Hi.
Just came back from a holiday in Bali. Interesting times, it was really nice.
I found I could write over there, my mind space was more free, less responsibilities, distractions, work, family life...It was really good. I felt like I could breathe...
I hope to create some new work this New Year. Returning to university, my love.
So, I will keep you posted on more work. My second book of poetry will be published soon, mainly about my brother and best friend. I always planned three books of poetry, one red, one green and one blue.
Red symbolising the anger I fled from my husband and the years of conflict, the green representing walking the path, peace, journeys, and that will represent walking along the stream of grief but experiencing peace and the blue; possibilities opening up, hope and new life.
This is the plan, and the green one will be published next. The red one is already published. It is for me a chronicle of my life at this time.
Showing posts with label creative writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative writing. Show all posts
2 Dec 2010
26 Nov 2009
More novel writing until it is finished...
So university is finished for the year for me. I am seeking to keep writing this novel and letting the story and central character reveal itself and herself to me as I go. I am resisting the idea of editing and being critical at this point. I am following the advice of many published authors who have said or written they wrote solidly for a number of years before they actually got the techniques or the craft of writing novels to where they felt it became more effortless. Phillip Meyer said he got better at writing good work, because he wrote for a few years with no success and probably bad writing until he understood intuitively how to successfully put the narrative together.
In many things practice makes perfect and writing is no different. I am seeking to write this narrative, for my own enjoyment as well as I would like to tell Sarah's story and to finish another novel. I have finished one. Peter Carey wrote three before he was well received by a publisher. I have realised I have written short stories for many, many years probably 20 years or more, and I have an idea how to write a short story. Now I have only been attempting novels for about five years, on and off, and only having finished one completely.
I am definitely learning from my university study and from feedback from tutors or other people and reading other novels. But, actually writing is going to teach me the most! So I want to do this every day. I wrote 1100 words today in an hour. That is not that hard is it?
Hemingway said to leave your idea with inspiration left so you are spurred onto continue the next day. Write so that you want to come back to it the next day. He even advocated not thinking that much about it until the next day and letting your unconscious work on it. He said reading other authors was a good idea so you didn't think too much about your work. I think this is good advice. It's good to have an excitement about what you are writing for the next installment.
In my novel I have an idea of the scenes I am going to write. They are in my mind. This morning I wrote some of them. I have also learnt that I need to slow my work down. To create scenes in a more full way. These are things you learn from feedback. I wonder if being a journalist goes against me in some ways cause our articles have to be so sparse and economical with words. I need to take the time to create atmosphere in the scene. I find I understand how it works in a short story but I need to translate this into my novels, exploring characters and backstory in a deeper and more interesting way. This novel I am writing I am seeking to work out how best to put in backstory and I am revealing things about her background through dialogue etcetera.
Peter Carey said in an interview with me, that each chapter he writes is like a mosaic tile, very important to the overall effect of the novel. He is so right. In each chapter, a sense of suspense, tension and climax should be created, so the reader is riveted and wanting to read onto the next chapter.
Once I finish my film subject next semester, I am thinking of giving university a break for a bit, so I can focus on writing. However, we will see, stay tuned for next year. I do love university. I found that it rushed my work last semester and this novel needs to breathe and live. But hopefully over this break I can write some substantial chunks of it. I wish to complete this novel for myself, and then rewrite it. According to what I have read, Jane Austen rewrote a lot of her novels so I need to get better at this skill.
These are my current thoughts. I have enjoyed writing this morning. I am going to try and maintain this momentum with this novel. Thanks for reading. If you are a writer, I hope your work is going well.
In many things practice makes perfect and writing is no different. I am seeking to write this narrative, for my own enjoyment as well as I would like to tell Sarah's story and to finish another novel. I have finished one. Peter Carey wrote three before he was well received by a publisher. I have realised I have written short stories for many, many years probably 20 years or more, and I have an idea how to write a short story. Now I have only been attempting novels for about five years, on and off, and only having finished one completely.
I am definitely learning from my university study and from feedback from tutors or other people and reading other novels. But, actually writing is going to teach me the most! So I want to do this every day. I wrote 1100 words today in an hour. That is not that hard is it?
Hemingway said to leave your idea with inspiration left so you are spurred onto continue the next day. Write so that you want to come back to it the next day. He even advocated not thinking that much about it until the next day and letting your unconscious work on it. He said reading other authors was a good idea so you didn't think too much about your work. I think this is good advice. It's good to have an excitement about what you are writing for the next installment.
