In this section we share a selection of our writers’ weekly homework pieces and timed exercises. Homework is normally 500 – 750 words maximum, the timed exercises are completed in the workshop within 20 minutes.
Beautiful Lies an Anthology of New Writers
The best short stories should haunt you for days and weeks. They should startle you and make you want to read more by the same author. In this anthology of 35 new writers you’ll find refreshing, creative voices that will constantly surprise and delight. Most of the writers are published here for the first time in print. Online their work has appeared under the writing workshop banner of Bourne to Write, led by the writer and critic Roddy Phillips. As they were written in the Workshop many of the pieces share themes, lines and subject matter, yet each one is a unique and beautiful lie, just waiting to be brought to life… by you the reader.
Buy Beautiful Lies in paperback and kindle on amazon
Read a review of Beautiful Lies from the Ingenue magazine
“I was very familiar with Zoom but Roddy’s workshops really make the most of the format. Close reading other writer’s work onscreen is a relevation and I love watchinhg videos of poets and plays. But one of the best things about the workshop is Roddy’s help with homework. Its like a magic wand has been waved over it.” Margaret Cooper – Zoom workshop writer.
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MAY 2022
SYMBOLISM
The conch is used not only to call meetings but also to establish order when the boys talk. Thus, the conch symbolizes civilization, adult rules, and the democratic process. As Ralph is the first to utilize the conch as a social tool, it also becomes a symbol of Ralph’s legitimacy as a leader.
I’m frightened. Of us.
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New Adages on Life and Death by Saffron Swansborough
Main Gates by Richard Lewis
Nothing Ventured by Janie Reynolds
Our Song by Sho Botham
Out of Winter by Meoldy Bertucci
Nurture by Sue Hitchcock
Living the Dream by Lesley Dawson
I’m Frightened by Ivor John
I’m Frightened by Miriam Silver
Hidden in Plain Sight by Paul Hunter
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CLICHES
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to choose one of the following clichés and write about it literally.
Light as a feather Between a rock and a hard place Can’t cut the mustard Cat got your tongue Cost an arm and a leg All ears High as a kite Lose your head Make your blood boil Pay through the nose Raining cats and dogs Reinvent the wheel Bite the Bullet
Everyone knows that a phrase like ‘the writing on the wall’ or ‘go the extra mile’ is a cliché, but plots, characters, dialogue and setting can also be clichéd. And each use of cliché risks detracting from the effectiveness of your writing.
We discussed Jeffery Archer’s novel titles, which are mostly cliches or aphorisms which act as a form of foreshadowing or foreboding.
I asked everyone to choose one of the following Archer novels and use it as the title of their homework piece:
Be Careful What You With For by Jill Webb
One of Us (part three) by Elaine Weddle
Reunion by Sue Hitchcock
In Plain Sight by Martin Bourne
Turn a Blind Eye by Miriam Silver
Being in Love by Paul Hunter
Jack Speak by Richard Lewis
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APRIL 2022
THIS WEDDING
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to open their piece with this line:
I have never like it: The Spring.
I also asked for the narrator to be an animal.
This was an exercise in Anthropomorphism – check out Disney for examples.
The poem is inspired by Sotelo’s dog Grace, who nuzzles her body through ferns on a sunny day, and how she seems to effortlessly enjoy the pleasures of springtime.
“…following one sentence after another,” you might assume that is how everyone writes, you just place one word in front of another, but Sotelo’s approach is an extremely free and natural way to write, unhindered by those sudden walls of consideration that seem to spring up before us. Better to address those questions and debates through the revision process.
The speaker in the poem is in both a position of authority (her friends smile up, figuring her as above them) and exposure (she has been put on display, is being watched by her sickle-wielding audience). There is a clear deadliness at play – the cacti for instance, the marriage ritual has been reimagined. The poem is composed of declarative sentences; most are uncomplicated syntactically, but all are freighted with meaning.
I asked everyone to open their homework with the first line from the poem:
This wedding is some hell.
Weddings by Grant McFarlane
Listen to Grant’s piece read by Mia Sundby
One of Us (part two) by Elaine Weddle
Wedding by Sue Hitchcock
Third Time Lucky by Sho Botham
Wedding Hells by Mia Sundby
This Wedding is Some Hell by Miriam Silver
On Seven Sisters by Lou Beckerman
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Good morning. You have not slept well.
Being in love, you know… it’s not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can’t just go out and get another to replace her.
