Chapter One and Observation...

Another week and some time to write.

I've been rewriting chapter one of my novella and this morning finished it- okay it's only the first draft and there's still fourteen chapters and numerous rewrites and edits to go, but I still feel positive about it.

Having spent time thinking and writing down the details of my characters in a structured way before I started the new chapter one, I've found it has been very helpful. I could see elements I'd missed before, and that important snippet of info that was in the wrong place (now put aside in a folder) awaits the second chapter where it needs to be.

So what about the observation?

Well the novella is a love story. And over the weekend the news channels were reviewing the royal tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Canada and the west coast of the USA. It was fascinating to watch as so many times there were smiling glances-even if their other half was busy talking- and an almost touch that the romantic in me thought awwww...

Meanwhile in our garden we have blackbirds nested in the back of our blackberry bush that have made interesting viewing- I think they may have built the nest on the old lidded water butt that has become enclosed in greenery.
The parents are busy getting food and when one returns there's a sudden burst of chirriping from within the depths. The male has set up a one way system of entry to the bush, landing on a large pot and then flying up and in through a gap; while the female just flies in and out of the gaps at the front...

My redcurrant bush has been completely defruited by other blackbirds, leaving just stripped fruit stems. And our bush resident bird has now started on the small amount of white currants still available- I'm hoping the young birds are gone before the blackberries ripen and need picking.

Now I've got to go and replace the first lot of washing I put on the line this morning- we've had to leave flight path gaps for the birds to get through as the clothes line is close to the bush.

Yes I know I'm strange...  :-)

Postcards Are For More Than Writing On...

They can inspire stories...

Earlier this week the writers club held a workshop on this month's speaker evening, it was about short stories.

I have to admit that whenever we have to write something without any idea of what is going to be presented I slightly panic. My brain freezes and I have to remind myself I'm not going to be in trouble if I can't do it. So panic over...

We were given a postcard each, mine was a black and white semi-nude male with a large jar held on one arm- very classical. (If it didn't inspire us we could change it for another.) But it immediately triggered a character for my potential story, called Adam.

We had about ten minutes to write details about our character and some of us couldn't avoid starting to tell the story as we wrote. A few of us read out our descriptions. So far so good...

Next we were given another postcard and this was for our second character. I had a young girl sat in a restaurant with a waiter to one side with his back turned, so you couldn't see his face. This girl was Maria- very West Side Story connotations. Again another ten minutes to write about her.

Finally we were given a postcard with a scene, a building or a place like a river. I had a tall rounded building across a street, the painting's aspect gave the impression that you were in a high place somewhere across the road. Above one window was a striped red and white awning.

Adam, I decided, is a would-be artist earning money by posing as a life model. Maria works in an Italian restaurant across the road...

The final part of the exercise was one or both has a secret- what is it?

So it's on my list to do.

You might remember (or not) some time ago I mentioned that I had a box of postcards somewhere. Well I found them and they brought so many memories back as I looked through them.

There were postcards from exhibitions I attended in London when I was about twenty. Reminders of holidays I took in York, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Scarborough. Then there were the costume postcards from various museums, and cards of the beautiful Sutton Hoo exhibits, the real things held me mesmerised whenever I went to see them in the British Museum.

All the postcards triggered mental images of the past.

So I've decided to start gathering interesting postcard images to add to my box, like those used in the workshop, so when I need some different ideas I can look through and see what stories and characters they inspire.

But first I need another box...