In my novel I have an idea of the scenes I am going to write. They are in my mind. This morning I wrote some of them. I have also learnt that I need to slow my work down. To create scenes in a more full way. These are things you learn from feedback. I wonder if being a journalist goes against me in some ways cause our articles have to be so sparse and economical with words. I need to take the time to create atmosphere in the scene. I find I understand how it works in a short story but I need to translate this into my novels, exploring characters and backstory in a deeper and more interesting way. This novel I am writing I am seeking to work out how best to put in backstory and I am revealing things about her background through dialogue etcetera.
Peter Carey said in an interview with me, that each chapter he writes is like a mosaic tile, very important to the overall effect of the novel. He is so right. In each chapter, a sense of suspense, tension and climax should be created, so the reader is riveted and wanting to read onto the next chapter.
Once I finish my film subject next semester, I am thinking of giving university a break for a bit, so I can focus on writing. However, we will see, stay tuned for next year. I do love university. I found that it rushed my work last semester and this novel needs to breathe and live. But hopefully over this break I can write some substantial chunks of it. I wish to complete this novel for myself, and then rewrite it. According to what I have read, Jane Austen rewrote a lot of her novels so I need to get better at this skill.
These are my current thoughts. I have enjoyed writing this morning. I am going to try and maintain this momentum with this novel. Thanks for reading. If you are a writer, I hope your work is going well.
25 Mar 2009
Disgrace by Coetzee
Hello
I just finished the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee. I loved his simple style and the way he used plain sentences that drew the reader into the narrative. The opening line is just superb about how this character has solved the problem of sex, for a divorced man of 52. Characterisation like this is enviable. His whole personality is expressed in this beginning and the novel unravels his demise at it progresses. Basically, he rapes a young student in his course at university. I found him detestable in the beginning of the novel but by the end not so horrible.
HIs faults became moderated and I think he achieved some self knowledge, even in the fact that he realised he had little self knowledge that is a form of honesty in itself. People living in denial do not know they are doing so, if they did know then they would no longer be living in it. :)
It was mentioned at university that he doesn't change throughout the novel. I do not agree with this. When I read the end of the novel he shows he has changed. Ever so slightly, but he has changed, his perspective, he starts to use the word love and he starts to believe animals have souls and he wants to protect his daughter. He has sex with an older lady who is not beautiful and starts to realise that his desires will not always be able to filled. He still has them but he resigns himself to a different life.
A novel that I didn't particularly like in the beginning did engage me by the end. The women characters seemed to be somewhat oppressed throughout the novel. Except for his daughter, who the reader feels slightly annoyed by for some of the novel but by the end she seems to make sense. She is seeking to be different, kind, and peaceful, and these things seem ridiculous when faced with violence and brute force. However, she is the most together character by the end of the novel.
There is a wonderful beauty in her embracing the ugliness of the situation around her and a wonderful scene where she is picking flowers in the garden and the sun is shining on her back. I think this novel - though it shows black African people as cunning and conniving, achieved some very subtle characterisation with the main characters.
The two African men and the down trodden African women in the book are less desirable characters. In fact the main black African character - David Lurie likes him in the beginning but in the end cannot abide him. So I know there will be racist interpretations about this. Sometimes though there are characters of certain racial backgrounds that we create that are not nice but this does not mean it is inherently racist. These were the particular characters in this story.
The white professor is not spared, he is violent in his own way, he takes sex from women and then drops them back onto the street. He is no better than the men who rape his daughter. So I think this is Coetzee's point. It is the women who have to put up with this situation. They are the wives, daughters, students, and veterinarians helping animals.
I cannot work out whether he has painted them with dignity or not, there is a comment on women and their subjugation that is a side issue, however, maybe as a woman these things are heightened for me. Women seem victims in this book but some of them rise above it, like his daughter, like the vet, like his ex wife, who seems strong and some don't I guess that is real. In some ways, they seem to make more sense than the men who are acting on impulse and their animal desires.
No wonder it won the Booker Prize, however I can also see that people could really dislike this book, for many reasons. But overall it has had a lasting effect on me. One thing was there was not a lot of beauty in it. But the characters stood out as real, and compelling and that is a major accomplishment!
