We've linked to a number of articles and website offering advice for writers. Here's the best of them.

The Academy section on the BBC's website has a wealth of writing advice. It contains videos, podcasts, blogs and interviews. There's tips on writing sketches, radio comedy, radio drama, sitcom, news reports and much more.

Literary Agents Curtis Brown tell us their top ten novel writing tips on their blog. 'When you feel you’ve come up with a character who intrigues you, or a striking opening scenario or the vague shape of a story, interrogate your ideas with ‘what if’ questions. For instance: There’s a woman sitting alone in a restaurant looking sad – what if a man comes up to her and asks if he can join her at her table? – but what if she wants to be alone for a reason – what could that reason be?'

The Screenwriters Notebook is being complied by The Black List over on Medium. It has an enormous amount of links and recommendations of writing books, lectures, talks, articles, blog posts, podcasts and ebooks. It's a huge resouce, much of it free. It's being added to all the time, so worth checking back in with.

On YouTube Behind The Curtain offers short videos on writing TV series and movies. Taking writer interviews and playing them alongside clips from the films they outline how the shows were written. Here's How They Wrote The Sopranos. 

Friend of SAST Catherine Hokin offers some historical writing tips - "Start with a purpose and a plan. Your novel isn’t about the Wars of the Roses, or about the American Civil War. It’s a spotlight on an aspect, an event or a character inside those parameters, and that’s your starting focus. Start too wide and you’ll literally lose the plot." 

In 2014 Kazuo Ishiguro wrote this piece for The Guardian on how he came to write his Booker prize-winning novel The Remains of the Day. He wrote the bulk of it in a period he refers to as the 'Crash'. "During the Crash, I would do nothing but write from 9am to 10.30pm, Monday through Saturday. I’d get one hour off for lunch and two for dinner. I’d not see, let alone answer, any mail, and would not go near the phone." He also speaks of a couple of his less obvious influences from film and music.

The Literary Consultancy offer a range of low priced (£1-£3) publications on elements of writing.

In The Guardian we have Sarah Morgan telling us about her experience in writers' rooms. Inside the Friends writers room from Vulture is an entertaining look at what went on in writing one of the most popula TV series of all-time. 

Dummies.com has some neat little cheat sheets for writers who like a structural comfort blanket. 

The New York Times presents the Habits of Highly Effective Writers. Novelist Ruth Ware, “My desk faces a blank wall, which is deliberate, because I prefer to make sure the pictures in my head are more interesting than the view in front of me.”

Lots of good interviews on how writers write at Writers Routines.

Sheffield Theatres have put together an excellent resources page. Although mainly for people based in England there's several national initiatives there too.

There's lots of great resources in the Theatre Casting Toolkit. The toolkit is for anyone who wants to see a broader range of actors on our stages and in our rehearsal rooms. It features a mix of practical tools, inspiration, information and guidance. 

 

These were our favourite live shows that we saw in 2019

In January we saw Anthropocene, a slightly silly, but hugely enjoyable, new eco-horror opera by Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh, produced by Scottish Opera. Some audience members were so infuriated, bored or disgusted that they stormed out and there was an absolute silence between acts. It was fabulous. The sort of thing you read about in history books when art had more passion.

There's no more exciting performer of poetry over the years than John Cooper Clarke, and we went along to Glasgow's City Halls in March to see him. His support came from Mike Garry and Toria Garbutt. Both were accomplished exciting performers who really helped to make the evening. Toria in particular went over well with the audience. JCC himself was still sharp and witty rattling off one liners between poems old and new. 

We had a great night of spoken word at the Flying Duck In May with JB Barrington and Friends. Organised by Derek Steel of Razur Cuts this was a terrific line up of poets and writers, both local and from the north of England. First up was Dickson Telfer with some amusing stories of social media. Stephen Watt is a regular on the spoken word scene and it's easy to see why he appears on numerous bills with some entertaining poems and engaging between poem chat. David Ross read from his latest novel Welcome to the Heady Heights, while providing a few primers in between. The star of the show for me was Jim Higo. He paced the stage with boundless energy, interspersing his engaging poems with hilarious rants. SAST's own Chris McQueer was the penultimate act, delivering his usual easy-going style of storytelling. We were more excited though by getting to look after his dog Timmy while Chris was on stage. JB Barrington strolled his headline set saving his classic Sunglasses for last. 

We took the ferry over to Renfrew in June to see Trinity High School's end of term show The Greatest Showcase. The evening was a complete delight. The cast performed a range of songs and routines from musicals and displayed a wide range of talents. There were laugh out loud pieces, touching songs and real showstoppers. It was a really great night, and by all accounts got better through the week.

Also in June was Being Liza at the Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh. The story of a Liza Minnelli tribute act coming to reassess her life was written by and stars Rachel Flynn. Rachel was a knockout in the part, showing a real range to her acting talents, not least her terrific singing voice. James Keenan and Benjamin Storey were both excellent in support.

In July we went to see A Play, A Pie and A Pint's Summer panto, Dracula and we've had, 'it's Draaaculaaa, it's f**king Draaaculaaa', stuck in our head ever since. 

Honey by Tove Appelgren in August featured a tour de force performance from Sarah McCardie in the title role. Playing a single mother juggling four and a half kids, a domineering mother and a handful of ex-partners Sarah perfectly conjured up the chaotic life of the title character.

Also in August, we saw If You're Feeling Sinister by Eve Nicol, a bittersweet, almost love story, about a lost young woman, a lost older man and a Glasgow art heist, based around the songs of Belle and Sebastian. 

We were down in Kilmarnock in November for The Sound of Young Scotland where a triumvirate of SAST writers were on the bill. David F. Ross got the night going before handing over to Alistair Braidwood who interviewed Julie Rea, Stephen Watt and Chris McQueer. The night closed with music from Madeline Orr & Stuart Dudgeon. It was really a terrific night of stories and poems from acts that are easily among the best of Scotland's spoken word scene. If you ever get a chance to see any of them get along.

We also saw a touring of version of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, lifted into something special by a great performance from Saskia Vaigncourt-Strallen as Miss Caswell. 

For December's highlights - catch our January Newsletter on New Year's Day.