Writing and walking holiday and more

Up and running in my hotel room!

 I am writing this blog post on my very old laptop which still runs on Windows 7, is painfully slow and some of the letters have rubbed off on the keyboard. The other day it spent ages updating. The touchpad no longer works, but thankfully my hubby had a spare mouse. I'm only using this laptop to update my blogs because I can load up my photos on it. I've been without my 'proper' laptop for two weeks now, and guess what? They can't find the fault! Having spoken to a couple of people, it seems they too have had similar problems with their screens and they just switch off and on again. Oh, well, time will tell, I guess.

So, I've been back from my writing and walking holiday for a week now. Our group consisted of eight women and one man. One of the ladies was also our walk leader. We met every morning at 9.30am and worked until 11am. Each day we covered a different subject - Ideas & Inspiration, Character Building Structure & Plot, Setting and Dialogue. Our tutor, Lizzie Enfield, explained each section and set us timed exercises. We would then read out what we'd written and she'd feedback on it. Lizzie offered great encouragement and advice. Some in the group had never written creatively before, but you wouldn't know it from what they wrote.

All of us had one-to-ones to either talk about our writing or for Lizzie to give feedback on a piece of work we had submitted before the holiday. My one-to-one went well and the feedback was positive on the opening of a short story I had written. She made several suggestions and I will be looking at those again.

In my free time I found inspiration for writing a poem and brainstorming other things. I was in the zone!

Brainstorming session which led to the piece I read out.

Afternoons were either a guided walk or free time. We had a complete day off on the Wednesday. The walks were a chance to get to know each other better and to talk about writing or other things. Lizzie came out with us too. In fact, she is a qualified walk leader, but decided that running the class was enough, as walks have to be checked and there wouldn't be enough time. This was even more important last week as the rain had made everywhere wet and muddy. Some fields were waterlogged. Gill, our walk leader, went to check how bad things were, and there was one day when we were clinging to a fence in order to walk round the worst of the mud. You could feel the mud sucking at your walking shoes/boots. There were some hairy moments, but no one slipped. We all helped one another. Very bonding! 

Mud! Lizzie (right)

More mud - three formed a chain to get me across

Boat race

I opted out of the first walk, due to the weather, but a later walk covered some of that ground (but less muddy), so I didn't feel I'd missed out at all. There were three walks planned, but our leader slipped another in. We always set off from the hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water and walked locally. If you want to know more about the walks I have been slowly writing about them on my travel (blog https://pieceoftheattraction.blogspot.com/2024/03/birdland-model-village-and-other-views.html)

Two evenings we met after dinner when Lizzie read from articles and short stories she had written, or from her books. These sessions was opened up to others staying at the hotel. HF Holidays own most of their properties in the UK, so other residents are on guided walks, self-guided walks, special interest holidays or walking & sightseeing. On our last evening we were all invited to read something we had written during our week there. I was using my old Android Tablet and I had saved my piece twice, yet when I came to look at it again and to edit, I couldn't find it. The other copy told me that part of it was locked. How had I locked it, and how did I unlock it? I had no idea. So, I wrote it all by hand (500 words) and tried to remember the last edits I'd done on the missing copy. But then I began editing the written version until it was a complete mess. When I had some spare time, I typed it up again. This time I also saved it my portable external hard drive and took a photo of it on my mobile! When I went back to it later, I found it! Joy! 

Everyone was nervous reading, but it was only our group. We didn't have to read it to others in the hotel (which we all thought we did!). It was a lovely evening and afterwards Lizzie gave us all inspirational sticks with different sayings on them (see photo). No one wanted to leave. The group had gelled well and we now have an email group so we can all keep in touch.

Inspirational sticks

I'm the winner at skittles!

Other evening entertainment included a skittles night, which I won (bottle of plonk). I was amazed! There was also a quiz night. Good fun, but my group came joint last. The questions were very random and hard. They seem to get harder each year (I've done quite a few over the years). The house in Bourton always runs a boat race too. Many people made boats out of paper, sticks, plastic and all sorts of stuff. I didn't make one, but a lady in our group won best presented boat and another from our group won the race and had to wear the Commodore's hat during dinner! I went down to the river to watch the boats launch (from one of the little bridges) and followed them down to the end. Walk leaders fished them out with nets, though a few got away and they had to race to the next bridge! 

I came home exhausted, but it was a lovely holiday with such contrasting things going on. I even bought a sketch pad and coloured pencils and drew (very badly). 

Writing in bed!

