.

Or to not find a path. That is the other possibility. To accept the labels that the PE teacher shouts. Daydreaming, careless, obstructive or just plane bad. After all, these labels do offer an explanation. Which is easier to say: “I didn’t do my homework because it was too difficult”, or “I didn’t do my homework coz I just didn’t, coz I’m the bad boy of the class”?

Take a bright child into nursery at age 4. Give him tasks he can’t do five days a week. Every day tell him he’s daydreaming or being obstructive. Tell him he’s bad. How many years will he hold out before figuring it’s easier to be what the teacher thinks he is? How many years could you hold out?

There is a psychological experiment in which two groups of people are given three anagrams to solve. Group ‘A’ have an easy one to solve first and a harder one to solve second. Group ‘B’ have two impossible anagrams. For the third anagram, both groups are given the same. It is moderately difficult. Almost all of group ‘A’ manage to solve it. The first two puzzles taught them to expect success. Almost none of group ‘B’ manage to do it. They have been taught to expect failure.

If such patterns can be set up in adults in a few minutes, what will be the effect of 12 years in the school system?

Smatrphones, unfriendly lists and geographical order

2010-11-26T11:37:00.003+00:00

How should I organise my DVD collection? By title? By director? By genre, date or lead actor? Or should I carry on with my present approach - periodically scooping up the DVDs that have accumulated on the floor next to the television and shovelling them onto a nearby shelf?

The same question presents itself when people try to organise papers in an office or products in a supermarket. Specialists in organisation have devised many different systems. However, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, as the system which works best will depend on the individual using it. An excellent book on the subject is ‘A Perfect Mess – the hidden benefits of disorder.’ Highly recommended.

The question is of particular interest to me because, like many dyslexics, my creative, chaotic mind and my tendency to live in the moment lead to a level of chaos that some might find distressing. People of a delicate disposition on entering my office are likely to throw their hands in the air and cry: ‘You’ve been burgled. I’ll phone the police.’

Happily technology is helping with this. The computer allows me to change the way my files are sorted with the click of a button. Alphabetical, by date of creation, by file type, by size. This suits me well, bringing my creative chaos back towards the zone I like to call ‘functional disorder’ (as opposed to ‘dysfunctional disorder’ or ‘dysfunctional order’.) I keep my work space as paperless as possible. A decent shredder helps.

Those who follow this blog will know that a few months ago I bought a Dell Streak smartphone, hoping thereby to drive myself towards a higher level of functionality. I’m happy to report that my experience with it has been excellent so far, helping me deal more efficiently with dates, times, communications and places.

But it is the last of these that has been the revelation. Places. Smartphones are data access / data collection devices. Through GPS they know where they are to within a few metres anywhere on the planet. And the number of people carrying them is rocketing. Put those facts together and a future opens up before us in which location is increasingly used as a means of organising and retrieving information. And THAT is an exciting prospect. For me, anyway. It matches the way my mind works. Data scattered across a map is infinitely more friendly to me than data neatly arranged in a list.

I hope we are on the brink of a more dyslexic-friendly future.

Eddie Izzard speaks about dyslexia and creativity

2010-11-25T12:42:00.002+00:00

The following interview of Eddie Izzard by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’ touches on the relationship between dyslexia and creativity. The link is here, but I don’t know how long it will remain live, so I have made a rough transcription of the relevant part.

Eddie Izzard: I couldn’t do that writing bit. I kept trying to do the writing bit and sitting down and it wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t seem to write as fast as... My mouth was faster than my hand. So I said, what - happens - when... if - chickens - take - over - the - world, what - would - they... you know, and by that time, I don’t care.

Mark Lawson: There have been suggestions of a link between dyslexia and surrealism and some people have suggested that poets may be on the spectrum of dyslexia because they go for one word and get another. But there is possibly a connection in your comedy.

