Free 2 Be Me

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004 #Philip26Bradbury 4th January 2026 and noticing magic makes more magic

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003 #Philip26Bradbury 3rd January 2026 and not feeling like doing this podcast ... already!

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002 #Philip26Bradbury 2nd January 2026 A little trip ...

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001 #Philip26Bradbury 1st January 2026 on the edge of several opennesses - - what does 2026 bring you?

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I published 2 books on 1st August - one a novel by me and one a non-fiction by Teresa J Bird and I - and though the first was started 8 years ago and the 2nd 2 months ago, they encompass the same theme, coincidentally. 

Scars Could Love is a thriller/romance novel is about a solo mother, and her 13-year-old daughter, who has been abused and finally stands up for herself and her community. It contains guidance for people - especially women and girls - to help them stay safe ... a manual and a novel in one.

Authentic You is part of our new workshop series, helping people step out of the insanity of this world and be led by the sanity of their hearts and souls. We'll be helping people step into the integrity of their power, passion and purpose.

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I've just finished writing my 23rd book, Scars Could Love, and people tell me I should make videos to promote it. However, writing is not a spectator sport so I had to become imaginative and create a series of videos about the life of writers ... well, this writer, anyway.

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Telling is when the author summarizes or uses exposition/description to simply tell the reader what is happening. Showing is about using description and action to help the reader experience the story.

 Example 1: 

TELLING: When they embraced, she could tell he had been smoking and was scared. 

 SHOWING: When she wrapped her arms around him, the sweet staleness of tobacco enveloped her, and he shivered. 

 Example 2: 

TELLING: Candice was anxious about how late she was.

 SHOWING: Candice’s eyes flashed to her phone. 9:33. She picked up her pace so it matched that of her heart, scampering down the hall. She had yet to climb two floors before reaching class. Again, her eyes flashed to the clock. 9:35. Couldn’t time slow down? Just for one morning!

 Example 3

TELLING: It was eerily quiet on the road until the sound of footsteps terrified me.

 SHOWING: Crunching hit my ears from behind, accelerating the already rampant pounding of my heart.

 4 RULES FOR DESCRIPTIONS

 1. Do not lead with exposition. 

This is a common mistake. Your first scene should definitely be one we can observe firsthand to get us quickly into the story ("the narrative hook"). Use dialogue, description, characters' thoughts: whatever will dramatize your opening.

 2. Match exposition to pace. 

The faster paced your story, the shorter your expository sections should be. An action story must be shown. We want to be there! If your tale relies on events piling up on each other at dizzying speed, keep up the speed by including only very short pieces of exposition, since exposition almost always slows a reader down. Conversely, if yours is a leisurely tale with many literary digressions, you can tell us much more.

 3. Try to alternate shown scenes with told exposition. 

If your reader has been given a rousing opening, he will usually then sit still for at least some exposition. But be sure to follow that chunk of telling with one or more dramatized scenes. That's much more effective than being given section after section of telling. Remember: The reader wants to feel present, a fly on the wall, for as much of the story as is feasible.

 4. Always show your climax. 

The climax is the place where the opposing forces in your story finally clash. This is true whether those opposing forces are two armies or two values inside a character's soul. The climax needs to be as vivid as you can make it, and that means dramatizing it with every narrative tool at your command: dialogue, action, description, thoughts, feelings. Put us right there.

Your Homework:

Turn either or all of these telling sentences into showing ones:

1. My mother was being overprotective.

2. Harry rushed out of the house in anger.

3. It was autumn and very cold outside

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For those who hate planning their book, here is the simplest way to plan your book - the plan you do when you're not planning.

Planners tend to plan their books before they start. Pansters, on the other hand, tend to avoid planning until they get into trouble, usually near the end of writing their book. This is the worst time to do any planning as there's so much to change. So, try this simple method of creating a story structure, BEFORE you start writing. Enjoy! :-)

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Don’t emphasise for emphasis

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Along with redundancy, one of Stephen King’s (whose books have sold more than 350 million copies) pet peeves is the overuse of adjectives and adverbs. After you’ve finished your first draft, he suggests, go back and take out 10% of what you’ve written – especially the adjectives and adverbs. They’re supposed to strengthen the writing but, most of the time, they weaken it.

A recent issue of People Magazine refers to an “incredibly popular, groundbreakingly racy sitcom.” That’s tough to say even when you don’t have to move your lips.

In Still Life with Crows, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child describe a mysterious row of corn in the middle of a field: “It was, in fact, the only row that actually opened onto the creek.” Here are two attempts at emphasis (“in fact,” “actually”), but they just junk up the sentence. 

Remove them both and the word “only” carries the burden of the sentence with efficiency and precision: “It was the only row that opened onto the creek.”

The simpler, the more powerful.

Other emphasis words are very, so and quite.

Read these sentences out loud with the words in and out:

He was very tall … he was tall.

She was quite picky … she was picky.

The writing is generally more powerful without the emphasis words and the best test is to read it out loud.

