Creative Kicks - Week 8 - Beat the Block with Anne Stormont

By Anne Stormont

Images by JD Lewis

Can't get started or stalling when you do?

Whether experienced or novice, most writers suffer from the dreaded writers' block at some time.

And it's not really surprising it happens. Writing is hard work. It's a craft as well as an art and it has to be learned, practised and improved.

Writing takes time and effort. The only way to learn it is by doing it. And the only way to practise is by doing it. And the only way to improve is by doing it. Yes, it's great when the creative juices flow, but most of the time it's a case of turning up and persevering. 

The block can be brought on by author fatigue, or by lack of commitment. But it can also be caused by lack of experience, by lack of confidence, or by lack of inspiration.

Its major symptom is procrastination which in turn leads to frustration, and in the most serious cases self-loathing and despair - where that voice inside tells you that you were a fool to ever think you could write - and you are tempted to give up completely.

Beating the block

But please, if you're affected by writers' block, don't give up. There is hope. It is possible to recover and become both creative and productive once more.

And because it can be due to different reasons it follows there are different remedies. So let's take them one by one:

Author fatigue - first of all congratulations for having got started and persisted up to this point. You've most likely been writing intensively - a do-not-disturb notice issued to friends and family - and every possible moment has been spent at your desk. You may well have been enthused, full of ideas and completely committed to your project. But then the well runs dry. Suddenly - or gradually - enthusiasm wanes, focus is lost and ideas dry up. It's time for a complete break, time to replenish.

So, get out of your writing space and re-engage with the world. The natural world is a particularly effective remedy. Going for a walk, run or cycle outdoors really does blow the claggy cobwebs away. And as you focus on the physical, your mind can go off on its own to process, refresh and reboot.

Social distractions are good too. A meal, a drink, and a catch up with the important people in your life also give the creative department of your brain some much-needed downtime. It seems as if switching your focus lets your mind declutter and work on things in the background - including your latest writing project - with no active input from you.

And don't forget to spoil yourself a bit too - take a nap or a nice long bath - or even READ, yes, lose yourself in a good book. It's amazing how after some time away you'll find renewed enthusiasm for the work-in-progress.

Lack of commitment - your writing can sometimes stall because the project you're working on doesn't excite you or seems pointless. In which case walk away. But it may be that even although you're enjoying the piece you're working on, you're still finding it hard to do, or to justify the time spent on it. This is where deadlines come in handy. Competitions are a great way of imposing a deadline on your project and will also ensure you give your writing your best shot. Or, if you share the intended date for the publication/circulation/reading of your story, article, poetry collection - or whatever - with your readers, that will also help you focus your efforts.

Lack of experience - the only remedy here is: get some experience. Yes, you need to be brave. Starting something new can often be scary. But like all journeys, learning to write begins with small steps. You won't have a bestseller overnight - indeed most of us who write will never have a bestseller. But that's okay because you'll have so much fun just writing for the sake of it. So begin small and build from there. Write a short story or an article or a poem. Then do some more. Maybe seek out a local writers group or club you can join where you can share your work and get some support. Consider take a writing class or course, online or in the real world. You could even consider a residential course and experience the joy of such an intense and fully immersive experience. But whatever you decide, do seek out constructive feedback, take criticism on the chin (but not as a personal insult) and aim to improve. 

Lack of confidence - this can be related to lack of experience but it affects established writers too. It can be related to disappointing feedback, a scathing review or the above affliction of author fatigue. But sometimes there is no obvious external cause. Sometimes it's that wee demon inside that likes to taunt us, tell us we're useless, asks us who we're trying to kid.

If you doubt yourself because of some negative criticism of your writing, take a bit of time to get over the hurt and then go back and interrogate the remarks made. More often than not there will be a grain (or more) of truth in that criticism and, also more often than not, you'll see a way to improve as a result. Equally, if you decide that no, the criticism is unjustified then put it aside and move on. Don't let one person's opinion stop you doing something you love.

And don't let the wee demon stop you either. Put it back in its box and turn the key. Then get back to doing the thing that gives you so much pleasure and excitement. Because there's nothing like the exhilaration of being in the zone, of seeing where the story - your story - is going to take you. And if one other person - besides you - also gets pleasure from reading it then it's doubly worthwhile.

