Ghost Stories

Have just started to read an anthology of ghost stories and am looking forward to being a little bit terrified by them. The collection has been compiled by Everyman in their Pocket Classic series and the writers included are on the whole from the early and mid 20th century.

I won't be able to leave it at that. I'll then have to gather ghost stories from modern writers and then look into the psychology of enjoying fear at a distance via stories and films. There's no doubt that I'll ruffle through the pages of Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots - Why We Tell Stories for his take on the pleasure and purpose of creepy stories. Then I'll be compelled to write my own ghost story.

Recently I did begin a story about a haunting and set it in a very modern urban environment but it ran out of steam as I wrestled with the source of the ghostliness. Imagined or actual? Ahhh, the pleasures of writing. Who could possibly succumb to the pleasures of chocolate biscuits or the lure of crime with so much to do?

Have you seen a ghost or something unsettling that can't be easily explained?

Seeing the Familiar For the First Time

Look at this gorgeous photo. I look at it every day as it's in my bedroom. When I bought it from a junk shop in Dorset I used to wonder about the woman whose picture has been taken. What's her name? She has long straight limbs and dark hair that must sit at her waist when she stands. What colour is her dress and what is it made of? Is it a dress or a piece of fabric artfully tied? The pose is interesting. I wondered what she was expressing and what her relationship was to the photographer.

In the photo, which might be from the 1920's or 1930's, she's young. I used to wonder about her; an older woman with older limbs who had wonderful memories of the day and perhaps wondered where the photo went to. I liked to think that there were several photographs like this of different women in different poses. I'd love to see them!

The photo has the name FABERGE written underneath it and the details N.L. FABERGE, 11 Avenue Studios, 76, Fulham Road, SW3. written on the back. Who is that? Who works from his or her shop now? Are they related to the famous fabulous egg Faberge's?

I've seen this photo so many times I fail to be curious about it now. This can happen when writing a poem or story. Or a play or novel. Looking at it time and time again can make details vanish. That's the time to turn away from it. Put it on a bookshelf and leave it alone for long enough to forget it a little. Returning to work after an absence allows writers to have another brief chance at a first impression. After such absences it's possible to pick out flaws more readily, edit more finely or be pleased that the work is saying what it was meant to say.

Yesterday I walked through an area I usually drive through. I couldn't believe the details I usually miss. A house with five cactus plants in the porch that were taller than the door. A row of houses that were so well maintained and scrubbed clean they sparkled. An alleyway with elaborate gates to keep vandals at bay. It's not necessary to go to great lengths to find a new perspective in writing. Have a break of some sort or read a book that you wouldn't normally choose. Read some short stories or poems for a quick burst of energy. Better still get your friends to pose artfully like the woman above and write about that. Should keep you out of jail a while longer! 

Do you have a photograph that reminds you of an event or is a source of wonder? Could you write about it?

Smells can inspire writing streams of consciousness

 I used the following prompts to encourage people in my class to write a stream of consciousness. 

• a bottle of expensive aftershave
• a bottle of lemon verbena essential oil
• a bottle of geranium essential oil

The olfactory system is another world and topic. Our sense of smell guides us and is bound with memory and judgement.  Members of my writing group were asked to sniff and immediately begin to write their responses.

Writing followed quickly. Someone looked at the amount of words she had written with incredulity and another expressed the response 'it takes you to some weird places'.

Couldn't agree more.

Next time we're going to look at the results of this exercise and see what's in the writing. Is it for example a piece of work in its own right or is there a poem lurking there, waiting to be lifted out? Are there new ideas that might be the basis of a play or a novel or have people expressed something that made them feel better.

Is there a smell that takes you back to childhood or reminds you of an event?
What smell has unpleasant associations for you and why?

Have a look around and find two or three things with a distinct smell. Write your response in a stream of consciousness. Leave the piece of work for a couple of days and then go back to it to see if it works  or if you could see a poem in there or the makings of a story.

Can you see how someone's response to a smell could help a writer create a story?

Guy de Maupassant as inspiration.

The short stories of Guy de Maupassant were considered by many of the literary critics of his time as morose and cynical. His work is still selling and relevant however and much of it is powerful and memorable, reflecting upon ordinary lives and disappointments and the ways in which people respond to what happens to them. 
His story The Priest is a story I use in creative writing sessions because it has emotional impact and can be read in a short time. After hearing it, I ask people to write about an ordinary event, bearing his style in mind. The aim of exercises like this is not to imitate. It's to think about what devices a writer has used and try them. Maupassant often situates ordinary people in ordinary settings and then gives them a situation to deal with.  Before I set this task for others I tried it myself... my story, As the Crow Flies, is on the Examples of Work page.

What writers inspire you?

Character Running Out of Steam?

I had the pleasure of working with dramaturg Michelle Temperley, who helped me with script development. One of the characters in the piece I was working on was stuck somehow and a bit two dimensional. She suggested, in order to bring the character to life, I imagined what they were doing during the half hour before the scene they were in. That was it for me. The character filled out, got busy again and was off.

Not only did that exercise help with what I was doing then, it has helped since.

Any time you're stuck with your writing, think of what was going on before, in a character's life. I use the idea in classes too. The newspapers are full of reported local and national incidents. Imagine some of the people whose faces end up looking at you from a page, the houses, the bombed areas, the charity functions and winning goals. Try placing the key people in these scenes in the private and unreported parts of their lives, in the half hour before the events they were involved in,  to better understand their character and motivation.

Have a go. Just jot down a few notes at first and see what you get.

Thanks Michelle. Lovely memories of Oldham Coliseum play-writing workshops.


What do you do when you're writing and you run out of ideas?

womagwriter's blog: Good blogs

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Good blogs: A few links for you today - firstly a couple of blogs whose owners have been kind enough to host me while I wibble on about Ghost Stories an...

Inspiring Short Stories - Once, in Golders Green... Rohan Kriwaczek.

Introductions can be difficult for people. When I begin a creative writing course with new learners I ask them to give their name and a few details about what they're reading. This keeps the introduction session brief but informative and doesn't leave anyone feeling exposed. It also gives me an idea of who reads and who doesn't. Most of the people I come into contact with are reading at least one book; some have a stack by their bed. Any non readers get an instant book recommendation list, and sometimes generous group members loan or give books.

I don't believe good and regular writing can happen without good and regular reading and I'm ready for anyone who laments that they don't have time. Time is precious. This is where the short story comes in. An anthology should have a variety of styles and perspectives, possibly around one subject. A single author collection might have a range of stuff from one marvelous mind. And a short story can be read in a lunch break, on public transport, in a coffee shop...

My reading is done in bed. I'm usually tired and nodding and it's not unusual to wake up with my face squashed into a book but the point is that a short story is a manageable chunk of reading. Do as I do and go to the library and try a few collections. On line you can get hold of three story collections by established and brand new writers. Pocket novels give you a good read with less commitment than a novel.

My latest bed-buster collection was Once, in Golders Green... short stories by Rohan Kriwaczek. A series of stories, some linked, that give an insight into the lives of modern Jewish individuals. Funny, insightful, informative...just a few words to be going on with. It did what books do and let me into a world I have no connection with and people I wouldn't have otherwise met. I stayed awake for all of them!

Do you know of any other collections of stories set in one area?