Claire Waller

I am absolutely loving doing the character questionnaires, using the characters from the splurgy and shapeless first draft of my current WIP. Like @squidge though, I am not sure if I would get so much out of doing it before I had written extensively about them. It would feel like inventing a character rather than discovering one. Has anybody tried…[Read more]

Ditto from me @katemachon . Another quote from, I think, later in the chapter is ‘There’s nothing generic about fiction’- probably misquoted as I didn’t write it down. And also from The Art of Character – ‘It’s through character that we bring the general down to earth.’I am feeling both inspired and daunted!

Or choose a character you’ve developed already and see if the character questionnaire sheds any new light. Like you, I tend to discover who they are as I write.

I’ll try…but it feels so unnatural! Maybe I’ll have to do two exercises – one that challenges and one that feels more natural?!

Yes! I think that is what the MA is all about.

I bought myself an academic diary and I’m jotting in it things I do connected to writing, especially to do with this MA.
I don’t write every day, so my target is to have at least one, hopefully two sessions a week. I’m currently NaNoing, so that’s changed the focus somewhat over this month.
I also want to go back to blogging more regularly again…[Read more]

This will be interesting for me – I don’t normally have a clear picture of a character up front – they develop as I write them – so the character questionnaire will be a real challenge. Do I stick with how I usually work or try something new…?

I hope I’ve understood what is required/suggested for this part of the course. My overall aim is to expand my range in terms of writing habits and the type of writing I do which up to now has been very focussed on writing one novel after another.

I write every day already unless I am away from home or it is really impossible.

My plan t…[Read more]

Thanks WB!

Am looking forward to Class 2 and glad it’s working out for everybody.

All OK here – finding the time to do the writing is hard at the mo, so I need to work on that, but the timings aren’t unachievable. Just that my life needs to calm down!! When does Class 2 go up?

Happy so far, but I’m aware there’s a lot more I could be doing – and will be doing…

Gorgeousness: My favourite bits were ‘afternoons draped in honey’ and ‘as cleanly as she peeled old skin from a white potato.’ I have been told I overwrite too sometimes. But what does it really mean?

I liked your I remember, too. Many of us chose to capture a single incident, or linked series, in our I remembers. I’ve also done it with…[Read more]

Going to jump in now because time and access to internet are going to be in short supply over the next week.

I am happy with how it’s going. I have no wish for it to be any quicker than it is.

Ta all! The substance in question was, I believe, CBD oil; two gents were having a very animated discussion about setting up in business to supply it.

@Raine – I am a death-dreamer, too! I’ve been shot, drowned, stabbed – really weird to feel my life ebbing away in the dream.

I think the forced thing is definitely due to the fact that I try to…[Read more]