Hey you! This week’s episode of Death Of 1000 Cuts has me and Joe Dunthorne talking about another first page. The show needs first pages to be submitted if we’re to have stuff to discuss – so hey, don’t rely on other people. Get critiqued! Read our submission guidelines then send me your work. You … Read more

Hey kids. Here’s this week’s episode of Death Of 1000 Cuts – a podcast for writers, readers and people who are nosy about how stories get made. Check out the archives for more episodes. Below is a text version of the piece we discuss in today’s show. If you’d like to submit an extract of … Read more

Hello everyone. Hope you’re having a good week. Here’s the latest episode of Death Of 1000 Cuts. I’ve got a few more episodes recorded with authors Joe Dunthorne and Ann Morgan which I’ll drip out over the coming weeks while I have gibbering conniptions over deadlines and project crush and other luxury problems. If you’d … Read more

Hi everyone! Here’s this week’s episode. I had a go at recording some two-player versions of the show in London. It’s my first time doing so, so still learning how to do it, but my two guests, Joe Dunthorne and Ann Morgan, were absolutely brilliant. I’m still going to do my usual one-person episodes as … Read more

Hello dear friends. Episode 6 of Death Of 1000 Cuts, the podcast, is now up. Thanks for spreading the word about the show. We’ve had over a thousand listens now, which – while modest by podcasting standards – is a lot more than I expected from some random bullshit that I’m learning how to do … Read more

Hark! A huge podcast is approaching! Well, just a regular-sized one actually, but density-wise it’s certainly unequaled in terms of raw creative-writing-technique-opinions-per-minute. Go! Listen! My multiplayer versions of this podcast are coming together – which is to say I’ve booked a date to record a bunch in London. Now all I needs are some willing, … Read more

Hello! This is episode 4 of the Death Of 1000 Cuts podcast. I put it up. You maniacs. I’m committed to doing a run of 10 while I find my feet with this audio lark and get my head around recording, and – yeah. I like doing it! I know I keep saying I will … Read more

Episode 3 of Death Of 1000 Cuts is now up! Please share, give me feedback, send me your writing extracts and, most importantly, enjoy. The update schedule may sometimes be a bit wonky, but I’d rather sometimes miss a week and keep going than hold myself to rigorous standards which I immediately fail to live … Read more

I’ve recorded another episode of the Death Of 1000 Cuts podcast. The last one was technically episode zero, the pilot, but literally no one cares about my fidelity to numbering systems so let’s just say this is two. No theme tune yet. If you’d like to listen to the podcast on iTunes, that is also … Read more

Hey everyone – so I’ve gone ahead and recorded a pilot for the Death Of 1000 Cuts podcast. This is just a test run, to hear how it sounds, to practise recording it and putting it up, and to get feedback. I’m not giving this a big push as this isn’t a launch, per se. … Read more

Hey everyone. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? How are you? Well, I hope. So I took a little break from writing Death Of 1000 Cuts because I was feeling overworked and low. I feel a lot less sad now! In fact, if you plotted my mood on a graph over the past decade it … Read more

Around July this year, I decided to quit video games until my novel was finished. I had been struggling with procrastination and I thought setting aside my 3DS and the various titles on my laptop would help give me the focus I needed to push through to the bitter end. But no. Addiction is a … Read more

So, um. I hope it’s okay but I’m going to take a little break from writing Death Of 1000 Cuts posts for a few weeks. This is definitely not one of those ‘on hiatus’ things that basically means giving up forever. It’s just, well… I am trying to a draft of my next novel finished … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Last night I did a talk at our monthly literary cabaret, Homework, about bad writing. I thought I’d adapt it for Death Of 1000 Cuts, because it’s on topic and people found it interesting and also … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Each week we take a look at something to do with editing your fiction to make it less bad and more good. Like, for example, with that last sentence, we’d probably say ‘less bad more good … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. I have a cold. My throat feels like cactus and battery acid, so let’s just get on with it, shall we? Read the extract below, decide what you think works and what doesn’t (and how you’d … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. This is a weekly blog about editing fiction. Hello! Most weeks we look at the first page of a novice author’s novel or short story and see if we can think of ways to make it … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. This is a blog for fiction writers, mostly about making your stories better, sometimes about the hard process of making them at all. A new one appears every Thursday. Often, I’ll look at a novice author’s … Read more

Afternoon! Welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. I feel a bit funny this week. Nervous about my writing, nervous about other things. I think, in these situations, it’s best to acknowledge your feelings without giving them too much credit. Just be like, yup, I … Read more

Bonjour and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. This is a blog about writing fiction and rewriting fiction. Authors seem singular amongst the professions in their desire to hand out free, unsolicited advice on their craft and I, dear, faithful friends, am no different … Read more

Welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Hope you’re well, dear friends. If this is your first time, this is a blog about writing and editing fiction. Most weeks we look at an author’s first page and find ways of making it better. If you’d … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Do you want to hear about how busy I am? No, of course you don’t. That would be tedious and beside the point. Still, I feel swamped right now, what with gigs in Edinburgh, Bristol and … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Every Thursday we look at the first page of a novice author’s novel or short story and think of ways to make it better. If you’d like to submit your work for consideration, please read the … Read more

Salut et welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Each week I write about fiction writing with a focus on editing work to make it suck considerably less. Most of the time that takes the form of my looking at the first page of someone’s … Read more

Hello and welcome to Death Of 1000 Cuts – making you an awesome writer, one cut at a time. Each week I write about writing, which might sound like a self-referential spiral whirlpooling up its own backside, but is actually less pretentious than if I used some other medium to talk about writing – for … Read more