Canary by Fran Duffield
Sweetheart by Sue Hitchcock
My Partner Who Lives Abroad by Lesley Dawson
Conspiracy in the Streets, Intestines on the Sheets by Mia Sundby
Full of Promise by Miriam Silver
Fabrication by Lou Beckerman
Good Morning – a timed exercise by Sue Hitchcock
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PSYCHIC DISTANCE
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to use as many of these lines in their piece as they liked:
This was an exercise in Psychic or Narrative Distance. In his work, The Art of Fiction, John Gardner (1983) describes “psychic distance” or ‘narrative distance’ as the “distance that the reader feels between himself and the events of the story” (p.111). In terms of point of view, larger psychic distance can present broad contexts or greater arcs that do not need to be as detailed, while closer psychic distance is useful to bring the reader closer to scenes where specific details are important to engage with the story.
As an example of varying psychic distance I read the opening of Jonathan Franzen’s 2001 novel The Corrections. I asked everyone to use this quote from The Corrections anywhere in their homework and to consciously vary the psychic distance in their piece.
Life, in her experience, had a kind of velvet lustre. You looked at yourself from one perspective and all you saw was weirdness. Move your head a little bit, though, and everything looked reasonably normal.
No Escape by MaryPat Campbell
Shot Silk by Sue Hitchcock
The Reader by Janie Reynolds
The Salute by Richard Lewis
One of Us by Elaine Weddle
Conspiracy in the Streets, Intestines on the Sheets by Mia Sundby
Psychic Distance by Miriam Silver
Lucinda by Sho Botham
Tilting by Grant McFarlane
Bloody Suspicious by Vera Gajic
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VERBING
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to use this word in their piece…
Medusad
Used sparingly, verbing or verbification can hoist a narrative into a whole new sphere. Succinct and to the point it can add immediacy, speed action, and add a visual dimension to your writing, making it tighter, more interesting and arresting. Adverbs are unnecessary, writing is less wordy. We lose the pedestrian. Rather than describe how a policeman uses his badge to clear a route through a crowd, now we see him badge his way through. It’s concise, descriptive and visual.
I asked you to use the opening line of Duffy’s poem anywhere in your homework and to create at least one example of verbing.
A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy grew in my mind.
Night by Lou Beckerman
Harvest by Fran Duffield
Straitjacketed by MaryPat Campbell
The Two Vladimirs by Sue Hitchcock
Kit Muster by Richard Lewis
Suspicion, a Doubt, Jealousy by Miriam Silver
Sunbeams on a Sunny Day by Ivor John
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ANASTROPHES
Patience I lack. A roast is what we will have for dinner. In the night sky shimmered the moon. She stared into the dog’s eyes deep and menacing. On a black cloak sparkle the stars. Bright he was not.
These lines are Anastrophes which means “turning around” in Ancient Greek.
English language syntax usually follows a subject-verb-object order, so anastrophe inverts that order for effect. Anastrophe is the deliberate changing of normal word order for emphasis or another rhetorical effect. (A rhetorical effect is any effect that elicits a response from the reader, e.g., causes the reader to pause for thought.) Anastrophe is often used in poetry and in speeches to create a dramatic and rhythmic effect.
The Silence of Ears by Janie Reynolds
Relict by Fran Duffield
The Moon by MaryPat Campbell
Bright He Was Not by Paul Hunter
Midway by Richard Lewis
The Value of Friendship by Lesley Dawson
I Lived Only For The Moment by Miriam Silver
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FILTER WORDS
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to use the following lines anywhere in their piece:
Lily heard rain patter against the concrete and felt it bead up on her face. She realised the street was starting to flood.
This was an exercise in ‘Filter Words’. For example here’s the sentence again with the filter words in bold:
Lily heard rain patter against the concrete and felt it bead up on her face. She realised the street was starting to flood.
An effective revision without the filter words would be something like this:
Rain pattered against the concrete and beaded up on Lily’s face. The street was starting to flood.
Filter words are verbs that veil or increase the narrative distance, reminding us that what we’re reading is being told by someone rather than experienced, or shown, through the eyes of the character. Examples include: noticed, seemed, spotted, saw, realised, felt, thought, wondered, believed, knew, decided.
This is Fallada’s first published piece and is a very early example of a story set in the present tense. Fallada died in 1947 but even in the 1930’s his novels like ‘Little Man What Now? were being made into popular films. Alone in Berlin and Wolf Among Wolves are his best known works.
I asked our writers to use this line from Fallada’s novel The Drinker anywhere in your homework and to keep a sharp eye out for those filter words.
I had already forgotten all that had happened and all that lay ahead, I lived only for the moment.
