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Tag: writing tips

Writing workshop: using place names in your writing

Writing workshop: using place names in your writing

When writing prose, it’s easy to get stuck on the mechanics of the story – who is speaking? Was the … More

berlin, berlin writers, berlinwriting, creative writing, maps, poetry, writing, writing community, writing exercises, writing tips, writing workshop

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This book is epic in both the traditional and millennial senses of the word - 12 characters, mostly women, mostly black, so far mostly in London but also travelling to Nigeria and America, living their lives. Its sometimes very funny, sometimes enraging, always compassionate. I am only a quarter of the way through but the storytelling, the charismatic women and the beautiful language, most of all, make for such an absorbing read - if you have a booklover to buy for at Christmas, you won't go wrong with this one. #currentlyreading #bookstagram #books #bibliophile #writersofig #girlwomanother #bernardineevaristo

This raspberry yogurt cake has never let me down - recipe by @clotildenet #mercibeaucoup #cnzrecipes #cnz #gateau #cake #currentlyeating

When you need to buy a card for someone but don't have cash & know that Berlin shopkeepers are made (even more) grumpy by customers pulling out debit cards for small purchases so justify a new Sally Rooney to self so as not to overly annoy shopkeeper who I will never see again, and who was still grumpy. #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookish #bibliophile #berlin

My husband's grandmother escaped from East Berlin hidden behind a car dashboard, and ten years ago I wrote her story down. This week, to mark 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's been published in @bigissueaustralia - a good reminder to always save your old notebooks and Word files! On sale now around Australia until November 14, with lots of other great stories. And here is personal apartment of Erich Mielke, who was head of the Stasi from 1957 until 1989. You can now walk through his rooms at the Stasi Headquarters, which are left much as they was found when the public stormed the building in 1989. The most telling detail for me was a file card, found in his secretary's drawer, with a diagram showing how his breakfast tray was to be laid out. The banality of evil in one tiny drawing #berlin #30jahremauerfall #stasiland #currentlywriting #freelancelife

I have read Stasiland before, long before I moved to Berlin, but reading it again having lived here for a year, it is so much funnier than I remember. She nails what it's like to be an outsider, looking in. And such characters. The former Stasi official who insists on meeting her incognito "with a newspaper tucked under his left arm." The woman she sublets her flat from, who will appear at midnight to quickly take down some shelves she needs, but also kindly refill the coal bucket down in the cellar before she leaves. The park dwellers, the winter light, the sparrows and U-bahn, the resilient, independent women, the swimming pool guards with their whistles and random rules, the endless grey winter sky. Brilliant. #berlin #stasiland #annafunder #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookish #bibliophile #bookaddict #30jahremauerfall

I took this photo almost a year ago after a meeting @fremantlepress to talk about my psychological suspense novel manuscript, which was shortlisted for the Hungerford Award. After much redrafting and the inevitable facing down of The Silence of the Inbox, I am so so happy and relieved to have a publishing contract with them 😂 😅🥂 For any aspiring authors out there thinking of entering the 2020 Hungerford Award next year, all I can say is Get Busy. This was my second entry and my second shortlisting - and doors do open!

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Email me at zoe.deleuil@gmail.com