Blog posts by

Does every story need to be neatly tied up with every loose end accounted for? In her blog ‘Loose ends in a story’, KM Weiland talks about this and it makes very good reading.

It also set me to thinking about my own storytelling. The serials have taught me to write more open ended stories. As I pondered the question of whether all stories need to be neatly tied up, I realised they do not. Life does not come in neatly tied packages, so why should stories?

The EDTech for Export one day conference at Te Papa, Wellington, was the first gathering I have been to where every speaker said something that was relevant to what we are doing at The Story Mint. The content was engaging and inspiring. There are some remarkable people exploring ways to make education relevant to students and using these solutions around the world. It is truly exciting.

I have a habit of cruising through the serials every so often. Not just the current ones but the early ones too. Every time I find one or two serials that catch my eye and I turn to the beginning and read them through. What normally tweaks my interest is a writer who is a regular contributor. To read how far they have come when I read a later serial they have written a chapter for is astounding.

‘It’s official, the book is dead’ according to the Huffington Post. It supports its case by showing an image of old Readers Digest condensed books cut into the shapes of letters and for sale for $20. I was never a condensed book reader, preferring the original novel to an edited version, which left out ….well, what? However, they must have served a purpose for those people who were time-short and wanted to get through the latest Wilbur Smith in a hurry.