Count The Breath by Saffron Swansborough
What’s It All About by Jill Webb
Appeasement by Grant McFarlane
Cleopatra by Sue Hitchcock
Heard by Lou Beckerman
Arrival at Bedlam by MaryPat Campbell
Devil’s Elbow by Richard Lewis
I Lived Only For The Moment by Miriam Silver
Live Laugh Love by Ivor John
The Only Way to Survive by Vera Gajic
THE NIGHT WAS
The night was...
We watched clips of the film showing Crystal’s character apparently battling with writer’s block as he tries to start a novel with the words: The night was. The main reason Crystal’s writer can’t get past the frist three words is that he’s telling rather than showing. Using the word ‘Was’ doesn’t actually tell us anything. It’s simply saying that something existed. In a way, it’s meaningless. Using “was” too often can make your writing sound weak. It makes it monotonous. But most importantly, it robs the passage of having strong verbs.
For the homework I asked our writers to use this line from Annie Proulx’s award winning novel The Shipping News:
You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.
Orchestration by Saffron Swansborough
Rhythms of Life by Sho Botham
You Know by Sue Hitchcock
Whitechapel to Canterbury by MaryPat Campbell
Early Days by Richard Lewis
Soundtrack by Fran Duffield
The Night Was…a timed exercise by Lou Beckerman
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UNLIKEABLE
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to write about someone they knew who was unlikeable.
We then discussed the Elizabeth Strout’s character Olive Kitteredge. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
However, the compelling unlikable character exists in every medium – Joffrey Lannister (Game of Thrones), Javert (Les Miserables), Yvonne “Vee” Parker (Orange Is the New Black), the Narrator in Fight Club (or more broadly, possibly every character in every Palahniuk novel), Holden Caulfield, Jack Torrance … there’s no end to this list.
For the homework I asked everyone to use this line from Olive Kitteredge and to create a character that had some unlikeable traits.
She didn’t like to be alone. Even more, she didn’t like being with people.
Soft Focus Fish by Ali Giles
The Accomplice by Elaine Weddle
They Didn’t Discuss it by Sho Botham
Prima Donna by Paul Hunter
A Lich WIthout a Cause by Mia Sundby
Running by Grant McFarlane
Facades by Lou Beckerman
Grannie Goes Shopping by Sue Hitchcock
Ursula by MaryPat Campbell
Alone by Miriam Silver
The Support Group by Ivor John
Biding His Time by Richard Lewis
Being Alone by Vera Gajic
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THE LAST WORD
Silence.
If the beginning of a story draws the reader in and sets the stage for the drama about to unfold, the end must resolve that storyline and leave the reader satisfied with what happened to the characters. For this reason, learning how to end a piece is critical to your long-term success as a writer.
The elements of a good and satisfying ending include:
The title for the homework was…
The Last Word
The Last Word – an Ode to Bernadette by Grant McFarlane
Last Words by Lou Beckerman
That Last Word by Martin Bourne
The Last Word by MaryPat Campbell
The Last Word by Sho Botham
Who Has The Last Word? by Lesley Dawson
The Last Word by Elaine Weddle
The Last Word by Ivor John
The Last Word by Paul Hunter
Last Word by Richard Lewis
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SOMETHING OVERHEARD
“Oh I loved it. Of course my husband used to be French.”
This was real dialogue I overheard recently in a cinema foyer. We then discussed eavesdropping which is an important element in the writer’s toolbox.
The Cafe by Martin Bourne
Eavesdropping by Lou Beckerman
The Devil by MaryPat Campbell
The Man From Seat17a by Sho Botham
Something Overheard by Miriam Silver
Green-Eyed Monster by Vera Gajic
Moths by Sue Hitchcock
Harbinger by Fran Duffield
Technical by Ivor John
Night Nurse by Paul Hunter
Afloat by Ali Giles
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URBAN MYTH
This is the famous ‘Bike Tree’ on Vashon Island, Washinton. The story goes that in n 1914, a young man leaned his bicycle against a tree, left Vashon Island, Washington, and went off to war, never to return. The tree did what trees do, and two became as one. So goes the legend of Vashon’s infamous bike tree, a poignant, romantic, tragic story. Unfortunately its an urban myth. The bike, which has become a tourist attraction, actually dates from the 1950s and is a child’s bike.
Urban myths are an important part of popular culture, offering insight into our fears and the state of society. Usually passed on by word of mouth by word or more commonly today in e-mail or texts etc, they often invoke the famous “it happened to friend of a friend” clause that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible.
The Breath-Stealer by Martin Bourne
Urban Myths 2122 by Rosalyn Hurst
Kissing Ritual by Sho Botham
Urban Myth by Sue Hitchcock
Goatley Manor by Ivor John
Two Urban Myth Poems by Paul Hunter
Edward the Texture – a timed exercise by Sho Botham
Tree – a timed exercise by Lou Beckerman
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IT’S CATCHING
My friend Patsy was telling me a story.
