Damien Walter

Hello, I am Damien Walter. I write stories and teach writing.

Some things I'm proudest of:

• I spent the first decade of my career running literacy and reading projects in one of the UKs poorest cities.
• I was a columnist for The Guardian writing about sci & fantasy books.
• I've had essays published by The Independent, WIRED, BBC, Oxford University Press, Buzzfeed, SFX and Aeon magazine.
• I've taught hundreds of community writing workshops and was director of the Certificate of Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.
• I've spent the last few years travelling in Buddhist countries and studying meditation.

WORK IN PROGRESS.

My new course is Writing Practice : 11 essential heuristics to power-up your writing.

Patrons of all levels get the entire course free as each new talk is published.


Two ideas that inspire me:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."  ~Goethe.

"First you jump off the cliff, then you build your wings."  ~Ray Bradbury.


My best ideas on Creativity & Writing :

Only A Creator Culture Can Save Us : a short manifesto on abandoning consumer culture for creator culture.
https://aeon.co/essays/consumer-culture-is-dead-lo...

Writing Practice : why it's time to stop thinking of writing as a profession.
https://damiengwalter.com/2014/03/23/writing-pract...

The Rhetoric of Story : my complete course on the 7 foundations of storytelling.
https://www.udemy.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/learn/...


My best writing on Scifi & Fantasy :

The shattered realities of William Gibson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=qt...

Frank Herbert's Dune at 50 has life in it yet.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/30/fran...

Transrealism: the first major literary movement of the 21st century.
https://medium.com/@damiengwalter/transrealism-the...

Iain M Banks’ The Player of Games (why learning to win at games can make you a loser)
https://medium.com/science-fiction/iain-m-banks-th...

The remarkable Neal Stephenson interview.
https://damiengwalter.com/2014/05/07/nealstephenso...


Exploration and Culture :

Digital nomads are a 21st century counterculture.
https://medium.com/@damiengwalter/slouching-toward...

How the Alt-Right invaded geek culture.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/how-the-alt-r...

Mindfulness Will Fuck You Up.
https://damiengwalter.com/2019/03/17/mindfulness-w...