POINTO F VIEW

Getting point of view right is one of the arts of professional writing.  The reader  has to be given the illusion they are entering a story not written by the author but the narrater. This is the camera's eye with the ability to also smell taste and feel. Then the narrater steps into the point of view character's shoes. It is logical once you grasp it.

KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING

I have spent most of my life understanding what it is to be a writer. I trust myself and the knowledge I have gained. But sharing that knowledge with other human beings is often fraught with danger of exploitation. It seems to me that the world is peopled with givers and takers. The latter is very willing to take the knowledge I so willingly share and use it for their own ends. One is persuaded to think it is better to keeps things to oneself....but that is not my nature. I believe in inclusivity not to exclude and divide people. I would rather risk the danger than not be true to myself.

CHRISTMAS

Whether we like it or not, Christmas is well and truly on its way. Every year I say I am not sending cards, not decorating the house, I wish I could stay on my own and just read and write. But there is a child like part of me that sneakily starts to get into the spirit of Christmas. I am enchanted by the lights in Brighton strung like an enormous blue spider's web above the clock tower, and I'll be checking out the London lights next week in Regent street. I'll send cards, I like to receive them, I love having post. I suppose all those with a creative mind retain this child within so that we keep on observing, questioning, being surprised. And never grow old.

LET IT SNOW

I have been lost on my novel writing these last few days, I couldn;t go outside, the roads were too slippery.  I've been wandering again with Monet in his garden, sifting laundry with Blanche while she remembers how once she was a painter and now must be a full time carer. I can empathise very much with Blanche. I lived with my mother for the lst years of her life and experienced the mixed emotions of love, sympathy frustration and sometimes anger. It is a hard task for a single woman but it is still mainly women who carry out this role. I wrote a non fiction book called THE CARING TRAP and interviewed many people who had been in the same situation as myself. But of course life's experiences is what shapes us and shapes our artistic work. They are our raw materials which over time compost down to create the fertile soil for new blossoms. I do find it hard though to keep to this rule sometimes. It would be rather nice if one just had glorious experiences to draw on. I am not convinced that suffering is good for you!

THE VOICE WITHIN

My last workshop explored being true to yourself and not comparing your writing with anyone else.

Your experiences, your life and the things you have seen or done are as unique to you as someone else’s experiences are to them. Even if you took two people of the same age and made them live identical lives and identical experiences, such as is the case with many identical twins, you would still find that there are vast differences in how each of those two individuals perceives the reality around them, eventually forming their own view of the world based on their own emotions, internal drives and motivators.

You are unique, this means that as a writer, your style of writing prose is just as valid as the prose writing of say, Charles Dickens, Stephen King or Emily Bronte. The trick is to release the person that is inside you and let that person do the writing.

A great exercise to help you do this is to close your eyes and think of a place or a person you feel strongly about. These could be good or bad feelings, it really doesn’t matter but you must have a strong emotional affinity towards that person or place.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

A great deal if the results of the BBC Radio National Short Story results are anything to go by. I am not saying that David Constantine's story wasn't good. It was and should be considering he is a well established writer. But I honestly think that such competitions should invite stories to be submitted anonymously. You can;t tell me that any judge whose eye clocks a name like this isn't going to have a slight prejudice, however much they might deny it to themselves. It is so hard to get any kind of foot on the ladder while there are some excellent writers still in the wilderness who are 'a name'. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet: a story should stand by its own merit and not be garnished with a writer with  track record of success. That's what I think, anyway. I'd be interested to hear other people's views.

WE ARE EACH OF US UNIQUE

As I was saying in my workshop yesterday: everyone of us is unique both as a person and in our creative work. Therefore, there is no point in saying someone else writes better than we do which extends to anyone who appears to have a glamourous life style. Having said that, I am by no means perfect on this point. With this cold weather, envy creeps in of those who jet away for weeks at a time to the sun. I tell myself what I must do instead is use this time to write read d those jobs in the house that I left undone in sunny weather. There is the cinema and theatre to enjoy, lovely soups and casseroles. I will try but it isn;t always easy!