I also asked them to use some of these words in their piece:
Dash Burst Grasp Slink Gush Shimmer Groan Garble Plunge Trudge Dangle Toddle Surge Clutch Obtain Clasp Expose Jostle Stroll Hail Fuse Glare Intertwine Gaze Mimic Peak Seize Saunter
These are strong verbs. A strong verb is a verb that conveys more information than a simple action—strong verbs can convey emotion, speed, intention, direction, or significance. For example, walk is a weak verb. It simply conveys the idea that someone is moving their feet to take them from one place to another. It’s not a bad verb, but it is a weak verb because it doesn’t convey any other information other than what specific action is taking place.
I asked our writers to use this title for their homework:
It’s Catching
It’s Catching by Jill Webb
It’s Catching by Ali Giles
It’s Catching by Sho Botham
It’s Catching by Victoria Watson
Infection by Sue Hitchcock
Catching by Fran Duffield
It’s Catching by Ivor John
It’s Catching by MaryPat Campbell
It’s Catching by Paul Hunter
Finding the Right Man for the Job by Lesley Dawson
It’s Catching by Miriam Silver
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THE BASIS OF ALL HUMAN FEARS
“Let me in,” the voice whispered. Stepping back, my heart leapt into my throat.
Mark Petrie turned over in bed and looked through the window and Danny Glick was staring in at him through the glass, his skin grave-pale, his eyes reddish and feral.
Some dark substance was smeared about his lips and chin, and when he saw Mark looking at him, he smiled and showed teeth grown hideously long and sharp.
“Let me in,” the voice whispered, and Mark was not sure if the words had crossed dark air or were only in his mind.
I asked our writers to use this quote from Salem’s Lot in their homework:
The basis of all human fears, he thought. A closed door, slightly ajar.
Waiting for Sadaam by Lesley Dawson
Whispers by Paul Hunter
The Bedroom Door by Sho Botham
Its What You Can’t See by Victoria Watson
Who’s Afraid? by Sue Hitchcock
Real Deal by Ivor John
Buttermilk by MaryPat Campbell
Human Fear by Vera Gajic
Did You Hear That? by Miriam Silver
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JANUARY 2022
DID YOU HEAR THAT?
Your character is hiding behind a sofa. People enter the room and things start happening, things your character can only hear.
Use Onomatopoeia for an Echo
Play With the Emotional Effects of Sound Deprivation or Sounds We Can’t Control
Let Sound Set the Mood
I asked our writers to open their homework with this line:
Did you hear that?
Dinner For Three by Gill Hilton
Nothing Intended by Sho Botham
The Sound by Fran Duffield
What Were That? by Jill Webb
Did You Hear That? by Sue Hitchcock
Kiss, Touch, Hold by Melody Bertucci
Je ne Regriette rein by Ivor John
What by Paul Hunter
Hell’s Bells 2 by MaryPat Campbell
The News by Marion Umney
Emily’s Little People by Vera Gajic
Darrel by Martin Bourne
Euthanasia – a timed exercise by Garf Collins
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SILENCE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN HEAR
When the phone rang I was in the kitchen
Like so many of Murakami’s previous works, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is part detective story, part Bildungsroman, part fairy tale, part science-fiction-meets-Lewis Carroll. It’s a novel about versions: versions of reality, versions of selves, versions of stories told about selves and realities. This is the book where Murakami takes a big leap from a very sovereign-self-affirming narrative universe and lands in one where everything is fragmented.
For the homework I asked our writers to use this line from Murikami:
Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.
The Janitor’s Daughter by Grant McFarlane
Tales From The Backseat by Victoria Watson
Buried in the Woods by Mia Sundby
In Love With the World by Gill Hilton
The Joy of Hearing Silence by Sho Botham
Silence by Fran Duffield
Silence by Ivor John
Silence by Paul Hunter
Hell’s Bells by MaryPat Campbell
The Silent Scream by Richard Lewis
Silence by Miriam Silver
Silence by Rosalyn Hurst
Granny by Sue Hitchcock
The Rest of My Life by Lesley Dawson
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I AM NOT SURE THAT I EXIST ACTUALLY
The other one, the one called….is the one things happen to.
The story is essentially about the gulf between the private self and the public persona. Its central theme can be extrapolated and applied to our modern obsession with celebrity, particularly in the age of social media. Many of Borges’ most celebrated stories are about reality versus perception. Read it here
I am not sure that I exist, actually.
