Blog - Archive for August 2008
The How-to of Creative Writing - Characterisation
Posted: Saturday, 30th August 2008
DO YOU ANALYSE WHAT YOU READ AND WATCH?
Last week we looked at the way in which Theme determines the subject or focal point of a story. Have you found, since then, that you’re beginning to be a little more analytical about what you read and watch?
Before I started writing professionally, I never considered the
books I read or the films I saw in terms of Theme. We all tend to
share our enthusiasm about the latest ‘must-read’ or
‘must-watch’ in language which is to do with Plot. We
tell the story: ‘He did this; she said that; this was the
consequence.
Articles on related themes:
Character; Writing & Publishing A Book
Paedophiles Offered Castration, Daily Telegraph Reports
Posted: Wednesday, 27th August 2008
Other Posts on Current Affairs: Rick Warren
Paedophiles are to be offered a chemical castration following completion of their sentence, in order to prevent re-offending, so we’re told. The report reminded me of a story I heard recently, when we were dining with friends. Ted (not his real name) is a retired Headmaster and a Lay Preacher. At some point during his working career, he was asked if he would take a Sunday Service at the local prison. He readily agreed.
On arrival inside the gates, he followed the Prison Warden towards the Chapel at the centre of the grounds.
Articles on related themes: Current Affairs
59 Million Keywords to Publication
Posted: Monday, 25th August 2008
Related topics: Reading Between the Lines
59 million keywords to publication!
Now I love words. And I guess anyone who can be bothered to read or write a blog like this one must love’em too.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words
The How-to of Creative Writing - Part Two - Theme
Posted: Saturday, 23rd August 2008
CREATIVE WRITING PROJECT
How did you get on last week? Did you find the list of prompts
helpful – i.e. considering a modern take on a Bible story or
a nursery rhyme as inspiration? I hope you’ve got plenty of
ideas milling around in your mind. Keep a note of them because
we’ll be putting it altogether in the next few weeks.
And if you’ve come up with something I haven’t
thought of, let me know by posting a comment at the end of this
post, so that we can all benefit.
Articles on related themes:
Theme; Writing & Publishing A Book
New York Times Comments On Rick Warren's Forum
Posted: Thursday, 21st August 2008
SHOULD POLITICS AND RELIGION MIX?
Should politics and religion mix? This is the question which is vexing the readers of the New York Times – and probably many more of the population.
REV RICK WARREN’S FORUM
An article by the columnist William Kristol, titled Showdown at Saddleback, was what prompted the dispute. It seems that Rev. Rick Warren staged a question and answer session with Barack Obama and John McCain, the two main US presidential candidates, at the large, evangelical church over which he presides. His method of probing was, according to Mr Kristol, equally fair to both candidates and allowed viewers to hear ‘revealingly different’ answers to the same questions.
Articles on related themes: Current Affairs; Life, Faith & Other Stuff
Breaking Writers Block - Two Tips
Posted: Tuesday, 19th August 2008
WRITING SCHEDULE
There’s no doubt about it, marketing a new book plays havoc with your writing schedule. I told myself, when A Painful Post Mortem hit the bookshops, that I’d give my undivided attention to book signings, speaking engagements and blogging until – well, until the end of the summer, I suppose. It didn’t last, of course. To be that disengaged from the process of writing is as close as I’ll ever know to withdrawal symptoms from any other addiction.
To begin with, I tried to hoodwink myself into believing that writing short blogs for my website, commenting on others, and writing articles for ezines would satisfy my craving.
Articles on related themes: Writing & Publishing A Book
The How-to of Creative Writing - Part One - Ideas For Plot
Posted: Saturday, 16th August 2008
TRIED & TESTED TECHNIQUES
Last week I posted a blog about beginning a series on writing a book. The introduction was titled The How-to of Writing a Novel, but I’ve now decided that the series might be better titled The How-to of Creative Writing. In last week’s post, I suggested that some people might be thinking in terms of writing a full length novel (min. 70,000 words if it’s for adults) while others would want to accomplish something rather different.
Reading Between The Lines
Posted: Friday, 15th August 2008
Related topics: Books & Reading The Isolation Of Being Unable To Read
CAN’T READ, CAN’T WRITE
Did anybody watch the UK’s Channel 4’s Can’t Read, Can’t Write series? It focused on people from different backgrounds and ages: the young mother who was unable to help with her children’s homework, the labourer who longed to improve his job prospects, the middle-aged woman whose intellect and culture relied solely on audio tapes, and the grandmother whose own mother had spent a lifetime denouncing her as a failure. As the title suggests, what each had in common was an inability to read or write.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Current Affairs
Reeling in the Royalties - A Dangerous Weakness?
Posted: Wednesday, 13th August 2008
Well, what did you think of that for a piece of audacious publicity? I read it several times, trying to stem a rising tide of envy with a modicum of magnanimity – and still didn’t see beyond the obvious.
I’m referring to the 93 year old lady who has just published her first book. Good on her! She’s beaten British author Mary Wesley (the previous claimant of a first novel in advanced years, and with whom I once shared an agent) by at least a decade. And anyone who can complete a novel, at any age, deserves a medal in my book – if you’ll excuse the pun.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words
The How-to of Writing a Novel - Introduction
Posted: Sunday, 10th August 2008
HOW TO WRITE A BOOK. OR NOT?
One of the flattering, if potentially fatal, aspects of being an author is that other people want you to read their manuscripts. It isn’t always that they want to know how to write a book. They have, they tell you, already done so. It’s just that, to date, no one seems to want to publish it. What they need (they say) is a comprehensive critique: the low-down on fiction writing and publishing their purple prose.
Seduced, in the early days when I was first published, I undertook to read through several dog-eared masterpieces.
Articles on related themes: Writing & Publishing A Book
Bring Words of Hope - by Blogging
Posted: Thursday, 7th August 2008
Revised 26th November, 2009
The article that follows was written in August 2008 when I had been blogging for little more than three weeks. For reasons which I’ll explain later (see below) I thought it worth adding to. But first, the article as it was:
A RAY OF HOPE FOR A PERFECTIONIST
Please bear with me. I’ve been an author for more than twenty-five years, but a blogger for little more than twenty-five days. Not only that, I’m a perfectionist. At least, I’m a repentant perfectionist trying hard not to lapse.
Does my bum look big in this? (Or that wretched F-word again)
Posted: Monday, 4th August 2008
A fortnight ago I wrote that legislation against the use of certain words (like Chav) is ludicrous and went on to quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. “It’s not the word that’s at fault,” I said. “What’s needed is a change of attitude. And that, sadly, can’t be dealt with by the law.”
I read this to my husband, and he totally disagreed with me!
“Look at the way attitudes have changed towards homosexuality because of changes in the law,” he said.
CAN THE LAW GAG DISSENTERS?
Yes, he has a point.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Current Affairs; Family & Parenting
Drugs & Human Rights - the god of the era
Posted: Friday, 1st August 2008
Click for related post: Parent Power = Kids' Confidence
I wonder how this generation of policy-makers will go down in history? Human Rights, it seems, is the god of the era. It certainly takes precedence over any sort of morality. And common sense? Well that’s out of the window.
I refer to the statistics showing that Britain now has an estimated 1% of the population taking illegal drugs, and somewhere in the region of 300,000 children growing up in homes where one or both parents is an addict, in a trade estimated to be worth more than £5.3billion.
Articles on related themes: Books, Reading & Words; Current Affairs; Family & Parenting
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