Spellnotes

This blog post aims to introduce you to the concept of mind mapping, which is a really helpful tool to use if you are ever stuck on working out details of character or setting in particular. Simply put, mind maps are a way of tracking and organising information. They can also be really useful in… Continue reading Writing Tips: Mind Mapping

This post will help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram post: “Write a script about spring cleaning. Whether it’s a literal wardrobe clear-out or a metaphorical soul-cleansing endeavour, what are the benefits (or negatives) of tidying, downsizing, and letting go? How can you convey with your dialogue the liberating (or empty) feeling the characters… Continue reading Spring Cleaning Prompts

This post will help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram post. “Experiment with a watercolour painting of gorgeous springtime flowers. You can paint a field of flowers and/or flowers in a vase. What colours, shadows and vibrance can best convey the unique specialness of flowers?” One of the most distinctive features of spring is… Continue reading Painting Spring Flowers

This post will help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram post. “Challenge yourself with a constrained writing exercise this spring. Here are some examples: write a haiku about new beginnings and or/rebirth; write a 500-characters memoir about springtimes past; write a fiction piece without ever using the letter ‘S’.” Here in the UK, we… Continue reading Spring Writing Exercises

Sarah Wallis’ comedic stage play My Psycho Ex Was an Angel is a genuine delight to read. As an editor, I was instantly captivated by its unusual plot and surreal tone. The scene painted for us is one of a first date, which is taking place in an art gallery between Adrian and Claire. It… Continue reading Winter 2022 – Drama

Sometimes, starting a piece of fiction can be one of the most daunting and difficult elements of the whole process. This post will suggest some ways in which you might wish to begin a story or piece of flash fiction, and hopefully serve as an aid if you are struggling to do so. These are… Continue reading Openings

This post will explore the relationship between art and mystery. I will look at a couple of my own favourite pieces of art. However, the points I will touch upon can also apply to your own personal favourites too. Mystery often serves an important purpose within art. A painting can create a small slice of… Continue reading Art and Mystery

A difficult year calls for the fulfilling familiarity that the cosiness of December brings. The last few weeks, leading up to the beginning of a new year, feel like a suspended simulation where one revels in one’s guiltless liberty to take a pause, disconnect from the harsh realities that life demands, and simply dwell in… Continue reading Winter 2022 – Non-Fiction

A Bargaining The red plate on the green table has a loaf of lemon bread on it. There are blueberries on top of the loaf. You know it smells freshly baked even though you can’t actually smell it. Your nose is broken and doesn’t work anymore. You do not know when your nose became broken.… Continue reading Winter 2022 – Fiction

This post will introduce you to free-form writing, a technique which is extremely useful and versatile. As a writer, it can often be easy to be overcritical. We can all get bogged down in overanalysing what we have written or agonising over what we write next. Sometimes, we may not know what to write at… Continue reading An Introduction to Free-form Writing

This blog post will help build upon the latest series of Winter themed prompts on the Spellbinder Instagram. Winter can be a hard, and harsh, period of time. It can feel desolate and bare. Here in England, it is currently damp with winter rain. The nights come quickly, and are long. As a writer or… Continue reading Winter Prompts

The Mormons ‘PASTEL But John, my spirit! It was a calling in my spirit that there’s some unrighteousness afoot in the church, John, and it needs a tender weeding to resurrect the trueness, John, the principles of Christ. If we’re to follow, John, we must follow Christ. I simply made a motion to return to… Continue reading Autumn 2021 – Drama

Take Me Home Hudson Hess I remember catching a moment from a movie back in time, one of those the TV keeps running reruns of. I don’t recall the exact words, but the female lead strikes an uncanny comparison between Memories and a Box of Candies. Once opened, the box is difficult to let go… Continue reading Autumn 2021 – Nonfiction

Simulacrum Because I love you so much, I will not let the earth have your body. You are too good for it. Instead, I find new jars for your spine, multiple ones, vacuum-tight, and within them, I organize your vertebrae alphabetically and by length and seal them. I love you to pieces.  Samantha Liu This… Continue reading Autumn 2021 – Fiction

Chien et Loup Alison Gallego Alison Gallego’s photography piece ‘Chien et Loup’ is a wonderfully atmospheric image, capturing three shadowy figures looking out over the expansive Parisian skyline as the sun is setting. Muted pink clouds paint the sky above and the golden evening glow of the city warms the streets the light has deserted.… Continue reading Autumn 2021 – Art

Open Roads and Roadblocks “Sun streaking a face full of melody,  hair dancing to the music of the wind and sunglasses reflecting mirrors on this brush-stroked morning. Her hands playing the strings on my battered blue jeans and our bodies clicking and jazzing along with the weaving back road.” Matthew McGuirk The Autumnal Issue of… Continue reading Autumn 2021 – Poetry

This post will offer some guidance to help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram prompt, and will be especially useful for script writers. Write a scene or a script about a modern witch or wizard. Explore this unusual character, their dreams and fears, and how they navigate the world. Delve into the stark contrast… Continue reading Witches and Wizards

This post will offer some guidance to help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram prompt, and will be especially useful for fiction writers. Write a fiction piece about a magical but otherwise ordinary looking object. How is it magical? How did it become that way? Who will find out about its secret powers? Will they… Continue reading Magical Matter

This post will offer some guidance to help you respond to the following Spellbinder Instagram prompt, and will be especially useful for artists. Draw or paint a creature which is a mix of unrelated things. Here are some examples: sand + frog, plant + octopus, fluff + dinosaur, peach + llama. Have fun and come… Continue reading Crazy Collage Creatures

There is a long-standing cultural study of and interest in the cross-over between visual arts, dance and magic. Critics have written a lot about how these forms can complement and inspire each other, and artists have often sought an interdisciplinary approach in order to expand the horizons of their particular form. If you are interested… Continue reading An Interdisciplinary Approach to Art