Cheesy Chips by Ali Giles
Decisions, Decisions by Sho Botham
Existing by Fran Duffield
Till Death Us Do Part by Paul Hunter
I Am Not Sure That I Exist by MaryPat Campbell
I’m Not Sure I Exist by Miriam Silver
Celebrity by Sue Hitchcock
Cogit Ergo Sum by Ivor John
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A NEW YEAR
It is December and we must be brave.
“It is December and we must be brave,” writes Natalie Diaz in “Manhattan is a Lenape Word,” a poem from her Pulitzer Prize–winning collection, Postcolonial Love Poem (Graywolf Press, 2020). Diaz sets the scene by describing the sounds and colors of New York City: “The ambulance’s rose of light / blooming against the window.” Then she moves from the exterior to the interior: “I’m the only Native American / on the 8th floor of this hotel or any…”
Natalie Diaz was born in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community. Conveying clear ideas through crisp, dazzling images, Diaz’s poems typically unfold in long lines grouped into short stanzas. She instructs and inquires; she mourns and rhapsodises. Often her poems seem to create their own language that is both challenging to the reader and highly compelling. Read it here
A New Year
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A New Year by Fran Duffield
A New Year by Sho Botham
A New Year by Paul Hunter
A New Year by Miriam Silver
A New Year by Sue Hitchcock
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DECEMBER
For this week’s timed exercise I showed everyone this image:
Playing the Fool
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Playing the Fool by Sho Botham
Tomfoolery by Jill Webb
Homeland by Lauren Holstein
Playing the Fool by Miriam Silver
The Fool by Paul Hunter
Playing the Fool by Mia Sundby
Playing the Fool by Fran Duffield
The New Employee by Martin Bourne
In the Provinces by Ivor John
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This was an exercise in creating Mystery. One of the reasons we like surprise gifts is the instant mystery they create. Unlike nonfiction, fiction’s motor doesn’t run on information, but on its opposite: mystery.
I read from Italo Calvino’s short story ‘Santa’s Children’. Read it here
In the closing paragraphs, Calvino pulls the focus back, away from Marcovaldo and his mundane toils, away from the city and its cold, false wrappings, and instead situates the reader in an ancient forest where a jack-hare in snow is pursued by a wolf in shadow. Beautiful and haunting, this ending hints to a grander perspective beyond human control and concerns, with each animal perhaps alluding to the primordial interplay between light and shadow, life and death.
Secret Santa
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Tallulah by Sho Botham
Sons of Gryla by Ali Giles
Secret Santa by Sue Hitchcock
Secret Santa by Miriam Silver
Georgie’s Secret Santa by Vera Gajic
Secret Santa by Paul Hunter
Secret Santa by Marion Umney
Santa’s Children by Rosalyn Hurst
The Box – a timed exercise by Paul Hunter
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I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal.
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Keeping Watch by Sho Botham
Muffin MacGuffin by Sue Hitchcock
The MacGuffin by Miriam Silver
Ms Tarpleman by Martin Bourne
Grace by MaryPat Campbell
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HOW WONDERFUL TO BE ALIVE
This is Arbatskaya Metro Station, one of the soviet era metro stations photographed by Christopher Herwig. These metro networks built across the Soviet Union between the 1930s and 1980s, were used as a propaganda artwork – a fusion of sculpture, architecture and art, combining Byzantine, medieval, baroque and Constructivist ideas and infusing them with the notion that Communism would mean a ‘communal luxury’ for all. Today these astonishing spaces remain the closest realisation of a Soviet utopia.
I asked everyone to set their homework in the UK any time during the past 18 months and to use this line from Dr Zhivago:
‘How wonderful to be alive,’ he thought. ‘But why does it always hurt?’
How Long is a Piece of String by Mia Sundby
Alive by Fran Duffield
The Half Life by Stuart Carruthers
Your Family’s Never in Your Past by Rosalyn Hurst
Family Ties by Paul Hunter
Watched by Sho Botham
Unheard by Sue Hitchcock
It All Depends On Doncaster by Ivor John
Devil’s Dyke by Richard Lewis
How Wonderful to be Alive by Miriam Silver
Andrew by Martin Bourne
Remembrance by Marion Umney
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YOUR FAMILY’S NEVER IN YOUR PAST
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to write about this image of a wood with two diverging paths.
I read the opening of The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman published in 2012. Australia, 1926. Tom and Isabel live a happy but solitary life on Janus Island where Tom is the lighthouse keeper. The only blight on their existence is Isabel’s desperation for a baby. When one morning a boat washes up on the shore with a dead man but a living baby Isabel and Tom make a decision that will have consequences not only for them but for Isabel’s family the baby’s real mother. This is a novel of dilemmas, decisions, consequences and human nature. It is an emotional tale of love, loss and the blurred lines between right and wrong.
