…velation that “adventure” is anything that’s meaningful, challenging and uncomfortable enough. All heroic journeys have a moment of supreme enlightenment, where the protagonist crosses a threshold and nothing will ever be the same again. As a storyteller, if you can bestow this gift upon your audience, if you can change their worldview in a meaningful way – they will remember it forever. Sign up for the microadventure revolution with Alastair’s ne…
Paper Isn’t Dead: Why We Still Need Notebooks
…ou’ll never publish a shitty first draft again. DEVALUE YOUR WORDS All too common: a travelling writer has their laptop stolen. Less common? A travelling writer has their paper notebook stolen. Why? Because the latter is absolutely worthless to anyone except that writer. Protect your words by storing them on something nobody wants, like a notebook – an uglified notebook, in fact. BE QUICK ON THE DRAW This one doesn’t apply to the more techno-wizar…
Doing It Outdoors While Everyone’s Watching: The Joy (And Fear) Of Festivals
…st into life when artists of all kinds get out of their studios (and their comfort zones) and pluck up the courage to perform for their audience with no guarantee of getting it right first time. That’s what we’re after – because that’s why festivals are special. Another five minutes of waiting – and suddenly, they’re ready. We’re quickly ushered into the chapel. It’s dark inside, few signs that it’s the middle of the day, and when we’ve taken our…
The Pitching Game: Because Spam Should Be Roasted
…orry and do not argue. Our only request is a link back to FestivalOfSewage.com. For this post we will offer $10 which will be pay today. Answer now. John Outreach Specialist. We usually just delete them – but they just keep coming. Plus, deleting is so respectful. It’s like you’re treating them like normal bot-driven spam, when it’s actually far worse than that – because there’s clearly a human being behind it. A real person is talking to you like…
How Fast Do You Want To Travel?
…hard at this definition of the word “big”. (Both images via IfItWereMyHome.com & Google Maps) But none of that matters if you get on a plane. Before the arrival of commercial airliners, world travel from London looked like this: (via Wikimedia & reddit – {{PD-US-not renewed}}) That’s travel in 1881. By 1914, travel times from London had started to shrink: (via Intelligent Life Magazine; h/t Sarah Button) And here’s what this map would look like to…
Stop Saying “Blogging Is Dead”
…es eyebrows) it was enough to own a blog. Opening a blog was news. “People Come From Miles Around To See Man Open Blog!” Bloggers were special. Doors would be held open for you. People would fling themselves in puddles so you didn’t get your feet wet. Everyone wanted to sleep with you! Having a blog made you an online star, and let me tell you, back in those days, we had class, not like bloggers today with their low-slung jeans and their Nirvana L…
Can We Really Be Friends?
…hold between acquaintance and friend? What do you have to do together to become friends? Where do you have to go, what do you need to see together? What needs to be said? How do we join? What are the rules? Friendship = proximity? Okay, I admit it – I was totally leading you here. This is what I really want to talk about. 2. Meeting Friends For The First Time Over the last decade I’ve had the very good fortune to meet a number of really great peop…
TV Is What Films Will Be When They Grow Up
…thesis. I think this applies pretty much across the board, including with comedy. I think TV is the only place where writers can truly get under the skin of their characters and allow us to find out who they really are. I think TV is where the edgy, peering-through-your-fingers stuff happens. TV takes more risks. For this reason, for all its shortcomings and vast swathes of middling nonsense…I think TV is better Art. Like this. And this. And this…