Away from the holiday, I've been trying to cope with the online writing course. I missed week 5 because there was just too much to cope with and also the lesson was to write in the style of another writer. It's taken me long enough to find my own voice. I couldn't see the point. I've just submitted my piece for week 7 with just two more weeks to go.

A few weeks ago I met up with some of the people doing the same online course in order to form a London support group. We met in a cafe in Tottenham Court Road and discussed the course, what we were writing etc. I think there was about eight of us. Tomorrow Indie Novella is running a writers and book fair in Islington Library which I and some others from the group will be attending. There are some free talks on offer, plus agents and books. I'll tell you about that next time.

Finally, last night I attended a poetry talk and readings at Southwark Cathedral. Padriag O Tuama read a few poems from the book Poetry Unbound His talk was interesting and he spoke also with the Dean of Southwark, Mark Oakley, who does a bit of writing himself. Of course I bought the book.

Southwark Cathedral

Writing Course

Notebooks and prompts

 I am a third of the way through the writing course I signed up to through Indie Novella. Maybe you want to know how it's going?

Apart from the overwhelming notifications I get in my Inbox, the course has made me re-think the novella I am currently editing. It seems everyone is submitting work already written or in the process of being written, so I'm not alone. The first week we submitted the opening of our work. This made me look at mine again after the tutorial to make sure I had covered the basics - introducing the main character, their setting, voice, while jumping into the action/conflict. I re-worked my opening and posted it to the forum. There are thirty people in my group, and I can't possibly read and comment on everything, but I do try to do as many as I feel able. I had good feedback on my opening, which pleased me. Every week (this is a nine week course), a tutor picks two people from each group (there are three), and gives feedback on their work. I think this way she hopes to cover everyone once over the nine weeks. 

Week two was the hard one for me as we had to write a III Act plot/structure. I'm a pantser, not a plotter, but at least this was something I had already written (except I am writing a new ending), so I kept the whole thing brief, whereas some others wrote a lot! Again I had a good response, though someone pointed out that I should maybe move one bit to the next. However, it's in the right order, and that is the main thing. It has made me think more about structure in the future. I could certainly do with help in that regard!

This week we are looking at viewpoint. We have to take our WIP and write the opening from a different viewpoint. Mine is in first person, so I've switched it to third. I don't like it because the impact isn't as great. I feel first person is right for this so the reader feels what the character feels as everything goes on around him. I've also written in the present tense. Third person took me away from the character and what he felt. I know third person sees more, but I couldn't go with it. My heart wasn't in it,  maybe because I'm set on first person now. I won't be changing.

I use different viewpoints in my writing. Sometimes I write third person, sometimes first. Often I write multiple characters in third person. Second person is unusual, and not often used because it is hard to sustain and can get repetitively boring. It's used more for short stories. Iain Banks used second person for one character in one of his books. This person had small sections spread out throughout the novel. This worked really well. I once submitted a flash in second person as an experiment, but the feedback I got was negative towards that viewpoint. I still thought it worked, but I changed it and am still waiting to get that flash published. Once you believe in something it's worth pursuing it, and I've submitted it quite a few times now.

The course thankfully doesn't take up too much time. The link arrives every Tuesday by email, and then there is an article with videos before the writing exercise of the week which has to be submitted by Sunday.

Then yesterday I had a panic as I received an email from the holiday company I'm taking my writing and walking holiday with. If I want feedback from the tutor, I had to submit no more than 1000 words for feedback. I vaguely remember something about this when I booked (way back last year), and now suddenly the holiday is two and half weeks away and the deadline for submission is Monday. So, I dealt with that last night and have sent off just over 800 words for my one-to-one during my holiday.

Finally, last Saturday I spent lunchtime and afternoon at a friend's house and we had writing sessions. This friend writes poetry much different to mine, but she wanted to have a go at some of the word prompts I use for writing. So we ended up writing one minute timed sessions with word prompts, poetry using five random words, one short story and a flash. Some things had no prompts! Wild, eh? I loved my friend's short story. It was full of wonderful description, and I felt I was there with this man she was writing about. I think she surprised herself, and now she is keen to do it all over again.

I am looking forward to my holiday and meeting others who write or want to have a go for the first time. There will be plenty of free time, and I'm looking forward to that too. Time to wander and see things, or if the weather isn't great, I can write or read.

I have added a new link to the side of this blog for all you poets. Robin Houghton has a sign-up for her spreadsheet of publications waiting for your work. She lists when windows are open (if known), links to their websites and any other information that might be available. She also sends a monthly email with windows about to close and those opening. It's well worth signing up to. I use it a lot, and have had successes using it too! Best thing I ever signed up for.