Your family’s never in your past. You carry it around with you everywhere.
Threads by Fran Duffield
Your Family’s Never in Your Past by Victoria Watson
Far Away, So Close by Stuart Carruthers
Your Family’s Never in Your Past by Rosalyn Hurst
Old Aunt Hilda by Sho Botham
Black Ice by MaryPat Campbell
Geese in Autumn by Ivor John
Mother’s Words by Richard Lewis
Your Family’s Never in Your Past by Miriam Silver
My Mysterious Neighbour by Garf Collins
The Letter by Lesley Dawson
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NOVEMBER
CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
This was an exercise in Foreshadowing.
I asked everyone to feature foreshadowing in their homework and to use this classic Christie title: Cat Among the Pigeons.
Cat Among the Pigeons by Grant Mcfarlane
Cat Among the Pigeons by Victoria Watson
The Last Thing He Wanted by Stuart Carruthers
Cat Among the Pigeons by Rosalyn Hurst
Cat Among the Pigeons by Paul Hunter
Cat Among the Pigeons by Sho Botham
Cat Among the Pigeons by Miriam Silver
Cat Among the Pigeons by Sue Hitchcock
Cat Among the Pigeons by Ivor John
Ripples by Richard Lewis
Cat by Fran Duffield
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THE TIME MACHINE

The title for the homework was: The Time Machine. I also asked everyone to follow Proust’s lead.
The Mint Time Machine by Jill Webb
Bad Food by Victoria Watson
Time – Poems in the Flamenca Form by Saffron Swansborough
Cut Hay by Martin Bourne
The Time Machine by MaryPat Campbell
The Time Machine by Vera Gajic
Look What the Wind Blew in by Stuart Carruthers
The Time Traveller by Paul Hunter
The Time Machine by Sho Botham
Time Machine by Miriam Silver
Out of Time by Sue Hitchcock
The Time Machine by Lauren Holstein
The Time Machine by Ivor John
The Arrow of Time by Garf Collins
Mid-life Madness by Marion Umney
Last Station by Mia Sundby
The Time Machine by Richard Lewis
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I CAN’T EXPLAIN WHY
Now its dark.
Now it’s dark. The sun has slipped behind the orange groves, disclosing the garbled rainbow of the carnival rides. The blaring reds of the Devil’s Choir and the blue-white of the Giant Wheel and the strobing greens of the Orbiter and the chasing yellow and purple of the Chaises Volantes mingle and the sky glows hyena brown. Panic takes hold among the egrets in the drainage canal. They flee for the live-oak tree that surveils the hay-bale corral of the World’s Smallest Horse. For a time, the tree moves with a white restlessness of egrets stowing and unstowing their overlong wings.
Tower is a great reviser and all of the stories in this collection have been revised or completely rewritten up to 7 times after their initial publication.
I can’t explain why I did these things.
Some of our writers might have done this homework before, if they had, then here was their chance to REVISE it.
There Are Not Enough Words for Love by Gill Hilton
Chasing Praeteritum by Grant Mcfarlane
The Children’s Ward by MaryPat Campbell
A Slow Walk Anywhere by Stuart Carruthers
Why by Paul Hunter
I Can’t Explain Why I Did These Things, I Guess its Called Growing Up by Victoria Watson
Saying Things by Rosalyn Hurst
My Life by Vera Gajic
Tache Noir by Sho Botham
I Can’t Explain Why by Miriam Silver
Thinking of Gaia by Sue Hitchcock
Shadow Box by Lauren Holstein
Now its Dark – a timed exercise by Lauren Holstein
Now its Dark – a timed exercise by Victoria Watson
Sad Street by Sho Botham
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ADDICTION
There are many that I miss.
This is the opening line of Billy Collins’ poem The Best Cigarette. What makes this poem relatable to more than those who engage in the habit of smoking, are the occasions and the emotional connections. Addiction is certainly one of the poems main subjects but it shines a broader light on Collins life as a writer. Watch the animated version of the poem
The subject for the homework was Addiction – I asked the workshop writers not to write about alcohol, drug abuse or gambling.
A Hundred and Forty Two by MaryPat Campbell
Autumn’s Overcoat by Stuart Carruthers
Addict by Fran Duffield
Laura by Paul Hunter
The Lover’s Addict by Victoria Watson
Imelda’s Flat by Vera Gajic
Another Kiss by Sho Botham
Addiction by Miriam Silver
Addiction by Sue Hitchcock
Addiction by Marion Umney
Addiction by Gill Hilton
Addiction by Lesley Dawson
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October
WHO WANTS FLOWERS?
