Horses for Courses: Residential writers' courses - April Taylor's view.

I have been back from the Swanwick Writers School in Derbyshire for almost two weeks now. In those two weeks, I have mused on the advantages and disadvantages for any writer attending one of these courses, using my experience of the Writers Holiday in Wales two years ago and the Writers School in Swanwick.

There will be those writers who do not feel they need to spend the £500 (ish) for a week of being looked after and not having to concentrate on anything but writing. Good luck to those. My feelings are that, even the seasoned published successful writer can come away with something new from a writing week experience.

Writers' Holiday, Fishguard

Swanwick Writers School, Derbyshire







If you would like to read more about my thoughts, go to my blog here:
www.apriltaylorauthor.com/blog

You can find more information about April Taylor here:

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Fascinated by History - Isles of Orkney

 

Linda Acaster has embarked on another short series of research blogposts taking in the northern isles of Orkney and Faroes, sitting out in the Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland.

[Research, eh? A likely story...]

Her intimation is that too many historical novels tend to dwell within their own time periods as if nothing existed or left its mark on the novel's 'present' and its characters.

She starts in Orkney, concentrating on the Neolithic megaliths that pre-date Stonehenge. 

Orkney: Vast Skies & Standing Stones

Orkney: Skara Brae Neolithic Village
Faroe: Mountains, Fjords & Vikings

Fascinated by History

Members of Hornsea Writers are, to a greater or lesser degree, fascinated by history. Sometimes it is the mistakes of those reaching for power repeated down the centuries - see novels by Stuart Aken and April Taylor - and sometimes it is centred on ordinary people who lived in a time before our own who found the inner strength to deal with circumstances we wouldn't want to face outside the pages of a novel - see books by Annie Wilkinson and Madeleine McDonald.

One of the three wings of Gainsborough Old Hall c1460

Linda Acaster is fascinated by how a place, sometimes natural, often man-made, affects the lives of those who lived there, often diverse people across the centuries. 

Her latest post concerns aspects of one of the country's few mediaeval manor houses still standing in its recognisable form - Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire - where royalty separated by historical eras - King Richard III and King Henry VIII - once rested their heads, and the Pilgrim Fathers plotted their escape down the River Trent close by.

How to be a better writer. A couple of suggestions by April Taylor

By definition, all writers are creative. If they were not, there would be no impetus to pick up pen and paper or sit at the keyboard. It is also true that no writer, however talented, comes out of the blocks with a piece of writing that is perfect and polished.

Writing, as all writers will tell you, is a solitary profession and this does not help the creative writer develop that subjective self-criticism we need in order to progress along the road to, perhaps not success, but certainly, to better writing, more in-depth writing, writing that pays attention to character motivations and conflicts and does not, as I certainly did when I began, force the characters to do things they would never dream of doing in the name of plot!

There are many resources to help the solitary writer, online courses, social media groups and the like. However, two things I believe to be essential to the development of creativity into solid, "good" writing are a constructive and supportive local writing group and by that I mean one that has experienced authors in it who do not pull their punches, but are never cruel and, once a year, a week at a writing school.

I will be honest and say that I would never have become a published writer - both traditionally and self-published - had it not been for Hornsea Writers. And as for a writing school experience, I suggest you pop over to my blog to read more. www.apriltaylorauthor.com/blog

For more information about April Taylor, you can find her here:

www.apriltaylorauthor.com
https://www.facebook.com/britwriterapriltaylor?ref=bookmarks
https://twitter.com/authAprilTaylor

Research - Making the Most of What Comes Your Way

If the ubiquitous question asked of writers is where do you get your ideas from? close on its heels must be variations on how do you get to know this stuff? Yet mention Research is often to watch eyes glaze over. Non-writers seem to think that some sort of academic degree is a prerequirement, and with it hours spent poring over dusty tomes. 

Most basic research - the stuff that prompts our inquisitive gene to spend hours in libraries or on the internet - passes by our eyes and ears, and often our noses, every day. The trick is to notice it. Being relaxed and outside the daily routine helps, as Linda Acaster has been noting on her blog.

She's just returned from a holiday in the fjords of Norway, and kicks off a short series of posts based on her experiences seen through a writer's eyes. The first is about Landscapes. 

Still to come are posts on the architecture of the Hopperstad Stave Church outside Vik, Bergen's Museum of the Hanseatic League, and the rather cryptic Viking Ships Not From Norway.

Serendipitous Research

For novelists, research comes in all shapes and sizes. Linda Acaster shuffles hers into three

categories: general, background, and pertinent.

But there is also a fourth, serendipitous, which often equates to being in the right place at the right time with the right questions.

Guess what she found behind this facade? Check out her current blogpost and all will be revealed.

The Latest From Stuart Aken

On his website, Stuart Aken is today announcing the release of the print version of his latest book.

M.E. and me: Chronic Fatigue; My Recovery After 10 Years is a personal memoir relating the effects of the condition on his life and those of the people around him. It is also a guide for those suffering with the ailment or caring for a sufferer. Colleagues and friends of ME/CFS victims will also find information and guidance here.

The book is also available in digital form and you can discover more by visiting his website at  http://stuartaken.net/

Related articles

• My ME/CFS & Fibromyalgia Recovery Story - ProHealth

"For King & Country" - New Cover

Simon & Schuster, publisher to Annie Wilkinson's Wilde family saga series, has re-issued For King and Country with a new cover.

Set in August 1918, Sally Wilde is working in Newcastle City Hospital nursing officers injured in France. Her heart goes out to a young Australian Lieutenant, Kit Maxfield, suffering devastating facial injuries, but as she coaxes him through his ordeal she finds his reticence isn't just due to his disfiguring injuries. To speak the truth will condemn him. Not to will condemn her.

Now out on Kindle as well as paperback.

Beta Readers in Action

Hornsea Writers exists as a support group for professional authors and its main function during weekly meetings is to act as a group of Beta listeners. Members read aloud work-in-progress, usually a chapter or so, and constructive criticism – colloquially referred to as shredding – is offered. And yes, we do go into the minutiae of how a sentence is constructed, and no, trite responses such as that’s nice, never cross our lips. Visitors have been known to visibly quail.

While beta-reading on the hoof works well, a typescript also needs to be beta-read as a single entity. Usually a completed work comes around individually, but planets have aligned and at Hornsea Writers it is currently Beta-Reading Month.

Stuart Aken kicked it off with his health memoir M.E. and me  – check his blog via the link for full details. Fast on its heels Penny Grubb offered up a crime novel, April Taylor a crime novella, and Madeleine McDonald a historical novel. Never has MSWord’s ‘comments’ facility seen so much action.

However, we are not our only beta readers. Most members have outside contacts who bring their own skills to a text. Collating the various comments is where the true polishing of a work lies.