Journey's End

This week I went to see a production of R.C. Sheriff's Journey's End produced and directed by David Grindley. I cannot praise it enough. The staging and the acting was wonderful and I just about managed to keep it together before the lights went up. It is a very emotional exerience. I've found that going to the theatre often helps me to see my writing from a different perspective. Every one of the characters in Journey's End is very distinctive and I found myself reflecting on chapter three of my novel; the chapter that I re-worked this week. It is based on dialogue and due to research the character that my protagonist meets is well developed. However, I was writing that chapter through my protagonist rather than about my protagonist meeting this character. As a result it is unbalanced. I need to go back and make sure the balance is redressed. There is no point my novel being full of interesting characters if my protagonist becomes invisible.

It’s All Academic Really

This week I attended a Post Graduate School induction for new researchers. This is all very new to me (although I have a BA (Hons) and MA I have been in the world of work for years), so I found it very useful. A Creative Writing PhD is a bit unusual as although there is a thesis, there is also a novel to produce as well. This means that the academic element e.g. presenting papers at conferences and submitting posters is not at the forefront of my mind. To be fair, though, I have only been going at it for five months. Spurred on by the induction, I have now joined Academia.Edu which facilitates networking between researchers. I have also researched upcoming conferences but have to say that due to the subject matter of my studies I have drawn a blank. I have hopes for next year. This week has also been busy in terms of study. I have finished the further background research on chapter three and redrafted the latter. I did eight hundred words today which is a record for me. I also went to the Imperial War Museum and spent another day with the sound archives.

And the Winner is...

Not me. I was put forward for the Curtis Brown Award this year but didn’t make it. Still, I must keep pushing on. The last couple of weeks have been steady and I have made progress. I have read two novels (William – An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton and The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West) and drafted Chapter Four. I have also read an autobiography of a woman who appears as a character in Chapter Four (there are only four copies in the UK and one library willing to lend it) and now need to work this into a second draft of that chapter. I have also started drafting Chapter Five and ordered archive material for next week.

Chapter Three

I am pleasantly surprised to have finished chapter three this week. The bulk of it is dialogue,which I really enjoy writing. I sketched out the key points that needed to be covered and then ensured that the links between the ideas followed a logic that would make the dialogue totally natural. All I then had to do was write it (I say all but there were a lot of rests, head rubbing, distraction activity, staring out of the window and flapjack). A great deal of research has gone into it; so much of which is now on the writers equivalent of the cutting room floor but was necessary.

Once Upon a Wartime

Due to Easter and the Royal Wedding, the UK has virtually been on holiday for the last two weeks. All very nice but it means I haven’t done much writing (although reading and research has continued as I can do that with someone else in the house). In an attempt to mix holiday with study, I went to the Once Upon a Wartime: Classic War Stories for Children Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. This features five stories: War Horse (Michael Morpurgo), Carrie’s War (Nina Bawden), The Machine Gunners (Robert Westall), The Silver Sword (Ian Serrailier) and Little Soldier (Bernard Ashley). It is an exhibition designed for both children and adults and includes information on life at the time of the novels to provide context and objects (e.g. a letter from some children to Kitchener begging that he let them keep their horse as well as Kitchener’s reply – no he didn’t take it). One of the most exciting things for me were the objects relating to the authors themselves, everything from Robert Westall’s typewriter to the actual sword that inspired Ian Serrailier and the painting of a horse that hangs in Michael Morpurgo’s kitchen. There were also original typewritten manuscripts complete with scribbled comments from the editors. The ideas for the stories as well as characters were also set out. Carrie’s War and The Machine Gunners were key stories for me as a child so this exhibition was a treat.