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Why the RIAA is Obsolete and You Don't Have to Care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- Why the RIAA is Obsolete and You Don't Have to Care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

Blogs

Apocalypse Later (live)
Index page to the Poe Station Blog (archives)
Captain's Blog (archives): May 2002 | June 2002 | July 2002

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.