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4/2/2013 11:32:45 PM
Tuesday 2 April 2013
Friday 21 November 2008
"Who we are and what we do, the choices we make, the places, we visit all our informs our writing - giving it depth, tone and more importantly believability"
The above was how I started my notebook entry this morning, a difficult week having flown by - more difficult that normal even by my standards! so I decided to take five minutes and actually write something for me, from me and to me, before I was swallowed up by the events of the day.
I sat back and reflected on the above, admiring my neat copperplate writing, the picture it made on the page of my notebook, contrasting against the cream of the paper - shapes and shades of ink from the previous page tantalisingly showing through - and then realised just how pompous and downright factually wrong the statement is. The sentence comprises assertions emanating from the controlling element of my personality and doesn't actually take into account the things I have no power over - such as weather, external incidents, health and temper of those around me, economics of the working world - the list is endless.
So my task for the day - which I extend to you - is take the above assertion as your starter and "pad" out some free writing with it. By pad out, I mean write a paragraph and then leave a large space, move on and write your next paragraph, leave a large space etc... so you are creating thinking room in your writing.
Then after having written about your world (or ranted as my kids would have said) - go back into the writing, with a differing coloured pen perhaps, and then fill in the gaps writing/contrasting about all the things which were imposed on you (or your character) externally - over which they had no choice...
So for me, this week would have been about clearing my backlog of work, getting some knitting projects done, clearing up my office at home, sorting out some complex responses to an ongoing legal case, writing my blog, finishing off and printing out some coursework, sorting out my CPD points. A very busy week by anybody's standards, but those were the things I chose to do (well sort of... !!!)
In amongst it though, I was diagnosed with some serious health problems which came as a shock, someone I am very closed to became very distressed about his world - which impacted into destroying all the work I had done on clearing up my home recently - I found I was massively overweight and had to (whether I liked it or not) start attending a gym and diet classes, which I simply don't have time for and my work is out of my control....
and I forgot about all the outstanding stuff I still have to do....
Do you see where I am going with this? I am sure most of you can relate to the above in some form or another, or find an equally chaotic narrative to write about... then fictionalise it - expand it into a character - have your character solve the problem, win the day, or just sit down and cry, admitting defeat and self-loathing - your story... your puppets to move about your stage...
But everyone who reads your story will find some point in it where it is relevant to themselves - so my tale, as outlined above - for all its conception from inside and personalisation to me, will have believability....
Best wishes
Shani
The above was how I started my notebook entry this morning, a difficult week having flown by - more difficult that normal even by my standards! so I decided to take five minutes and actually write something for me, from me and to me, before I was swallowed up by the events of the day.
I sat back and reflected on the above, admiring my neat copperplate writing, the picture it made on the page of my notebook, contrasting against the cream of the paper - shapes and shades of ink from the previous page tantalisingly showing through - and then realised just how pompous and downright factually wrong the statement is. The sentence comprises assertions emanating from the controlling element of my personality and doesn't actually take into account the things I have no power over - such as weather, external incidents, health and temper of those around me, economics of the working world - the list is endless.
So my task for the day - which I extend to you - is take the above assertion as your starter and "pad" out some free writing with it. By pad out, I mean write a paragraph and then leave a large space, move on and write your next paragraph, leave a large space etc... so you are creating thinking room in your writing.
Then after having written about your world (or ranted as my kids would have said) - go back into the writing, with a differing coloured pen perhaps, and then fill in the gaps writing/contrasting about all the things which were imposed on you (or your character) externally - over which they had no choice...
So for me, this week would have been about clearing my backlog of work, getting some knitting projects done, clearing up my office at home, sorting out some complex responses to an ongoing legal case, writing my blog, finishing off and printing out some coursework, sorting out my CPD points. A very busy week by anybody's standards, but those were the things I chose to do (well sort of... !!!)
In amongst it though, I was diagnosed with some serious health problems which came as a shock, someone I am very closed to became very distressed about his world - which impacted into destroying all the work I had done on clearing up my home recently - I found I was massively overweight and had to (whether I liked it or not) start attending a gym and diet classes, which I simply don't have time for and my work is out of my control....
and I forgot about all the outstanding stuff I still have to do....
Do you see where I am going with this? I am sure most of you can relate to the above in some form or another, or find an equally chaotic narrative to write about... then fictionalise it - expand it into a character - have your character solve the problem, win the day, or just sit down and cry, admitting defeat and self-loathing - your story... your puppets to move about your stage...
