Moving smartly on to A363

Well, enough shaking and wittering about A215, as it's a done deal, in the past, over and out. Until the results come out, of course... OK, a small amount of wittering still to come! Anyway, A363 starts today (for me, anyway!)

So, I had a look at the very beginning of chapter 1, and it started looking at genre. Not just big genre like poetry or fiction or drama but sub-genres like crime or romantic fiction. So, we got a short passage and had to look at it as if it had one of five different titles, which each suggested a different genre. I must admit, the title does set up certain expectations! Then we had to write a follow up (in activity 1.2) from some of the titles. So in the crime drama/mystery beginning, the body lies across the church doorway and the figure glides away, the body that of someone who has majorly pissed someone off and the figure - maybe the killer - or someone who witnessed it? If the same words were part of a romantic mystery titled 'The Betrayal', my focus was on the person who found the body and the woman who glided away, the inference that the characters will be central. If I was to write 'My Problem with Peyote' the body in the doorway wouldn't even be dead! So, pages 1-3 sorted. On my way!

There are also some top poetry comps coming up:
National poetry comp 31 October
Bridport prize 30 June
Wells Festival of Literature 31 July
Mslexia poetry comp 26 July
Poetry London Comp 31 May (OK, this one is a bit close!)

As usual, Mslexia are full of ideas for editing. Here for inspirational approaches to editing.

I tried the babelfish thing too! Babelfish, if you don't know, translates English into other languages, just put 'babelfish' into your search engine. Then translate it back - and the words are different, pick out any interesting changes!

So:

She never lies, she never says ‘no’.
Her hands are smooth in memory,
Her body slender, unlined, pictured
Forever at twenty three or thirty two.
No demands of flesh, no meaty needs.
Her brain does not snip or snipe
As she rests, under a blanket of grass,
A silver birch, waving to the road.

becomes

Elle ne se trouve jamais, elle ne dit jamais le `no'. Elle des mains sont lisse dans la mémoire, Son corps mince, sans doublure, décrit pour toujours à vingt-trois ou à trente-deux. Aucunes demandes de chair, aucuns besoins de viande. Son cerveau ne coupe pas ou ne tire un coup de feu pas d'un coup de ciseaux Comme elle se repose, sous une couverture d'herbe, le bouleau argenté d'A, saluant la route.

and back again!

It is never, it never says the `no'. It with the hands smooth in the memory, Its body thin, without lining, are described for always with twenty-three or thirty-two. Aucunes requests for flesh, aucuns needs for meat. Its brain does not cross or does not draw a shot not d' a blow of scissors As it rests, under a cover d' bleaches on grass, the birch silver plated d' With, greeting the road.

I love greeting the road, for example, and hands smooth in the memory.

Competition time

Well, I've got a bit of time now so I'm polishing up assignments, especially the ones that my tutor thinks might be publishable, ready for competitions. So far, I've done the Biscuit flash fiction one, a Writing Magazine short short story and an old story (also known as TMA05) has gone to Writers Forum, mostly to find out what's wrong with it!

I've also got Viking Funeral on the go for Writing Magazine, and six others in their early stages. Nothing looks remotely poncy (sorry, well crafted) enough to enter the Bridport Prize. I thought half the last years stories were brilliant and the other half were pants. Maybe there were two judges and they got to pick half each. I'm cool with mysterious and intriguing but I don't want to be baffled even after I've read it again, and certainly I want to care about at least one of the characters.

On the bright side, this time last year I didn't know how substandard my writing was, and I now even have a few ideas about how to improve it. This A215 course has been absolutely brilliant for me, although it was the OCA course that really got me started. I would recommend either, or both, to anyone who wants to master the nuts and bolts of writing and nurture the inborn talent.

Just a word about flash fiction. I haven't tried it before (not wanting to part with any of my darlings, obviously) but cutting a 2-2.5k story down to 700 words is amazingly therapeutic. I've now squeezed two stories that didn't work that well down to miniature masterpieces (comparatively.) Give it a try!

