Gemma Franks

Are you an overwriter or an underwriter? Everyone’s writing style and process is different. Some people are overwriters: writing hundreds of superfluous words which bloat their stories. So, words need to be cut in subsequent drafts. Other people are underwriters: needing to add words in later drafts to augment their stories. Which method works best? […]

I was recently advised to remove the word delve and its derivatives from my thesis. Apparently, delve needs to be avoided as it is a word favoured by AI writing programs. I have never used ChatGPT or any other AI writing program to write anything for me. I have no need to do so. I

Theory of Mind (ToM) is an interesting concept, and one I have been pondering recently in light of the mushroom murders. Images of Erin have been splashed all over the papers, including photos of her reading in the back of a prison van. I wonder if she was reading a novel, and whether, considering her

positivism                           them constructivism                   their structuralism                     him subjectivism                      her interpretivism                    you pragmatism                        me so many             isms we’re in one world together I’m deep in the isms at the moment – hence the schism… ism poem. I’m mostly exploring philosophical isms – ones concerned with ontology and epistemology. There’s a

If we’re all worms, what kind of worm are you? Do you think you’re like Richard Scarry’s delightful Lowly Worm, able to solve any situation? Or, do you have the same self-belief as Winston Churchill, who declared: “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” Or do you see yourself

Someone recently remarked that a manuscript assessment is a professional assessment and it is not the assessor’s job to elevate you. This provided grist for the mill, food for thought, and a whole bunch of other clichés and idioms. Suffice to say, I decided to contemplate what a manuscript assessment entails, what it means to

“You might aspire to art but it better start as craft.“ So says Geraldine Brooks, one of my favourite authors, in a Nieman Foundation interview.  I’m sure the judges who awarded Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, consider her an artist, as do her readers. Brooks has honed her craft to a fine

An old timer once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I saw this love for one’s job play out amongst presenters at two conferences I recently attended. Passion, and love for the work they were doing, seemed to provide the writers, editors, and

I’ve been mousing deep into the witching hours: brewing Ems, pixels and dark purple hexes. It took long hours of muddle and toil to cast a new gemmafranks.com site. I chose WordPress. It can’t be that hard to create your own bespoke website thought I. It’s not as if I’d have to learn how to