But everyone who reads your story will find some point in it where it is relevant to themselves - so my tale, as outlined above - for all its conception from inside and personalisation to me, will have believability....
Best wishes
Shani
Saturday 8 November 2008
Starting Somewhere
Monday Night's Great Western Writer's meeting is going to be on the theme of Starting Somewhere. I am not trying to plot spoil here, just giving an opportunity for anyone who reads this before Monday to give some thought to Starting Somewhere.
I have spent a lot of time over the last week writing up all kinds of technical and professional development papers. These have been very rewarding, surprisingly enough. I can see evidence before my very eyes in how I have grown in knowledge and understanding - not only of myself but my fields of expertise over the past three years.
So I would commend to you to spend a few moments on a regular basis making a note to yourself of things you have learned, encountered, or situations approached which have stretched your abilities.
You have to start somewhere - so start from today - What have you learned or written about this week?
Please feel free to comment and share with us your writer's journey.
Friday 31 October 2008
Writing Tip for Today
A favourite trick of mine, I thought I would share....
Writer's Block?
Have a look at the first line of the three novels closest to you.....
Consider - What do they have in common - or not?
Now write your first line - in the style of all or none.....
Consider - why had the author chosen the original opening line? if you know the novel well - what were they trying to achieve - do you think? Your opinion here, no right or wrong answer...
Now refer back to your first line - would this work for your line?
Still stuck? well you shouldn't be - you have just written something !! so make it bigger...expand.....
write a series of lines if that helps....until something strikes you as gold....
If all else fails, pick up your novels again and read... writing can wait until another day. One thing I have learned is that you can't force inspiration.
hugs
Shani
Writer's Block?
Have a look at the first line of the three novels closest to you.....
Consider - What do they have in common - or not?
Now write your first line - in the style of all or none.....
Consider - why had the author chosen the original opening line? if you know the novel well - what were they trying to achieve - do you think? Your opinion here, no right or wrong answer...
Now refer back to your first line - would this work for your line?
Still stuck? well you shouldn't be - you have just written something !! so make it bigger...expand.....
write a series of lines if that helps....until something strikes you as gold....
If all else fails, pick up your novels again and read... writing can wait until another day. One thing I have learned is that you can't force inspiration.
hugs
Shani
Sunday 26 October 2008
Why I.....
For my "other job" I tutor aspiring writers to achieve their goals and dreams. This started off by accident a few years ago - as almost everything does in my world.
Strange that, I never seem to end up at the destination I set off for, even in a car. Something more interesting always seems to grab my attention and I am off...much to the irritation of people around me, and concern I suspect of people who rely on my constancy such as employers etc.
Recently a few people have asked how I ended up doing this, so I will give you a brief resume...
I started off writing short stories for magazines when I was quite young, after winning a series of competitions for young authors in the local newspaper.
The back story was that I didn't spend much time at school because of an ill mother and I had to find someway to fill the isolation - so chatting to myself on paper and writing letters became a very positive way to fill the days and deal with my grief.
The short-story work led to authoring books for years - usually in someone else's name and writing "voice" and this become quite a vital part of our income and existence when I had two small children - with or without a father depending on how my first husband felt at the time.
I have never been a person who is comfortable with centre stage, I love being the person in the background doing the "tweaking" and producing the effects, far more satisfying and long lasting. Undertaking this work allowed me to practice my art without necessarily being associated with it - useful when you don't quite know how you want to really express yourself, but don't want to be pigeon-holed.
After my marriage broke up I met up with someone who had been first of all a mentor and then a lover, who was an actor by trade. Whilst spending time waiting for him on sets, I was approached to do some filling-in writing - the words were bought by the 100s (so that is why if you ever get a letter from me you will need a ream to print it off.)
This bled into TV work in my own right, and then whilst spinning on a set one day (you have to do something to fill in the hours of waiting for the magic to be constructed! otherwise you would go mad) I was asked by a producer if I was interested in helping on a craft series they were producing. Craft was very "in"
I did and ended up working on some very interesting projects, which led me into many other areas of art, and when my children started struggling in school with basic literacy - I became involved in identifying and creating a phonics project - which I took off elsewhere and sold as a concept.
Having now lost my way totally - I was even being hired to be the "argument" in talk shows at this point - I needed to regroup and think about what I actually wanted to do - which was 9-5 and working in Law for a few years (no seriously - I REALLY did want to, that might have changed now though....!)