I just finished the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee. I loved his simple style and the way he used plain sentences that drew the reader into the narrative. The opening line is just superb about how this character has solved the problem of sex, for a divorced man of 52. Characterisation like this is enviable. His whole personality is expressed in this beginning and the novel unravels his demise at it progresses. Basically, he rapes a young student in his course at university. I found him detestable in the beginning of the novel but by the end not so horrible.
HIs faults became moderated and I think he achieved some self knowledge, even in the fact that he realised he had little self knowledge that is a form of honesty in itself. People living in denial do not know they are doing so, if they did know then they would no longer be living in it. :)
It was mentioned at university that he doesn't change throughout the novel. I do not agree with this. When I read the end of the novel he shows he has changed. Ever so slightly, but he has changed, his perspective, he starts to use the word love and he starts to believe animals have souls and he wants to protect his daughter. He has sex with an older lady who is not beautiful and starts to realise that his desires will not always be able to filled. He still has them but he resigns himself to a different life.
A novel that I didn't particularly like in the beginning did engage me by the end. The women characters seemed to be somewhat oppressed throughout the novel. Except for his daughter, who the reader feels slightly annoyed by for some of the novel but by the end she seems to make sense. She is seeking to be different, kind, and peaceful, and these things seem ridiculous when faced with violence and brute force. However, she is the most together character by the end of the novel.
There is a wonderful beauty in her embracing the ugliness of the situation around her and a wonderful scene where she is picking flowers in the garden and the sun is shining on her back. I think this novel - though it shows black African people as cunning and conniving, achieved some very subtle characterisation with the main characters.
The two African men and the down trodden African women in the book are less desirable characters. In fact the main black African character - David Lurie likes him in the beginning but in the end cannot abide him. So I know there will be racist interpretations about this. Sometimes though there are characters of certain racial backgrounds that we create that are not nice but this does not mean it is inherently racist. These were the particular characters in this story.
The white professor is not spared, he is violent in his own way, he takes sex from women and then drops them back onto the street. He is no better than the men who rape his daughter. So I think this is Coetzee's point. It is the women who have to put up with this situation. They are the wives, daughters, students, and veterinarians helping animals.
I cannot work out whether he has painted them with dignity or not, there is a comment on women and their subjugation that is a side issue, however, maybe as a woman these things are heightened for me. Women seem victims in this book but some of them rise above it, like his daughter, like the vet, like his ex wife, who seems strong and some don't I guess that is real. In some ways, they seem to make more sense than the men who are acting on impulse and their animal desires.
No wonder it won the Booker Prize, however I can also see that people could really dislike this book, for many reasons. But overall it has had a lasting effect on me. One thing was there was not a lot of beauty in it. But the characters stood out as real, and compelling and that is a major accomplishment!
9 Mar 2009
Novel Idea (Noodle)
Why do they call it a novel noodle? I am not sure. Well I have to take a novel idea to university today and it is clear my novel idea is no longer the same. Over a year ago I had a clear novel idea and had developed this idea fully and written a plan and everything and then major events happened in my life and now this novel has changed. It has to change.
I no longer wish to write the narrative that I had devised. But now I am a little bit lost with whether I should try to tweak the idea and still use it or start a new one.
I seem to have these commitment issues to novel ideas. This happened when I did Veny's Year of the Novel. The problem for me at the moment is that I have lots of short story ideas and the longer piece is eluding me. But I need to take something. So I am feeling a little apprehensive about the fact that it is not fully formed.
The tutor tells me you can use an idea you have right now but everyone in my tut are so sure about their narratives and so well into the novels. As usual I am the one who is artistically unsure of which one to commit to or rather had one that I cannot write anymore. It has changed but to what?
Anyway, it's all interesting and crazy. Maybe I just like living closer to the edge or something. I have to have an idea I am sure of and that I love otherwise how will I be able to present it to the tut class? In the tuts they make you share out loud writing and ideas, however writers are interior people. I don't understand why we have to be exposed every week, when most of our lives if we get published will be discussing final products that have been edited and worked on for years.
Why should we read out something we have scrawled in a few minutes and feel so vulnerable when if we become published authors, journalists like me will interview us and we can comment on what we have done, not write something half baked for the journalist to snigger at in the interview.
I will keep you posted. If anyone else has had doubts about their novel. Let me know. I should get back to my Novel Noodle they call it. Why Noodle? Anyway it's all fun and games...