And finally - Lack of inspiration - you want to write but you've no idea what to write. This is where writing exercises come in handy. So let me leave you with a few:

· Take the first sentence of chapter six in the last novel you read and write a 500, 1000 (or more) word story with it as your starting point.

· Get a photo of a person in e.g. a magazine advert (not someone famous or who you know) and write about them - their dilemma, or their life story, their job, their crime, their secret...

· As for the prompt above but use a picture of a place.

· Write about the first house you lived in, or the first film you saw, the first book you read - say what it meant to you and why.

· Choose something from the natural world - e.g. a starling, a river, an oak tree, or an object - e.g.paperweight, teddy, photo. Or choose an action - e.g. swimming, climbing, driving. Or choose an emotion - e.g. anger, sorrow, joy. And let that choice be your starting point for a short story, novel, poem or opinion piece.

So what are you waiting for? Go on kick the block aside and get writing!

Anne writes contemporary women's fiction. She has published two novels so far Change of Life and Displacement and her third novel Settlement  - a sequel to Displacement - will be out at the end of August.

Anne's novels have been described as thoughtful, grown-up fiction where the main characters are older but no wiser and feature characters who face challenges that involve love, loss and some of life's biggest questions.

Anne is a Scot, living in the land of her birth. She's a retired teacher and when she's not writing, she's a compulsive crossworder, yoga practitioner, avid reader, keen walker and gardener. She also loves spending time with friends and family - especially her two grandchildren.

Anne has travelled all over the world and her visits to the Middle East in particular have inspired her most recent writing.

She can be a bit of a subversive old bat, but she tries to maintain a kind heart.

Website: www.annestormont.co.uk

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/annestormontauthor

Twitter: @writeanne

Creative Kicks - Week 7 - Creating Literary Devices with Jerome Griffin

By Jerome Griffin
Images by JD Lewis

Breaking the mould is the holy grail of writing. Finding expression like nobody before. Standing apart from the crowd.

 It’s possible, certainly, but not probable. Chances are, if you think you’re a unique voice, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Somebody somewhere has done it before.

Like the magic rule of three.
You say something, explain it, and then qualify it.
Just like the examples above.

So maybe you should set your sights lower. Aim for something more achievable. Less ambitious.
Like world peace. Or an end to global poverty. A cure for death.

People have become used to the rule of three. Now if you stop at two it feels unfinished.

On another note, more than three appears clumsy. Like the writer is struggling for clarity. To find the right words. Labouring the point. Going on and on and on.

Like that really.

As I say, it’s the magic number. The rule. The law.
But the rule of three must have started somewhere. Somewhen. Sometime.
And then it grew into the norm. This literary device. This catchy conjuror.

Thankfully there’s always someone out there hell bent on destroying the norm and poking a finger in the eye of comfortable predictability and nothing will stop them from finding their grail, so they toil and they toil and then they toil some more in search of inspiration with perspiration to break this new mould that society has cradled to its bosom so vigorously that it’s in danger of suffocating the creative spark that fuelled the imaginative inferno in the first place, and of course, they’re too late because society’s yearning for its warmth has already snuffed the fragile flame and what was once a creative beacon lighting the path of the future has been rendered a spent torch sucked dry by the very ones who sought to breathe eternal life into its core and suckle on its power, which means that nothing is new or unique or original anymore, but society thirsts for new and original and unique, and is wandering in a desert wilderness that tortures and torments even the strongest minds until they lose their ever more tentative grip on reality, and in tandem with their desert wanderings, their minds wander a metaphorical barren wilderness until they spew unchecked, unfettered, uncensored, unadulterated, raw beauty onto the world and now there is no editing because to edit would be to tarnish and destroy the creative seed that has been sown in this raging, ranting, rambling cacophony of literary noise: a noise of beauty, of fury, of power, of essence, of being crackling with electric energy, thrumming with pulsing rhythm, soaring with eagle grace, shining brighter than a galaxy of stars, soothing the soul in the warmth of its embrace and penetrating the heart easier than a baby’s smile.