I studied much and remembered little.
This is the first line of the poem ‘Tin’ by the American poet Jane Hirshfield, which was recently published in the New Yorker magazine.
The poem is written in first person which makes it feel immediately personal. I talked about the advantages and difficulties of writing in first person. First person perspective limits a reader’s access to information. They only know and experience what the narrator does. This is an effective tool for creating suspense and building intrigue in stories, particularly in thrillers or mysteries.
Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody. I‘m quite illiterate, but I read a lot. People always clap for the wrong reasons. Mothers are all slightly insane. People are always ruining things for you. Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.
Singles by Victoria Watson
Twitchy by Jill Webb
Flowers by Paul Hunter
Flowers by Fran Duffield
Lillies by Sho Botham
The Last Game by Richard Lewis
Slightly Insane by Richard Lewis
Who Wants Flowers by Ivor John
Loaded Mind by Stuart Carruthers
Mothers Are Slightly Insane by Miriam Silver
The Small Print by MaryPat Campbell
Who Needs Flowers by Sue Hitchcock
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A GARDEN PATH STORY
For this week’s timed exercise I gave everyone the following sentences to work with:
The florist sent the flowers was pleased. Wherever John walks the dog chases him.
There are of course Garden Path stories and novels, for example: Ambrose Bierce’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, William Golding’s Pincher Martin, Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman and Thurber’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Wish You Were Here by Stuart Carruthers
Out of Luck by Miriam Silver
Challenging Husbands Can Be Thrilling by Rosalyn Hurst
Danny Boy by Catriona Millar
Lady’s Fingers by Marion Umney
Just Press Send by Sandra Banks
Your Number’s Up by Sho Botham
Last Night by Ivor John
The Good Old Days by Sue Hitchcock
Garden Path Story by Fran Duffield
Management Speak by Martin Bourne
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MEMORY BELIEVES
Joe Christmas
Joe Christmas – an orphan born on Christmas day is a man doomed, deracinated and alone – wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. After killing Joanna Burden, his God-fearing lover, it becomes inevitable that he is pursued by a lynch-hungry mob. Yet after the sacrifice, there is new life, a determined ray of light in Faulkner’s complex and tragic world.
Memory believes before knowing remembers.
Memory Believes Before Knowing Remembers by Jill Webb
Wheels Within Wheels by Richard Lewis
Memory Believes by Lauren Holstein
Movement in the Trees by Mia Sundby
For Esme With Love & Squalor by Victoria Watson
The Clocks Tick Backwards by Stuart Carruthers
Memory Believes by Miriam Silver
Memory Believes by Rosalyn Hurst
Memories by Vera Gajic
Life’s a Beach by Sho Botham
Cold Comfort by MaryPat Campbell
Denmark Hill by Ivor John
Margate by Sue Hitchcock
Joe Christmas – a timed exercise by Lauren Holstein
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HOW TO DISAPPEAR
HOW TO DISAPPEAR
How to Disappear/Stay Safe by Victoria Watson
Around the Houses by Saffron Swansborough
How to Disappear by Lauren Holstein
How Not to Disappear by Janie Reynolds
How to Disappear by Martin Bourne
How to Disappear by Stuart Carruthers
How to Disappear by Mia Sundby
The Couple on the Train by Garf Collins
How to Disappear by Miriam Silver
How to Disappear by Melody Bertucci
How to Disappear by MaryPat Campbell
How to Disappear by Sho Botham
The Invisible Man by Vera Gajic
Len Comes to Conyer by Sue Hitchcock
………………………………………
September
NOW EVERYONE KNOWS
I think of myself as somebody not at home.
This is part of a quote from a 2019 interview with Zadie Smith for Marie Claire. When asked about whether living in the United States and England affects her writing, Smith responded, “I think of myself as somebody not at home. Not at home anywhere, not at home ever. But I think of that as a definition of a writer: somebody not at home, not comfortable in themselves in their supposed lives.”
On the subject of writing she says, “It comes out of reading of being a reader and wanting to create something like what I’ve read. And also it’s a way of experiencing time, like never missing any of it. Writing is partly a kind of stupidity, other people just live their lives and get on with it day by day, writing is a way of slowing it down and thinking what just happened? What did it mean? What was the point? I’m just a writer of life, of what I see around me and what I understand.”
The body of the message was a single sentence: Now everyone knows who you really are.
