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About writing. About reading. A blog for writers:the published, the performing and the emerging. A blog for readers who can travel through time and space with the right book, the right story.
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Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I've moved.
I've packed up, wiped down the insides of the cupboard, emptied the rubbish bin.
And now I have a NEW BLOG over on wordpress
It's nice. You'll like it.
Here's my new address. Come on over....
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: competition, Twitter, writing competition, free to enter, Add a tag
Other people do crosswords, writers work on sonnets or competitions like this.
Why not...if you complete a crossword, you just complete a crossword....
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Carol Anne Duffy, Olympics, story telling, suspense, Add a tag
My husband's almost glad: he feared that taekwondo was going to be too steep a learning curve. In 17 days he had mastered the nicities of dressage and dive scoring and came to understand the concentration required in clay shooting. For one brief glorious moment he knew what it meant to be a coxless pair with the taste of victory in your mouth and experienced the thrill of escaping elimination in cycling contests, but he wasn't sure he was going be a good enough spectator for the taekwondo contestants.
If you are a writer who wants to write a page-turning unputdownable epic, I recommend watching Mo Farah's 5000 metres race. It was suspense distilled into 13:41.66 minutes.
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: creative writing, homework, students, Add a tag
Cathy Dreyer - a student on Oxford University’s Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing - posted her suggestion here in a LOL short story that won a £50 prize. Students do not copy! (the story or the way the protagonist handed in homework).
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Meave Binchy, Irish writer, Add a tag
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Family History, nature writing, Brighton, Beginners, Advanced, creative writing courses, 60-minute writer, Family biography, City Lit, Holborn, Add a tag
Courses take a lot of planing and ideas for new exercises and new approaches to familiar subjects come from a diverse range of sources - a chance remark, a photograph, an article in Sunday supplement.
Last night after a dinner party I suddenly saw how I could use titles from Philip K. Dick's books to spark new and original writing and went straight to my laptop to plan a lesson instead of heading for the kitchen sink and the washing up...can't think why. What's else on offer next term?
Halloween and all things ghoulish, creating believable baddies, discovering how being in the moment can aid description and two entirely new courses - nature writing on the edge of the Sussex Downs and a lunch hour course in central London for busy writers who just want/need to go home after work.
I am also very glad to be running a course on writing the biography of your family again. There's nothing as interesting as people and I meet some fascinating characters in the classroom - the fact that some of them have been dead a couple of hundred years doesn't make any difference.
While the course is aimed at anyone who wants to put flesh on the bare bones of family history - a list of dates of births, deaths and marriages reveals very little by itself - it is also suitable for students who want to write the life story of a parent or grandparent.
Get in touch if you'd like to find out more.
South Portslade Community Centre
South Portslade Community Centre
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: creative writing, Hanif Kureishi, Louis Menand, creative writing courses, What the Dickens magazine, Add a tag
Author and editor Louis Menand writing in the New Yorker in 2009 questioned the way creative writing is taught
I've put the other side of the argument (surprise, surprise) in the latest issue of What the Dickens creative writing magazine. You can download it for free at http://wtd-magazine.com/
Have a peek at my article and then come back here. I'd love to know what you think, especially if you've ever been on a creative writing course (including one of mine!)
D
This is a short post to everyone who attended this year's Summer School - it was a blast.
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: novel, editing, competition, three day novel writing, Add a tag
Doing anything the beginning of September? No? Then you might want to consider taking part it a 35 year old literary marathon that has produced 25 published novels in its time and a lot of tired writers. The competition is international and differs from NaNoWriMo
- It's shorter - a month is so-o-o-o long
- It costs to register
- There are prizes
The actual writing AND editing must begin no earlier than 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, September 1, and must stop by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 3. It's run on the honour system but they do ask you to give details of a witness who can verify that you've obeyed the rules.
There are no limits to the novel’s length, but they expect something in the region of 25,000 - 30,000 words. I may sound a bit picky but that's not really a novel - it's more like a very long short story. I'm not knocking it though - that's 30,000 words entrants might not have written otherwise - 30,000 words that could grow into something big and important. I approve of seat of the pants writing, where you're forced to convert all the ideas you've had floating in your head into ink and paper, forgetting the niceties of the semi colon and proper meal times.
I guess the organisers will get suspicious if you submit a proper novel length submission (that's usually reckoned to be between 80,000 and 100,000 words) accurately typed with evidence of immaculate copy editing. They say they can always tell if someone has cheated...and I bet they can, because I cannot understand why they don't let you edit afterwards. It just doesn't make sense (like some of the manuscripts submitted, I presume).
