50 go off to the Dales

Well that was fun. A weekend in a Youth Hostel with some of my favourite people. We booked the whole of the hostel at Hawes and filled it with twelve families, about half and half kids and adults. It worked really well. The kids had a fantastic time and seemed to particularly enjoy the fact that they had their own 'dormitories'. We had lots of lovely food and some great waterfall walks. Also managed to fit in trip to a fab pub at Hardraw, a run up a hill and down again, and a music session late into the night using guitars, penny whistles, spoons and Jenga blocks.

I even did a couple of hours of writing. The change in environment (hmmm hills, rain, OK not that different from home, maybe it was the bunkbeds) seemed to stimulate something and I managed to polish off a couple of crucial scenes (and resolve my heroine's dilemma when faced with a savage dog). I also wrote a bizarre short story which I have yet to re-read.

My WEA Creative Writing class starts up again this week. I'm really looking forward to it, the class is made up of such interesting, creative and supportive writers and our tutor is a star (and no I'm not after extra points there miss). I also find the weekly assignments really useful for story ideas, and some of my most successful stories have sprung from there. The assignment for this week is particularly pertinent to my novel writing. Its about the concept of 'plot bombs'. Apologies to all you more experienced writers out there who know all this already. I was aware of the idea and I know it's something that should build into a storyline naturally, but I found it really helpful to apply it to my novel and see how my plotting fared. So here's how it goes.

Break your story down into a bare description of six major scenes. Arrange them for the maximum degree of suspense by using a 'slow burning fuse' and delaying the explosion. Include a few hidden danger spots that characters nearly step on time and time again.

It has woken me up to some weak spots in my plotting and has highlighted bits that need sparking up a bit.

While rummaging through my folder from last term I also found a hastily scribbled note "Each scene has a beginning, a middle and an end'." Basic stuff, shouldn't really need saying, but I decided it was worth reminding myself occasionally so I have written that one on a post-it and stuck it to my screen.

All this nuts and bolts stuff often just happens anyway when the writing is flowing well, but one thing I love about going to a writing class is that regular reminder of what lies beneath. It mops up the sloppiness in my writing and I am very grateful for it.

OK enough, back to the novel, time to relight that fuse.

Shaken not stirred

I've been full of cold ever since the weekend - in fact ever since my big birthday party, where I think the dry martinis weakened my immune defences. Anyway I have found writing to be slow and painful with a bunged up head, so have fallen back on web surfing (see below) and reading (lots of Jacqueline Wilson which I'm loving). Also really enjoyed being at my WEA class this morning and just listening to other people read - some great stuff- without me reading anything of mine.

Meanwhile found this on the web and it made me smile.

101 writing tips

Number 65 even made me giggle.
Makes me thing I might have been missing a trick when I lost interest in maths.

Whoosh - there goes a deadline

"I love deadlines.
I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

-Douglas Adams

Damn it I missed the deadline for the Fish Criminally Short Short Histories Comp. I'd written and carefully edited two pieces, both under 250 words, that I was really chuffed with - then forgot to submit them! I need a better system (current system being a piece of paper on the wall with lists of comps - but I can't rememebr if I tick them off when I've written them or when I've submitted them.)

So now I'm on the look out for a comp requiring a crime story less than 300 words - any suggestions anyone?

Its Thursday tomorrow which is WEA Creative Writing class day. I really look forward to it every week. We have a truly inspirational tutor who is full if excellent ideas and tips and the class is so varied in terms of age, background and motivations for writing that it's a short story/ radio play/ sitcom in itself (though I might have to leave town if I ever got round to writing it.) Ooops that reminds me I haven't done this week's assignment yet - a restaurant review that avoids cliche and adjectives and uses strong verbs and nouns instead. I'll make notes while watching my tape of Monday's Nigella later (mad as mad but I love her food)

Went to a short story comp prize-giving thing last week. My story wasn't placed but my friend Ann came third so I went along to cheer her on and also to listen to the judge Martin Bedford talking about short story writing and what he looks for when judging competitions. In the break when he came over for a chat I did something a bit rash (blame it on the pear cider I drank before I got there): I asked him for some feedback on my story . Fortunately he remembered it and said it nearly made his shortlist; he loved the dialogue (hurrah! - the whole thing is basically a dialogue between two women) and the situation BUT he felt it was a longer piece that had been squashed down. I was so pleased! Obviously he wasn't going to stand there and say it was complete rubbish and watch me crumple, but the reason he gave made a lot of sense as the night before the submission deadline my story was 5,300 words long and by four o'clock the next afternoon it was the requisite 3,000. I have since restored it to its 5,000 word glory and submitted it elsewhere.

OK Wea assignment time and after that a bit more of my children's story for the Times comp - its going well but I have two concurrent ideas and I'm finding it hard to keep focussed on the main one - I certainly don't have time to write two children's books by mid-November, so one of them will have to wait