As part of Free Word’s ‘How to Be Kind’ season, TLC devised a series of literary advice columns, answering questions submitted to an email hotline we set up especially for this series, and questions submitted on social media using the hashtag #ToughLovingCare.
TLC Director Aki Schilz answered questions about honing a writing discipline, how to put together a short story collection, working class writers, and why we write in the first place. You can read all four of the Tough Loving Care literary advice column blogs on the Free Word site here.
To round up the series, we commissioned Sunday Times bestselling author and TLC Reader Angela Clarke to answer some of the remaining questions, and the result is this brilliant video. Interested in learning more about how publishing works? Click ‘play’ now!
If you enjoyed the video, don’t forget to let us know by tagging us on social media (@TLCUK on Twitter; @theliteraryconsultancy on Instagram) or by using the hashtag #ToughLovingCare.
About How to be Kind
Since childhood we have been told to ‘be kind’; to send flowers, give to charity – or offer a hug or round of applause. But in the face of police brutality, economic collapse and a mental health crisis, isn’t time that kindness tried a different tack?
How To Be Kind explores compassion beyond platitudes. With theatre performance, workshops, film and original writing, Free Word showcases the writers, artists and activists calling for a kindness that is urgent, active and transformative. Featuring Hamja Ahsan (Shy Radicals) and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan on resisting anti-immigrant state apparatus; exploring kindness as solidarity with acclaimed exiled Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Doğan; envisioning a kind economy with The Black Economists Network and learning how to write to forgive with Cecllia Knapp and The Forgiveness Project.
About Angela Clarke
Angela Clarke is an author, playwright, columnist, screenwriter and broadcaster specialising in narrative non-fiction, memoir, crime/thrillers, observational humour and opinion pieces. Her debut crime thriller Follow Me (Avon) was named Amazon’s Rising Star Debut of the Month January 2016. Follow Me has been short listed for the Good Reader Page Turner Award 2016, and long listed for the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger in the Library 2016. Angela’s memoir Confessions of a Fashionista (Ebury) is an Amazon Fashion Chart bestseller. Her play, The Legacy, enjoyed it’s first run at The Hope Theatre in June 2015. In 2015 Angela was awarded the Young Stationers’ Prize for achievement and promise in writing and publishing. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, on stage at Camp Bestival, and given talks and workshops at numerous book events. She has designed and delivered lectures to MA students, and workshops to GCSE pupils and loves being a reader for TLC.
