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"Fabulous Storytelling" Mick Herron

I have been writing and publishing books on a variety of topics since my bestselling Angry White Pyjamas came out in 1997. Other bestsellers include Red Nile, a biography of the River Nile. In total I have written 15 mainstream books translated into 16 languages. The include creative non-fiction, novels, memoir, travel and self-help. My publishers include Harper Collins, Picador, Penguin and Hachette. I have won several awards including two top national prizes- the Somerset Maugham literary award and the William Hill sportsbook of the Year Award. I have also won the Newdigate Prize for poetry- one of the oldest poetry prizes in the world; past winners include Oscar Wilde, James Fenton and Fiona Sampson.

A more recent success was Micromastery, published by Penguin in the US and the UK as well as selling in eight other countries.

Micromastery is a way of learning new skills more efficiently. I include these methods when I coach people who want to improve as writers. If that's you, go to the section of this site titled I CAN HELP YOU WRITE. I have taught creative writing in schools and universities but I now find coaching and editing is where I can deliver the most value. In the past I have taught courses in both fiction and memoir at Moniack Mhor, the former Arvon teaching centre in Scotland.

MICROMASTERY ON AMAZON

"Micromastery is a triumph. A brilliant idea, utterly convincing, and superbly carried through" - Philip Pullman

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My instagram account is roberttwiggerinstantart HERE

Tuesday
Jul022013

games

For most of the day the children played games. Some of the children wanted to change the games, others simply wanted to win them. Some saw changing the game as an easier way to win, others just wanted to change the game because it was 'obviously better' that way. Others were creative, they simply enjoyed tinkering and improving the games or even the rush of inventing whole new ones. Some of the children cheated to win, others thought there was 'no point' in doing that. When they realised that the size of the cake they got for tea depended on who had won at games their attitudes hardened. But still there were some who wanted to change the games.

From time to time the children thought about other things than games, but what?

Friday
Jun282013

metro and The Week

Nice mentions in Metro and The Week for Red Nile, which I see you can also buy from The Week's bookshop.

Wednesday
Jun262013

How to quit smoking

I recently repeated some advice I had about not smoking based on my own experiences. It's been six years now- and yet I know if I had one I'd probably be back on the gaspers again. I realised I couldn't switch to a pipe or patches or any of that stuff. It had to be all or nothing.

I started to observe myself. I realised I could go all night without smoking and quite a bit of the morning. So all I had to do was extend these periods so that the opportunity/desire for smoking did not occur.

I'd looked at other methods. NLP is a popular self-help method that uses conditioning to achieve results. You are taught to associate pleasurable images with what you want and painful images with what you don’t want. And this would work every time if we were unitary selves. I know, because I tried to use it to cure myself of smoking. It worked for three months then I lapsed. Why, because the self that thought smoking was cool and indicative of a fully lived life, made an unwelcome reappearance. He did battle with the other self that had associated smoking with cancer, addiction and bad people. And after a few drinks, smoker won. Think about it: you would never have even started smoking if there wasn’t one self in there that thought it was a cool idea. Only when I at long last came to terms with the fact that I was many different selves, and that I would need a strategy that worked with all of them did I combat smoking and successfully quit. Lifeshifting is about long term real change that works. NLP is a quick fix. If you haven’t identified your many selves and integrated them to some extent reprogramming yourself will fail. Why do you think people become addicted to self-help seminars and courses, sometimes spending thousands? Because those courses quieten and diminish the other ‘rebel’ selves. In the end they become addicted to that condition- but of course never actually achieve anything else. You are your ‘rebel’ self, just as much as you are your ‘good’ self. In fact it makes more sense to say, “You are the self that observes all these disparate selves”. To hear that observing self you have to stop identifying with your outer selves. You have to take a step back. I quit smoking when this observing self realized ‘the smoker’ in me only appeared at certain times and places. Always the evening, always when there was alcohol and no food. So I avoided those situations as much as I could. This observing self also concluded that the reflection “You’re at risk now” served to flip me from ‘smoker’ to ‘mr sensible’. Screaming to yourself “don’t smoke- you’ll die”- doesn’t work because you know ONE cigarette won’t make you die- and of course you kid yourself you only want one. You need a ‘self-flipping’ reflection that engages your inner ‘non-smoker’ rather than fights your inner ‘smoker.’ Mr Sensible had strategies such as ordering chips and h’ors doevres so as to be able to eat rather than smoke. If I started to think “just one cigarette won’t hurt” I knew this was only one of many selves talking. It was no more ‘the real me’ than Mr Sensible was. I could then take it less seriously and ignore the voice. I had been hypnotized, tried patches, nicotine gum and scared myself silly talking to doctors. For fifteen years it never worked. When I worked out I was a multiple self, like a family with a black sheep, then I was on my way. As long as I didn’t pretend the black sheep didn’t exist I was fine. It has been six years now as I said, and, touchwood, so far it has worked.

Sunday
Jun232013

Daunt books event Monday 24th June

RED NILE LONDON EVENT- Monday 24th June 7pm Daunt Books Marylebone High Street entry £8- book or come early- I am doing a talk/discussion- be there or be square!

http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/events.asp 

Sunday
Jun232013

gardening and fun

I was brought up in a family of keen gardeners and turned my back on the whole darn thing until very recently. So I am both a complete beginner but also a man loaded with a lifetime of prejudice. I have been attempting as my first foray into the world of growing to clear an old allotment. My observations so far is that having fun is downplayed in gardening. Doing stuff like hacking away grass and weeds should be as much fun as getting your first lettuces and plums. More fun. I think I was wedded to the idea of gardening as a consumer activity- the fun is in the getting, whereas the fun is in the doing. So you need fun tools. Sharp crazy dangerous tools are excellent for slashing at weeds. Forget sensible scythes and shears- get a sickle on a long stick or, better, this tool which is like an elongated machete but bent at the end- like a lethal golf club. They're used to clear acres in countries too poor for strimmers, or places where strimmers aren't wanted. And if you're a sedant (a pedant who sits down a lot) then what the fuck are you doing with power tools anyway? Next up the humble spade and fork must go. They have gained a stupid prominence owing to the use of pesticides. When you have to get rid of serious weed coverage au naturel you need a mattock-hoe and a full-sized bent fork. Both have made life so much more...fun!

Saturday
Jun222013

ego

The problem isn't the size of the ego, it is- does the ego get in the way? Even small egos can be quite obstructive in the wrong place, a big ego in the right place may not matter at all.

Monday
Jun172013

agility not speed

It seems that Cheetahs aren't that fast. Measured accurately at last by researchers they top out at 53kmh. Usain Bolt can manage 44kmh. But where they score is in acceleration and sudden changes of direction. Agility is more use to them than outright speed it seems; in the last minutes of an antelope kill they need to jink and jive to get the prize. In everyday life, too, in the mildy metaphorical sense, I'd rate agility anyday against straight ahead speed.