During our life writing class today we were split into groups of three, given about four of five pages of work written in the first person and then sent off for 20 minutes to analyse our piece against some given criteria. We looked at whether we liked the character or not, and why; the tools and techniques used by the author etc. Our group was given the introduction to Withnail and I, The Screenplay 10th Anniversary Edition. Copyright ©1985 Bruce Robinson I do not usually put myself in the role of the mummy (shudder) or the hall monitor but I … Continue reading Withnail and I

John Burnside was our  guest speaker yesterday. He talked about his book ‘A Lie About My Father’, and the sequel which I think is about to be released, ‘Waking up in Toytown’. During the Q&A he was asked a Q; the exact phrasing of which I would not like to venture, but his A explained that the man he describes in ALAMF, is not the man he is now…or the man he was five years ago. The man in ALAMF can now almost be described as a fictional character, he is rooted so long ago in the past. This has … Continue reading It’s not me; it’s you

This week in our Theory and Innovation class we had a round robin to compare our close reading of Pamela Zoline’s short story, ‘Heat Death of the Universe, which you can find here. I made the same mistake I made last  week. I had taken my copy and notes to bed with me to do one last sweep in preparation for class the next day, and left the damn thing at home. This meant my input was pretty vague and accompanied by the da-dum-dumb sound of me kicking myself under the table. I really loved this short story; one of … Continue reading More Close Reading

We have been formally introduced to close reading, which Sam Kelly helpfully defined for me as ‘reading as a writer’. I have always read for the story, what happens next, the unfolding of events; the emotions of the drama and excitement, and a personal favourite – the whodunnit. Now I am learning to look at the structure of the writing, picking out themes and loose threads which you can  follow throughout the text, length of sentences, multiple meanings, repeated words, metaphors, similes – the list goes ever on. In class we looked at a short story by David Foster Wallace, … Continue reading Close Encounters of the Literary Kind

…or at least anything to stop that noise!! write or die Continue reading Write or Die…