Writing West Midlands Short Fiction Comp Winner

Trying to Blossom:

Great news this week from the Writing West Midlands Short Fiction Competition 2013.

Kalashnikov for Shoes is the overall winner. I’m particularly pleased with the comments from guest judge, Tiffany Murray:

‘This is a big, sweeping journey. It’s one that tells the story of these particular characters, but also one that tells a story of a whole nation. It’s hard to get such ‘bigness’ into a very short story without becoming sweeping, general, or mawkish. I think Kalashnikov for Shoes succeeds. Of course it starts with a great title.’

Click here to read the rest of her comments and links to the other winning stories.

Writing for Radio (RTE Arena Shortlisted)

RTE Radio 1’s Arena programme, together with New Island Books, is running a Creative Writing course every month, which is co-ordinated by writer Dave Lordan. Every month he gives a prompt and invites the listeners to participate. I was thrilled this month to have written one of the shortlisted stories ‘Don’t Mind Maggie!’

It was also a boost to hear Eoin Purcell, commissioning editor at New Island Books, giving positive feedback on the entries: ‘If these were the first four pages of four novels, I’d have asked for full novels from all of these writers. That’s how good they are…’

Another encouraging week!

Further details on Arena competition to be found here:

‘This month's creative writing prompt from Dave Lordan focuses on dialogue. It's called "The Universal Lottery"… Write what you have overheard in the form of a dialogue of less than 700 words and send it to arena@rte.ie by midnight on the 28th of March.’

Shortlisted

Excited, exhilarated, delighted...


...to receive the news that my story, Kalashnikov for Shoes, has been shortlisted in the
 Writing West Midlands Short Fiction Competition 2013, 
and I have been invited to read at a Celebratory Reception in Birmingham in April.

Looking forward to the final results in March.

Learn your Craft

 

Writers need to learn the craft of writing. No matter how good we were at writing essays at school, no matter how well we entertain our friends with stories, no matter how many of the classics we’ve read, we still need to practise and learn. Key advice from all the experts:

• Write every day
• Read a lot, including books that are not in your comfort zone or favourite genre
• Keep an ideas notebook

 And more specific advice...

• Lose the adjectives
• Make the verbs stronger
• Learn how to use punctuation
• Know whose point of view you’re in and don’t head hop
• Plot--know how, and when, to include a hook, trigger, first plot point, crisis, climax, 3 acts, rising action and downtime
• Action--use it to move the plot forward
• Backstory--know where, and how much, to include
• Dialogue--limit the beats, and use ‘he said’ rather than ‘he muttered, shouted, whined, or asserted.'
• Show don’t tell

 Plenty of good tips to be found at Daily Writing Tips

Over the past year, I’ve been sitting down every day to write, and feel more confident and organised. So, am I capable of applying it all? I'm sure I could take another run through punctuation at the very least, but how much more is there?  

How do you know when you’ve grasped enough to start sending out queries?

Crusty bread and a jug of wine

One of my favourite restaurants is hidden away in a hilltop village, with 350 inhabitants. And all along the street under the arcades flanked by a 14th century castle, and a 16th century covered market, there are mismatched and rickety tables and countless diners happy to spend a long afternoon in the dappled sunshine.

There’s no menu. On the table, they place a big pot of soup, usually a wholesome garbure, full of cabbage, meat, beans and goodness. The entrée is a platter of cold meats, salad, and hard-boiled eggs, or sliced tomato, Bayonne ham and melon in summer. A big basket of crusty bread, a jug of water, and a jug of table wine complete the first uninterrupted hour. 

The waiter eventually takes the order for our meat. It's served on a large platter, with garlic potatoes or chips or French beans or whatever vegetables are in season, and probably picked in their own garden. The region provides plenty of beef, veal, pork and, above all, duck. We don’t count calories around here, but they say that the particular combination of duck fat and red wine is the secret of the locals' longevity.

Dessert is ice cream or fruit. The fruit comes in a huge basket with a plate and a knife. Help yourself.

12€ for the 4-course set meal, including wine. Where is this paradise? In the picturesque village of Bassoues.

Listen! A book!

I’ve avoided e-Readers until now, because I generally only read in bed. And I like the feel of a real book. But I was tempted by the idea of listening to books when out walking, or driving so I subscribed to Audible.co.uk and purchased a few Audio books.

The first snag, when I downloaded ‘Canada’ by Richard Ford, was that I don’t have the right kind of device to listen to it on, other than my laptop. So that scuppered my plans to read when out and about! 

I was laid up for three days over Christmas and decided to listen to Canada. A wonderful experience. It’s hard to say if it would have been the same book had I read it using my eyes rather than my ears, but I loved it.

So I’m now listening to Stephen King’s '11.22.63’, another hefty book, and am finding it a pleasant way to read. I read many of King's earlier books many years ago and have only recently returned to him, and I appreciate his talent all the more. Great to watch his talks on youtube too. He's a natural comedian.

However, my bedside reading has to remain in paper format for another while because I keep falling asleep when I try to listen to an Audio book in bed.

All you need is...

... on the world wide web!

I was preparing to spend a year in Japan on the JET Programme. I tried to learn the language from a book. But I knew very little about Japan or the Japanese. I'd read 'Shogun' and that was the extent of my knowledge of the country. In pre-Celtic Tiger days there were very few foreigners living in Dublin, so I had never met or spoken to a Japanese person.

Learning is much easier when you can find what you need on the internet. To learn Spanish I've been following an audio course, but grammar and vocabulary can be dull, let's face it! So I asked for music recommendations on the web and was offered suggestions with links that lead to other links. I spent hours on youtube discovering Spanish and South American bands. Amaral's 'Como hablár' was a happy discovery.



The next phase may be to watch Spanish films, I'll purchase the DVD from the comfort of my sitting room. Then I may try to participate on a forum, and look for recommendations on where to stay this summer. Speaking to real people will be the final phase. There are many Spanish people looking for language-exchange via skype.

The danger though is getting lost on the internet. It's easy to look up one thing and find yourself clicking hither and yonder and soon you realise it's four o'clock in the morning and you still haven't checked the weather forecast. That's the real challenge these days - staying focused when there's so much information out there.