And so the stream of consciousness is born. And it’s new and unique and original once more.

Until it’s tired and old and not new. Not unique. Not original. Just same same, not different.

So the quest begins for another new voice. Another new sound. Another holy grail.

And the quest will continue forever, because as soon as something new is found, it’s not new anymore.

Yep, from the nerve-shredding cliffhanger to the sinister smoking gun, from unfathomable hyperbole to terse understatement, and from harmonious juxtaposition to conflicting oxymora, we all love a well developed literary device. And writers love nothing more than creating their own. So, here’s a couple of tips on how to do so.

1. Turn things upside down. Instead of using a cliché that everybody knows change it around. For example, in Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk took an everyday expression and simply changed the delivery. Everyone is familiar with the term “to sleep like a baby”. In the story the protagonist suffers from insomnia until he attends a support group, at which point he proclaims: “Babies don’t sleep this well!” Its effect delivers instant impact and the reader sits up and takes notice, whereas they might have glossed over the tired old original cliché.

So, your exercise here is to take old proverbs, sayings and clichés and change their format. Some examples as follows:

• If this is all fair in war, I’d hate to see what happens in love.
• This has gone way beyond tough and the tough have yet to get going.
• All the flies are on him.

For a bit of variety, throw in a little opposite:

• If at first you don’t succeed, maybe failure is your thing.
• What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…said nobody ever with a bad back
• He leapt into inaction.

2. Keep to what you know. It’s a well known fact, by those who know it well*, that writers write from experience. There’s nothing clumsier than an author stumbling blindfolded into alien territory. Staying in your comfort zone is the best way to explore outside your comfort zone. As an exercise, write down some every day terminology used in your other/previous careers and play around with them.

For example, in My Better Half the protagonist works in advertising and employs a tool used by market researchers as follows: “If this product were a car, what kind of car would it be?” He brings this into his thoughts at different times throughout the story and varies the delivery.

For example:
 • If my company were a disease, what disease would it be?
• If I were a Shakespearean character I would be Hamlet.

So, let’s take a quick look at other jobs:

• Shop assistant - Management don’t care. To them I’m not a human, just a barcode.
• Shop manager - The customer is always right, especially when they’re wrong.
• Accountant - That’s a moral victory on the credit side of life’s ledger.
• Bartender - Everything he says is BS - Barfly Stupidity. 

Well structured literary devices add so much to a writer’s style and set them apart from the crowd. And all you have to do is look at things from another perspective. Go on, that diem won’t carpe itself!

*Thank you, Robert Rankin, for that wonderful example of the now legendary running gag literary device.

Jerome Griffin is the author of two novels - The Flight of the Earls, an historical fiction set in Ireland over 400 years ago; and My Better Half, a contemporary story set in London.

In 2014 Jerome launched Short e Publishing, which produces short contemporary fiction. Jerome has since gone on to publish two Short e stories: Divorcing Mum and 33rd County. There are many more in the pipeline from Jerome, as well as a number of other authors, under the Short e Publishing banner.
Jerome lives in London with his wife, Elaine. 
Amazon.co.uk 
Amazon.com
Website: https://jeromegriffin.wordpress.com/ 

Creative Kicks - Week 6 - Stoking the Creative Fires with Rebecca Lang

 

By Rebecca Lang

I run a fortnightly writing group. We, each of us, write different things - fantasy, memoir, crime, lit-fic - but all struggle with the same challenge: procrastination.

I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I do believe in ‘analysis paralysis’, where you can over-think yourself into a corner to the point where you write nothing at all. You know what I mean - you’re so full of ideas you don’t know where to start, so you don’t. You become the antithesis of a writer, which, by the way, my thesaurus confidently tells me is a reader!

Of course, most writers are readers as well, but if there’s no writing going on in your life then it’s hard to confidently refer to yourself as a writer. Let me help you remedy that situation the best way I know how, by challenging you to write something from nothing, using some tried-and-true creative tools.