I couldn't give up the writing, even though I didn't have time for the craft any more and managed to carry on finding various niches for my work to find a home in - magazines again, articles, essays and complaining letters over the last year or so !!
Then about three years ago, I heard about a project for well-formed writers and went along hoping to be supported and be inspired into other genres. Well I wasn't supported, but I was inspired and not quite in the way the organisation intended I suspect.
I couldn't quite believe the cynicism I was confronted with, and blatant harvesting of ideas - some now turning up on TV without the creator's name being attached, so my suspicions were not unfounded...unfortunately.
So with a nasty taste in my mouth I sat down, analysed and identified what I would want to inspire and help me create, testing this on others, and this, along with feedback has since has grown into a series of workshops and tutorials - so much so that I really have to fight to find time to write for myself nowadays - the point of the whole exercise.
So that is why I write and why my craft is so important to why I write.
They both are equally important to my identity.
Writing Prompts and Thoughts
I have really been quite inspired this week (in between fighting off people who have mistaken me for a nice person who would like to do their job for them - you know the kind I mean !! ) by various elements of popular culture.
First of all, Ian Fleming and his notebooks - leifmotif moment here again...warning...warning...
I accidentally switched on a replay of a documentary which ran on the BBC this week and there were NOTEBOOKS - loads of them, scratchy little red ones with only lines and snatches of conversation... my hero after all.... Quantum of Solace was one of those little scribbles and - hey presto - there is a film !!. I am sure more came in between but it doesn't give rise to the money shot of Joanna Lumley diving scantily clad into an azure rockpool - the whole image is a little lost on me, I am more fascinated by how she keeps her eye makeup on.
I look like a panda after having a few sly tears, how on earth does she do that....?
Anyway, I degress....
the second is a book I am reading - well have now finished.
"Divas Don't Knit" by Gil McNeil.
Now this book I quite happily accept isn't going to make a nobel prize winner or any other one - except perhaps in the woman's ASDA section. BUT it is a thoroughly enjoyable, predictable romp through the world of a person I can associate with. She is a young woman, who used to be valued in the workplace, had children and knits... a very dumbed down version of the plot, but the best I can do - whilst being shouted at on a Sunday Morning to come down stairs and do something else...
This got me thinking - what was it about the book that I enjoyed so much?
I could associate with this person's world and empathise with her journey. The narrative was easy and contemporary and it had associations with things I know about - encounters with Alpha Mums, being "volunteered" for things and knitting being only the three I can confess too !!
So all in all, this was a book that I would be quite happy to have written - so that is obviously the genre I am secretly aspiring to in my reinvented version of an author....
Thought moment - what books are on your bookshelf? WHY are you drawn to them? could this be your target audience really - rather than re-writing Tolstoy? There is little snob value in achievement...
or if you can't face binning your synopsis - which is in fact the same size as a paperback novel - outlining your plans for a saga covering 20 books - perhaps you could just take a break for a month (oh during NaNoWrimo - how convenient ) and try writing something totally different - based on your bedtime bookshelf - just to humour me if you can't find any other justification?
Just a thought....
Thirdly - well I have taken to knitting in a big way - procrastination, colour, creativity all in one package and as far away from computers as possible..... so whilst knitting I was watching Desperate Housewives - Series 1 - Episode 5 through to 11 to be precise.
In my defence, before you all email with concerns for my sanity - I was having a really bad day yesterday and decided I just wanted to sit and achieve something - anything - and this was the only way I could do it and be left alone.. apparently I have the "face" when I am knitting - and it is the kind which deters all others from finding me another "job"....
Back to Desperate Knitters - oohps - Housewives...
Yes it is fairly, well words fail me ---- still fail me. I don't get the plot and don't recognise half the characters and as for the fingernails... but they do have some really good lines which weave through the dodgy camera shots and the woman with the jammy looking mouth...
So my prompt today... anashamedly paraphrased and re-written for you here...
"As a mother she spent her mornings preparing her husband and her family for their day, during the evening, she was supportive, loyal and an einstein with the homework - but to know the person you had to know what she did with her afternoons......."
So what did she do with the afternoons...?
Or what did he find her doing with her afternoons?
Twist and turn this little gem.... I have written three seperate plot lines - over three paragraphs on three pages - all completely different starting with the above - now you have a try....
Just a quick update on the travelling notebooks - I WILL get this started this week.... inspiration sort of got in the way......
hugs everyone - please post comments and thoughts... and any tips that you have found recently to get your pen moving....
