The rejections are coming in now. Three or four more and I will have a complete set! The judge of the US Found Poetry competition thought my entry was too clever and not really a poem - what does that mean? It's strange but I really don't care right now yet other times when I get rejections I get very down.
Although I took pens and paper with me on my walking holiday I did no writing at all. Now I'm back I've been thinking about my novel and while I was relaxing listening to music yesterday I had a light bulb moment about the ending. I'm getting towards that point....the finish is in sight.
I put in an entry to the Star Writing Fiction Facebook page (500 word story on loss) and voting started the day I left for my holiday so I put my votes in before I left. When I came back someone had asked if they could vote for their own entry and was told yes you can! Am I missing something here? I give up!
Sometimes you don't have to really enjoy a book to get something out of it. I picked up Neil Gaiman's Stardust in a charity shop because it looked interesting and he was someone whose books I'd never read. I soon realised that this wasn't my kind of book. I've found in the past that fantasy isn't really my genre and I hadn't realised quite who Neil Gaiman was (how awful!).
However, though not my cup of tea, the book is well written and I liked the twist and how he brought all the parts together in the end. This is the kind of thing I'd maybe watch on TV rather than read but I rarely give up on a book. Besides this had an interview with the author and extra material.....something a writer loves to read! This was when I realised who Neil Gaimen was and that I had watched Coraline (which he wrote) on TV and enjoyed it!
I was particularly interested in how Neil came to write this book Stardust and that he previously wrote a prologue to a book called Wall set in the same location. He then abandoned it. He says he may or may not write that prequel. In the meantime Gaiman witnessed a falling star and suddenly Stardust was written. It's little things that this that make writing so interesting and what motivates an author to write. I find it utterly fascinating.
A little while ago I experienced writer's block with the novel I am writing. I was stuck with the next scene. I had ideas and an ending but I was stranded in no-mans land staring at the screen and nothing was coming. So I took a diversion. I have, I know, overthought the 'family tree' to my characters and have extensive extended family who do not feature in the novel and may not even get a mention. But there were a few there who interested me and I thought might be worthy of fleshing out and basing a story around. So I went back to my 'trees' and began to write. I now have two short stories. It was a nice diversion and I enjoyed finding out who these characters were. Meanwhile on one of those dreadful sleepless nights I get now and then I played through some scenes for my novel and things began to fall into place. The next day I wrote the next scene and the novel has been gathering pace ever since.
I am now into the last quarter of the novel. I know there will be a lot of editing to do and I don't relish that. I have no idea what happens after that - I guess I need someone to read it. For now I'm just enjoying the writing and don't want to think beyond that. I've spent a lot of time on it and if it's rubbish it will be like receiving a years worth of poetry rejections in one go!
I set out to write a novel as a challenge (I never thought I could string out a story to novel length). My methods for doing this have so far worked (my targets, breaking things down into chunks - that's the natural way I work). Suddenly after all these months I can see the end coming. It's rather scary.
So, there we go. Gaiman handles his genre well. I might not enjoy reading his stories in the way others do but we all have our preferences. There were, however, aspects of this book that I appreciated - the handling of two worlds. It was good to see how he did it (my novel is set in two times zones but is very different to this). So I did get something from the book. No read is ever wasted.
I took a day off from the novel yesterday (I need some mulling time anyway) and set off down to Basingstoke in Hampshire for a day of art and poetry. I was there for the Artists Rifles exhibition at the Willis Museum and to attend a two hour poetry workshop based on the exhibition and run by Hampshire Poet Joan McGavin.
I arrived early so I had time to see the exhibition at my leisure. It wasn't a huge display but interesting. As well as paintings there were cases of uniforms, sketchbooks and other memorabilia as well as a seven minute video. This came at an interesting point - not longer after the study day I attended on WWI artists - so it was all still fresh in mine.
The afternoon took place in the Function Room covering the whole top floor of the museum. The ceiling was rather impressive - painted in what I call a Wedgwood blue, with cream cornices. The table we worked at was large, made of solid wood with a leather(?) inlay. Just right for us writers!
Joan was great - very relaxed and came armed with some clipboards and a sheet of questions. She asked us to go and look around the exhibition and pick one object, answer the questions and make notes. On our return Joan gave us another sheet with tips on writing and suggested we take one answer we'd given or a line we'd written to start our poem. After about twenty-five minutes it was that scary time of sharing! It was interesting to hear what others had written and which painting or object they had chosen.So many powerful images came out. I didn't think my efforts were very good and I'd not written a great deal but as I read it out I was more satisfied with my beginning. Joan gave feedback on our poems and made suggestions. We were then given a final sheet with suggestions on re-drafting our poems.
Our class was small - just five of us - but everyone had written poetry before and at least three of us had published poems. We all came away with something to work on and at £5 for the workshop it was amazing value.
This afternoon I completed a second draft of my poem so I'm getting there. What was lovely is that Joan offered to feedback on our final poems if we wished!
For those interested the exhibition runs until 27th September after which it moves to the Gosport Discovery Centre.