Eddie Izzard: I felt there’s a relationship between dyslexia and creativity. I believe that dyslexia tends to make you go off in a weird direction. And then you go: ‘Oh, that’s nice’. And that could well lead to that. And it’s interesting you saying about poets. I didn’t know about that. But I just thought creativity in general and dyslexia.

Mark Lawson: The learning of scripts, does that affect you?

Eddie Izzard: It doesn’t seem to. If I read things now, I can read better than I could. I used to really stumble over words. Big words. Especially names of people from a foreign country. I’d just go blah-blah-blah in my head. That’s how I’d read them out. Now I can read them. I’m just a really slow reader.

They say: ‘Read that script by tonight.’ People would knock it off in an hour or so if they’re probably a fast reader. But I have to stay up to three or four in the morning reading it. It just takes me twice, three times as long.

I sub-vocalise. I can’t do that thing when you ‘wshhhhhhhhht’ which some people do. I’d love to be able to. I’ve even got a speed reading book but, I... couldn’t get through it. Which is a joke in itself. But it was actually true. I got the speed reading book and I read half of it.

This is just an extract from a fascinating interview.

Dyslexic spelling from a 12 year old

2010-11-14T19:16:00.004+00:00

I've turned up another example of dyslexic spelling. This time by a 12 year old. (Me again.) This one, which I found even deeper into the dust at the back of the shelf, came from a history project on Tudor England. And though you may have thought my spelling was singular at 13, this example from the year before is even more interesting.

It seems that I wasn't holding back so much in this work because I attempted words I had little idea of how to spell. The content of the writing is thus more interesting and the spelling more inventive.

This was my best work at the time.

The Sival War

In 1650 King-charls I was running in to det. So he whent to parlament to asck for mony Thay sead no so he brought some solders in to fors Them. but thay had herd abowt the atack and had escaped by bote so the sival war started.

One day the vilage was on one side and the next it was on the other. The vilagers did not like the ware and preferd to stay ought of it.

Parlimant's side was called the round heds the kings side was called the Cavalears. There was two mager batals. The batal of Marson Moor and the batal of Edgehill. The Roundheds worn the first and the cings men won the secand. Parlament wone the sivel war and Oliva cromwell was made leader of the country.

Dyslexic spelling

2010-11-11T14:24:00.004+00:00

The following example of dyslexic spelling turned up today as I was moving office. At the back of a deep shelf, I discovered a long forgotten box of school books, including the diary I had once been required to write. I believe the school's idea was that writing an entry a day would gradually help me to overcome my problems.

Reading it now, I'm struck by three things. First, that in recording the events of my life, I could only write about things I had a chance of being able to spell. Second, that even after slimming down my language and carefully choosing the subject, there was no way through the writing maze without having to make frequent spelling guesses. And third, that my teachers were kind enough to only correct one or two words in each entry.

So here, chosen at random, are three days worth of diary from a 13 year old dyslexic, who bizarrely went on to become a novelist.

Yesterday in gaims I had a tutorial it was good fun. We did some spelling ruls. In the evening I was playing a gaim called T.R.I Tactics. It was fun. Yong siantist and mishon imposable were on telivition.

Yesterday we had an English test it was grosum. I did farly well. Also yesterday we went on a run. we were not timed so we could Just trot round. In the evening we went swiming it was a practis for the swiming gala.

To day in the morning in english we did a leson on wrighting informal leters. After that in gography we starled maps of the Mendips.

Comments are as always welcome. But please don't correct the spelling. Having mistakes pointed out gets tiresome after the first thirty or forty years.

#GMP24 twitter feed for crime writers

2010-10-15T18:14:00.006+01:00

This is just a quick entry to point any crime writers who follow my blog in the direction of the Twitter feeds GMP24_1 GMP24_2 GMP24_3 and GMP24_4

GMP stands for Greater Manchester Police. The 24 is a reference to the fact that they were putting out a Tweet for every incident they dealt with over a 24 hour period. The 4 different feeds are due to the fact that the Tweeting had to be done in shifts, so thick and fast did the incidents happen.

