Jonathan

Just dropping in quickly to say hello, and to apologise for my absence for the last few weeks. Will try and catch up soon. (Nanowrimo kind of took over).

Yes that sounds good WB. Thank you.

I would appreciate a bit of space right now because as @janeshuff says I’m really enjoying the process, but I have a lot of other time pressures right now. It would be good to feel I had a little bit more time to wallow in each part of the course. That’s just for now, I hasten to add – the pacing of it is spot…[Read more]

Brilliant, thank you @squidge!

Ha! Thanks @Squidge for the Julie Cohen notes, and I see I commented on your blog back in 2013,
(tho’ never went to one of her workshops) But immediately, with this, I see the beginnings of a character emerge. Admittedly, built onto the murderer I was groping for with the various questionnaires, but certainly growing.

OK – here’s the link to Julie’s workshop at York (back in 2013! Yikes…) https://squidgesscribbles.blogspot.com/2013/09/playing-at-being-god-creating-characters.html

In this post is the link to a more creative – literally tear and stick version – way of answering questions about plot, characters etc. At the end of the post……[Read more]

I’ll try and dig them out later today. Think I might even have blogged about it, but we’re going back a few years. Also got something that might trigger the unconscious brain into devising your character…

@Squidge ooh would you mind sharing those notes? I keep hearing about Julie Cohen and her post it notes etc! And I think Kate’s talking about the Toni Morrison excerpt from ‘Recitatif’, towards the end under the Action section.

I find that whole character analysis thingy quite daunting, frankly. At the early stages I just don’t KNOW all the…[Read more]

Wonder if it’s worth doing Julie Cohen’s character idea from York? I’ll have to dig out my notes – it shows the character in action more than anything by posing a series of questions.

Starting to wonder if I read the right bit of Burroway, as I can’t remember reading anything about a waitress! Must revisit…

Afraid to say I find Burroway a bit wordy – which is ironic, given that I’m often too wordy myself! Still not had a chance to play with the characters yet…

She’s good that Burroway, isn’t she? I’m guilty of one-trick dialogue so that’s something that I’m going to work on. (I too read the whole chapter, oops). I’ve never fully explored a character before writing, just a few bits to get me going, so that’s a new way of working for me too. Though I also like the look of the Distinguishing Features exercise.

@JaneShuff – I haven’t even started the book yet, just 300 words of random scenes … but glad to hear it works for you.

Like Squidge, this is an alien way of working for me, but … I need a murderer. One who isn’t immediately identified as such. (And while I know the (probable) victim I don’t know why or how) so I’ll be attempting to discover him (probably him) with this approach.

I have bought myself a special notebook! Which is surely the start of anything worth doing, no? 🙂

I have yet to write in special notebook as I am overwhelmed by other deadlines at the moment (this month I am finishing an Aboriginal language course and my book 2 edits. I also have ongoing homework from a business/life coach we have signed up to…[Read more]

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?!

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…?