Shani
First of all, Ian Fleming and his notebooks - leifmotif moment here again...warning...warning...
I accidentally switched on a replay of a documentary which ran on the BBC this week and there were NOTEBOOKS - loads of them, scratchy little red ones with only lines and snatches of conversation... my hero after all.... Quantum of Solace was one of those little scribbles and - hey presto - there is a film !!. I am sure more came in between but it doesn't give rise to the money shot of Joanna Lumley diving scantily clad into an azure rockpool - the whole image is a little lost on me, I am more fascinated by how she keeps her eye makeup on.
I look like a panda after having a few sly tears, how on earth does she do that....?
Anyway, I degress....
the second is a book I am reading - well have now finished.
"Divas Don't Knit" by Gil McNeil.
Now this book I quite happily accept isn't going to make a nobel prize winner or any other one - except perhaps in the woman's ASDA section. BUT it is a thoroughly enjoyable, predictable romp through the world of a person I can associate with. She is a young woman, who used to be valued in the workplace, had children and knits... a very dumbed down version of the plot, but the best I can do - whilst being shouted at on a Sunday Morning to come down stairs and do something else...
This got me thinking - what was it about the book that I enjoyed so much?
I could associate with this person's world and empathise with her journey. The narrative was easy and contemporary and it had associations with things I know about - encounters with Alpha Mums, being "volunteered" for things and knitting being only the three I can confess too !!
So all in all, this was a book that I would be quite happy to have written - so that is obviously the genre I am secretly aspiring to in my reinvented version of an author....
Thought moment - what books are on your bookshelf? WHY are you drawn to them? could this be your target audience really - rather than re-writing Tolstoy? There is little snob value in achievement...
or if you can't face binning your synopsis - which is in fact the same size as a paperback novel - outlining your plans for a saga covering 20 books - perhaps you could just take a break for a month (oh during NaNoWrimo - how convenient ) and try writing something totally different - based on your bedtime bookshelf - just to humour me if you can't find any other justification?
Just a thought....
Thirdly - well I have taken to knitting in a big way - procrastination, colour, creativity all in one package and as far away from computers as possible..... so whilst knitting I was watching Desperate Housewives - Series 1 - Episode 5 through to 11 to be precise.
In my defence, before you all email with concerns for my sanity - I was having a really bad day yesterday and decided I just wanted to sit and achieve something - anything - and this was the only way I could do it and be left alone.. apparently I have the "face" when I am knitting - and it is the kind which deters all others from finding me another "job"....
Back to Desperate Knitters - oohps - Housewives...
Yes it is fairly, well words fail me ---- still fail me. I don't get the plot and don't recognise half the characters and as for the fingernails... but they do have some really good lines which weave through the dodgy camera shots and the woman with the jammy looking mouth...
So my prompt today... anashamedly paraphrased and re-written for you here...
"As a mother she spent her mornings preparing her husband and her family for their day, during the evening, she was supportive, loyal and an einstein with the homework - but to know the person you had to know what she did with her afternoons......."
So what did she do with the afternoons...?
Or what did he find her doing with her afternoons?
Twist and turn this little gem.... I have written three seperate plot lines - over three paragraphs on three pages - all completely different starting with the above - now you have a try....
Just a quick update on the travelling notebooks - I WILL get this started this week.... inspiration sort of got in the way......
hugs everyone - please post comments and thoughts... and any tips that you have found recently to get your pen moving....
Shani
Thursday 23 October 2008
Writing Prompt
An epidemic is something which spreads without empirical proof supporting the reasons why - or at least the geezer on breakfast TV proclaimed it as such yesterday.
This got me thinking, an epidemic is usually a label attached to something unpleasant or dangerous, such as flu or msra, etc.
What if it was attached to something nice such as - love or payrises...
So I starting writing about that - and whot I wrote really made me laugh, so I suppose it served its purpose and spread a little happiness and exercised my chuckle muscles...
So I pass the idea on to you and would love to hear your thoughts...
Brainstorm the idea and go forth in a flight of fancy
This got me thinking, an epidemic is usually a label attached to something unpleasant or dangerous, such as flu or msra, etc.
What if it was attached to something nice such as - love or payrises...
So I starting writing about that - and whot I wrote really made me laugh, so I suppose it served its purpose and spread a little happiness and exercised my chuckle muscles...
So I pass the idea on to you and would love to hear your thoughts...
Brainstorm the idea and go forth in a flight of fancy
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