I no longer wish to write the narrative that I had devised. But now I am a little bit lost with whether I should try to tweak the idea and still use it or start a new one.
I seem to have these commitment issues to novel ideas. This happened when I did Veny's Year of the Novel. The problem for me at the moment is that I have lots of short story ideas and the longer piece is eluding me. But I need to take something. So I am feeling a little apprehensive about the fact that it is not fully formed.
The tutor tells me you can use an idea you have right now but everyone in my tut are so sure about their narratives and so well into the novels. As usual I am the one who is artistically unsure of which one to commit to or rather had one that I cannot write anymore. It has changed but to what?
Anyway, it's all interesting and crazy. Maybe I just like living closer to the edge or something. I have to have an idea I am sure of and that I love otherwise how will I be able to present it to the tut class? In the tuts they make you share out loud writing and ideas, however writers are interior people. I don't understand why we have to be exposed every week, when most of our lives if we get published will be discussing final products that have been edited and worked on for years.
Why should we read out something we have scrawled in a few minutes and feel so vulnerable when if we become published authors, journalists like me will interview us and we can comment on what we have done, not write something half baked for the journalist to snigger at in the interview.
I will keep you posted. If anyone else has had doubts about their novel. Let me know. I should get back to my Novel Noodle they call it. Why Noodle? Anyway it's all fun and games...
5 Jun 2008
Lost some of my work...
Don't you hate it when you have written something you are really happy with and then you discover you have saved over it or lost it? Well that is what has happened to me. A part of my novel that I enjoyed writing has now disappeared. Dissipated out into the air. The words, letters that created the piece have gone.
I want to be like Peter Carey and Ernest Hemmingway who didn't care. Peter Carey said he routinely threw out good writing to challenge himself to do even better work and Ernest Hemmingway in A Moveable Feast lost his whole first novel, left it in manuscript form in a taxi. He didn't care that much. They had a robust attitude to their writing and didn't believe in holding onto things. I will get to that soon. I will write the piece again and it will hopefully be better than it was before. That is very possible- everything needs work after the first draft anyway.
Anyway I wanted to write this blog, knowing there will be other writers who have had this happen and can empathise with me. One must let go and hold our pieces lightly. If I wrote it once I can challenge myself to do it again.
I want to be like Peter Carey and Ernest Hemmingway who didn't care. Peter Carey said he routinely threw out good writing to challenge himself to do even better work and Ernest Hemmingway in A Moveable Feast lost his whole first novel, left it in manuscript form in a taxi. He didn't care that much. They had a robust attitude to their writing and didn't believe in holding onto things. I will get to that soon. I will write the piece again and it will hopefully be better than it was before. That is very possible- everything needs work after the first draft anyway.
Anyway I wanted to write this blog, knowing there will be other writers who have had this happen and can empathise with me. One must let go and hold our pieces lightly. If I wrote it once I can challenge myself to do it again.
21 Jan 2008
New Poetry Book
Hello
I have recently been writing poetry and I have just published a collection called A Pocket Full of Poesy. If you want to check it out or purchase it click on the below link.
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=877719
Thanks a lot for your visit, it is good to see you.
Suzanne
Colourful and lively.
23 Jan 2008
I have recently been writing poetry and I have just published a collection called A Pocket Full of Poesy. If you want to check it out or purchase it click on the below link.
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=877719
Thanks a lot for your visit, it is good to see you.
Suzanne
Reviews:
I happened to notice A Pocket Full of Poesy by Suzanne Strong and thought it a good idea to comment on something other than novels.
Beauty Divine, the first poem of the collection, had so many levels but I will only talk of my immediate response. My first impression was that it wasn't about a plant at all but a person whose harsh life had moved to an even harsher death. 'Down to a solitary green stem' brought to mind someone who was in the last stages of cancer - such sadness.
Still, the poem had hope, as if in death (whether a plant or person) there is life around the corner, though to me it was filled with hurt.
I don't read that much poetry so I may be completely off track but I will say it was a powerful and emotional string of words.
Constant, the second poem made me smile though I still feel there was an aura of sadness about it. Poetry of course is like music, helping us dance with those difficult emotions that roll around inside waiting for release.
Poignant indeed but well constructed and certainly something to think about.