MA creative writing

I have an unconditional offer to do an MA! Not my favourite choice geographically, though it looks like a very good course. I'm waiting to see what no. 1 and 2 on my list say. It is lovely, though, having handed over samples of my work, then be accepted. Now all I have to do is take out a hefty loan, find an affordable house to rent, get both boys on their courses and pack up family life here into boxes. I haven't even counted the cost of being away from home and husband, though I imagine that will be the biggest cost for me.

The lifewriting is painful still, but I'm moving on it - it is difficult because the drama is ongoing, with the head of E. Hampshire's social services personally telling me she is her own worst enemy, she's fired/cancelled everyone who could help her stay in her own home and we should step back. It's her legal right (just about, a bit more batty and we can intervene) to lie at the bottom of her staircase and die. Should she wish that. And she would prefer that to going in a home. All the people who care about her now phone or email each other daily and are letting her deal with her problems herself. Basically, she'll end up back in hospital and then maybe we can persuade her to accept carers. It's not that she doesn't want them, but she wants them to do her shopping and wash up, do laundry rather than the personal care like help washing and dressing, which she desperately needs. So the dilemma is in my thoughts, in my work and has spread to my blog.

I have two comps to do, both short stories, both by post for 31st March, so that's this morning's work. Not to mention, I have written quite a few words for 'Borrowed Time' (young adults novel)which keeps me writing while I let the other story sit and fester. I have already thought of some loose ends to tie up.

Competition angst

This is what I always do - send off something to a competition and then the agony starts.

First I'm realistic - lots of people sent work in for this competition, and many of them are already experienced and published and brilliant. I'm just a student, even if I am superannuated, I don't have to be brilliant, but it's a good thing to do, makes you work harder.

Then I go through the buts, but I am doing really well on my course, but I was published before, but I was shortlisted for a small competition in Writer's news last year...

Then the weeks roll round until the time when the 'winners will be notified'. Now the endless checking my emails begins, I wonder if my entries are any good, are being laughed over, even didn't get there at all. They say the middle of March, is that the 14th or 15th or 16th or do they mean not the beginning or end, but the three weeks in the middle? Or are they snowed under by all the brilliant stuff they received, and won't even know until April?

Of course, the real question is, is my story and good or not, and does it matter if one person on one day though it good enough to puit it on the 'possible' pile? One thing this writing lark is about, it's dealing with rejection. I need to have a world weary contempt for the whole process, but somehow while my body has aged my enthusiasm for writing is scarily positive and youthful. I'm just going to have to look at the work I sent in, and enjoy it for what it is - good enough for me.

Creative spell

I'm in the middle of a good spell, and slightly worried it will dry up! I'm working on a poem at the moment that's about getting my Mslexia magazine, and reading it in the garden, using notes from one of the two warm days we had last year. I've written several short stories, including one for an assignment. I also wrote a poem from a tutorial that came up with some good ideas.

Four hundred children were sacrificed in the mountains of the Andes

Ghosts visit
tap tap the silence
each breath crushing
her chest, utter dark
sounds trailing
and fading, ears
following every heartbeat.

No-one comes.

Dawn greys the condors,
crows breath mists
child remains, licking off the tears.

This isn't the way I normally write so I was surprised to find a poem emerging. It has encouraged me to use language more freely.

The short stories are evolving too, I've found I can stretch words into different shapes but, bloody hell, how many drafts does it take? Poems take more time than short stories with thirty times as many words.

Today, I felt I couldn't concentrate on any one thing so I spent a day focusing on starting points, just being creative and putting a few plots/poem ideas down on paper. I feel like I've got a few good ideas to develop for competitions.

I entered the debut dagger competition with the novel I've been working on. It's quite expensive, but I felt I could do with another go round even if I'm just recycling material that needs a new angle. So, I started the story in a better place and revamped the material. Giving the synopsis a new ending has really helped. I've now put a long list of comps on the whiteboard and am trying a few. I'm aiming for one a week. I've already written a ghost story for writing magazine for March and I'm working on a 200 word poem for Ambit (how do you write a 200 word poem!).

Long may this productive streak continue!