The resultant feed is fabulous source material for crime writers. Or poets. Or any writer for that matter. Go see.

And here is a really interesting article from the BBC news website on the whole event. I've borrowed their graphic of a tag cloud of the stream because it is so good - and am putting this link in by way of thanks.

Thank you BBC and GMP.

MuBu: the Newark Houses Museum

2010-10-15T14:07:00.006+01:00

Miles Travelled = 124.7
Museums Visited = 4
Mood = Slightly Embarrassed

The Newark Houses Museum is a last minute call. They’re having a MuBu project event. Something to do with videos. Would I be free to go along?

So, innocent of any knowledge about the project, or indeed the place, I hurry into Leicester, find the museum and present myself at reception.

It is at this point that I need to make another confession...

Read the complete article at the MuBu Writer in Residence website.

EDL demonstration and One Leicester celebrations

2010-10-11T10:54:00.016+01:00

Two days ago, a group called the EDL came to leicester and staged a violent demonstration regarded by most external observers as anti-Muslim. Yesterday the people of Leicester responded with a celebration of unity in diversity. It may not surprise you to learn that the two events were not reported in the same way.

The following is the text of a letter of complaint I am sending to the BBC:

A news organization has a responsibility to report political issues in an even-handed way. Thus a statement from a spokesperson of one party is typically followed by an answering statement from the others.

So where was the balance last weekend in the BBC’s reporting of events in Leicester? The EDL had arranged a demonstration for Saturday, viewed by many as anti-Muslim. The City Council urged those people in Leicester who wished to present an opposing view to avoid direct confrontation, but instead to come into the city on the following day and demonstrate the fact that we as a city embrace and celebrate our religious and ethnic diversity.

The BBC, along with other news organizations, turned up and covered the EDL demonstrations. But what national news coverage did the city’s response to the EDL receive? I searched in vain for any coverage of Sunday’s huge celebration – which frankly dwarfed the EDL’s event.

How can the BBC justify such bias in its coverage of a political issue? The coverage is not just misrepresentative, it is also in itself damaging. At the very least, equal time should have been given to the city’s response.

If your answer is that the events on Sunday were not reported because there was no street violence, then you are telling the world that violence is an effective means of getting a message heard. Should that be the message of the BBC?

I'm adding this note following a call from someone who works for BBC Radio Leicester: The local radio did cover the One Leicester celebration. What is more, the local paper, the Mercury, has had excellent coverage. My point here is the stark imbalance in like-for-like coverage at the national level. I listened to equivalent news broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday evening and found the EDL demo had been covered but not One Leicester.

Poetry Exhibition

2010-10-02T15:19:00.004+01:00

The word 'Exhibition' usually goes along with the word 'Art'. But next week it will be combined with the word 'Poetry'. Yes, Leicester is having what may be its first ever poetry exhibition.

Having been asked many months ago to contribute a piece, and with the deadline tomorrow, I have finally got my piece finished a few moments ago.

The road has been long and twisting. I set out with one idea - a poem in ceramics. But that somehow didn't get off the ground. Then came the idea of a different poem in metalwork. I researched this, had much helpful input from various people who have far more technical know-how than me, accumulated the required materials, then realised it was too difficult in the time I had remaining.

Then came the third idea - one of my short published poems written in letters variously rotated and flipped. And Now it is done. Though I still have to figure out how to attach the mirrors people may need to help them read the thing.

If you are in Leicester next week, head down to the Independent Arts Centre on Humberstone Gate. The exhibition will be upstairs.

As for the poem in metal - I still intend to create this. A project for the longer term perhaps.

MuBu Blog: Foxton Locks

2010-09-21T12:18:00.006+01:00

Miles Travelled = 37.5
Museums Visited = 1
Mood = Awe

I’d been to Foxton before. I went to watch narrowboats making unhurried progress up and down the famous staircase of 10 locks and to marvel at the remains of the lift that once winched wider beamed barges between the upper and lower levels of the canal. I also went to walk the towpath and enjoy the peace and abundant wildlife.
But I never went into the museum.