Meme or Writing Roulette - Have you ever played Meme or Writing Roulette? You randomly select a meme (a humorous or thought-provoking image, video, or piece of text) and use it as a mental springboard into the deeper recesses of your imagination: your subconscious. It’s essentially a writing prompt, and thanks to the magic of sites such as Tumblr, Pinterest or search engines like Google, you can call up a host of choices using rather obvious search terms such as ‘writing roulette’.

Another great way to find inspiration is by actually typing in ‘writing prompt’ and select ‘images’ from the Google menu, whereupon you’ll be inundated with colourful and eye-catching scenarios, crafty phrases, and fantastical possibilities. These clever prompts have been dreamt up by other writers and editors to help you generate the first lines of your story.

This may seem like a very obvious source of inspiration, but the wonderful thing about using prompts such as these is that they use the element of surprise. Suitably startled, your brain is immersed in the creative soup that is your subconscious mind, leaving behind the restraints of your day-to-day critical, conscious thought processes. Happy day-dreaming!

StoryWorld Cards - What’s this? Witchcraft?! Well, the StoryWorld Cards created by Caitlin and John Matthews could almost certainly be modelled on that fortune-teller’s favourite, the old Devil’s Picture Book, also known as Tarot cards. Aesthetically rendered and rich with symbolism, StoryWorld Cards and their ilk act as a visual passport to your imagination, allowing you to access the dark, deep waters of your subconscious.

Sadly, the publisher stopped printing the StoryWorld Card decks (which feature many themed decks: faeries, haunted houses, adventures), so whatever remaining decks you see for sale represent its final print run. Our group loves the ‘three-card draw’, where you have to make up a story using elements from all three cards, and also the single-card challenge, where everyone uses the same card to inspire their story.

I’ve seen other inspirational decks pop up in recent times - including the Writer Emergency Pack and The Storymatic, to name a few - and they all play the same role in stimulating your creative juices. If you can’t lay your hands on a fancy deck, use some clever targeted searches on Google, Pinterest or Instagram. A visit to your local library can provide a similarly unpredictable and inspirational ‘old school’ experience by pulling books off shelves and opening them at random pages.

Story Map - This four-panel sketch is actually an idea I borrowed from a UK writing workshop, the exact source of which is lost to me in the mists of time and the Internet. It’s also of immense appeal to people like myself - visual thinkers who engage in a lot of doodling and spend far too much time blissfully zoning out to pretty images online.

The Story Map, as I’m calling it, is a great kickstarter for shorter writing projects - whether they be competitions or flash fiction - and as initial templates for much larger works. The Story Map forces you to focus on key elements: location, character, action and - crucially - an ending! You can read more on this approach below.

Deadlines - My father used to spend a lot of time quoting Parkinson’s Law to me when I struggled with writing essays, invariably leaving my assignments until the night before they were due. His variation was ‘work expands to fill the allotted time’, but the accepted quote as written by Cyril Northcote Parkinson himself is ‘work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.’ In other words, if you have two weeks to write an essay, it takes two weeks; if you have one night, it will take one night, and so on. This explains how, seemingly against all the odds, I still managed to pass English.

The Oxford Dictionary defines time as ‘The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.’ But as writers (including Parkinson) know, time is really elastic. It can speed up, and it can slow down. Occasionally it can seem as if it has stopped altogether, usually when you’re stuck on a plot point or you’ve entered that spiritual and physical void of unspeakable boredom that seems to consume all creativity, what writer Douglas Adams called the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

We know we can mark, measure and muse over it, but when we harness this mercurial motion with the power of deadlines, we can all briefly master time.

Chris Baty, the founder of the popular National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), a challenge in which writers strive to pen a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, knows about the power of deadlines. ‘A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most kick-ass form.’ Word! Someone give that man a cup of tea! Wait, don’t - you’ll only distract him. He has his own stories to write.

Deadlines, as Baty rightly points out, can be a galvanising force for writers. Don’t fear deadlines, use them to their full potential as motivating goals. Think of your deadline as a Harry Potter-style ‘Time-Turner’, a device that will help you travel to a future state where your story has been fully realised and written. Deadlines deliver rewards.

So where does this leave us, friends? Optimistic? Inspired? Ready to pick up your pen or hit the keyboard? I hope so.

