Tag Archives: writing

Writing courses: How to prevent your classmates hating you

Writing Classes by Tom NashThe old saying goes that everybody has a novel in them. Many of us like the idea of recording these ideas but lack the skills needed to actually transfer the thoughts to paper (or screen these days), let alone craft a meaningful narrative that others would happily pay to read.

Luckily, there are people out there that work in publishing or that have successful writing careers of their own who love the craft so much that they are willing to share what they know with enthusiastic folks like us in classes- whether they be college or university courses or more informal affairs.

I’ve been lucky enough to take part in a fair few writing classes and, being the observant and altruistic chap that I am, have decided to put together a lickle list of tips that could be useful if you are thinking of getting your scribe on in a classroom setting and you would like to avoid the chance of your classmates bonding through their mutual hatred of you:
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CV Writing: The reasons you don’t get any replies

CV Writing by Tom NashCurriculum Vitaes, CVs, Resumes- whatever you want to call them, if you want to be employed, you need one.

But how do you know what to put on yours?

Fear not- Tom is here to steer you in the right direction. From the point of view of the poor fucker who has to read these things…

One of my many roles in one of my super important jobs (oh yeah- that’s how freelancers roll, baby) is to look through CVs and writing samples from aspiring writer-types and wannabe digital marketers.

Sometimes there are some real gems in the pile; we’ve found some extremely talented young writers who have been a pleasure to work with… But for every one of them, there have been ten CVs that have prompted a stink-face and swift trip to the shredder.
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Writing: Moronic statements the profession provokes

Writing for a living by Tom NashOver 60 posts done now and not one of them is about my chosen craft. Time to change that.

Before I decided that dead-end jobs in the writing industry were preferable to dead-end jobs in further education, I lived in South London and mixed with proper blokey-blokes who if they even bothered to work for a living either fixed, built or knocked shit down. If it was revealed that you worked in an office while you were somewhere like a pub you would automatically be labelled as a ‘poof or sumfink’ by knuckle-dragging fucksticks that pride themselves on their ignorance and lack of education but always know more about any subject than anyone else nearby, or so their super loud voice would lead you to believe.

These are the sort of people that if you let them know that you are a writer, respond in the following ways:

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