Home Mail Hal C F Astell - Site Map

Writing

The Million Word March

Index page to The Million Word March
Most Popular Piece: Pubic Hair in a To Go Box
My Favourite Piece: This Aphorism Affliction
Best Piece (Maybe): Grand Subtleties and Evil Gods

Major Articles

Norman F Astell and the Raiding Support Regiment
Why the RIAA is Obsolete and You Don't Have to Care
Setting Up a Watched Film List in MS Excel

Scribbles

Index page to Scribbles
Poems: In the Footsteps of Lewis Carroll | Lovely Creature
Love Poems: Eternity | Rocking Chair
Stories: The Sound of Shattering Glass | Lemonade
Dawtrina Stories: Happy Birthday
Cosmo's Poems: Black Monday | Remember, Remember
Cosmo's Peoms: 50 Ways to Lose at Cosmo
NPB Peoms: Target Weight: Nine Stone Ten
Commissioned Peoms: For Emma Byrne
Other Peoms: Shame on Ye
Old Stories: Spawn of the Green Abyss

Culture

Film: Hal and Dee at the Movies
The IMDb Project
Music: The Musical Box
Musica Extremis
Why the RIAA is Obsolete and You Don't Have to Care
Probot II, Mr Grohl?
Books: The Last Page Bookshop
The Horror Reviews
John Slater and the Nazi Romance Novel

Travels

Index page to North American Tour '99
My Favourite Episode: Within Four Miles of a Lake
Index page to Millennium Roadtrip
My Favourite Episode: Grand Subtleties and Evil Gods

(Auto)biography and Family History

Index page to (Auto)Biography and Family History
Norman F Astell and the Raiding Support Regiment
Names in the Mist

Blog Archives

Captain's Blog: May 2002 | June 2002 | July 2002
Index page to the Poe Station Blog

Guest Poetry

Index page to Guest Poetry

Writing

I've been a writer for as long as I've been a reader, in the sense of simply putting words onto paper. I wrote a book before I was seven years old that had dinosaurs attacking my school. It was probably beyond awful but at least I had felt the need to create something, even back then.

I've dabbled here and there ever since, but started taking writing seriously after reading an article by Jerry Pournelle on writing. I started a project I called The Million Word March that was designed to improve whatever talents I had as a writer, by following Pournelle's advice to write, write, write.

I feel that it has already succeeded, even though I've currently only written a few hundred thousand words rather than the full million. I now feel confident in writing serious work, which I am doing, and often cringe when looking back at what I wrote years ago. I'm sure I'll look back again in a few years at what I'm writing now and feel the same, but then that's precisely the point.



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