Advice for writers great and small
Last year I blogged on the results of the BBC Radio 2 short story competition. You can read the post here. Now the competition is under way again, and some of the best writers in the country are giving their advice to budding storytellers. Frank Cottrell Boyce, script-writer for the London 2012 opening ceremony, gives his advice below. All writers, of any age, would do well to heed it. If you are reading this over your lunch, and you have yet to write a report, or a letter, or a sermon – what harm could it do you to listen? You will hear Frank describe, for instance, the washing line on which the ideas for the opening ceremony were strung before the script was pinned down.
Elsewhere he describes the writing experience like this:
Danny created a room where no one was afraid to speak, no one had to stick to their own specialism,no one was afraid of sounding stupid or talking out of turn.
He restored us to the people we were before we made career choices – to when we were just wondering.
Whatever you are writing today, I hope you can find such a place.
