Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

My Book News & Advocate for the Writing Community ©

Wordsmith’s Collective Thursday -Writing Workshops Aid Creativity

March 5, 2020
mandyevebarnett


manuscript

As writers we are always honing our skill and learning new styles and types of writing aid our creativity. I attended two workshops on 29th February, both gave me the opportunity to improve my writing.

As an author, we welcome constructive critique of our work, it is how we grow. So a group of local authors and I spend the first few months of each new year working on our current work in progress. Some are the result of our NaNoWriMo participation, while others are whatever story/novel/project we are working on currently. The premise of these monthly workshops is to read a certain number of chapters each month of each others work, then using track changes edit, suggest and comment on the plot arc, continuity, premise etc. Having a number of different reader’s feedback allows us to identify any inconsistencies and correct them. Obviously, we do not have to take every suggestion, it is after all our work but if there is a consensus of opinion throughout on a specific part, then we can revise and improve them. This allows us to create the best story possible prior to publication. 

My project is my steampunk novel, The Commodore’s Gift. Currently 75,102 words, 201 pages, 39 chapters and epilogue. Publishing date September 2020.

my steam hat

The second workshop, I attended was a poetry workshop held by The Writers Foundation of Strathcona County in anticipation of Poetry Month in April. I have to admit that poetry is not my forte, so it did stretch my creativity a bit! We covered several types of poetry: monorhyme, enclosed rhyme, simple 4-line rhyme, coupled rhyme, chain rhyme and alternative rhyme. After an explanation of each style, we then had five minutes to create a rhyme in that style using randomly selected words. The words chosen for the chain rhyme were: after, banana, crafter, panorama, would, bandanna, could, dessert, should. Yes rather a mixed bag and it had everyone struggling, but that’s the point – we cannot learn without effort. I managed this:

Alice’s happy thought was about the contest after

As she ate her second banana

Her final piece as a genius crafter

Showed a glorious textured panorama

Comments from friends confirmed she would

Win the coveted bandanna

Her gumption knew she could

A promised reward when she won – a dessert

Even though her diet negated she should

I even managed to include the ‘extra’ point words of happy, genius & gumption in that one.

What workshop have you recently attended. What did you learn about your writing?

 

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday – How I Stretch My Creativity

March 3, 2020
mandyevebarnett


w1

I spent our ‘extra’ day, 29th February indulging in two writing workshops. One was a novel workshop, which will span four months. A group of writers email a number of chapters of their current work in progress for edits and suggestions to each other and then email them back for revisions.

The second workshop, held by The Writer’s Foundation of Strathcona County, was a monthly creative workshop, covering many aspects, styles and types of writing. As we are approaching poetry month in April, we covered different types of poetry. I have to admit poetry is not my forte, so it did stretch my creativity. We covered six styles. I am sharing my attempt of a coupled rhyme (rhyme in pairs AA BB CC). The words we had to incorporate were chosen at random. Clock, rock, storm, born, wall, tall. Five minutes later I achieved this:

The fisherman looked at the clock

Then walked to the big rock

He knew it was time with the storm

For the creature to be born

The waves rose up as a wall

And there the beast stood so tall

Do you have a certain style of poetry that you prefer? 

Book Review

lavinia

Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin – my review:

To be immersed again in ancient Italy was a joy for me. I learned Greek & Roman literature in school and was transported back to the world of gods, mythology and mystery.
A wonderfully written narrative, anyone would enjoy.

Current Read:

black Esi Edugyan

What are you reading?

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday – Name that Character – Help Needed

February 25, 2020
mandyevebarnett


I am asking for help naming my heroine in my steampunk novel, The Commodore’s Gift. I have named her Owena but need to know your thoughts. I used Owena as it is a Welsh name meaning  young warrior.

The images above are for reference only, to give you an idea of how I envisage her.

To give you some background on her – here are a few things about her.

1. Comes from a upper middle class family background but not super wealthy.

2. Her mother died when she was young.

3. She was brought up by her father and older brother – they allowed her to learn from ‘manly’ literature, practice sword play and was more ‘tomboy’ than debutante.

4. She is feisty, adventurous and opposed to a conventional female role in society.

5. She stands up for herself.

Comment below with your suggestions. Thanks for taking part.

Remember you can find my books on these websites:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01MDUAS0V

http://www.dreamwritepublishing.ca

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Mandy+Eve-Barnett

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday ThreeSixtyAlberta Interview & Manuscript Update

February 11, 2020
mandyevebarnett


index

I certainly had fun with this #interview with ThreeSixtyAlberta talking about my writing life, books, publisher and writing group.

Did I answer a question for you or was there something else you wanted to know?

I’m more than happy to answer questions – so go ahead – ask!

I also have another interview this Wednesday, when I will be talking about my writing group, the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County in depth. It will be hosted by Arts Talk at our local community cafe, Common Ground.

index

This will be my third interview this year! If nothing else I’m getting a lot of practice!

UPDATE:

I managed to edit 65 pages of my current work in progress, The Commodore’s Gift, this past weekend and feel really fired up about the story and it’s characters. There is a strong female protagonist, who meets an Adonis of a man.

I also have a novel workshop group starting this month, where we will edit each other’s work over the next several months. This gives each participant several ‘reader’ views of the story, which is invaluable as well as suggestions or queries on continuity, plot arc etc. This is how a writer ‘polishes’ their work prior to publication.

Do you have a question about the editing process?

 

 

 

Preparation for NaNoWriMo 2019

October 31, 2019
mandyevebarnett


naono2019

It took some time to decide whether I would participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I have participated ten times in all and each time have created novel or novella length manuscripts. Most have been revised and edited over the following year or so to become published books. Some quicker than others it must be said. My very first NaNo in 2009 resulted in a work not published until last September! Yep 9 years. This was due to it being my first full length manuscript, my novice writing and self doubt that it was worthy of publishing. I revised and edited almost every year until I took the plunge, finally satisfied it was finalized.

However, in regard to this year’s NaNo, my first stumbling block was the two draft novels I have pending, which are previous year’s NaNoWriMo manuscripts. Again I know they need revisions and editing prior to submission to a publisher. My struggle was should I work on these manuscripts rather than create another one?

Secondly, I have several events to attend during November, which will take me away from the vital writing time needed for NaNo. As we all know every minute counts during November. Will I have enough time to succeed?

Thirdly, although I browsed the multitude of saved short stories in my laptop folders, I was not convinced any of them were novel length material. Or maybe it was my Muse not being excited enough about them – who knows? So I pondered what ‘new’ story I could write. Nothing I thought of seemed the elusive ‘it’ until just as I was drifting off to sleep an idea burst into my mind. It gave me a rough timeline, one character and the inkling of a plot. Knowing that relying on memory is a writer’s mistake when ideas pop up, I got up and wrote it all down. Subsequently, I have managed to decide on my two main characters, their location, some backstory and a timeline.

So I am as ready as I can be for 1st November. If you would like to connect on the NaNoWriMo site I’m MandyB.

How about you?

Do you have a rough outline?

Where did you idea come from?

 

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