Julie Elizabeth Powell, author of Gone
Beauty Divine, the first poem of the collection, had so many levels but I will only talk of my immediate response. My first impression was that it wasn't about a plant at all but a person whose harsh life had moved to an even harsher death. 'Down to a solitary green stem' brought to mind someone who was in the last stages of cancer - such sadness.
Still, the poem had hope, as if in death (whether a plant or person) there is life around the corner, though to me it was filled with hurt.
I don't read that much poetry so I may be completely off track but I will say it was a powerful and emotional string of words.
Constant, the second poem made me smile though I still feel there was an aura of sadness about it. Poetry of course is like music, helping us dance with those difficult emotions that roll around inside waiting for release.
Poignant indeed but well constructed and certainly something to think about.
Julie Elizabeth Powell, author of Gone
It has a very special way of being human, which so much poetry seems to lose, and I love the down to earth voice it has. It's brilliance is really in its simplicity.
Colourful and lively.
23 Jan 2008 by jadzia1994
Suzanne's poetry book has a great start to it. The poems I have read are colourful and lively and bode well for more of the same. Her style is jaunty and playful full of fun and joy of life. I love her poetry it's just my cup of tea, and I'm sure it will be yours too.
Regards Anne Rogers
Author of The Shift Worker (Poetry)
Regards Anne Rogers
Author of The Shift Worker (Poetry)
[ Reply ]
23 Sept 2007
Moving Forward
My novel in my mind and on paper is moving forwards. I am really keen to get a first draft done of this novel, and then start rewriting. I am reading The Dirty Beat, by Venero Armanno. A great book full of beauty, empathy and strong characters.
There is something mysterious in art, a piece of work that takes people to a different place, like the Heart of Darkness did to me when I was a teenager, transported me, mesmerised me, and like the Snows of Kilamanjaro did to me at university and the Unbearable Lightness of Being, Cry the Beloved Country and many other books. They draw you in and change you. They affect you and remain with you for the rest of your life. Well that's what good books do to me, profound books. Not just a book that is enjoyable but ones that affect you for the rest of your life.
Some books I enjoy their style and structure and I admire the way the novel is written but there are other books that remain forever dear to me, close to me, intimate friends. Music can be the same, intimate. I would love to create something close to this.
There is something mysterious in art, a piece of work that takes people to a different place, like the Heart of Darkness did to me when I was a teenager, transported me, mesmerised me, and like the Snows of Kilamanjaro did to me at university and the Unbearable Lightness of Being, Cry the Beloved Country and many other books. They draw you in and change you. They affect you and remain with you for the rest of your life. Well that's what good books do to me, profound books. Not just a book that is enjoyable but ones that affect you for the rest of your life.
Some books I enjoy their style and structure and I admire the way the novel is written but there are other books that remain forever dear to me, close to me, intimate friends. Music can be the same, intimate. I would love to create something close to this.
17 Sept 2007
Reading, writing and inspiration
Once again I have quiet for a few days. Last week was noisy, but nice. I revel in quiet in my house. In fact, I feel the need to keep working rapidly because I know this time may not last forever.
I am reading Veny's book The Dirty Beat. It is rivoting. I am half way through and I only started yesterday. It is great to read something that I can't put down, some books I find exceedingly difficult to read. I went to the book launch of The Dirty Beat the other night, that was enjoyable.
I thought I would post up a picture of the forest in my backyard - because as it is getting warmer I am going to write more of my novel from my back veranda which looks out over this beautiful forest with black cockatoos cawing and wallabies standing to attention in gaps in the foliage.
5 Sept 2007
Silence, listening, reading...
This post is going to be a little rambling, as sometimes my posts are. I have not had silence for weeks and maybe months and most people in their daily lives do not have a lot of silence. I think writers need more silent times than other people. These are the times when we are thinking, creating, dreaming and hearing the voices of our characters or seeing our characters lounging on their couches, or arguing with their partners, or crying or laughing, basically, and weirdly, they are living.
I love this quote from Kate Eltham from the QWC (I am loving what she writes on the covering letter every month, I never used to read them and now I always read her musings.) which says:
"... writers who understand. They understand that I'm staring vacantly out the window because I'm thinking about my story, and not because I am a bit funny in the head. They understand that it is normal to have conversations (out loud) with my characters when I'm driving to work. They understand because they, too, are writers." (July QWC Newsletter).
Hemingway talks about listening to Gertrude Stein rant and rave about other authors and writing, even though he didn't agree with her. He just listened anyway. Listening is a lost art, I think. People exchanging ideas and politely listening until others have finished.
