Ali Bacon's Blog, page 4

Story Openings: not where to begin but how

Last Monday my U3A writing group (who have grappled gamely with Zoom and capricious email to turn in some really great work this year) had three short stories to consider and they made me think of the importance of openings.

The group are all very aware of the pitfalls of working out where a story  does or doesn’t begin, which led to a discussion of in medias res ­– the concept of jumping in at the right place, avoiding back story which (if the reader really needs it) can be dripped in as the...

Intermission: COVID and the new normal

Lockdown. Is it over? Almost over? Most would have us think so, but I know it’s nothing like the end, and although I can accept there is something called the ‘new normal’ I have no appetite for it and is it really normal? As someone comments in today’s paper, after all the fanfare of easing restrictions, life just isn’t  what is was.  So shall we just call it ‘the new’, or the ‘different’, the ‘best of a bad job?’ Social distancing by the way is another misnomer. We can be as sociable as we like...

Handel’s Messiah, not just for Christmas! @messiahathome

So what did you do during lockdown? Made sourdough? Learned a language? Maybe after a couple of weeks and having done none of those things (don’t mention the sewing) I was feeling underemployed, because on an impulse I signed up to a project to learn and sing the whole of the Messiah by the end of May.  Yes, that’s Sunday coming. Well, I knew a few choruses already so I would hit the ground running.  I was joining a couple of weeks late. So what? Easy to catch up. And my trusty score was marked ...

Not everything has come to a complete halt

Sometimes it feels like everything has come to a halt but in the writing world it theres more to do than ever and I have had to distance myself from social media to avoid feelings of not rising to the task!

However that doesnt mean you need to do the same, so here are a few local events you can still take part in, though maybe not quite in the way you would have until recently.

First of all Story Friday in Bath has undergone a transformation with submissions invited for a nymber of online...

A (virtual) day at the seaside

Like so many things, our Bath Writers and Artists calendar has had to be rejigged and  our day of contemplating The Sea has been postponed. But with the coast out of bounds to everyone except its native inhabitants (how I wished Id followed an urge to drive to Clevedon just before the lockdown!) what better time to think about those sea-side places and some books that celebrate them.

[image error]image courtesy of Simon Caplan*

The Sea, The Sea, the title of Irish Murdochs  novel echoes the cry of the...

From @fourteenlocks to @RomanCaerleon: several centuries in one day #overthebridgetowales

I’ve always been aware that there were Roman remains at Caerleon but somehow never managed to get there, so when I heard about a day out in South Wales with Bristol Bloggers which combined Caerleon with a canal walk, I jumped at the chance, and if the weather forecast wasn’t the best, all ten of us, kitted out in boots and waterproofs, laughed in the face of storm Jorge – who miraculously took the hint and left us almost unscathed! Hurrah for the intrepid bloggers, some of whom had come quite...

Helpers and Handmaids: Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor #historicalfiction #biographicalfiction

In June 2018, Nuala O’Connorwas kind enough to give me a copy of her 2015 novel Miss Emily when we met at the Bath Flash Fiction Festival

[image error]

I’ve only just got around to reading it and discovering that rare thing – a really lovely and satisfying example of historical/biographical fiction.

A famously reclusive writer can’t be the easiest choice for a novelist but Nuala has made problems disappear with this beautifully constructed story of Emily Dickinson and her maid. The maid or servant is a...

Song and Story: a lightbulb moment on Radio 2. #writingtips #writerscraft #showdonttell

I don’t suppose it’s surprising that composing in different artistic genres and media should be simialr but these things always catch me unawares. Like on Sunday when I was half-listening to Elaine Page on Radio 2 interviewing songwriter Steven Schwartz. When he alluded to songs which tell a story successfully, something he also tries to achieve, I sat up and took notice.

“I tend to know what I’m aiming for, either at the end of a verse or the end of the entire song. The craft is to make it...

#Nanowrimo2019 – what’s the point?

If you’ve never heard of it, Nanowrimo is an annual event in which novelists and aspiring novelists are challenged each November to write 50,000 words in the course of the month. It’s been going on for quite a while and although, November being a Novemberish kind of month, I occasionally make a private challenge to myself to sit down and write, I’ve never embarked on the ‘full nano’ until now.

#nanowrimo as a concept has mixed reviews. Not everyone (hardly anyone?) ends up with a novel or even th...

On getting history very slightly wrong (then winning a prize)

[image error]History, fiction or what?

As most of you will know, when writing in In the Bink of an Eye I was careful – (some might say too careful, to those who spotted the odd gaffe not careful enough!) – to stick to ‘the facts as we know them.’ And if anyone would like a  summary of the story I have retold, the bare bones of it were laid out here  long before the book was written.  By the way, that post (written in 2012!)  is a classic case of telling the story too soon and was part of the reason for a lengthy strug...