Here’s a short exercise combining all of the above tools to help send you on your way.

Exercise:

1. Deadline - Set your alarm and give yourself 20 minutes. It’s okay to cheat, I often hit ‘snooze’ and give myself another five to 10 minutes.

2. Inspiration - Use a meme, writing prompt or a StoryWorld card or similar as a starting point. Google is also your friend here! The words or images don’t have to represent THE perfect idea, just start writing.

3. Story Map - Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into four quarters by drawing two intersecting lines. In the first quarter, write a location for your story and draw it (it could be a map of a place, a house, a tree, a planet - be creative!).

In the second quarter, imagine your main character and sketch something representative (it could be a person or maybe an animal).

In the third quarter, illustrate an action - it could be someone doing something (perhaps exciting) like driving a fast car or running, or an event taking place.

In the fourth quarter, think of your ending or resolution and draw it as best you can.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, these are just markers for your story. Using these four sketches as a guide, and your StoryWorld card or meme/writing prompt for further inspiration, write down the bones of your story. Be as descriptive as possible.

The words or images from your meme, writing prompt or StoryWorld card don’t have to represent THE perfect idea. Your Story Map isn’t set in stone. These things are catalysts for the ideas process, so just start writing and marvel at your rich and marvellous imagination as characters and scenes tumble forth.

Depending on how well your ideas have formed and how quickly you write, using this method you can, on average, pen between 400-600 words in less than half an hour. Not bad from a standing (or sitting) start. Happy writing.


Rebecca Lang is a writer and editor based in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. She runs a lively fortnightly writing group, Novels by Night, and writes when and where she can - mostly on the train. She is the author of a series of novellas including Army Dreamers and For Fear of Little Men, and the editor of several anthologies including a collection of soon-to-be-published ghost stories, Dark Spirits.

Websites: www.rebeccalangauthor.com
Twitter: @rebecca_lang
Facebook: www.facebook.com/novelsbynight/

Creative Kicks - Week 2 - Characters over a Series

By Triskele Books

Way back in 2015, we gave ourselves the objective of developing our writing skills over the summer. We'd spent four years building the Triskele brand, learning about marketing and publishing, so it was time to go back to basics.And that meant writing.

We tried a bunch of exercises just to flex our creative muscles. Many were directly applicable to our WIP, such a Character, Voice, Point of View, Story Structure and Descriptive Prose.

But that was four years ago, and since then some of us have developed a series.

Gillian Hamer, JJ Marsh and JD Smith have all followed the same key characters over several books with every intention of continuing.

So we spent some time looking at the best way to keep those characters fresh and how to ensure they change and grow, rather than stagnate.

Exercises

1. What legacy of experiences mark your character’s personality and preferences now? Not just past trauma, but why is s/he allergic to seafood, soppy about butterflies, nervous of men in hats? Define a least one actual experience which has marked her/him. Then decide on something which has affected your MC vicariously (ie not something experienced directly - seen on TV, overheard, urban legend).

2. What stages of development does his/her personality undergo? How does that affect relationships with other familiar characters? What are the key turning points in each book?

3. When is the reader surprised by his/her actions? When does the reader have an ‘of course s/he would do that’. Even better, when does the reader have a moment of ‘I should have known!’ regarding character development?

4. Think of one past action scene which demonstrates your character’s personality (for better or worse). Now picture your character two/three books later - how would that behaviour change in those circumstances?

5. How other characters see your MC doesn't always reflect their true personality. That's logical - none of us is consistent or 100% honest. Look at your character from the outside. On the left hand side of a piece of paper, write down five of your character’s key values. What are the things they hold dear? Think conceptually, eg, truth, loyalty, persistence, kindness, etc

Now on the right, write down how those characteristics could be perceived by someone who hates your character. Eg, truth can be seen as rudeness, loyalty as blind devotion, persistence as pig-headedness, kindness as being a sap, etc

Triskele Books

For more detail on how each author approaches characterisation over a series, see this article.

