Reviews and WW2

I have been very spoilt this week. Went to a post graduate seminar which included Erica Wagner (Times Literary Editor), Matt Thorne, Celia Brayfield and Fay Weldon. I had many preconceptions about book reviews/reviewers and was interested to hear just how passionate the TLS reviewers are about books and how carefully the reviewers are selected. However, reviews aren't everything - the most likely reason someone reads/buys a book is through a recommendation from a friend. I also went to a talk in the evening titled 'Why does WW2 still fascinate?'. There were three authors - Justin Kerr-Smiley (Under the Sun), Roger Moorehouse (Killing Hitler) and Keith Lowe (Inferno - the Bombing of Hamburg). The latter two are non-fiction but Under the Sun is fictional. I asked how Justin managed to maintain a balance between the research and the writing and how did he deal with leaving most of the research out of the book. They all agreed that for fiction you should only research what you need. I know that's the case but I still find it hard!

Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

The weeks are going quickly now that I am back at lectures. Last week we looked at writer's block, inspiration and the muse. It was an interesting one for me as I must admit I found it difficult to relate to. Firstly, I don't get writer's block. I have days when I don't feel like writing or I can't find ways to say what exactly what I want to but I can still write something. I also struggle with the concept of the muse - this is just something that I haven't experienced. I do, however, appreciate that this is my experience and that there are many people out there who can relate to these concepts. I enjoyed the homework for last week - writing about someone with writers block. I wrote a piece entitled Story Collector which was about a woman who was trying to find the 'first' stories.
This week's homework is less enjoyable. The focus of this week's lectures was creativity and speech. There were very interesting examples of dialects, children's speech and Polari (a language based on italian and used by people in the theatre and latterly the gay community up until the 1960's). The reason I am not enjoying the homework is that I find it difficult to launch into dialogue without spending some time with my characters first.
Anyway, it is done now and I am content with it. I can now spend a wonderful afternoon doing more research for my coursework.