Somehow I’ve watched The Green Mile film half a dozen times but never actually sat down to read the book. But that has all changed, and as it turns out I really have missed out on a spectacular story and at least some affirmation that the film adaptation is extremely faithful to the book. I’ve read a handful of Stephen King novels, and whilst I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an aficionado, I would say that each one has been excellent. They’re all very different stories but the thing that unifies them for me is the exceptionally strong character voice throughout. The Green Mile is no different. It’s framed as Paul Edgecomb’s memoir of sorts, which he’s writing in a retirement home. He speaks of his time as a guard on death row, of the good and evil that goes on there, and of the magic of John Coffey, like the drink but not spelled the same. ...

A behemoth if ever there was one.

Writing is hard. Perhaps that’s an oversimplification. The mechanics of writing are easy, especially in a day and age with computers with spelling and grammar checkers. You can even use an app that tells you how good your writing is1. It’ll tell you when you end a sentence on a preposition, or when you’re too passive, or use too many adverbs. None of these tools are perfect, but they do a good job of propping up one side of the process to make life easier for the writer. But writing is still hard. ...

A new project and a cautionary tale about decision paralysis.

For the first time in a long time I ran out of things to read. Or perhaps I should say that I forgot the remains of my reading list, and was stuck trying to think of what to read. Whilst browsing the Kindle store, I spotted Flowers for Algernon, and instantly an alarm bell went off in my head. I was sure I had previously expressed an interest in reading it? Wasn’t it supposed to be emotionally devastating? Sounds like my kind of book, so I dove straight in. ...