Why? I now blush to admit that, having paid £2 to park the car, I didn’t want to hand over a further £2.50 to look round the collection. Miserly, I know.

But as it turns out, Foxton Canal Museum is the first stop on my journey around the heritage sites of the East Midlands...

For the full article please go to Digital Writer in Residence blog on the MuBu website.

MuBu Digital Writer in Residence

2010-09-20T12:35:00.006+01:00

I've just started working as Digital Writer in Residence for an East Midlands Museums project called 'MuBu'. I've been hinting at this for some time, but haven't been able to be more open about it because we were going through the usual administrative hurdles and getting the project web pages established.

But we are now up and running, so...

Here is a link to the MuBu Digital Writer in Residence project page.

I won't be duplicating all my MuBu blog articles here, so if you'd like to follow the journey, you could subscribe or bookmark that site.

And please give feedback here or there if you feel able. It's all very pleasant seeing web traffic statistics and knowing, in an abstract sense, that a couple of hundred people have visited the site today. But feedback is the lifeblood of the blogger.

Generating Story Ideas

2010-09-15T10:59:00.010+01:00

Where to find seed ideas for stories? Here are five ideas and observations:

Many stories come from asking questions. What would happen if... Thought is free so be as wild as you like. What would happen if a whale materialised high above the planet? No, wait, someone already wrote that one.

Stories can come from extrapolation. Read the driest news article from the most serious paper, then ask yourself about the people the story implies. The people in the background.

Don't be afraid of using up all your story ideas. The more stories you tell, the faster you'll find new ideas coming to you. The world is full of stories. All we have to do is train ourselves to notice them.

Other people's lives are a great source of story ideas. Happily, people love to talk about themselves. It is their favourite subject. Be a good listener and you'll have more stories than you can write.

I have a faulty digital radio that cuts out at random, usually leaving sentences unfinished. It's exasperating at times, but perfect for a storyteller. When the radio dies, my mind jumps forward, trying to complete the story.

And I am willing to sell this faulty digital radio/story generating machine. All reasonable offers considered. Now, that gives me an idea for a story...

2D Cinema vs 3D

2010-08-20T11:08:00.006+01:00

The 2D vs 3D cinema debate rumbles on, though the studios seem committed to the new technology.

In the old days of cinema, before polarising glasses, I never used to sit irritated in the dark thinking - this is far too flat for me. Why? Because through the art of the cinematographer, the image projected onto the 2D screen had 3D depth.

It is a trick of the mind and the eye so subtle that I was never even aware of it until I started to make films myself. The subject - the thing on the screen which the film maker wanted to direct my eye to - was in perfect focus. Other things, closer to the camera or further away, were softened. The slightest of out-of-focus blur.

This so closely maps onto the way we experience depth of field in everyday life that in watching a 2D movie, the mind tells us some things are further away and other things closer. A flat screen becomes 3D.

But in the old days those three dimensions were trapped behind the screen. Modern 3D extends out into the space between the screen and the audience. It offers that spooky moment when the Cheshire Cat hovers in the air just in front of you and speaks in Stephen Fry's voice.

For that moment of magic however, a payment is required. A thirty percent loss in colour. The hassle of having a pair of uncomfortable glasses pressing down on your nose - over your own glasses if you are short sighted like me. And a substantially more expensive cinema ticket.

There is also a strange mismatch between the old and the new systems of indicating depth. The subject is still in focus, the background and foreground are out of focus. But now some of those out of focus things are floating around in the air just in front of you. I find my eye is no longer pulled only to the thing I should be looking at, but jumps between things at different depths. They remain out of focus, which my brain finds hard to accept. The experience is disorientating and mildly unpleasant.

Perhaps we are in an age similar to the end of the silent era, when cinematographers were experimenting with the new technology and hadn't quite got it right. Or perhaps this is an unneeded technology. Time will tell. But for now, given the option, I'll be going for 2D screenings.