72 hours of burning fast writing sounds great - sounds like the kind of creative kickstart some of us need (hand goes up) - but editing is done with an ice cold pen, ripping out scenes, squelching witty asides and strangling endearing characters because they don't serve any useful purpose in the story. And you need distance to do that - at least a week (Aristotle recommended nine years) but definitely not during that white hot creating phase.
What do you think?
Anyone done something like this? Can you edit and write at the same time?
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Book covers, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lion, C.S.Lewis, Aslan, The Silver Chair, marshwiggles, Add a tag
Did you fall in love with the Narnia books as a child?
A rare first edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is up for auction later this week. It is expected to make around £12,000 because it is signed with love from Jack Lewis - a name that the great man only used with his family and small circle of close friends. The owner was the son of a very good friend and he was given it Christmas 1950.
One thing's for sure and that is book covers have improved in the last 60 years. This one manages to make riding on the back of a lion look dull - turning Aslan into a rather large pet
I don't think the cartoon version is much better. Aslan just looks cross.
This Walt Disney DVD cover is an improvement - at least it's clear that this is not an out of Africa story.
While the modern paperback is frosty with venom, making it clear that it is tale about a world where it always winter and never Christmas.
I'm more envious of the other gift bestowed on the young Nicholas Hardie - something that can't be auctioned. The Silver Chair was dedicated to him as a child and I think it is my favourite Narnia books with the unforgettable Puddleglum as the star. It is probably nostalgia that makes me like this cover - there's not a marshwiggle in sight, or hungry giants, or a black knight. Apart from that it's just fine.
I
The story must be on the theme of ‘THE LIE’ and not more than 3,000 words in length – but flash fiction fans please note that the organisers specifically say that there is no minimum length.Deadline: August 16 2012
More essential information from the Book Guild website. Find out all the the rules - and follow them to the letter. They matter. They are the difference between falling at the first hurdle without even being read and giving yourself and your writing a chance.
*City Reads is a fantastic Brighton festival held every autumn. Every year one book by one author is chosen for the whole community to read, discuss, debate and creatively engage with in a series of special events, workshops and performances. This year it is a novel set in Brighton for the first time ever - My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: free listings, What the Dickens magazine, Add a tag
Meanwhile check out how you can use the free listings and resources section on the website and in the magazine to promote the things that are important to you.
For the blog entry, just send a link and we will press straight from the page onto the blog. If no link is available then e-mail the details.
London Literary organisation Spread the Word has teamed up with Phrased & Confused, and Dartington Festivals to offer a unique professional development opportunity for London writers.
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Lorna Doone, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dr Seuss, James Patterson, rejection, Gone with the Wind, Lord of the Flies, rejection letter, Dune, Add a tag
Every night there are publishers and agents who go to sleep knowing that they held the manuscript of Harry Potter in their hands and turned it down.
I don't know for sure how many times it was rejected - every source quotes a different figure - but it seems safe to say quite a few.
So here are a few more famous rejections to give you heart if you've ever been on the receiving end of I'm-afraid-your-book-doesn't fit-into-our-list kind of letter.
A recent article in The Economist quotes an author who claims to have cracked “the code” of bestsellers.
James Hall says it has to be:
fastPLUS
emotionally chargedwritten simply
It should have a maverick hero who is in over his head (hmm...does it have to be a HE?).
In addition, the story must revolve around a thorny issue and include an important sexual incident.
Looking back at recent mega selling books, it's hard to argue against his main points, but I'm wary of anyone who describes the plot of Jane Eyre as rich man with issues falls for innocent young lass.
He seems to forget that the book is not called Mr Rochester. How about: used and abused innocent young lass falls for powerful older man but flees when she discovers his dark secret. She rejects another suitor and returns when the man she loves is at his most vulnerable.
While I may have doubts about Hall's literary analysis, I was impressed by Celia Brayfield book on the same subject BESTSELLER: secrets of successful writing.
It was recommended to me by Su Quinn who is on her way to being a bestselling author with her first novel Glass Geishas,and dear reader I bought a copy.
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As part of the celebrations marking the Queen’s Jubilee this summer,
East Grinstead Town Council is launching a Short Story/Poetry
competition.
Entry fee £3 each submission - £10 for four.
First prize in each category: £100, and a commemorative Jubilee
plaque.
Second prize in each category: £50 and a commemorative Jubilee
plaque.
Deadline is 1 May and entry is open to anyone
"who lives or works in, or has a connection to, Sussex."
