Longhand on onto the keyboard?

It's a modern world. This week someone much much younger than me asked me what a phone book was....and someone else, equally young asked what longhand was....

How many of you write in longhand and then type it up?

I have been typing my work for years now. I ditched longhand thinking it was slower. This week I've had a go at writing in longhand (the computer was being repaired) and writing in the morning the minute I woke up.

I've written more and I've written about things that don't usually occur to me. While I don't look forward to writing it up on the computer I'm impressed with the exercise.

If you write into the computer as a rule, try writing a story about a busy market in longhand. 

If you write longhand see how you go on doing the above exercise onto the computer.

Any differences?

Any new preferences?

Get in touch and let me know. 

Art as a starting point.

Recently I've looked at how art can inspire writing. One exercise involved looking at a painting by Alan Davie, and imagining it (copy or original) has appeared in your workplace when you return after a holiday.

Have a look at Alan Davie  www.alandavie and look at his work and influences. 

Imagine one of those paintings in your workplace.

What would it signify?

How would you feel about it?

Write a piece of flash fiction - say a 500 word story - about the significance of one of these amazing paintings being at your place of work. If you don't have a workplace think of a community setting or civic building or make somewhere up.

It can be dark, funny or intriguing.

Lavender's Blue.

Bobby Shaftoe, the old woman who lived in a shoe, Humpty Dumpty. They are all nursery rhyme characters that are so much part of many childhoods that they cease to have meaning. In the spirit of recycling, modernise these or other nursery characters. Put them in your town or city, in modern times, give them the modern equivalent of the roles they had in fairy tales. Bring their concerns up to date and set them off in a story and see where they go.

Popular and Literary Fiction - what's the difference?

I'm running a workshop next month on writing popular stories for women's magazines. There are distinct expectations from magazine editors for their stories. There are distinct expectations from all kinds of editors - for the various publications that exist on line and on paper.

Identify some of those differences. Look at anthologies of short stories and consider what the people who compiled them were aiming for.

Write a short story for a publication that is outside your comfort zone. You might be surprised by how liberating it is.

If you were designing a poster for a workshop for a particular style of short story, how would it look?

Words of wisdom as the first line of a story.

Inspiring advice often comes in the form of a saying or catch phrase. A colleague of mine always said 'always read what it says on the label'. By this she meant always follow instructions and guidance where it exists.

Think of a line of wisdom from a school teacher or parent or someone close to you. 

Write it down as though it were the first line of a new story.

 Now write whatever comes to mind.

BBC Initiatives

Once again a series of interesting initiatives available, mainly to new writers. Go to bbcwritersroom for information on opportunities.
 

Rosie Garland

Palace of Curiosities is Rosie Garland's debut novel. Without divulging too much of the plot, the events she writes about take place in and around a Victorian show of physically unusual people.  

The characters she has created are outsiders, different. They drive the story forward in unexpected ways and yet symbolise all people who find themselves on the margins of society.

Rosie Garland herself is an interesting person - a performer and poet and now novelist - have a look at her website  rosiegarland.com


How do writers create interesting characters? 
What constitutes an interesting character?

To start with they need purpose and motivation. A writer must decide what a character wants, and set them on the path of finding those desires - giving them flaws and situations that reveal how they behave when challenged, who they are, what they will and won't to to get what they want.

Think of memorable characters in books - Captain Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick - Miss Haversham in Dickens' Great Expectations. Both of them have strong reasons  for being as they are and behaving as they do.

It isn't enough to have a character. A plot and story and other characters are needed to make a piece of writing work. However, look through a piece of writing that you have completed but would like to improve. Could the characters be stronger?

Create a character based on someone you know. Give them a couple of dark characteristics that  aren't immediately apparent or that they usually manage to hide. See if the character you create inspires a story.