Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

I’ve been thinking lately about writing about people – dead or alive – but not as a biography. Merely fiction.

 It’s been done before, and done well: example of Joyce Carol Oates’ Blonde or Michael Cunningham’s The Hours spring to mind (of Marilyn Munroe and Virginia Woolf respectively).

But does that make it right? Should authors be allowed to take living people and immortalise them in a way that might not be 100% historically accurate?

The Guardian thinks fiction is up for grabs, by anyone:

The question of whether authors have the "right" to write about living or real people is not one that should be answered by the caretakers of historical reputation. Fiction is a free-for-all, and as long as an author can find someone who'll publish what they write (or these days, publish it themselves), there are no ...

At the artists party on the weekend, the question came up: are writing courses worth it?

I was speaking to an author who had published seven books, started her own literary journal and written many articles, and she was entirely self-taught.

"There were no such thing as creative writing courses in my day!" She said.

Of course, the same cannot be said for me.

I've done Professional Writing and Editing (which seems to almost be the staple writing course for bookish people these days) and am now slogging my way through a degree in writing and publishing.

Coupled with some unaccredited short courses in writing, plus various sessions at festivals and conferences - well, I'm a seasoned pro at writing courses.

But are they any good?

You only have to Google the topic to be given millions of articles on the topic, and it's something that's talked ...