New story in The View From Here

The excellent online magazine The View From Here kicks off its autumn season today, and I'm chuffed to be in the fiction slot, The Front View, with a new story, 'Tides, or How Stories Do or Don't Get Told'.

I suppose you could say that 'Tides' is a bit of a metafiction, but I hesitate to use that word because it sounds as if the story is far more experimental, hermetic - whatever - than I think it is. A short while ago the reading group I'm in had a couple of writing-group sessions, and I brought this story and made the mistake of calling it metafiction, and I think it put people off and they approached it fairly critically. (I think they liked it in the end, though!). See, that's the danger of labels, yet they're what we're stuck with in this marketing literary culture...

Anyway, I'd be really interested to know what other people think. You can read the story here.

Many thanks to Kate Brown, Fiction Editor at The View From Here.

Crossposted with Fictionbitch.

The commissioning process: New piece on The View From Here

It's a good while now since I've written for radio: I've even talked of having given it up, but to my delight I find myself working on radio once again - not yet on producing a play, I hasten to add, or even yet writing one, since in the time I've been away the commissioning process has changed. What I'm doing is throwing up ideas with a producer and developing them according to BBC guidelines to pitch to a commissioning editor, and there's no guarantee that our offerings will be accepted in the end. My latest post on The View From Here considers some of the implications in such a process for creative production and for writers.

The short story and the concept of the best

My latest article on the literary magazine, The View From Here, assessing the current shortlist and considering the BBC story cuts and the National Short Story Award in general.

Bits of news

I dipped my toe in the water of my new draft this morning, and I'm pleased to report that it felt just fine. Was a bit too scared to wade out very far, though. Feel I need this afternoon and evening to sit on the bank a bit and view the lake, and then maybe tomorrow I'll dare to dive in...

Meanwhile, the Thursday Faber Academy discussion re creative writing on Fictionbitch really went with a bang. I'm not sure we've got to the heart of the matter yet, though, and there's a provocative post by Marcel Theroux coming up on Monday.

In other news, I'm delighted to say that I've been asked to join the blogging team for the online version of the wonderful literary journal, The View From Here. It's a very impressive publication, and I'm honoured to have been asked.