How is your Goodreads Challenge shaping up? I am currently 3 books ahead of schedule, not entirely sure how, but it does give me some breathing room. These are the books I read, and I am currently reading The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell.
This is not counting the chapters I am reading and editing within a novel workshop, where four other authors are participating. The genre’s span action/adventure, prairie story, time travel and contemporary fiction and my detective fiction.
What are you reading?
I will be announcing a special gift basket for my steampunk readers in Edmonton, in the next week or so. It will be part of a prize draw at Daisy Chain Book Co. Details pending.
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.
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?
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 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.
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.
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.
Esi Edugyan
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 