An inheritance that I hate the most from television, videos, games, music, modern culture is the way we don't listen to each other anymore. It's like our attention span is zero! That is what I notice about the current situation. However, there are people who listen well and these people are less exhausting to be around. I like to hear about other people's lives and stories. We will not learn anything if we lose this art altogether. It will just be about our own opinions and views on the world and there is not exchange of relationship or ideas. There is nothing interchanged between the people in conversation unless they both listen at some point to one another.
I had a great trip to Brisbane on Monday, in which I met with my friend Jenni Messina. We chatted about writing our novels, our occasional impatience with the process and our writing styles. It was wonderful to be with another person who feels the same as me and listen to her experiences and finding they were similar to mine. This is always good.
As a side point: I was extremely chuffed by Veny's comment about my chapter from my novel that it was: "extremely evocative."
I love this quote from Kate Eltham from the QWC (I am loving what she writes on the covering letter every month, I never used to read them and now I always read her musings.) which says:
"... writers who understand. They understand that I'm staring vacantly out the window because I'm thinking about my story, and not because I am a bit funny in the head. They understand that it is normal to have conversations (out loud) with my characters when I'm driving to work. They understand because they, too, are writers." (July QWC Newsletter).
Hemingway talks about listening to Gertrude Stein rant and rave about other authors and writing, even though he didn't agree with her. He just listened anyway. Listening is a lost art, I think. People exchanging ideas and politely listening until others have finished.
An inheritance that I hate the most from television, videos, games, music, modern culture is the way we don't listen to each other anymore. It's like our attention span is zero! That is what I notice about the current situation. However, there are people who listen well and these people are less exhausting to be around. I like to hear about other people's lives and stories. We will not learn anything if we lose this art altogether. It will just be about our own opinions and views on the world and there is not exchange of relationship or ideas. There is nothing interchanged between the people in conversation unless they both listen at some point to one another.
I had a great trip to Brisbane on Monday, in which I met with my friend Jenni Messina. We chatted about writing our novels, our occasional impatience with the process and our writing styles. It was wonderful to be with another person who feels the same as me and listen to her experiences and finding they were similar to mine. This is always good.
As a side point: I was extremely chuffed by Veny's comment about my chapter from my novel that it was: "extremely evocative."
22 Aug 2007
Hemmingway came down to Melbourne with me...
I have recently picked up A Moveable Feast by Hemingway and I am enjoying it immensely.
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." (Ernest Hemingway to a friend in 1950).
It is so easy to read his first person style. It flows well and is very relaxed not like some of Hemingway's short stories that can be aggressive and abrasive. But this little book is enjoyable and also very powerful. I loved Paris when I was there in 2001 just after September 11, it was as if nothing dramatic had happened in the world and nothing would touch that city.
It is amusing to read about Gertrude Stein criticising Hemingway's style of writing and saying that he was of the Lost Generation. It talks about how Hemingway and his wife deal with their poverty and about their everyday lives and about the fisher people on the Seine River. It is candid and charming.
"Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only true sad time in Paris because it was unnatural...Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again...When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed."
There are other observations of his relationship with his wife and how they spend their time and money. I can really relate to what he is talking about. He seems like a friend of mine, someone who understands how an artistic person feels about life.
It is unlike any other Hemingway I have read. He is a free spirited and generous person in this book. It is refreshing to hear about his life in Paris with authors such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce and others. To me it is a gem of a book, beautifully and soulfully written.
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." (Ernest Hemingway to a friend in 1950).
It is so easy to read his first person style. It flows well and is very relaxed not like some of Hemingway's short stories that can be aggressive and abrasive. But this little book is enjoyable and also very powerful. I loved Paris when I was there in 2001 just after September 11, it was as if nothing dramatic had happened in the world and nothing would touch that city.
It is amusing to read about Gertrude Stein criticising Hemingway's style of writing and saying that he was of the Lost Generation. It talks about how Hemingway and his wife deal with their poverty and about their everyday lives and about the fisher people on the Seine River. It is candid and charming.
"Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only true sad time in Paris because it was unnatural...Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again...When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed."
There are other observations of his relationship with his wife and how they spend their time and money. I can really relate to what he is talking about. He seems like a friend of mine, someone who understands how an artistic person feels about life.
