New Year and New Opportunities

Happy New Year to you all and here we go again into 2013.

After my pitiful performance for most of last year I kicked myself into action and worked more on my writing and submissions in the last couple of months. Here's my review of what I've done so far.

November 2012. I entered three poetry competitions and one short story competition. I was runner up in the short story competition, had no luck with two of the poems so far but not expecting to hear until the end of this month, and the third poem, well, just wait and hear about that one in my next post Should  You Ever Argue with Editors?. In any case, one out of three ain’t bad. 

December 2012 I entered three more short story competitions, which I am still waiting to hear about.

I also found an excellent opportunity for a short radio play I wrote as part of the Open University Advanced Creative Writing course (A363). The play, Turners Never Turn, is the one loosely based on my runner up story The Pit, and while my tutor loved it, sadly there seemed to be zero market for fifteen minute plays.

So I was very excited to find this opportunity via the BBC Writers Room site with Slung Low, an award winning theatre company, in their Fifteen Minutes Live Project. 

In their own words:

“Original new short plays for radio that are performed live in front of an audience with on-stage sound effects and live music … Each 15 Minutes Live will be produced and performed in a different venue and location with original scores for each event played live by the band. A permanent legacy will be created online of new audio work and a body of new stories that look to speak to an audience both digitally and live.”

Each session has a theme and while my play did not fit the current submission requirements, I contacted them and they were happy to look at my play on-spec.  As well as accepting themed submissions they also commission work, so fingers crossed on that (not heard a dicky bird yet, mind).

This is a fantastic opportunity for A363 students who may be sitting on something we felt could never be used. Find out more at http://dramaanddance.britishcouncil.org/artists-and-companies/profiles/slung-low/

2013. So far this year? One entry to the Flash 500 Humour poetry competition, and two brand new pieces of flash fiction written for the Darker Times website monthly competition. I’m hoping lightning can strike twice…

Success with a very strange little story

I may have been lazy recently but in November I submitted to four writing competitions. Still waiting for the results of three but I was very pleased to be a runner up in the November Darker Times short story competition.

You can see my story here http://www.darkertimes.co.uk/winners/ss-runner-up-2-nov-2012/ss-runner-up-3-nov-2012.aspx

No prize, but it's published on their site and will be published in a print and e-book Anthology early next year.

What I'm most pleased about is finally finding a home for a rather odd little story. It's historical, but not of interest to most outlets for historical fiction. It's got its horrific parts, but not enough to be of interest to most horror readers.

My poor little waif and stray of a tale found a home eventually with Darker Times. Take a look at their website for some very interesting fiction and poetry that goes beyond the classic horror genre. All they ask is that it is 'darker' in some way, not necessarily horror, and it's encouraging to find somewhere that isn't trying to place writing in a little restricted box.

My story? This was inspired by an exercise on research for the Open University A363 creative writing course. Ratcatchers was one of a list of topics we were sent off on a hunt about, and I ended up in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_Poor, increasingly horrified at the anecdotes of these Victorian ratcatchers, and determined to make a story out of it all. Spot Mr Jack Black and his belt on that Wiki page? (image below) That sure grabbed me straight away.

I've taken it a stage further and ended up with a radio play, using this short story as the subplot in a story, about a grandfather talking to a grandson who is about to leave for France in WW1.

If you are lost for inspiration then Mayhew's book - text available online - is a fantastic resource, full of the lives, work, worries, concerns, problems, crimes, families, joys, and triumphs of ordinary people often in what seems to us now, very bizarre situations. Whether you want to write historical fiction, or want to work these ideas into sci-fi, young adult, crime, thriller, romance...there's a huge amount to help trigger off your own muse.







Portrait of Jack Black

Creative Writing courses - is writing something you can grade?

I've just received the result of my second Open University creative writing course, and I'm celebrating as I managed somehow to achieve a distinction again this year in A363, as well as the one I got last year for A215. Wine has been drunk, congratulations received, smug satisfied smile attached to face, and everyone on the planet informed. I now have my Diploma in Creative Writing and Literature and I'm over halfway towards my Literature degree.

9% of us got the distinction. So, yes, I am proud of that. Yet I also know many of my fellow students were disappointed with the grade they were awarded. Many of these were the students whose work was quirky and original, who explored the boundaries of style and voice, who pushed against the structures and restrictions the course necessarily placed on us. Me? I'm a grade hunter and quite happy to 'play the game' to get what I want. But as creative writing is such a very subjective subject, is it possible to devise a marking system that is fair to all and minimises the personal reaction to the work of the marker? It seems that the solution the OU takes is by structuring the marking in such a way that then penalises those who move out of the expected arena.  It's a problem that effects all marked creative writing courses.

I want to say well done and congratulations to everyone who was on the course - no matter what your grade - it was tough, we worked hard, I learned a lot from you all and value the networks we've built up, and I wish I could do another one next year?

I've been a bad girl!

I set up this blog in a fit of enthusiasm then disappeared. Terribly sorry. Bad bad bad. I shall forswear chocolate for a whole month.

But I'm back...and I'll stay back this time. After all, I need somewhere to come to procrastinate instead of working on the big scary final writing project for my course.

So what have I been up to writing-wise in the past few months? A fair bit.

Still studying with the OU. I'm now on course A363 and concentrating on drama. Turning out to be a bit of a drama as well at times, but I'm enjoying it overall and learning a lot. Have a ex-BBC scriptwriter for a tutor so making the most of it while it lasts.

Applied for a small 'New Buds' grant here: newwritingsouth.com to develop a 15 minute radio drama written for the A363 course into a full length radio drama (to be used for professional feedback and a few days off work to concentrate on it) but I was unlucky there. Apparently my application met the criteria but 'there were too many applicants'. Ah well, never mind, worth a try. It's an interesting site if you are in the south east so take a look. It can be a bit Brighton-centric but they hold events throughout the region and have a lot to offer new writers.

Went to a rather scary but enlightening training day with East Kent Live Lit, looking at new ways to present literature work to a live audience. Scary because I felt way out of my depth; enlightening because it helped me  look at my work in a new way and be inspired by other people doing all sorts of wonderful things. Live Lits blog about the day with a film of a groupwork art piece, and here's a link to another participant who was brave enough to have her work posted on the net afterwards: live-lit-making-day-clare-proctor. Clare has the most amazing sense of timing here and has created an innovative piece to accompany her poem.