nothing in the rulebook

A collective of creatives bound by a single motto: There's nothing in the rulebook that says a giraffe can't play football!

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Author: professorwu

  • Books for pleasure: on the ecstasy of reading

    An eternal, largely ineffable question has long been asked of books and the so-called ‘art of reading’. What, precisely, does reading do for the human soul? Broadly speaking, books, reading and writing are about communication and creating connections with other human beings – people who exist beyond the page, and within the words before us.…

  • Writing tips from writers (Volume II)

    Writing tips from writers (Volume II)

    Writer’s Block. It sounds like a fearsome condition, a creative blockage. The end of invention. But what is it, really? Often, it’s created from conflicting, unhelpful desires – we want the writing to be perfect; but we also want the novel to be finished as quickly as possible. We want the words we write to…

  • Is there such a thing as the ‘perfect daily routine’ for writing?

    During her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pearl S. Buck thrilled a captive audience with her description of the shimmering aliveness from which a creative work is born: “The creative instinct is, in its final analysis and in its simplest terms, an enormous extra vitality, a super-energy, born inexplicably to an individual,…

  • River of Ink – A portrait of a reluctant revolutionary

    River of Ink, the debut novel from Paul M. M. Cooper, is set to be published by Bloomsbury on 28th January 2016 – and we here at Nothing in the Rulebook are already excited about it. Combining the intrigue of Wolf Hall, the drama of Game of Thrones and the elegance of My Name is Red, the novel promises…

  • Now you can watch a novel being written in real time with this website

    Writing, we know, is a serious business. Behind the scenes, many writers admit they struggle with the daily work of writing, clocking thousands of solitary hours staring at blank pages and computer screens. Most agree on common hurdles: procrastination, writer’s block, the terror of failure that looms over any creative project and, of course, the…

  • Poetry Can F*ck Off is coming to London and Brighton

    Heathcote Williams’ radical new work, Poetry Can F*ck Off is coming to The Cockpit Theatre, London on 29th, 30th, and 31st October 2015; and The Other Place Theatre, Brighton on 20th, and 21st November. “Poetry Can F*ck Off is a revolution in poetry. And it’s the revolution in poetry” -Jeremy Hardy   When Brainfruit artistic director and…

  • Pen as negotiator between creative brain and creative body – famous writers on the importance of handwriting

    There is something about handwriting that is thoroughly human. Few things exercise – and exorcise – the often stubborn collaboration between mind and body like that direct line between the tip of the pen and the tip of the neuron. Pens become the corporeal transmitter of creative flow for writers, just as the paintbrush is…

  • Billy the Echidna’s essential autumnal reading list

    Oh-ho, saviours of the written word! As we are tucked in tighter to the rigid sheets of autumn, harder to shift in the mornings and their embrace distant in the evenings, have faith in the script. We’ve given you some ace reads for when the living is easy, but how’s about the times when the…

  • Bath Spa University receives funding to develop creative writing in local schools

    Arts Council England is set to award Bath Spa University with £600,000 in funding to develop creative writing education in schools across the South West of England. The grant is from the Creative Writing in Schools fund, and will support a three-year project called The Creative Writing Education Hub. This project will be led by…

  • Creatives in profile: Interview with Asher Jay

    Our ‘Creatives in profile’ interview series offers creatives the opportunity to discuss their life and art at length. And it is an honour to introduce our latest detailed interview – with artist, writer, National Geographic Explorer and creative conservationist, Asher Jay.