It’s always the same. We’re off to Dartmoor today.
“What time do you want to leave?” she asks.
“Seven?” I reply.
“Oh, not that early. Surely? I don’t need to be there till three.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“It won’t take that long. Look AA route finder says four hours.”
“That’s four hours fifty-six minutes. I can read it from here.”
“I know.”
“That’s based on the speed limits of the roads it expects you to travel on and the distance. It doesn’t allow for London congestion, stopping for a wee or needing some lunch. Seven.”
“Ten.”
“Seven.”
And so on.
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EH Carr - What is history?
Something Else by the Kinks
"...passionate and informed...really demand to be read." - Pointless Philisophical Asides.
Current Series
2015 kicks off with a commentary on the upcoming UK general election. The first part is Things Change.
Why does David Marston Write?
David Marston Writes is a tool to ensure, um, well that David Marston writes on a regular basis. Its frequency depends on both real life and whether I've something to say.
It started off as both a writing exercise when other stories were going badly and as a brain dump for all those annoying ideas that wouldn't go away, but began to take the form of writings in a series formed around a theme.
The only rule is that I must start and finish in a total of two hours.
David Marston Writes comes with the disclaimer of "Partial Dramatisation" - in other words it shouldn't be treated as strict life writing. I make bits up, roll real people into a single character (usually when I don't know them well enough to just borrow them), and rely on hindsight.
Not sure where to start? Have a look at the blurbs below.
It started off as both a writing exercise when other stories were going badly and as a brain dump for all those annoying ideas that wouldn't go away, but began to take the form of writings in a series formed around a theme.
The only rule is that I must start and finish in a total of two hours.
David Marston Writes comes with the disclaimer of "Partial Dramatisation" - in other words it shouldn't be treated as strict life writing. I make bits up, roll real people into a single character (usually when I don't know them well enough to just borrow them), and rely on hindsight.
Not sure where to start? Have a look at the blurbs below.
David Marston Reads
EH Carr - What is history?
David Marston Listens to
Something Else by the Kinks
2014 Posts
David Marston Writes often features series of connected blogs. It didn't in 2014, but there were plenty of posts. See below for an index.
Series 15
We've been trying to buy a house so - and why not? - here's some short bits of writing about every property we saw, the trials and tribulations of trying to give someone all your money and the people who lived there before us. The first part is Home.
This series should come out, more or less, daily through April.
This series should come out, more or less, daily through April.
Series 14
Okay, so there wasn't really a fourteenth series. It's just been some random muses on the likes of David Bowie, wine, Geoff Dyer and writing David Marston Writes for five years. Was it all worth it, indeed. Basically, anything between mid-September 2012 and the end of March 2013 is being shoe-horned into this section.
Series 13
Adeventures in Library: I've been rereading some of what were once favourite novels. Here's what I thought of them, plus some other significant cultural moments including the Olympics. It, sort of, starts with Gore Vidal.
Series 12
Flash fiction, very, very short stories, can be very hard to write. I haven't tried for a while and so thought I ought to. The Dinner Part is the same story told seven times, each from participant's viewpoint in an ever decreasing number of words. It starts with Andrew (200)
Series 11
Back from India, I struggle to come up with a way to be interested or interested by the London Mayoral elections. A short series about not blogging about the history of London, fictional manifestations of myself and the escaped soul of Charles Dickens. Part one is here.
Series 10
Pondering the state of the nation for the twenty-first century, I examined all the cultural stereotypes for potential heroes, from scientists to sportsmen, from writers to, well, God, actually.
Series 10 is followed by short entries around being burgled and leather jackets.
Series 10 is followed by short entries around being burgled and leather jackets.
Series Nine
A summer mini-series for 2011, the three part Flat Hunt starts with Flats One through Thirteen. A comic dramatisation of... Well, it's pretty self-explanatory, really. What's that? I'm really scraping the barrel this time? No, no, no. I just thought it was time for something fun, it's all been a bit heavy recently. Look, just go read it, will you?
Series Eight:
For some unknown reason it seemed like a good idea to give up alcohol for forty days and forty nights. To test myself further I spent much of that period reading and thinking about drinking, researching a history of alcohol blurring some fictional boundaries with my own history of drinking and examining why writers have such a reputation for knocking back the hard stuff. Not the easiest way to remain dry.
Series Seven:
I'm stuck. My fiction writing is at the painful contraction stage of birth and I can't think of anything to blog about. Oh well, time for Adventures in a Record Collection.
Series Six:
Oops, there wasn't technically a series six of David Marston Writes, but instead three posts in the late Autumn/early Winter of 2010 about John Lennon, learning to ride a bike and being rather chilly in my flat. Who says I don't provide diversity of subjects?
Series Five:
Returning East- after failing to find the entrance to the new Shoreditch East London line station late one night, I decided to walk from Dalston to my home in Brockley, mentally mapping the new line as it cut its identity into London. Part history, part life writing, follow me as I sauntered my way through the city. The journey starts here.
Series Four:
How to lose an electorate - in the run up to the May 2010 general election I charted the history of England drawing comparrisons with where we were in 2010 whilst travelling around the country and discovering that a skewed media London centric view doesn't tell the whole story. It starts here with Augustine.
Series Three
Writing is Killing Me! - feeling somewhat exhausted, stretched at the real job and imersed in trying to finish an acceptable draft of my first novel, I knew I needed to drop something and the blog was the most obvious victim. But, deciding that I wanted to end in a way that felt complete, this became the first in a (slightly) more coherent narrative series. Part life writing, as per usual, and part analysis of why I was trying write and what I was hoping to acheive the first installment is found here.
Series Two.
There wasn't an intentional break between series one and series, life just got in the way. At this point I was still trying to churn a blog every week on any subject that took my fancy from politics, to childrens' literature; from noir pastiche to the wine monkey. Some bordered on fiction and some were a bit too truthful, but quality varied. Feel free to browse around, but some are pretty weak whilst in some, I think, I was finally begining to find my voice.
Series One
I began this blog at the same time as an MA in Creative Writing. It was designed to be a tool to ensure I had a weekly deadline to get something out. The first series, which ran for about a year before an enforced three week break (including one silly month where I tried to blog every day) and whilst they still read as mildly amusing much of it seems fairly poor in retrospect. To an extent, they're only left up as an acknowledgement that I managed to get something out every week for a year and to show how far my writing has come.
That said, I still think Listen is quite good.
That said, I still think Listen is quite good.
Who is David Marston?
Posts
David Marston is friendly with
Other places to read David Marston's writings
David Marston Write's Archive
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2008
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May
(31)
- Goodnight, now
- Old Tricks
- Yes, Ma'am!
- Wrinkles
- Where am I?
- So what did you do for the bank holiday?
- "Well I haven't moved it!"
- Possible Patricide
- I fought the law
- How to scare off the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
- You know what the best thing is?
- Two to One
- All Misty-Eyed
- I’m not actually here.
- PANTS
- There’s something inherently funny about badgers.
- Time to get up
- People Everywhere.
- Heal thyself
- Time to change the reel.
- Improvised Weapons
- Too Much TV
- Sun Is Shining
- Boris 1, Civil Liberties 0.
- The Paradox Of Beck #1
- Meanwhile, back in Margate...
- How To Avoid A Hang Over Rule #3
- Margate Rocks.
- I Hate You All
- Apples Rolling On A Damp Afternoon
- The Daily David - Limited Offer Only
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May
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