Faber Session 7 – POV

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Before I talk about class, lets get down to the important bit… cake 🙂

Today I divulged in Lemon, Rosemary & Olive Oil cake, but I was so busy enjoying it, I forgot to take a picture! Lol

So here’s a pic of my purchases in the book shop after cake 😉

So today’s class was about Point of View.

It made me realise how utterly unwell read I am (when Tim kept giving us examples and although I’d heard of most of the books, I hadn’t read them!). It made me realise that I don’t think about POV when I read a book. Jeez! I’m a bad reviewer and a bad critiquer 😦 I really need to work on that don’t I.

Anyway, POV….. Where does the authors voice end and the characters voice start? A good question, and one, I can’t really answer….can you?

We talked about 1st Person, 3rd Person, Omniscient, Free Indirect Style, and whether the first two should be singular or multiple. How, over the years, many authors have experimented, bent the rules and played with perspective. A really interesting session, I learnt a lot 🙂

Then we did a writing exercise which, hopefully, I’ll share with you later on this week 🙂

So, dear reader, what POV do you tend to write in and could you explain WHY? I admitted in class that the reason I write in 3rd Person is because all my 1st Person pieces sound like the same character lol 😉

My fellow class mates took home my submission this evening *gulps and bites finger nails* I’m going to be a nervous wreck next Monday! 😉

He Said, She Said: The Double Perspective and Its Perks (addictivestory.wordpress.com)
The Art of Narrative, Part One: Introduction and POV (evarieder.com)

The To Do List 19th to 25th November

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I’m exhausted! Lol…..what with Nano, Write In’s and Faber, it’s all beginning to take its toll….I’m constantly yawning! 😉

So how did I do last week?

1. Edit, the piece for Faber & hand in *gulp* Done! It will be handed out to my fellow students tonight!

2. Keep up with Nano word count – try to get ahead a bit more. Done! Not too bad. As of last night I’m at 40,019 so aiming for another 2000 today. Need to finish by Friday as I’ve got a heavy weekend coming up.

3. Finish current read – Don Delillo Done! gave it 2 stars.

4. Finish Richard Skinners book. Not done, will continue with it this week.

5. Print out and read Faber Guest Tutor stuff – FOR MONDAY! Done!

6. Clear inbox – which means catching up with all your blog posts from the weekend. Kind of done! Got it down to about 20, so if I owe you an e mail I WILL get to it over the next couple of days 🙂

So what’s on my list for this week?

1. Finish Nano by Friday (23rd)

2. upload words to Nano.

3. Print off Sorrento Sunrise and start padding lol.

4. Start new book….an eBook.

5. Continue reading Richard Skinners book.

6. Print off But Not Forgotten and READ IT!

That shouldn’t be too bad should it? 😉

So what are you up to this week?

Six Sentence Sunday 18th November

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Thank you for all your comments yesterday. It’s really interesting to hear how you all work 🙂

Today’s 6 sentences come from an exercise I did in my Faber class the week before last. The idea was to imagine you’re walking into a house and describe what you see…..

The hallway was a sensory overload. The muddy tones of the paisley carpet battled against the tiny delicate flowers that covered the walls. The ceiling and woodwork, painted white, a welcome reprieve to the eyes.

Turning into the dining room the carpet continued, but the walls were now a deep shade of red. A blood bath to dine by. The furniture, reproduction deep mahogany, a homage to Victorian style.

Who would live in a house like this?

Which Comes First? The Story or The Character?

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

A recent session at Faber, Kidnapping A Character, brought up a very interesting question.

Most writers have their own way of working. They either start with a story idea, then make up characters to fit it. Or they start with a character and then make up a story that fits.

Personally, I’ve done it both ways, and I can’t really say which one I prefer.

But I’ve never tried the method where you come up with 2 totally unrelated characters and write a scene where they meet. It was amazing to hear the interesting stories that had started to develop from 2 complete strangers having a chance meeting (during a 20 minute writing session). It’s definitely a technique I will be trying out again in the future.

courtesy of jscreations/freedigitalphotos

Like most things in writing there is no right or wrong way to do things, but out of curiosity which do you start with?

I’m a pantser. (smpauthors.wordpress.com)
Where to Get Story Ideas (shelleywidhalm.wordpress.com)
Facing your character(s)… (diedreblake.wordpress.com)
Know Your Character (thewearywriter.com)
Writing Character: Challenge of the Character Most Like Yourself – Part 1 (elissafield.wordpress.com)

The Red Violin

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I don’t often do film or book reviews, and this isn’t going to be one. But, I just wanted to get down on paper (so to speak) my thoughts about the storyline of this film.

The Red Violin is a prime example of “concept” and something that would definitely be of interest to a publisher. It’s the story line that I’m searching for….the story I would love to write myself. Inspired by true events, with those events twisted, slightly, to make for a more macabre tale.

Don McKellar & Francoise Girard (the writers) took their inspiration for the story from an Antonio Stradivari violin, the Red Mendelssohn (1721), which is currently owned and played by Elizabeth Pitcairn. Her grandfather bought it for her 16th birthday for $1.7 million at auction from Christie’s London. It’s called “The Red Mendelssohn” because of a unique red stripe on its top right side, but how the stripe came about is still unknown.

Now picture the scene….. McKellar & Girard, having coffee one day, the sale of the Mendelssohn on the front cover of the newspaper (bear with me, I’m surmising lol). One says to the other…. “What if that stripe is blood?…..what if the whole violin was painted with the blood of the makers wife who died in childbirth?” And viola! A story is born.

Damn! Why can’t I come up with something like that? Why do I always come up with the boring mediocre stories that just don’t excite? It’s not fair! *stamps foot and pouts* (just kidding).