Repetition

Just about every writer unconsciously leans on a “crutch” word. Hillary Clinton’s repeated word is eager. Cosmopolitan magazine editor Kate White uses quickly over a dozen times in A Body To Die For. Jack Kerouac’s crutch word in On the Road is sad,” sometimes doubly so - sad, sad. Ann Packer’s in The Dive from Clausen’s Pier is weird.

The editor for my last Australian thriller, Scars Can’t Tell, found 1,011 exclamation marks!

Commas

Commas are those funny little things that suggest a pause between words. To decide whether a comma should be there or not, read the sentence out loud to yourself. If you pause, momentarily, between any words, there should be a comma there. If it’s a longer pause, there should be a semi colon and, if you stop for a longer pause, a full stop is needed.

Some say that a pause for half a second should be shown with a comma, a full second is a semicolon and longer is a colon or a hyphen … or a new sentence. Again, read your writing out loud and you will know what’s best.

To break it down, there are four main reasons for commas: 

·           After an introductory element: There should always be a comma between an introductory word or phrase and the rest of the sentence. For example: In the novel Twilight, Bella lives in Forks.

·           In a compound sentence: A compound sentence has two or more parts that could each be a single sentence, joined by a conjunction. Before the conjunction, insert a comma. For example: The recipe sounded simple, but Julie burnt the cookies.

·           With a non-restrictive element: If there is a part of a sentence that could be removed, and the sentence would still make sense, use commas before and after to separate it from the rest of the sentence. For example: On wikiHow, the world's largest how-to manual, there are over 100,000 how-to articles.

·           In a series: When making a list, it's best to have a comma after each noun, unless you're a journalist. For example: Jane needed to buy milk, eggs, cheese, and butter.

Now you can astound your friends, at a literary cocktail party, with your

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When inspiration hides, we can step away and wait till it returns. The alternative is to keep writing. Sometimes creativity needs help to arise and we've just keep writing to lever it out - writing the boring, uninspired words till they turn into inspired ones. Or writing nonsense for a while, till that nonsense opens our minds and lets in something more creative. This exercise was to write two silly limericks and then around 500 words on an attribute or an emotion. Here is my example, below:

Little Miss Muffett sat on her tuffit
Then thought, “Oh, what the hell, stuff it!
I need a drink
And time to think.”
So got blind drunk at the pub called Jimmy Ruffitt

Mary had a little lamb
Its face was smeared with jam
It made lots of noise
Then broke all the toys
And then ran off with the naughty old ram

CRAVING EMBARRASSMENT
“I really like feeling embarrassed,” said our yoga teacher, Lilian, chatting to a friend after the session, as we were leaving … as she recounted an embarrassing and hilarious event. “I really like feeling off centre, not quite in control. I can really sense who I am, how I’m feeling. I feel so present to everything.”
Well, I thought, most people strive to avoid embarrassment, to avoid being wrong-footed, to avoid being wrong.
Most of our behaviour, it seems, is directed by our Mr or Mrs Fearless; that part of us that is ever alert to fear and always helping us to fear less – following rules, no matter how insane they are. Avoiding embarrassment. Avoiding not looking good. Avoiding risks. Avoiding rejection. Avoiding standing out. Avoiding feeling anything. Avoiding feeling. Avoiding life.
Some realise that to avoid embarrassment is to not speak up.
To avoid rejection is not to ask.
To avoid risk is to stay safe, stay inert.
To avoid not looking good is to avoid life.
To avoid feelings is to … well, avoid feelings, to step back from all of them – sadness and happiness, anxiety and excitement, drama and peace, rejection and acceptance.
To live in avoidance – in the grip of the Fearlesses – is to live that middle line, the inert line that never wavers, is always predictable, certain and safe. That’s exactly where the Fearlesses want us to be. Safe from diseases and health, safe from hot and cold. Safe from boredom and the unexpected. Safe from judgement and love. Safe from feeling. Safe from life.
Some of us get to an age when nothing matters any more. A stage that we just see frightened little egos running around avoiding fear, avoiding each other, terrified of life.
From the Fearlesses we learn that feeling numb is good and all else is bad. They tell us that it’s best to feel nothing and, as soon as any feelings arise, we’ve got to step back. Stop living. Stop expressing. Stop relating with others. Return to addictions.
The problem is that, sooner or later, we’ll bump into people and situations that arouse our feelings. That’s inevitable.
Then something happens.
Maybe we just become old and stop caring what others think or say.
Maybe we undergo some trauma – divorce, bankruptcy, war, theft, assault – and realise, later, that we’re still alive. Despite the explosion of negative emotions – where Mr and Mrs Fearless didn’t protect us – we’re still functioning, the sun still comes up and the biggest surprise of all … we are able to return to snatches of joy, peace and contentment. Not all the time, probably, but enough happy moments to give us hope of more.
Then we might realise it’s not possible to have a happy thought without a sad one. We can’t have excitement without boredom, peace without drama.
The straight and predictable green line through the middle of all – avoiding all – is the same green