And here, for your enjoyment, is Mark Kermode and Simon Miller's revolutionary invention - glasses that allow you to see 3D screenings in spectacular, immersive 2D.

Dyslexia, Memory, Socrates and Smartphones

2010-08-17T13:08:00.004+01:00

Socrates disapproved of writing. It was not an aid to memory he said, but a replacement. If people could use symbols on a sheet of paper to record information, why would they bother to develop the latent power of their minds?

Socrates was right. As literacy spread, the use of memorization techniques dwindled. The art of memorization used to be part of the foundation of learning. But from the time I entered primary school to the day I graduated from university, only one teacher bothered to tell me how to remember things.

Even he only mentioned memory two times (as far as I can recall). Once to let us know that there was a difference between short, medium and long term memory. And once, after using a particularly entertaining simile, when he told us that the ruder the imagery we connect to a memory, the easier it would be to hold on to. (Alas I cannot repeat the image that he shared with us that day because it would never get through adult web content filters.)

Few today would say that the exchange of literacy for memorization technique was not a trade worth making. But for dyslexics, who may have particular difficulty with short term memory, memorization techniques can still be very useful. The loci system, for example, which has become a powerful tool for me, turning an area of weakness into a strength.

But if writing was an anathema to Socrates, what would he have said about the information revolution?

Followers of this blog will know that I recently bought a Dell Streak smartphone/tablet to help me with organization. I've had it a week now and have discovered that it is helping me to remember things in a way I had not anticipated.

How long until the parking expires? When should I head in to town to the Writers' Club meeting? When will I need to collect my wife from the train station on Wednesday? Two dyslexic issues converge on questions such as these: short term memory and tracking the flow of time. But by using the calendar alarm on the Dell Streak, I now don't need to remember. This may sound trivial, but it removes the layer of background anxiety that goes with struggling to do something one is congenitally poor at.

What would Socrates say? He'd probably tell me to work on the memory rather than using an external solution. But perhaps by removing the anxiety associated with remembering times, the smartphone will give me the space to do just that.

We will see.

Dyslexia the Dell Streak and Organization

2010-08-12T10:01:00.006+01:00

Microsoft Word turned this dyslexic into a writer. Might the Dell Streak or some other smatrphone/tablet computer enable me to be super-organized?

I'm not one to harp on about the problems of dyslexia, as I am far more interested in the significant and often overlooked strengths. But here we do need to state the fact: dyslexics often have problems with organization. Find a really successful dyslexic and you will usually find a highly effective PA or partner standing close by.

Why is organization a problem? Because of a deficit in short term memory and problems tracking time/date combined an intense, creative tendency to make more lateral jumps than logical ones. I'm not going to show a photograph of my office to illustrate this. Even I blush sometimes. If you want to picture it in your mind, just meditate on the phrase 'creative chaos'.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have my brain wired any other way. But this is a non-dyslexic world and I want to fit in if possible, so I'm always on the lookout for coping strategies.

Might the smartphone be the answer? Or perhaps a netbook computer? This is the question that has been tumbling in a pleasantly chaotic way around inside my head for the past year. My problem was that the netbook is just too big to carry round with me all the time - and thus would not work as a portable calendar. And the smartphone seemed just too small to read documents from with ease as well as some of the other features I was looking for. In short, I wanted something just in between these two classes of devices and nothing was on the market.

Enter the Dell Streak. Is it a tablet computer or a smartphone? A bit of both. In other words, it was exactly the class of device I was looking for.

It is a calendar, an alarm clock, a note taking device, a camera to take photos of receipts etc, a voice recorder, access to the Internet and e-mails, lists of contacts, names of people, documents I would no longer need to carry, an infinite supply of maps and it would tell me where I am when I get lost. Oh, and it makes phone calls too.

