Iris Lavell's Blog, page 2
April 21, 2014
Writing tip 20 - Find your peer group
While writing is a largely solitary activity, it can be helpful to meet up with one or two (or a few) writing friends from time to time, to discuss progress, read, or simply connect.
If you look at the list of acknowledgements in any debut novel you will get a sense of the collaboration that takes place throughout the process.
Finding your group is not necessarily as easy as simply linking up with a couple of others who are writing. One of the functions of the Book Length Project Group is to bring a wide range of writers of various levels of experience together. As they network they can talk and get a feel for who they might like to link up with on a more regular basis.
There are groups on the internet that discuss issues related to writing, and blogs, many of which go into far more depth than this one. They can be helpful. Writers festivals are another way to meet up with people seriously interested in writing. Consider volunteering at your local writer's festival.
Each needs to decide for him or herself if, how much, and what kind of group contact, is helpful, but I think that some regular peer contact might be worth considering.
Prompt
Consider the kind of work that fits best with your own. Seek out writers who are like-minded. or not like-minded, if this is what works best for you. Try meeting on a regular basis. Attending a regular workshop might be one way to do this.
If you look at the list of acknowledgements in any debut novel you will get a sense of the collaboration that takes place throughout the process.Finding your group is not necessarily as easy as simply linking up with a couple of others who are writing. One of the functions of the Book Length Project Group is to bring a wide range of writers of various levels of experience together. As they network they can talk and get a feel for who they might like to link up with on a more regular basis.
There are groups on the internet that discuss issues related to writing, and blogs, many of which go into far more depth than this one. They can be helpful. Writers festivals are another way to meet up with people seriously interested in writing. Consider volunteering at your local writer's festival.
Each needs to decide for him or herself if, how much, and what kind of group contact, is helpful, but I think that some regular peer contact might be worth considering.
Prompt
Consider the kind of work that fits best with your own. Seek out writers who are like-minded. or not like-minded, if this is what works best for you. Try meeting on a regular basis. Attending a regular workshop might be one way to do this.
April 14, 2014
Writing tip 19 - When you get stuck, read.
I was at a poetry workshop on Saturday and poet Jackson said that she had heard that writer's block was not so much a case of the writing being stuck, as the writer being stuck (sorry if I have that wrong Jackson!)
Maybe that's why I find reading helpful when I get stuck - especially if it is a novel that hits the mark. This week's tip is one that many writers suggest (and just as many seem to ignore) and that is to read, read, read. For me it's part of my self-imposed professional development (to use that lovely bureaucratic term).
When I have been trying to solve a particular problem of how to lift the text, or help the pace, or avoid the cliché, a good book often brings back that old experience of recognition. This is why I do this! Because this is possible.
Besides novels I like to read poetry, and compilations of interviews with writers such as those in Ramona Koval's Speaking Volumes - Conversations with remarkable writers, and The Paris Review Interviews - Volumes 1-4. Another good one is Graham Swift's Making an Elephant - Writing from within.
Writing prompt
Put your writing aside for a few days and read a good book, all the way through, then get stuck back in.
Maybe that's why I find reading helpful when I get stuck - especially if it is a novel that hits the mark. This week's tip is one that many writers suggest (and just as many seem to ignore) and that is to read, read, read. For me it's part of my self-imposed professional development (to use that lovely bureaucratic term).
When I have been trying to solve a particular problem of how to lift the text, or help the pace, or avoid the cliché, a good book often brings back that old experience of recognition. This is why I do this! Because this is possible.
Besides novels I like to read poetry, and compilations of interviews with writers such as those in Ramona Koval's Speaking Volumes - Conversations with remarkable writers, and The Paris Review Interviews - Volumes 1-4. Another good one is Graham Swift's Making an Elephant - Writing from within.
Writing prompt
Put your writing aside for a few days and read a good book, all the way through, then get stuck back in.
April 11, 2014
The trouble with flying ... and other stories
Glen and Kristen from BLPG each have stories in this new compilation edited by Richard Rossiter and Susan Midelia.
You can pre-order a copy at this link up to April 30 and receive a 10% discount. I've just pre-ordered mine.
April 8, 2014
April poetry month prompt
Choose a line from one of your favourite poems and use this to start your own.
April 7, 2014
Writing Tip 18 - Make a connection - and how this relates to likeability of characters
I found this Ricky Gervais quote in last weekend's Review from The Australian newspaper:
"Any art form, even one as lowly as TV comedy or presenting an awards show, is about making a connection."
If you haven't yet caught his Derek series, you really can see a great example of connection. This is my favourite Ricky Gervais creation, a show with pathos, humour and a sense of genuine love for the characters it portrays. Derek is one of the helpers in an aged care home, a gentle, kind soul, who always falls on his feet.