Creative Kicks - Week 1- Voice with Nancy Freund

By Nancy Freund 
Images by Julie Lewis

Voice matters most. Aristotle’s Poetics famously revealed the Greek philosopher’s answer to the question of whether plot or character is the more essential to a good tragedy. He chose plot. Of course, if there’s no story, no building momentum, no carefully constructed pace, whether quiet or thrilling, there’s nothing worth reading. But no novel or story can stand without all three legs of its tripod: plot, character, and voice. Plot is what happens, character is by whom and to whom -- both vital -- but voice reveals the real nitty gritty. Not just the narrator’s identity and personality, but more importantly, the writer’s. Voice defines the relationship between writer and reader. Especially with the inundation of media competing for our attention today, voice matters most.

If there’s no voice inviting the reader in, the reader often won’t read enough to see the plot begin to build. Your plot needs a compelling story question to pique the reader’s interest - your hook. Get the voice right, and your hook will then keep the reader’s interest, increasing their investment of time. The question, who’s telling me this story, is key. Do I want to hang out with this person, this writer, for 300 pages? Through voice, you’ll ensure the answer is yes.

In ‘Art and Fear,’ David Bayles and Ted Orland say, “To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product, the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is the process - the experience of shaping that artwork.” Although this fabulous little book is about creating visual art, it also applies to writing. But I disagree with them here. Today’s audience wants process. Readers often want an author’s photo on the book. They want a website to visit. They read interviews, attend book signings, check out google and youtube. They want to peek behind the writer’s curtains, demystify the process and the person behind it. This awareness broadens the relationship between writer and reader. It expands on what begins in the literature with voice.

Voice can be tricky. Writers can aim to give voice to people who don’t have it. Giving voice is not the same thing as delivering voice. One gives agency, the other lends atmosphere. Lifting repression or halting the silencing of marginalized people can be an important literary endeavor. But it’s not voice. Voice is more synonymous with vibe, short for vibration. Mood. Emotional response. Do you recognize and understand the personality of the writer you’re reading? Do you get the writer’s vibe? Are you vibing with the writer? Do you trust him or her? Are you intrigued to get to know him or her better? Do you read a page, or a paragraph, and want more? Literary agent Aimee Ashcraft of New York’s Brower Literary said she looks for “voicey YA that’s experimental.” She prefers “historical fantasy that’s voicey.” Basically, she wants the writer to reveal him or herself to the reader (and the agent! and the publisher!) from the word go.

Voice is the writer’s manner of expression, not the protagonist’s. The writer, the narrator, and the main character are three distinct people - unless the narrator and the main character are merged, in which case, that distinction blurs. But even if narrator and main character are tightly aligned, the writer’s voice should still be distinct. If your protagonist’s favorite thing in the world is a good old-fashioned hoe-down, your narrator doesn’t have to show up in a gingham checked shirt and over-alls. And neither do you.

Voice is consistent. The plot will sweep a full spectrum, pace will pick up and slow down, there will naturally be diversity in the work. But the emotional delivery, the way the reader connects with the writer, remains. Further, the way that writer connects with readers should be essentially consistent throughout all their work. A writer is gentle or playful or erudite or brash. Or a wild mix of delivery, page by page. But he or she presents a personality and sticks with it. Writers who cross genres sometimes use pseudonyms for differentiation. Generally speaking though, if the emotional vibe between writer and reader meets reader expectation of voice, whatever the genre, no pseudonym’s required. My best advice is to simply be you.

So how to develop voice? Five ideas:

1) Don’t overthink. Write how you speak, for a first draft. Rapido! Rapido! Get your words down on the page, fast. Use dictation software, if it helps you speak your story. I like Dragon Dictation.

2) Go easy. My high school creative writing instructor recommended beginning a story “Dear Mom,” and then you just write a letter. My mom both loved and criticized everything I wrote, so writing to her would have stymied me. But it’s a great point. Pick one person to write for, and your voice will remain consistent. Who loves what you write? Who gets you? Who brings out your good stuff? For me, it’s my friend Annie J. She doesn’t even know this! She’s awesome and fun and just formal enough, I think, to demand my attention to detail and clarity - and she wouldn’t put up with too many gratuitous swear words. She makes me a better me, even when she’s only in my imagination while I’m writing. It works for revising too - read your draft out loud as if Annie J’s in the room. You might find some good opportunities for rephrasing.

