Tag Archives: Creative writing

Finding A Persona

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The last 2 exercises on my course have brought up a very interesting point…….

If I’m brutally honest with myself, when I write from a 1st person POV the persona of the narrator, doesn’t change much lol….. That’s ok if you take each individual short story separately……but, if you look at a couple together, compare them, it could quite possibly be the same person telling both stories 😦 Hmmmmm….. I really need to sort that out don’t I *slump* lol

So I managed to get 2 exercises done (YAY) and get them up on my other blog which I’m going to use as my Learning Log for the OCA.

Also managed to finish my short story (1800words) called ‘What Lies Beneath’ although hubby seems to think there was a film called that so I might need to change the title. It’s going to be submitted in a competition, after some extensive editing. Pleased with it though 🙂

Talking of my course, I’ve discovered, that, to achieve the degree, my next module will be a whole 9 months of poetry study/writing *huge groan*…..I can’t do it, I really can’t 😦 So at the moment, I’m looking round for alternative Creative Writing Courses…… Not found another degree one which is a bummer, but I quite like the sound of the one run by The London School of Journalism but there’s no actual qualification…..and then of course there’s Faber & Faber’s The Faber Academy which is outrageously expensive. No qualification with that one either, but looks good on the old CV don’t you think? Lol.

Then again, I could just go back to the good old OU….but I wouldn’t be able to start their diploma course until September 2012 *pouts*…..if they’ll have me back that is…..looooong story lol

Anyway, I’m not going to worry about it too much over Christmas….think about it again seriously in the New Year 🙂

Picture Prompts

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The assignment has been submitted YAY lol. So I’ll give myself a couple of days break and then I’ll start on the next section 🙂

Yesterday I wrote a few short stories. I love using pictures to inspire ideas and I have a separate notebook for writing stories and doing characterisations that are inspired by pictures. I try to stick to just 2 pages for each picture, to make it short and just an outline. I use photos that I have taken myself along with any interesting shots I’ve come across in magazines and newspapers.

The one I especially enjoyed writing yesterday (which was inspired by a woman in dark glasses shaking hands with a guy in a straw hat in a shop) is about a woman who’s husband is a well known, charismatic and successful author. The guy she’s meeting, or rather, bumping into, is her husbands ex agent. She lets slip to the ex agent about the book launch next week. The ex agent is put out that he hasn’t been invited so she pretends his invite must have go lost, and says she’ll post another one. She knows her husband will be furious for inviting him and on the verge of a panic attack she makes her way to the toilets. She removes her glasses and splashes her face with cold water. In the mirror she gently prods her black eye, hoping that it will have gone down in time for the book launch, and praying, that she won’t get another one.

I enjoy writing stories like that 🙂 A friend said to me recently “don’t you ever write anything happy?” lol…..I can do happy, but happy is boring, happy is chick lit or Mills & Boon….and anyway, the story above could be happy…… She could leave him and then we could discover that it’s been her all along writing the books 😉

The Writers Notebook

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When I attended the first lesson of a local Creative Writing Class (run by Philip Kane) he told us to create a Writers Notebook. Looking back, it was the best piece of advice I’ve had over the course of the last 15 months. Since then I have managed to fill 8 notepads…..the medium Moleskin size.

When I started the OCA course, they advised the same, but also suggested I have a “commonplace” book. A book to contain all the visual material that catches your eye. Hmmmm, now call me a rebel, but I decided to ignore that and just use the one book for everything, which is what I do 🙂

My notebook and I are inseparable 😉 It’s the equivalent of an artists sketchbook, a place to store ideas, observations, practice skills, jot down information, review books and films, and keep cuttings that interest me. I also have a folder for larger cuttings that won’t fit in the book. I use it to make notes on my course, words and ideas that I need to research, examples of writing that I love (inc poetry and inspirational quotes) and writing prompts should writers block ever strike, which, I have to say, it never has lol…..sorry, but it hasn’t, and I put that down to my notebooks. Not a day goes by that I don’t write something in it 🙂

As I said before, I’m a visual person as well as a word person, so I was thrilled when I read Lesley Thomson’s A Kind Of Vanishing, to see that in the back of the book was a whole section where Lesley explained her inspiration and the connection between her writing and her photography. I take a lot of pictures and it suddenly dawned on me that I could use my own pictures to inspire stories and characters. So now, I do that too 🙂

I use art to inspire title ideas and have at least 2 lists of character names in each notepad. Even when I’m watching TV I’m taking notes….. The Jeremy Kyle Show has suddenly become very interesting 😉