Dramaturgy for writers The Role of the Dramaturg I talked to a number of Dramaturgs and Literary Managers (mainly UK based for this blog post) in order to better understand their role and how they both support a writer during the playwriting process, and the production as a whole.
Books & Writers 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport. Exploring some models for working which are relevant for writers from Cal Newport’s book ‘Deep Work’.
Books & Writers On Meeting Alastair Reid. The story of when my uncle, the late Dr Finlay Macleod and I spent three days in New York with the Scottish writer Alastair Reid.
Newsletter The Macleod Post December 2023 Newsletter I share actionable writing strategies and high quality insights from across the web, directly to your inbox. Here are some of the resources, books, content makers and ideas that have been top of mind this month.
Learning & Teaching How to leverage A.I in your lifelong learning journey. Self-directed learning is the process of taking responsibility for one's own learning. Although this concept sounds simple, we don't get as much practise as we should on how to be self-directed learners.
Short Stories The Third Wave - Short Story A short story set on New Year's Eve 1918, as servicemen returned to the Isle of Lewis in Scotland on HMY Iolaire.
Dramaturgy for writers Some differences between German & UK approaches to making theatre. I had a conversation with German theatre maker and lighting designer Kai Fischer to find out more about the European way of making drama. I was also interested in different models for the relationship between writer, director and dramaturg.
Productivity How to write copy for the future AI robot apocalypse. Whenever AI finally becomes self-aware, there's a chance that it might wonder why, instead of colonising galaxies or building terminators, it spent most of its time writing AI generated content for Facebook posts.
Books What will you do with your 80,000 hours? Maybe you think it's starting to look like having some kind of back-up of the human race on Mars might be handy. Or maybe you side with Thomas Pinker, whose book 'The Better Angels of our Nature' argues that we're living in the most agreeable moment in our species' history.
Dramaturgy for writers Exploring the use of coaching techniques in the writing process. In this blog entry, I will look at whether coaching techniques can be succesfully used in the script development process. (Part 1of 2)
Learning & Teaching Some excellent places online to learn some excellent stuff. Three websites I keep going back to because of their unique takes and great resources.
Dramaturgy for writers An account of a three day workshop with Theatre Director Thomas Ostermeier. This piece goes over the ground we covered in a three day workshop with famous German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier. Ostermeier shared with us his thoughts on the nature of drama, his approach to developing as an artist and how he approaches working with a text.
Dramaturgy for writers Writing tips from David Greig I led a week long course for writers and non-writers on Skye a good while back. As part of this we were very lucky to be joined by Scottish writer David Greig. He has written plays such as 'Outlying Islands', 'Dunsinane' and 'The Strange Undoing
Interviews A conversation with writer Stephen Greenhorn Stephen Greenhorn is a writer I really respect. In this audio recording (about 35 minutes), I had the opportunity to ask Stephen about his development as a writer - from his early plays, to working on tv series like Doctor Who and musicals like Sunshine on Leith.