3) Slang. Use it, but don’t abuse it. If you aim for a super casual relationship with your reader that allows for f-bombs and whatever-the-hells, have at it. But if that doesn’t suit your readership, be judicious.

4) Be yourself! Be someone else! You can take on whatever voice suits your story. Know your genre. Know your market - and use the right voice, accordingly. You can ask someone to check your voice for authenticity when you’re finished. Does it sound real? Is some phrasing awkward or incorrectly used? Is it right for its time period? Be brave and ask.

5) Eavesdrop. My 8th grade creative writing teacher had us sit in a coffee shop to record nearby conversations. Today we might get busted for stalking or general weirdness doing that. Maybe you can use your phone to record people talking and transcribe the words later. Or transcribe conversations on TV shows. Copy down passages from other authors whose voices you admire. By writing it down, you develop your ear for nuance, fine-tuning vocabulary and manners of expression. Of course, conversation does not equal dialogue between characters, and dialogue does not equal voice -- but studied eavesdropping informs the dialogue between you and your reader, i.e. voice.


Nancy Freund is a writer, editor, mentor, speaker, and prior English teacher. Born in New York, raised in Kansas City, and educated in Los Angeles, she was married in England, and today lives in Switzerland. 
 She is the author of Foreword Reviews finalist for Book of the Year in General Fiction and Category Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Prize 'Rapeseed,' (Gobreau Press, 2013) 'Global Home Cooking: International Families' Favorite Recipes' which earned the Eric Hoffer Prize Honorable Mention and Amazon #1 bestseller status (2014), and 'Mailbox: A Scattershot Novel of Racing, Dares and Danger, Occasional Nakedness, and Faith' which was named a Foreword Reviews finalist for Young Adult Book of Year (2015) and a Writer's Digest Young Adult/Middle Grade finalist. 
Her writing has appeared in many journals and her radio interviews have aired on BBC London, World Radio Switzerland, and Talk Radio Europe. She holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing and an M.Ed. from UCLA. She begins work toward her Masters in Creative Writing from Cambridge this October.

website: www.nancyfreund.com
www.facebook.com/nancyfreund/
Twitter: @nancyfreund
Instagram: nancyfreund

Creative Kicks - Introduction

For the last two years, we've run a FREE summer creative writing course via Triskele Books. Ten weeks of playtime. Forget the WIP and word count. Come have some irresponsible fun.

This year, we're relocating to Words with JAM. Each week we post an exercise from a well-respected writer who invites you to participate. Share if you like, or keep it to yourself. Either is fine with us.

The course starts next week and we'll be exploring Voice, Character, Blurb, Lyrical Language, Names, Pace, Plots and Going Wild amongst others. We're very excited about our guests who can bring genuine gravitas to the topics and offer useful advice as to improvement.

Here are a few examples of our most popular posts from the previous courses:

Story Fundamentals by Emma Darwin

Characters Inhabiting Their World by Sunny Singh via Catriona Troth

Flirting with Subtext by Jason Donald

Join us every Wednesday (or whenever suits you) for half an hour of muscle-flexing. Even if you don't write poetry, just give lyrical language a go. Try out an exercise on scientific world-building. Use creative moves you've not tried before. You might be surprised.



This summer, we hope you get all the kicks you want.


Next week, Nancy Freund on Voice.

Images by Julie Lewis

The Industry View - Creative Writing MA

The Creative Writing MA by distance learning, and why I have no regrets

By Liz Monument

A Creative Writing MA is a notoriously expensive investment and, in terms of distance learning, it’s also a relatively new phenomenon. When I began mine at Lancaster in 2011, it was one of only two on-line courses available. Now, in 2016, a google search brings up so many options that they run to several pages.

Twenty or so years ago, an agent would pick up a new writer and would be prepared to work with that writer for up to two years in order to produce a polished debut novel. Then a couple of serious recessions impacted the publishing industry, and the internet altered the nature of publishing. Publishers became more risk averse, and agents had no choice but to follow suit. Today, agents will only take on a novelist who is virtually ready to be put straight out into the public arena. Authors still have to do their training somewhere, but the system has conspired to ensure this is at the author’s cost and not the publisher’s, both in terms of time and money.