Making a connection might mean many things, but my understanding of how a writer goes about this has to do with empathy which then (hopefully) results in communicating something that has meaning for people. It has to do with the relationship that is established. Relationship is important between the characters in a story, and because the reader is invited in, the relationship extends to the reader, and because the writer is expressing something from his or her own imagination, the relationship involves and implicates the writer. This doesn't mean that the character is the writer, any more than a child pretending to be Superman, or Winnie the Pooh, is Superman or Winnie the Pooh. The imagination of the writer is constantly modified and restricted by what s/he has already written, and the decisions progressively made about a character's history and personality. This means that the final version of the character might be very different from the one that started out on the page. Likeability (and connection) can drift, or be reinforced.
Of course, not all writing is touchy-feely, but perhaps an element of including one's better nature in a work of fiction can only help with making connections. I gather that there is something about likeability (of at least some) of the characters that seems to be required of writers when it comes to whether or not a work will be published by a traditional publisher, or do well in sales. What it is, I find difficult to pin down, but likeability could be partly about whether a reader is able to imagine him or herself relating emotionally to what a character is experiencing, or is at least able to empathise.
And if writing is about communication, then surely this can only be a good thing.
Writing Prompt:
Revisit a favourite novel with a character that you love, and list all the aspects of that character's personality that you admire. Why do you connect to this character?
Undertake a similar exercise with your current writing project to bring those elements to consciousness. Write a scene where you play with the likeability of a character in a conscious way.
"Any art form, even one as lowly as TV comedy or presenting an awards show, is about making a connection."
If you haven't yet caught his Derek series, you really can see a great example of connection. This is my favourite Ricky Gervais creation, a show with pathos, humour and a sense of genuine love for the characters it portrays. Derek is one of the helpers in an aged care home, a gentle, kind soul, who always falls on his feet.
Making a connection might mean many things, but my understanding of how a writer goes about this has to do with empathy which then (hopefully) results in communicating something that has meaning for people. It has to do with the relationship that is established. Relationship is important between the characters in a story, and because the reader is invited in, the relationship extends to the reader, and because the writer is expressing something from his or her own imagination, the relationship involves and implicates the writer. This doesn't mean that the character is the writer, any more than a child pretending to be Superman, or Winnie the Pooh, is Superman or Winnie the Pooh. The imagination of the writer is constantly modified and restricted by what s/he has already written, and the decisions progressively made about a character's history and personality. This means that the final version of the character might be very different from the one that started out on the page. Likeability (and connection) can drift, or be reinforced.
Of course, not all writing is touchy-feely, but perhaps an element of including one's better nature in a work of fiction can only help with making connections. I gather that there is something about likeability (of at least some) of the characters that seems to be required of writers when it comes to whether or not a work will be published by a traditional publisher, or do well in sales. What it is, I find difficult to pin down, but likeability could be partly about whether a reader is able to imagine him or herself relating emotionally to what a character is experiencing, or is at least able to empathise.
And if writing is about communication, then surely this can only be a good thing.
Writing Prompt:
Revisit a favourite novel with a character that you love, and list all the aspects of that character's personality that you admire. Why do you connect to this character?
Undertake a similar exercise with your current writing project to bring those elements to consciousness. Write a scene where you play with the likeability of a character in a conscious way.
April 6, 2014
Daily Poetry prompt - April
April is
Autism Spectrum Disorder Awareness Month
. Today's prompt is to write a poem responding to this picture:
April 5, 2014
Daily poetry prompt - April
Begin a poem with
He stayed...
or
She said...
or
You went....
or
They were...
He stayed...
or
She said...
or
You went....
or
They were...
April 4, 2014
Daily poetry prompt - April
Find a newspaper article with potential, and edit it back or remix it, to create a 'found poem', or a found song.
April 3, 2014
April - Daily Poetry Prompt
Find a photograph of your own that evokes some emotion in you and respond to it poetically
Or
One of these
Or
One of these
April 2, 2014
Daily poetry prompt April Poetry Month
Choose a book title as your start line and write from there.
Here are some suggestions in case you don't have easy access:
Antipodes
Zero at the Bone
The Last Sky
The Dream Merchants
Careless
The Marriage Plot
A Stranger in My Street
Big Brother
Book of Longing
Koala
Summer Lovin'
Here are some suggestions in case you don't have easy access:
Antipodes
Zero at the Bone
The Last Sky
The Dream Merchants
Careless
The Marriage Plot
A Stranger in My Street
Big Brother
Book of Longing
Koala
Summer Lovin'
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