The First Sentence

I am embarking on the most creative part of the MA - an original novel outline and 40,000 words of a different novel. I had a rather intimidating experience yesterday when Fay Weldon told us to start the first paragraph of our novel and then left the room. Half an hour later she returned and we each had to read out our scribblings. I had not expected this. Fay then discussed each one. No pressure there then. It was a very valuable session. I knew that I had to start in the middle of the action but I was not setting up the entire novel in the first 250 words. That is what I now aim to do. There are a few elements to include: the 'cosmic sentence', the middle of the action, setting up the problem to be solved, dialogue etc. It sounds impossible but I think a balance can be achieved. Mmmmm...

Back Again

I haven't been in the land of the living for a while and am glad to be starting a new year. I have finally finished my coursework and am pleased with it although I know in a few years time I will probably look back on it and cringe. I can already see an improvement on my coursework from the same time last year so hopefully I will keep getting better. I am now heading into the final term which looks at planning the novel. I already started to look at this in the summer but need to revisit it, particularly as I now know this is a book that will be written (hopefully more on this in future posts). My dissertation (40,000 word extract of another novel) is due in September. If the time taken to write my 2,000 word creative piece is anything to go by I had better to get started now. To an extent I envy writers who can get a first draft down quickly. I try to let it flow but just can't stop the self editor within me. I almost go into a trance so I can really see and feel what I want to express and then agonise over the exact words, scared that if I move on too quickly I will not be able to get back to that place. It can be tiring and frustrating but I wouldn't swap it for anything.

Too Few Hours

On returning to lectures I had planned to update my blog each week but full time work, home work and course work have rather got in the way. We have covered a really wide range of subjects in the last few weeks including literature and art, realism and the formal reader. This module has been very beneficial in that I have seen a completely different side to writing and have a greater understanding of what so many authors have achieved. The only issue is that because we have covered so many topics I have been unable to go into the depth that I want to but I can always do that in the future. The area that I have focussed on is the relationship between painting and narrative fiction. I have finished my 3,000 word essay and am now working on my creative piece. It's hard work (it took me two hours to get down 200 words that I was happy with!) but I have enjoyed it.

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.

Under the Influence

Last week we covered imagination and the influence of alcohol, drugs and mental illness (my lecturer referred to the latter as madness which annoyed me). I have always been interested in the relationship between mental health and writers. A useful handout showed us the number of writers, artists and musicians who had suffered from depression and bi-polar but to be honest, as mental health affects one in four if us, it would probably be the case that one could identify a number of 'famous' people in any category of employment that had had mental illness at some point in their life.
I have started researching my coursework (a critical essay, creative piece and critical commentary - 6,000 words) and am getting happily lost in it. It isn't due until January but I do not want to be doing it at the last minute.

Voice

I have neglected my blog for a couple of weeks due to the fact that work is busy and lectures have started again. Last week I did a piece based on Shklovsky which involved taking a familiar object or process and de-familiarising it. I made cooking bacon and eggs a very mystical and lyrical experience! This week we looked at 'voice', including parody and pastiche. Homework this week is to look more closely at our own voice. I have to say that this would have been nigh on impossible a couple of years ago. It is only now with exploration and practice that I can step back from what I want to write and think about how I want to write it.