I believe this kind of technology will make a huge difference for many adult dyslexics, liberating them to integrate more effectively with the non-dyslexic world. As to whether the Dell Streak will be THE landmark device in this respect - there was only one way for me to find out.

So two days ago I went out and bought one. Or rather, the Carphone Warehouse gave me one and I agreed to pay a £35 contract every month for the next two years. Was it worth it? I'll report on my progress over the coming months.

Baha'i leaders sentenced in Iran

2010-08-09T11:13:00.004+01:00

I'm reposting the text of an article from Iran Press Watch. I don't usually repost other people's material, but this report covers such an outrageous breach of human rights that I feel compelled to share it as widely as possible. You can find the original article here.

A total of 140 years of prison for the seven Baha’i directors

August 9th, 2010

Hrana News – Each of the 7 former leaders of the Baha’i community has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.

As reported by the Committee of Reporters on Human Rights, this sentence comes after more than 2 years that they had been detained in prison, with repeated illegal orders. Previously, many times the court sessions had been postponed but in recent months, after holding several court sessions, finally the 20 year sentence of imprisonment has been handed down to their lawyers.

Six of the seven Baha’i citizens who were responsible for attending to the affairs of Baha’is in Iran have been detained since 25 Ordibehesht 1387, following coordinated attacks by the security forces of their homes. The seventh, Mrs Mahvash Sabet had been arrested in Mashad previously, on 15 Esfand 1386.”

The hidden benefits of Dyslexia

2010-07-20T10:14:00.009+01:00

The term 'dyslexia' was first coined over a hundred and twenty years ago to describe students who had no deficit in intelligence but were nevertheless having difficulty acquiring literacy. It seemed a logical name. Dys-lexia. A problem with words.

Since that time, studies of dyslexia have naturally focused on helping dyslexic children lean to read and write. No surprise there. Get 100 dyslexics together and you will indeed have a crowd of people who have experienced difficulty with aspects of literacy. But look more closely and other quirky characteristics are revealed.

For example, many of the 100 dyslexics will have difficulty naming their left and right sides. Some may have problems reading the time from an analogue clock. Tracking the flow of time, short term memory and remembering names could also be an issue. Over the years researchers have been able to identify a cluster of such non-literacy-related problems.

But if you do get that group of dyslexics together and give them time to talk and compare notes, other commonalities start to emerge. For example, dyslexics are often very creative. They are lateral thinkers and problem solvers. Given a complex set of interrelationships, they easily see the whole picture and get to the root of issues. Many are able to read other people's emotions with stunning clarity.

No surprise then that so many successful people from the world of creative arts and the world of entrepreneurial business turn out to be dyslexic. Enhanced ability to think in three dimensions is another common attribute. Thus the ranks of top architects are also rich in dyslexics.

If we were to ask our group of 100 dyslexics whether they would like to be 'cured' of dyslexia - having the problems AND the advantages simultaneously removed by swallowing a pill - what would they say? What would you say? For me it would be an emphatic NO.

Not so much a learning disability, then. More a learning difference that manifests as disability in some situations (particularly in school) and manifests as a prodigious ability in others.

The difference between Story and Reality

2010-07-04T13:33:00.004+01:00

What is the difference between story and reality? According to Mark Twain: "Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't."

Tom Clancy made a similar observation: "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." However, he also commented on the overlap between the two: "I've made up stuff that's turned out to be real, that's the spooky part."

In his superb filmmaking masterclass last month, Chris Jones said: "The brain cannot tell the difference between a story and reality." That is why we cry watching a sad movie and scream watching horror. He also said: "Stories are about communicating truths not facts."

My take on it is this: Reality is a tangled knot made from an infinite number of threads. The full blinding complexity and intensity of it is available for us to experience in the 'now'. But as soon as events have past and we look back on what has happened, we start to order our memories into a narrative. From the tangle, we extract a single thread. That becomes the reality of our past.

As storytellers we do the same thing - extracting one thread from the mass of possibilities, cutting it to make a beginning and cutting it again to make an end. Then we present that to our audience.