Hey anyone who's interested.
I haven't posted for such a long time. I have started uni which is really great. I live for it every week. The feedback from 20 other people reading your work is a bit grueling but also exactly what I wanted. The lectures are informative and fun. It feels like such a luxury to sit and talk about writing - compared to when I was an undergrad and I studied some subjects that weren't that exciting. Or rather weren't my passion.
But focusing on writing for three or more hours a week is heaven for me.
Craig Bolland is a really interesting and informative lecturer. He did a lecture on voice which was really great the other day.
Something I have been learning recently from being online and meeting people who connect from all around the world via a blog or your website or whatever. I have come to really appreciate chatting to people from different places, and in relation to writing we can learn a lot of nuances of language. Uk ways of speaking, American slang, people with English as a second language it is all so useful. If you are typing or chatting to someone it is very conversational and a great way to pick up how to write dialogue. It is right there for us to see.
On the internet words are the only thing you have. So I am learning that it can help my writing, particularly of dialogue and this is a pleasure. I always used to hate dialogue but after a course a few years ago I discovered the liberty and beauty of dialogue. How the author can say so much in dialogue, or in what is left out of dialogue?
I used to hate it and think I couldn't do it but now I have fallen in love with it. I am writing more stories with more dialogue in it than before. Hemingway wrote so much conversation and it was dynamic and real and harsh sometimes but it put you right there in between the two people.
So, I am really enjoying exploring dialogue, especially in relation to have different opinions expressed in a short story or novel. A character might think this and someone else might think that. This seems very exciting to me, inserting ideas into the narrative and showing differing opinions. The web of life, the beauty of the world.
Also, if you chat to writer friends I have found I start to tell stories to them. In a story way, (I think I do this in conversation too). And one friend and I were writing a dynamic comedy together whilst chatting. It was fun. I can feel the life of language on the internet. I haven't felt it before.
Craig mentioned this in his lecture, exploring different voices and tones going on the internet and playing around - he mentioned pretending to be someone else which I won't do. But the other stuff I can really understand how it can help to generate ideas, remind us of what dialogue and conversation looks like on a page.
Anyway, I have handed a short story in to uni and I will be having a consultation in another couple of weeks. So depending on how I go, I may or may not talk about it.
(: No I probably will share about the feedback.
See you later. Feel free to comment if you wish, it's always great to hear from people.
(:
5 comments:
Hey Suzanne! How would you describe your course so far.. are you aiming at completing your novel in this way, or is it more just an over-arching means of improving technical skills. I'm really interested in the different courses, as you know. My daughter turns out to be a chum of Andy Croome who just won the Vogel. He is a writing student at Melbourne Uni, and I think his winning novel was part of his PhD. She said he didn't tell anyone he had submitted or was short-listed, too modest! see ya, Barbara
Hi Barbara,
I love the new pic!
Sorry the lateness of the reply. Just finished uni now.
I have really enjoyed the course. I will explain more in an email. I have learnt a lot particularly from Craig Bolland's lectures, very dense and contain a lot of useful tips and information. I have learnt a lot from some of the other students as well which is good.
Wow, that's great about your daughter and that guy. Does your daughter study creative writing as well?
Any way we need to catch up soon for a coffee or a wine, or two wines in your case!!
Hear from you soon.
:)
Only two! Yes let's catch up although as you know I'm in Italy at the moment so it won't be for a few weeks. I've applied to Swinburne to do their Masters course in writing. I think you've influenced me to take the plunge and join a more formal university course, fingers crossed they let me in, and also that it doesn't turn out to be a massive disappointment.. I'm interested to hear more about your course, ciao for now, B
Maybe ten is more appropriate...lol.
Wow, that would be cool. You were such a sceptic. I thought that course looked very theoretical or maybe I am thinking of another one.
Let me know what it is like. I want to do a Masters after this. What are the requirements to get in?
How is Italy? How beautiful. I wish I could be travelling around like that...one day soon.
Hear from you soon, have a wine for me in some beautiful location.
:)
I''m in Venice, which is complex but straightforward in some weird way because of the vaporetti, they're so much like trams that getting lost is easy to remedy.. just get back on again and go back the same way - maybe tonight a vino or two but I need to be able to lurch home without interception! ciao, B
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