 Never having taken part in a creative writing course, I was excited, but a trifle anxious, when I was invited to join a ‘writing bootcamp’ at the Circle of Missé, a creative centre near my new home in France.
Lead by Annie Kirby, a renowned short-story writer who is also working on a full-length novel, with additional sessions by Wayne Milstead, resident writer, we worked mightily for six days on beginnings, histories, characters, memory, dialogue and pacing and structure.
The exercises were hard work, but so rewarding. The enthusiastic group of writers I found myself among contributed with such thoughtful insights I felt humbled by the talent that surrounded me.
I’m not a natural short story writer – I’m on my third novel now and and am very comfortable with the form – but such was the quality of the sessions and the technical support, I might give it another go. After this week, I am confident I can produce something that might be presentable!
Complementing the work were sessions on wine-tasting, local sightseeing, a writing day away in Chinon and gourmet lunches and dinners, masterminded by Aaron Tighe, resident chef.
We had plenty of time in the afternoons to write; some worked on short stories, others on their novels. Help, advice, and listening support was available at all times during the week and participants had the chance of three more structured (or not!) one-to-one sessions with Annie to discuss their work.
The tone of the whole week was warm, safe and nurturing. Being a newbie writer, I was anxious about sharing my work – I’m a commercial fiction animal, not literary – but I was encouraged and supported to do so and was pleased to receive genuine, positive and helpful comments.
So, we worked hard, explored, definitely learned a lot and had fun.
Tired? I was knackered by day six, not to put a fine point on it, but oh, it was so worth it, as my heroine would say.
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Working out how to get from Poitiers in France to my son’s graduation in Nottingham, I found myself treading a familiar research path. I’d always been able to dig info and knowledge out of the corners they were lurking in, but these abilities were honed into concrete skills when I was studying for my MA in history.
First, specify what you are looking for, i.e. set your parameters. This helps you drifting off into attractive, but distractive, places. If you find you are wandering off, make a note for another day, shut the door on it and swing your attention back to your prime task.
Secondly, do a general sweep of possible places to look and eliminate the areas that are completely unattainable/irrelevant. This focuses the search.
Thirdly, dig around for basic level info. You can use the much-maligned, but now much-improved, Wikipedia. Before you sneer, it can be a useful jumping-off place. Good articles also have a bibliography, references and further works to read. Have a look at sites like Amazon, the Book Depository, and your county library catalogues. Try also Googling a succinct expression – you’d be surprised what you get!
Fourthly, now you have narrowed down what you are looking for, go for the specialist websites, blogs and archives. You might have to start shelling out fees at this stage. Good ones will mention books, events, organisations to contact. And then set aside days to visit specialist libraries and archives – it’s always worth it!
And a last word on that – prepare your visit. Each time I went to the British Library (You have to join as a Reader beforehand), I ordered the books I wanted. This saved a lot of frustration, and meant I could get right down to work as soon as I arrived. Make an appointment with a named person when visiting foundations, universities, the BBC or big companies. Almost without exception they were wonderfully helpful.
Do let me know if you have any research trade secrets…
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On 26 May, we waved good-bye to the removal van, stuffed the poor cat into his travel cage and headed for the Tunnel. Nothing desperately exciting happened on the way, but we stumbled into the house on arrival, did the minimum and didn’t emerge until the following day.
The removal van arrives here in two days’ time, but I’m awarding myself half a day to catch up on my blogs and do some writing. 🙂
A bientôt!
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Never having taken part in a creative writing course, I was excited, but a trifle anxious, when I was invited to join a ‘writing bootcamp’ at the Circle of Missé, a creative centre near my new home in France.