- service
- reign
- queen
- soldier
- sixty
- Sussex
- England
- Sixty years? It didn’t seem possible…
- As the On Air light glowed into life, the Queen discarded her prepared speech and addressed the nation in her own words…
- She had no umbrella, so the Queen caught up her collar, glad to hide her face from the rain and from the few stragglers lingering in the thin drizzle…
- Behind the Prime Minister’s back, the Queen suppressed a giggle, pleased that a lifetime of decorum had not quite extinguished her sense of humour…
Wanted: children’s
story of between 600–800 words, starting with the line: “Once upon a
Munch Time, there was a cow called Munch…”
Closing date: midnight on 4th June 2012.
Prize is £1,000 and three runner up prizes of £500 each.
You can send your entry online and postal entries allowed and you can include a picture/image supporting their story in JPEG or PDF format not exceeding 2Mb.
BUT it won't be used in the judging process
AND the terms and conditions state
"By entering the Promotion, entrants assign the Material transmitted as part of the above Promotion and all intellectual property and other rights associated with the Material to the Promoter or its nominee unconditionally. For the avoidance of doubt, the Material may be used by the Promoter and any member of the NESTLÉ GROUP for any purpose in any media anywhere in the world, including but not limited to copying, issuing copies to the public, communication to the public, making an adaptation, or any of the aforesaid in relation to adaptations.
18. To the extent that assignment is not possible, entrants grant the Promoter and the NESTLÉ GROUP an exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence to use the Material for any purpose in any media anywhere in the world."
That's entrants remember - not winners. If I were an unpublished children's author I'd still give it a go, but I wouldn't hand over artwork or a photograph for nowt. I'm not keen on words like irrevocable, free, any media, anywhere in the world being in the same sentence.
Find out more at www.munchtime.co.uk
In these uncertain days crime fiction is becoming more popular. It seems that it's not blood, gore and a high body count that we crave but "the restoration of order" in the words of P.D. James.
If you read a lot of crime fiction. If names like Marple, Morse, Hole, Rebus, Grace and Wallander are as familiar to you as your own family then you may want to enter this interesting FLASHBANG competition.
Flashbang is crime writing in 150 words or less. For inspiration read these even shorter example here and here Somehow a whole 150 words seems generous after that.
Closing date is April 15 2012. For all the rules and other important information visit the FLASHBANG website here. First prize is two tickets to Crimefest and there are lots of other goodies to win. The website even gives details of what the judges are looking for. Here's a selection of the good advice on offer.
Flash fiction needs to grab and retain attention with immediacy. I’ll also be looking for well-crafted prose that matches the nature of a storyline which has originality and credibility.
Rhian Davies, CWA Dagger judge
Standout title. Immediate sense of place and character. Cunningly uncomplicated prose. Dearth of clichés. Cracking ending.
Sarah Hilary, award-winning flash writer
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: What the Dickens, reading, magazine, Add a tag
When I haven't been writing, I've been reading and one of the things I've been reading is What The Dickens magazine. It comes out every two months and it's good. It's very good and it's for writers and readers.
What's more it is FREE and downloadable here
http://www.wtd-magazine.com
Skylines is an innovative programme for playwrights to develop skills for Young People’s Theatre designed to develop a writer’s ability and interest in creating work for young audiences.
Blog: TWENTY TEN Bridget Whelan (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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The Irish Post is looking for an original short story of up to 3,000 words reflecting Irish life in Britain.
The winner gets free travel to Listowel Writers’ Week, which takes place May 30 - June 3, plus £500 prize money. Their work will also be published in the official Listowel
Writers’ Week brochure and in The Irish Post.
Entries can be either posted or e-mailed... Send them to: Listowel Competition, The Irish Post, Suite A, 1 Lindsey Street, London EC1A 9HP
or email [email protected]
Include the story title, your name, address and telephone number.
Closing date for entries is March 2, 2012.
For full details and updates visit www.irishpost.co.uk
- a letter to a relative you've never met
- a letter to your younger self
- Using recipes/food as a theme
- Starting with the words: I don't remember
Read all the rules carefully here. For example, they don't want email entries sent as an attachment.
Judges are Psychologies editor Louise Chunn and Helen Garnons-Williams from Bloomsbury. They will choose a winner and five runners-up from a longlist of 20, chosen by the Psychologies editorial team.
First prize - publication in Psychologies magazine and a place on a Writers’ and Artists’ course.
There will be 11 of us:
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Wordpress buggers me up every time and refuses to let me comment on anything. Sorry -I won't be following you over there.
Good luck.