In this fifth session in my free creative writing course, we will be looking at characterisation. In creative writing we become, in a way, like God. In short stories, novels and poems, we construct a world then fill it with people who take on a life of their own. Iris Murdoch described a novel as ‘a fit house for free characters to live in’. How far a literary construct can have free will is an ongoing philosophical debate; more pertinent to writers is whether plot should follow character or the other way around. Continue reading ‘Creative Writing - Characterisation’
Archive for October, 2007
In this fourth session of my free non-fiction writing course we will be looking at how you can mine your own experiences for publishable material. It’s not all about ‘I was born at an early age and died before I was ready’, so if the cradle-to-grave expose’ doesn’t attract you, there are more ways to use autobiographical material in your writing. We will look at autobiographical ‘lens’ books and articles, life-story autobiography, family history and ‘true life’ articles. Continue reading ‘Non-fiction writing: autobiography and writing from life’
I am delighted to be invited to give a workshop on Writing for the Magazine Market at the Tynedale Writers’ Festival in Hexham. The festival runs from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 November and offers a plethora of talks, workshops and shows on writing, music and theatre. Check out the full programme at Tynedale Writers’ Festival. Don’t forget to sign up to my free workshop on Sunday 4th, 10.30 - 12.30. We will be looking at how to find out if a magazine takes freelance work and how to put a proposal together.
For all my regular online visitors and students, the Introduction to Creative Writing Course is taking a break for half term. We’ll be back next week with characterisation. In its place I’ve asked Science Fiction author Simon Morden to write a guest blog on using feedback to improve your work. You may also want to check out this Friday’s blog on non-fiction writing which will be all about writing autobiographies.
In this first of a series of guest blogs by other writers, the Crafty Writer is delighted to have Science Fiction author Simon Morden share his views on how to deal with feedback. Simon is the author of the recently released and has also had a number of novellas and short story collections published. Simon says:
When you start writing, just showing your work – especially fiction – to anyone else is a nerve-wracking experience: assuming, of course, you don’t have such a gargantuan ego that you believe everything you do is wonderful. To those people, you may move along, nothing to see here, for you will learn nothing and never become a better writer. To the rest of us mortals who are prepared to have our hopes, dreams and very sense of self crushed beneath the withering sarcasm of others, good. There may be hope. Continue reading ‘Fiction know how - getting feedback’
Magazines
The following magazines are currently looking for freelance work:
- Garden Answers - email geoff.stebbings@emap.com to request contributors’ guidelines.
- Psychologies - check out the website for contributors’ guidelines. As well as psychology and emotional health articles, they are looking for travel features that include an element of self-discovery. You can also submit a 500-word ‘your story’ for the online magazine, although there won’t be any payment.
Welcome to the third installment of my 8 week course on non-fiction writing. We’ve already looked at finding opportunities to get published and non-fiction writing style. This week we will consider opportunities on the web. Continue reading ‘Non-fiction writing for the internet’
This is the fourth installment in our eight-week course, an Introduction to Creative Writing. We have already looked at releasing your creativity, writing short stories and writing from a point of view. This session we will look at how to bring your writing to life. We will focus on three basic principles that will help bring sparkle to your text:
Continue reading ‘Creative Writing - bringing your text to life’
Came across this brilliant opportunity to finally get my poetry in print. Fame at last! Continue reading ‘Atrocious teenage poetry’
On National Poetry Day I was delighted to receive an invitation to judge a poetry competition at my daughter’s nursery, Westerhope Village Nursery School. Megan is only two-and-a-half, so it was the ‘big’ children who entered the My First Poem competition run by Forward Press. With over a dozen budding poets completing a ‘fill-in-the-gap’ sheet, it was desperately hard to pick three winners. These were the ones that caught my eye … Continue reading ‘My First Poem competition’
Welcome to The Crafty Writer, published by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site is full of information and resources to help you on your journey to become a better writer. 