I guess I’ve just got to keep reading newspapers and asking “what if?” All the time…. Maybe one day eh?

Tell me…..is there a particular story you’ve stumbled across recently that you wish you’d thought of?

A Prompt A Day…..

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

A couple of months back I had the chance to see Ros Barber talk about her new book, The Marlowe Papers and hear her read some of her poetry. Wow! :o)

Ros runs a website with fellow writer Kate Marillat called Be The Writer You Dream Of Being and together they run writing courses and do talks. I can highly recommend it 🙂

So when Kate requested that readers submit articles, I jumped at the chance (you know me, I do like to waffle on about writing stuff lol).

Head on over to Ros & Kate’s website to read my article, A Prompt A Day Keeps Writers Block Away where I talk about my experience of using writing prompts.

Please leave a comment. Oh, and let me know what you thought of the article? 🙂

It’s Donation Day!

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Today is Nanowrimo Donation Day 🙂

Not sure what that means?

Ok, well, if you’re taking part in Nano, and changing your word count on your profile, visiting the forums, chatting to your fellow buddies, and going to Write Ins, then really, you should be donating 🙂

Look at that pretty little halo that looks beautiful on your Nano profile picture 🙂

Ok, I’m not going to bang on about it, bully you or withhold my blog posts until I see the stats on the Nano homepage go up. But what I will say is this…..Nano is free! You get all that support, sense of community, word counter and winners certificate for nowt, nada, nuffin! I think it’s sad to see that as of yesterday only 5.254% of people taking part have donated. I know times are tough, I really do….but, a quid, a dollar, a euro? Someone gave me 70p the other day and I thanked her….because every single penny helps 🙂

Visit the Nano site today as they’ll be running special deals and offering prizes all day long. So if you were thinking about donating, today would be a good day to do it. Failing that, you can give me or Elizabeth 50p to put in our tin (the Kent Wrimo’s amongst you).

Ok, lecture over people….but it is something I feel very strongly about. After all….we’d all moan next year if the site wasn’t there anymore wouldn’t we? 😉

so how are my fellow Wrimo’s getting on? Tell me your word counts….. Mine is 26,875 (but I haven’t had today’s writing session yet).

Faber Session 6 Guest Tutor Susie Steiner

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

I love Monday’s, seriously. People say about Monday Morning Blues, but nope, Mondays are my best day if the week. Not only do I get to go to Faber (please note: I won’t be saying that when It’s my turn to have my work critiqued lol) but I get CAKE! Yep, Mondays are cake day, so this week I had pistachio & rose to go with my latte and book 🙂

Ok, now we’ve got that out of the way, back to my lesson…..

Susie Steiner has been a journalist for The Guardian and is just about to publish her first book, which, she says has taken her 10 years (on and off) to write. But it wasn’t until she gave up journalism that she found the time to do it properly. The main subject of her talk was about research.

So how much research should you actually do for your novel? And when should you do it?

A few things i picked out were:

Remember you’re not writing a manual.

If you set a novel in a real place you have to get it right. If you fictionalise a place you can do what you want.

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

Don’t get hung up on research, your imagination plays a large part.

Bend the truth if your story needs it.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction needs to be believable, it needs to make sense. Sometimes real facts don’t.

As regards to when you should do research. Doing the research first can inspire and get your imagination up and running, but, doing it at the end can mean that you can just slot pieces in and be more focused on exactly which areas of your novel need the most work.

So what do you think? When do you do your research?

The To Do List 12th to 18th November

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

What a fabulous end to the week, a writing retreat! I can’t really say much more lol. Great place, great food, great people…..I can’t wait to go back! 🙂

So how did I get on with last weeks list?

1. Faber homework (inc reading fellow students work). I haven’t had chance to read the handouts, and as I’m going today I think I better lol

2. Keep up with daily Nano word count. Done! And I’m actually ahead 😉

3. Catch up with prompts…..3 days behind *groan* Done, but on,y because I’m using them for Nano, don’t ask, see previous moaning lol

4. Write article for Faber *EXCITING* Done, and they liked it! 🙂

5. Print out and read But Not Forgotten extract (Faber sub) and take to West Dean for editing/fiddling.Done!

So now, for this weeks lists…..ooooo, it’s a busy one!

1. Edit, the piece for Faber & hand in *gulp*

2. Keep up with Nano word count – try to get ahead a bit more.

3. Finish current read – Don Delillo

4. Finish Richard Skinners book.

5. Print out and read Faber Guest Tutor stuff – FOR MONDAY!

6. Clear inbox – which means catching up with all your blog posts from the weekend. I’m so sorry I’m so behind 😦

I think that’s it 😉

What are your writing plans for the week?

Writing Retreat Day 3 – Going Home

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Our 3rd and final day came and went all too quickly! My word count total now stands at 22,647 which is kind of disappointing, because I’d hoped to reach the 25,000, but, I’m still ahead on what I should be for the 11th of the month.

We gave out some prizes this morning, for word counts and by the time we had left, collectively, as a group, we had written just under 100,000 words! One of us hit the 50,000 at 10 to 11 last night. Amazing! Congratulations go to Richard for being the first “winner” in our region 🙂

A huge thank you to Elizabeth for setting it all up, to Trevor the smoking night security guy for keeping me company outside in the darkness, and to West Dean College for having us. A beautiful location for a writing retreat and OMFG!!!!! Dali’s Lobster Telephone!!!! Who knew that was there 🙂

Sunrise this morning.

The entrance hall.

Small staircase.

I will now spend the evening unpacking and sorting out next weeks to do list. I did manage to spend yesterday afternoon editing my Faber piece that I’ll be submitting, so I guess I’ll be working on that tomorrow, plus trying to keep up with the Nano word count….wish me luck! 😉