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Slow down Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Slow down, you’re going too fast!

I found myself reading a book the other day. Speed reading it actually. And then I suddenly realised the absurdity of what I was doing. No, delete ‘absurdity’ and insert ‘stupidity’—it fits, as you’ll see.

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Alcoholic Brilliance Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Alcoholic Brilliance

A recent client told me that it was impossible for her to write creatively unless she was drinking alcohol at a steady and (to me) frightening rate. I knew she was fairly pissed during her writing spells because she would call me in an extremely slurred fashion to let me know.

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Writing Therapy Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Writing Therapy

The more people I’ve helped to write, the more obvious it’s become to me that writing about oneself is enormously therapeutic. “Well, brilliant, Watson,” you may snort. “That’s a well-worn fact and everyone knows it.”

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Clients on the today show Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Clients on the Today Show

It was great to see Kate and Kristina talking about the book I coached them on appearing on TV this week.

“DIETING IS ALL IN THE MIND

Ever thought ‘Why can’t I shed those extra kilos?’

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Punctuation Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Sloppy punctuation may cost you

Everything is fast these days. Fast downloads, rapid exchanges of text—delivered at lightning speed—and messages written and read on the run.

All that convenience, or pain in the arse in-your-faceness—depending on how you look at life—comes with a hidden cost.

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Michael Collins Memoirs and writing

Believe it, or not!

How much of our fiction writing is drawn from real life? How often do we base our characters on people we know? And are those places we invent actually drawn from childhood memories, or somewhere we’ve once visited, or a bit of both?

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Never judge a book by its cover

Ghost-writing some fiction just the other day, I tapped out those exact words. Of course, the expression is a common English idiom and the meaning a metaphor for not deciding the worth (or lack thereof) of anything, or anyone, by its outward appearance.

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Paralysed

Walking out of the local supermarket and into the main mall area three months ago, I saw a toddler, aged around three, standing near a toy car—you know the ones, you put your child behind the steering wheel, feed the slot a dollar, and the thing lights up, growling and shaking, to the utter delight of the young.

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Writers beware – it’s a New Year

Yes, it’s that time of the year when we might make some resolutions: this year I will write without fear—fear of rejection, fear of going public, fear that my innermost thoughts and dark psyche are being exposed.

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Words that matter

Looking through an array of Christmas cards yesterday, I was struck by the complete lack of imagination of the wording inside them. Has it always been like this, I wondered. For the last few decades I’ve gone for blank cards because the generic wording never seemed to fit—for me anyway.

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