It is unlike any other Hemingway I have read. He is a free spirited and generous person in this book. It is refreshing to hear about his life in Paris with authors such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce and others. To me it is a gem of a book, beautifully and soulfully written.
17 Jul 2007
Third Year of the Novel
Well, another Year of the Novel day has happened and this particular session was really what I needed to kick me into gear. It is always very motivating to hear other people say they have been writing religiously every weekend etc and to realise that I have not been utilising my time the way I should be.
At the moment I have some time and I am really enjoying using it for writing.
YON Number Three was great. We had a little field trip outside where we were to stalk someone and write down characteristics of them and also, create what we wanted their inner world to be. This was fun and also very good to do as an excercise. I often find myself doing this naturally, if I'm sitting at a bus stop or at a coffee shop, I like to imagine what the people are talking about, where they are going, what they're thinking, are they happy? Many things. So this excercise was good and the girls I went with were fun.
A glass of wine (only one) and a walk, what more can get your creative juices flowing? I enjoyed having conversations with the people in the breaks, discussing their projects and their lives to some degree. The
What Veny taught was excellent as well. It is always very
For example; I had been thinking about how I needed to put more detail into my novel, more beautiful detail as in the sensual details, sight, smell, sound etc and that was what he was talking about. Making sure that we use detail and make the novel a sensual experience. Of course, I have read this before and learnt it through courses but it was just what I had been thinking was lacking in my novel in the past weeks.
Veny also talked about "Verbal Sensitivity" which is constructing beautiful phrasing and making the story "sing". This is also something I had been thinking about in my work. I always want to do this. This is what we want in art, to read, see, hear something beautiful something that takes us out of the everyday and maybe even (if we're lucky) we can taste the Divine...who knows?
I love imagery, and "cadence" which is what I have written above my desk. Cadence - I need to read through my stories and chapters and writing a lot more to "hear" how it flows or doesn't as the case may be. I have long known and wanted to improve this in my work. I know that sometimes I have achieved a good melody with my words, but I think the writer is always wanting more of that and to make it better. The endless quest.
Also, he talked about "originality and accuracy" being original and not copying other's styles. I believe that even if we do attempt to copy other people's styles if you are a true artist you will be totally original anyway. For example, when I researched and read Van Gogh's letters to Theo a few years ago, he was saying how he was copying all of the greats of Dutch painting. The paintings he said were imitations of these "masters" but they were nothing like the masters, because I got to see what he was imitating and his drawings but what you could see was his individual stamp on the work. Something only he could've achieved. This amazed me and made me less afraid of that learning period where we study others and try to imitate, but hopefully we are doing our own thing really. Bob Dylan did this with Woodie Guthrie, while Bob was discovering his own voice he was seen as almost a Woodie Guthrie impersonator, because he mimicked everything down to his clothes, the way he stood and sang. However this was only for a time and now who in all of pop music history is considered one of the most original artists that has ever been if it is not Bob Dylan.
My highest compliment was paid to me the other day. Someone who read my collection of short stories, said to me:
"I really liked your collection, I thought it was really original. Especially the middle eastern story."
Originality is the biggest compliment for an artist because they know that they are doing their own thing. Really my highest achievement would be to be considered completely different to anything that's going on. We can only dream. However, I lived on that compliment and it still makes me feel good now. (You've got to take what you can get...hey?)
Thirdly, he talked about intelligence and using our wit to make our stories interesting, amusing and to question the way things are. This is also something I love to do through my writing. I remember reading "The Lives of Girls and Women" in Year 9 at school, being taught by my lesb
I have also, interestingly enough, started to think about the humour topic as well for my novel.
There is fortunately a lot of humour that I can draw into my new novel idea and before the session I was thinking about how I can incorporate this to make it more fresh and interesting to read. So this was another area, where I went "yes, I have been thinking about this...excellent."
Anyway, consequently I am very motivated in the last few days to keep moving forward with my novel.
However, there has been one snag due to the antagonist, whilst present in memories and phone calls, is not physically present throughout the whole novel. This is a large problem that I will have to address in some way...difficult, but I am ever so grateful that I am doing YON because at least I know where I am going wrong, otherwise I would be labouring in the dark. I am very glad I can see where the problem is and that I can change it before I go too far. I am very happy to be doing the YON and Veny has been extremely helpful with certain issues with my novel. Also, the people are wonderful to spend the day with, funny, attentive and interesting.
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