Literary fiction | The View Outside

Firstly, I must apologise for being so behind in replying to your comments. I’ve got a couple of free hours on Tuesday so will catch up then.

I was up early, as ever this morning, so I sat on a bench with my cup of tea and did some writing 🙂

My first session this morning was with James Moran (can you tell I’ve got the iPad working now lol) and was a session on Screenwriting. So many people have said to me I should consider writing scripts, but I’m scared shitless! 😉 James makes it sound so easy. His class was very informative, and he’s a man after my own heart, believing that, when you’re writing don’t look back over what you’ve written, get to the end before you start editing!

After a short break for tea it was off to a class in Literary Fiction with Alexa Radcliffe-Hart where we did a fantastic exercise that stemmed from a prompt we were given. I ended up creating a character who was paralysed in a hospital.

Lunch (roast beef of course!) and then more Screenwriting followed by a workshop with the lovely Marion Hough entitled Promoting Your Work. Ok, so I’m not published, but I still found it interesting! I didn’t realise Waterstones (here in the UK) will take your self published books but take 40% of the sale price as a fee. Worth it or not I wonder?

A FaceBook party on the lawn was the highlight of the day…putting faces to names was wonderful 🙂

Fish and chips for dinner and then a talk by Syd Moore who was absolutely fascinating as she explained her inspiration for her books and gave us background info on her research. I love the idea of taking a real life event and fictionalising it.

Right, I’m off to the Buskers night in a sec….it goes on until 12.30, but I’m not too sure I’ll make it to the end 😉

Swanwick Day 5 – #Swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)
Swanwick Day 2 – #swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)
Swanwick Day 6 – #Swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)
Swanwick Day 3 – #swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)
Swanwick Day 4 – #swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)
Swanwick Day 1 #swanwick65 (the-view-outside.com)

I’ve never thought of myself as a thriller writer. It’s not really a genre I like to read…… Having said that, there seems to be a distinction between Crime and Thriller according to The Guardian. So why don’t the bookshop’s follow that rule? If you go into Waterstone’s all crime and thriller titles are in the same section, on their website, it’s even worse, there’s only a crime section…..pout 😦

I tend to write about people’s lives, how a persons life can change in the blink of an eyelid. I never really thought about what genre my writing would fit into, and nowadays it seems that you have to fit into a category. Soooo, ok, there is an element of suspense/mystery in what I like to write, but crime? Really? I don’t think so lol. I always thought that crime was about case solving, a detective (or at least Police) chasing a baddy…..Serial killers and murderers.

Linda Gillard brought my attention to this Guardian Article which is quite scary, and means that from my point of view, if I ever hope to get published I have to make sure that I somehow fit neatly inside a publishers box if I have any hope of getting published….. How sad is that? 😦 Do i write Popular Fiction? Literary Fiction? Contemporary Fiction?….*brain throbs*

As to style? What is my style? I like Fay Weldon, but I don’t write like her. I love Anita Shreve, but my writing is no way anything like hers either lol. The last 2 books I have read (inc my current read) have been by gay male authors (lots of sex scenes) and I definitely don’t find myself being influenced by that lol. So what am I influenced by? Strong female characters overcoming adversity? (is that chick lit? Lol) Character driven plots? The good and the bad in all of us?

Perhaps I need to decide whether I’m writing for myself (where style & genre is irrelevant) or a wider audience (where genre is everything) before I make a decision as to what direction I want to go in…..or I could always just throw in the towel and start writing Sci Fi 😉