Shonda Rhimes is a successful writer, director and showrunner. She’s best known as the creator of US medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, as well as its spin-off series, Private Practice. She’s also the executive producer of the hit US political thriller, Scandal, and has writing and directing credits on a number of other television dramas and… Continue reading The science and art of achieving your dreams
Tag: inspiration
What an evening with Yaa Gyasi taught me about inspiration
I first came across the incredible stillness and power of Yaa Gyasi's writing some years ago when reading a short story penned by the Ghanaian-born author in Guernica Magazine. Inscape, narrated from a daughter's perspective, told the tale of a woman and her Ghanaian mother, weaving between themes of religion, culture and mental illness with… Continue reading What an evening with Yaa Gyasi taught me about inspiration
I Thank Whatever Gods There May be
It was the ancient Greeks who first coined the idea, and word, ‘icon’ – or eikenai – meaning ‘to seem’ or ‘to be like’, and in so doing captured the symbolism of the religious practices through which supplicants were drawn onto some higher ideal. Their gods – who were in essence their values abstracted –… Continue reading I Thank Whatever Gods There May be
Reasons to write
Although my love for writing came late, I think I’d always had a special regard for the power of the written word: the way life – with all its colours and vicissitudes – can be funnelled into the cool, clinical science of grammar and syntax, sentences and spellings; a domain of rules and laws. I… Continue reading Reasons to write
The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy
So the plan today was to fly out to Dublin, around about 3.15 this afternoon for Worldcon - a plan that has been scuppered by illness, rendering me duvet-bound within the cosy confines of my home, gazing at the grey drizzly skies outside. On the one hand, I'm gutted to be missing out on what… Continue reading The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy
The Durban Book Launch
Well... where to begin. There are all kinds of words I could use to try to describe the experience that was the Durban Book Launch of Lost Gods, and absolutely all of them will sound hyperbolic to anyone who wasn't there - transcendent, incredible, life-affirming - that kinda thing. But it's all true. It was… Continue reading The Durban Book Launch
The Habit of Art
There's this strange nebulous space you tend to occupy as a writer, or even, perhaps, a creator or storyteller of any kind; a sort of hovering furtive interstice between here and elsewhere, wakefulness and daydream, vivid yet vague; like a mental version of twilight. Which is why I loved stumbling across this excerpt from Jane Vandenburgh's Architecture… Continue reading The Habit of Art
3 Surprisingly Simple Things I’ve Learned About Public Speaking (For Those Who Don’t Like Public Speaking)
I'll be honest, I've never really thought of myself as a teacher. In fact, I barely think of myself as a speaker, despite having delivered talks at events, workshops and community venues on a number of occasions now. It's just always been, to me, more of an acquired skill than a natural one; something I… Continue reading 3 Surprisingly Simple Things I’ve Learned About Public Speaking (For Those Who Don’t Like Public Speaking)
Micah Yongo 