Thursday 12 July 2018

Doing Something Different...

It's been a busy week.

Yes I have been at my desk writing every day this week, for an article commission.

Apart from Wednesday evening when I was doing a mini-workshop at the writers' club. 

We were a small group- half a dozen-accompanied by the cheers and sounds of despair from the England v Croatia match being shown in the pub across the road from the venue we use.

Although we finished earlier than usual due to expected transport disruptions, it was a good evening looking at the topic of conflict.

I really enjoyed the choice of books brought along. The idea was to bring a favourite book and read out a passage displaying conflict, then identify the type, person vs person, person vs society and so on. There were 7 options to choose from...

The books were: The 39 Steps by John Buchan, Final Demand by Deborah Moggach, Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers and another that I've forgotten the title of- sorry.

Concentrating on listening for the conflict in each extracts it quickly became clear that all these authors presented multi conflicts seamlessly, so the reader absorbs each facet without really being conscious of them.

Time for fun...
I'll certainly be checking for that when I work on my novel next week.

I'm now ready for a fun weekend...











Image from Pixabay.com


9 comments:

liz young said...

What have you planned for this fun weekend?

Carolb said...

You'll find out on Monday when my next blog post appears. :-)

Keith Havers said...

The one that Viv brought along by Deborah Moggach sounded interesting. I might download it off Amazon.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

That sounds like a very useful and interesting workshop, Carol!

Carolb said...

Keith- yes, it does sound like it is worth reading.

Rosemary- Thanks, it was quite simple, but made us listen and analyse at the same time. We create the conflict in our stories, but may not look deeper to see if we can do more.

Julia Thorley said...

Conflict is an excellent theme, especially with football going on in the background. I ran a workshop at the weekend on creating characters. I'll write it up on my blog if/when I have time.

Maria said...

Ah Carol, sounds like an interesting workshop - Do you ever open your workshops up to guests?

http://seaviewwarrenpoint.wordpress.com said...

Interesting, Carol.

Carolb said...

Julia- yes it is, and as the football was on very apt in one way. :D

Maria- all our sessions are open to visitors (for a small fee), as are our occasional Saturday afternoon sessions with guest authors.

We have a mix of abilities so my mini exercises and workshops aim to be suitable for both new and more experienced writers in the club's membership.And of course within the time constraints.

Marion- thanks for popping by.x