Enter the education system, sometimes with seductive promises that ‘anybody can write’ (I have known at least one well-known University use this slogan in its advertising campaign), effectively offering to sell any paying member of the public the dreamed-of chance to find themselves on the other side of a signing table. The truth is that education is now an industry, and universities are smart enough to cash in on your dreams, because like it or not, writing is just like any other job out there: not everybody can do it.

My own distance learning MA experience was brilliant, and a choice I will never regret having made. I’d reached a glass ceiling in my writing where, after several novels, my enthusiasm repeatedly fell flat as they reached their final stages. I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t work out what. Enrolling on the MA to sort out this dilemma wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I didn’t have the £6,000 fee, so after four years of telling myself no, you can’t do this, I finally re-mortgaged my house to find the money, and took the plunge. My biggest fear was discovering that I simply didn’t make the grade and that I’d better give up and start origami or flower arranging instead. I knew the MA was, in a way, my dreaded watershed moment.

 

My tutors were all published novelists, poets and short story writers with a plethora of industry awards to their names. Between them, they had a huge amount of educational experience. Just because you write doesn’t mean that you can teach people to write, so both publication and teaching experience are essential for good tutors. Before I joined the course, I thought I had a handle on the basic differences between genres. I followed various literary agents and read authors’ blogs, and I had a general understanding of how the publishing industry works. It took my MA to teach me that there are many more styles of novel out there than I’d realised, and that there are good, mediocre and pretty poor examples of each on the bookshelves. With some guided reading suggestions from a tutor and a wider selection of book reviews offered by my MA cohort, the reading I amassed proved a positive influence on my prose.

Nothing makes you perform like a date in the diary. Rather than winging it alone, the MA provides along-the-way critiquing which shapes your work as you go. This means that you’re constantly refining both your prose and your intentions, rather than tackling 80,000 words plus before anybody else gets to tell you what they think. The submissions for MA prose samples vary between 1,000 words and 3,000 words. At Lancaster, these submissions go alternately to your tutor, and to your conference group. Fortunately, there are several members in each group, so any weaker links (in the form of people who either rip your work to shreds for the fun of it, or are just plain nice because they can’t be bothered to be constructive) shouldn’t ruin your experience of the course. I was lucky: both my tutor Sarah and my conference group Dee, Ericka and Olivia were amazingly supportive, and have remained firm friends.

Two years of part-time study later, my MA novel Frozen was shortlisted for Mslexia’s unpublished novel competition (2013), and signed by The Viney Agency (2014). Frozen was re-named The Eternity Fund (the Disney musical Frozen saw to that!) and was subsequently published as a talking book by Audible.co.uk in 2015.

I was so impressed by the MA system that I’m now a part-time PhD Creative Writing student, distance learning again at Lancaster. The fees are more manageable for PhD (at the time of writing, £2,000 per annum), and the regular tutor contact keeps me focussed and broadens my exposure to critical work and contemporary fiction. I can’t imagine detaching my writing from the academic process, simply because it has transformed me from an eager student into a published novelist. I may have got there on my own eventually, but I’m sure it would’ve taken much longer. However, the fact remains that the MA isn’t for everyone, as reflected by literary agent Charlie Viney, who notes that: ‘Creative Writing MAs have proliferated over the last 20 years and offer clear advantages to would-be writers, not least the process of peer group review. Do all courses realistically reflect the challenging climate for debut novelists with British and American publishers? I’m far from sure.’

If your concerns are financial, and you simply can’t afford to enrol on an MA, there are plenty of excellent short writing courses staffed by published authors who are also experienced teachers. Many take place in retreats where you will have the delight of switching off daily life to focus purely on your art.

Liz Monument’s second novel Jennifer’s Garden is currently being read by publishers in the UK and US; her third novel Ring-O-Thorns is in progress. Liz taught music for 20 years before becoming a full-time writer; to read fiction extracts, visit www.lizmonument.com

Liz is represented by Charlie Viney at The Viney Agency, Telegraph Hill, London www.thevineyagency.com