Tag archives for Creative writing - Page 7
A215 Creative Writing is done
Handwritten notebook entry Last week I got the results for A215 Creative Writing. I got a Grade 2 pass, which I'm pleased with. So far I'm half way through the degree and the level 2/3 courses that count towards Honours classification. If I maintain my consistent Grade 2 passes I'll get a 2:1, and if I manage to get a distinction for 60 points of the rest then I'll get a first. Unless I get Grade 4 passes for all of my remaining 120 points at Level 2 & 3 then I'm pretty safe on a 2:1, not bad given that I'm working full-time, being a school governor, scout leader and a parent at the same time as studying for the degree! A215 has been the most interesting OU course that I have done so far. Part of me wishes that…
Poetry Pointers
This is a post I wrote for Castlegreen Publishing and was first published on Poetry Pointers Given that we're looking for poetry at the moment we thought that folk might find it useful to give you some insight into what we're expecting and perhaps also some pointers on writing poetry that works for us. This is especially intended to help anyone struggling with their inner editor over whether or not their work is good enough to submit. Guidelines for the wise Poetry is a process, just like prose poems don't spring onto the page fully formed expect to polish poetry through several drafts to get it just right first drafts are always unpublishable, don't be discouraged by this, it gives you material that you can craft Poetry works best when read aloud From the second or third draft record yourself reading aloud and…
Geek Poetry – An Anthology for the Inner Geek
Geek Poetry in fridge magnets (photo: James Kemp) The more observant and regular visitors among you will have noticed that I've not posted much for a couple of weeks. Well there's a very good reason for that. I've been busy setting up Castlegreen Publishing, and sorting out its first proper project. This is a poetry anthology titled Geek Poetry. {That's not a typo, I haven't missed an R.} What is Geek Poetry? Poetry is really an oral form, and it works best when it speaks to real people and avoids disappearing up its own fundament. So Geek Poetry is the sort of hyper modern stuff that lives in the 21st century and speaks to the inner geek about all the stuff we love, whether it's computing, role-playing, Doctor ho, Lego, Science Fiction, movies or whatever else gets us excited. I'd class…
Hunting Nazis – Commentary on writing the story
I've written a short story titled Hunting Nazis for the End of Module Assessment (EMA) for A215 Creative Writing. The target word count was 2,500 with an upper limit of +10%. The first draft weighed in at 5k words, double the target length. However some of this was because although I plotted it I needed to tell myself the story in the first draft. Once I got to the end it was much easier to re-edit and take out some of it. Hunting Nazis The central premise is that Reggie and Dot (from the earlier story Planting the Past) have been hunting down nazis guilty of war crimes against the members of the French resistance and SOE agents supporting the network that they were both part of during World War Two. The story takes place in Berlin in 1953 when they are tying…
Still here
I've not been able to post much for the last couple of weeks, I had a bout of cellulitis in my left leg which knocked me out for a few days, followed by lots of antibiotics. On top of that I've been spending what time I have for writing on the end of module assessment (EMA) for the creative writing course. This time it is back to fiction rather than continuing with poetry, because fiction is what I want to write (the poetry has been fun and interesting and it takes lots of craft, but I find writing stories more interesting). So far I'm 5,000 words in to a 2,750 word short story. So there needs to be lots of editing done (which I'm sure will be fine, there is lots of detail and dialogue that I can pare down now…