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Competitions and Blogger

Hello there, I am not sure what is happening with Blogger but I am hoping my blog wont die in the next few days...

Anyway, I am currently trying to select some poems and maybe a story to send into a competition. I think it is good to just keep sending things into the universe and see what happens with them... : )

I am going to write a post on a novellas and I am also going to run some writing workshops for beginners. If anyone is particularly interested they can email me about it. I am running a writing therapy course for four weeks coming up in May. Writing Therapy - I call it Expressive Writing, is a superb way to release any emotions, memories or things that are holding us captive. I will post more about this later.

I thought maybe I should simply put something up on here, as I haven't communicated on here for so long.

Thanks so much for reading. I love having visitors.

The Wall

A friend reminded me the other day that I should put up the Wall on here.

So here it is.

This was from the Amazon Shorts Competition. The%20Wall.pdf

Things change so quickly...

On Saturday morning I woke up to discover the news one of my closest friends had died through a few words on Facebook that I couldn't believe were true, and still can't. Mark Foster, my close friend for 24 years had died in a motorbike accident.

Of course I grieved constantly for two days but on the second day I started to write. Writing is the way I experience life, it is like talking or breathing. I cannot go through anything without writing. If I do it remains inside me like a bomb building in pressure. I have discovered this by not writing. I cannot live without writing. If I had no paper I would probably write in the dirt.

As I wrote it poured out of me. Meaning into words, feelings released onto paper, the screen-they were concrete, embodying my grief. There is something about writing that saves me. It released me.

I believe we should cry and weep when someone dies. We are so restrained in the west. I like it in the Middle East or Europe where they wail, beat themselves, scream and make noise. There should be an impact when someone dies, when someone is gone. There should be a tangible sign they have gone. When a soul leaves, somewhere there should be an effect.

I have been given writing - to save me - to bring me through these times. That is why I believe in writing for therapy. It got me through another terrible situation I had been in previously. Now, it has released my grief. I am still sad for Mark. However, I feel as if I have something of him though now. Something that will not fade. My writing about him. It is like it has embodied him on the page for me and he has not totally gone. My thoughts and feelings for him have been captured on the paper and they will always exist. It relieves me. It's like something eternal. Someone else could read them after I have gone and these would still exist. This comforts me.

I am probably being very philosophical today because of this. Death crystalises life. It seems to be in sharper focus now. The transient nature, to seek meaning, and to give to others.

To find your life, you must lose it...

I live by these words. I am going to run some writing therapy courses and some creative writing courses.

Well, until next time, may peace be in you.

Moving house...

Hey anyone who is interested...:)

I am moving house at the moment and working a lot as well as studying, so there is not much writing happening. I am deferring university until next semester. I will do my film and television subject then.

The other day however, I thought of my main character and how she is still lying in a hospital bed, beaten up by her neighbour...a complicated story...but I am not sure where her life is going now...

She is in good company with her new Irish boy friend and her irritating mother. Roger her West Highland Terrier is waiting for her at home in her townhouse on the river at Hill End, Brisbane. It comforts me to think about her and know I will go back to her soon, to continue in her story. But for now, I am too busy. The story, the novella must go on in the background of my mind while I continue with all of the things I HAVE to do. No one is aware of the dreaming, musing and imagining that goes on in the writers mind when they are sitting on a train, bus, at a soccer field, on a beach, with a notebook...scenes, dialogue, character's thoughts, backgrounds...

However, there is a time for everything and for now my time is limited. I imagine the reader of this will understand this very well. At least I know in all of my busyness, I can still work in small increments. Quietly and patiently, the narrative can still develop, under any circumstances.

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.

New Decisions

Well, recently I had to hand in most of my first 5000 words of my novel for university. So for weeks and weeks I have struggled with a lack of plot direction and with a block...a total block. Blank. So I kept writing anyway and wrote some scenes for this character's life. It was enjoyable actually. I like her. She is fun to spend time with. :)

So after a lot of stress about the piece and realising that what I handed into my class did not possess a great story line, I woke up this morning and a plot line came to me fully formed. A plot with depth and potential for exploration of character and a story of intrigue and interest. It was a bit irritating because it didn't come to me a few weeks ago. But this is the beauty of art, things don't turn up on schedule.

It's like Bono from U2 said about one of their recordings that wasn't going well and nothing was working. He said they were "waiting for God to show up." I feel like God showed up for me this morning. Inspiration. It makes me excited when I can see a story line that I can explore. So yesterday I felt terrible and demoralised about this piece and now I feel like I want to commit to this one. And see it to its completion.

So, anyway. This post was going to be about how I was giving up university-but I am going to put off that decision now. What I do know is that I need time to write and develop my novel so maybe after semester 1 next year I will take some time off. Who knows? That is a long time away. Anyway, so on with the new plot.