The autobiography of my reflection

January 7, 2009

I live my life constantly, but my reflection only pops into being every now and then. I could write about any event in my life, but my reflection is only conscious of those moments when I’m looking at myself in a mirror, or can be glimpsed in someone else’s car window.

The true meaning of Christmas

December 16, 2008

My first Christmas story, ‘A Christmas Argument’, is now available, complete with some beautiful illustrations from my good friends.

Lions and tigers

December 3, 2008

Children’s books about lions and tigers rarely present such creatures as they really are: ruthless, powerful hunters. Instead, authors emphasise qualities such as their beauty and majesty, presenting them as objects of awe or affection in stories that are fundamentally about humans, not animals. I wanted to explore the specific kind of suspension of disbelief such tales require.

Two attempts at autobiographical fiction

November 26, 2008

For me, the fictionalising of an autobiographical narrative is one way of acknowledging that you will never reach the truth – that the closer you look at your own memory, the further you get from the reality of a moment. Here are two of my attempts at fictional autobiography.

Making

November 19, 2008

I like the metaphor of making. Making sense Making love Make believe Makeup Making friends Making enemies Making mincemeat. These are dead metaphors now, but if we view them literally they all suggest the idea of invention or transformation. When we make sense, we create something new out of what is there – a text [...]

Alternative versions

November 13, 2008

Many of my own stories are, in a sense, alternative versions of existing tales. ‘A Cadence’ and the stories that follow it (‘A Fantasy’, ‘A Substitute’ and ‘A Tragedy’) are all based, to differing extents, on stories or story functions already known to me. They also contain my own inventions, elements of autobiography and even traces of public affairs. So I’ve rewritten the stories I know, or repurposed them.

Scenes from ‘A Cadence’

November 5, 2008

Here’s a series of pictures showing scenes from my story, ‘A Cadence’. Some of my friends did this as a surprise, and I’m excited not only because they’ve so successfully visualised my story in a way I never could, but also because the whole project ties in with all my recent ideas about ordinary people performing.

Changing the story

October 30, 2008

A while ago, I had the idea of creating a new kind of business card. Rather than telling people my job title, company email address and other bland details, this alternative business card might reveal something a bit deeper about myself.

Real people

October 22, 2008

I’ve written a fair bit about facts, and when I studied biography at university some time ago I showed considerable disdain for them. But sometimes I’m reminded that biography presents problems that are not merely theoretical.

Fixing and tricksing

October 15, 2008

The idea that photographs “fix” the past is a common literary trope. According to the paradigm, memory is transient, but photographs are permanent, and can drag up a past we wouldn’t otherwise have any recollection of.

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