Tag archives for Stephen Fry
Writer’s Bookshelf – Bookshelves Abound = #Shelfie 07
Given that November is National Novel Writing Month, the Bookshelves Abound series naturally continues with my Writer's Bookshelf. This is the fifth of the five bookshelves on the upstairs landing. It sits between the New Bookshelf and my bedroom door. Writer's Bookshelf My writer's bookshelf, where all the books on the craft of writing go, as well as useful reference works. The Writer's Bookshelf is where I've collected books about writing, language and other reference works that I think might be useful for writing or editing stories. It also has some general background works as potential research for stories that I have planned outlines for, or have written as short stories and think that I could expand. Let's start with the top and work down. Reference Works The very top shelf has a whole bunch of popular science and practical reference works. Most…
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…
A215 – Creative Writing Assignments so far
TMA4 for A215 Creative Writing is back. So all that remains is TMA5 and the end of module assessment (EMA). Both of these are a free choice from the three taught types of writing, short fiction, poetry and life writing. Before I started the course I had mostly written fiction, in the novelette to novel range for length, none of which you'd reasonably describe as short in OU terms (somewhere in the 2,000 word range). My first assignment for A215 ended up as life writing, I found it easier to write short bits about memories than to condense fiction down to the correct word count (and I'm very good at editing things down). The second assignment was short fiction, and I managed to write a half-decent story for it. Rounds is the beginning of a longer story that I still…
Poetry Station
my desk for writing poetry I am busy crafting poetry for the third assignment of my Open University course A215 Creative Writing. Or rather I am indulging in a little displacement activity right now. However I will be back to work in a few moments. You will see from the picture of the table I'm using as my desk a number of things. Most useful being Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled which is a very good introduction to poetry that I heartily recommend. Next is the video camera that I've been using to record myself reading the poetry out loud so that I can listen back and refine it. This is my own take on poetry being about the sound of the thing, much more so than prose. I think that's what makes poetry harder for many people…