Dysfunction by Ali Giles
You Gave Me The Answer by Jill Webb
Finding Home by Grant McFarlane
How is Your Lockdown Going? by Saffron Swansborough
Betrayal by Sho Botham
September 26 by Sue Hitchcock
Everything You Know is Wrong by Stuart Carruthers
I Am a Long Covid Statistic by Janie Reynolds
Who is my friend, who is my enemy? by Lesley Dawson
The Message by Miriam Silver
Now Everyone Knows by Ivor John
Marie Antoinette by Lauren Holstein
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THE ACHILLES HEEL
Uncle Ken, wise as he was, was hit by a car.
In the poem, Sealey lists the speaker’s and their family’s medical history, creating a startling portrait of genealogy and the anxieties surrounding mortality that come with it.
I then read an excerpt from ‘On Immunity’ by Eula Biss, which was published in 2015.
The subject for this week’s homework was the Achilles’ Heel.
Achilles Heel by Gill Hilton
A Bit of a Weakness by Jill Webb
The Achilles Heel by Fran Duffield
Annie’s Achilles Heel by Sue Hitchcock
First Meeting by Marion Umney
Achilles Wong-Side Up by Mia Sundby
The Moneyspinner by Martin Bourne
Mrs Tavistock by Victoria Watson
Small Feet Big Shoes by Stuart Carruthers
Achilles Heel by Miriam Silver
Lily’s Achilles Heel by MaryPat Campbell
Dr Muffett’s Recommendation (2) by Ivor John
Medical History by Lauren Holstein
………………………………………
REMIND MYSELF TO BREATHE
I wanted to write a story about a friend, but my mind turned to Emily.
This is the opening line of Death, Myth and Dreaming in Wuthering Heights by Nicholas Ashe Bateman Read it here.
It seems such an obvious thing to say but without the moors, the rocks and the heath, without the house, there is no Wuthering Heights, there is no novel as we know it. This is the profound effect of setting.
I have to remind myself to breathe — almost to remind my heart to beat.
An Ending by Grant McFarlane
Enclosure by Saffron Swansborough
Roma by Sue Hitchcock
Remember to Breathe by Catriona Millar
The Family by Martin Bourne
The Will To Live – a true story by Janie Reynolds
The Woods by Victoria Watson
The Devil’s Handshake is Reflective by Stuart Carruthers
Erasure by Fran Duffield
Remember to Breathe by Miriam Silver
Twenty Years Older by MaryPat Campbell
The Siege of Bethlehem by Lesley Dawson
What I Wonder When I Wonder About September by Saffron Swansborough
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WRITER’S BLOCK
For this week’s timed exercise I played a video clip featuring scenes from 53 feature films of writers struggling with their work. The timed exercise subject was Writer’s Block.
For anyone familiar with Graeme Greene’s prolific output, it’s hard to believe that he could ever suffer from writer’s block. But, in his fifties, that’s precisely what happened—he faced a creative “blockage,” as he called it, that prevented him from seeing the development of a story or even, at times, its start. The dream journal proved to be his saviour. Dream journaling was a very special type of writing, Greene believed. No one but you sees your dreams. No one can sue you for libel for writing them down. No one can fact-check you or object to a fanciful turn of events.
The title for the homework was The Dream Diary.
The Dream Diary by Ali Giles
Night Dream by Elda Abramson
The Dream Diary by Jill Webb
The American Dream by Janie Reynolds
Lily is Not Dead by Lauren Holstein
Dr Muffett’s Recommendation by Ivor John
Dream Diary by Victoria Watson
I Got the Message Myself by Stuart Carruthers
Dream On by Miriam Silver
The Dream Diary by MaryPat Campbell
Lockdowns & Curfews by Lesley Dawson
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Day to Day
I asked our writers to use this line by Chekhov in their homework.
Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.
Learning to Swim by Ali Giles
What Crisis? by Sue Hitchcock
Esther by Elda Abramson
Slow Release by Marion Umney
Wearing Thin by Fran Duffield
The Ladder by Richard Lewis
Uninvited Friends by Mia Sundby
The Idiot Englishman by Martin Bourne
Coming Out by Ivor John
The Scream by Victoria Watson
Crying Angels Never Tell by Stuart Carruthers
Misdemeanours by Miriam Silver
In Times of Crisis by Vera Gajic
Kicking Off by Gill Hilton
………………………………………
August
………………………………………
THE MASK
It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days.
The line came from The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. In his 1989 Man Booker prize winning novel, Ishiguro creates a character for whom it’s a point of pride never to let his mask slip and admit the truth of his own emotions, even to himself. In the summer of 1956, an ageing butler goes on a motoring holiday to visit an old colleague. The journey becomes a chance to reflect on his past and the mistakes he made throughout his long career in servitude. Ishiguro slowly peels back the layers of masks the protagonist has been wearing to protect himself from hard truths.
The title or subject for the homework was: The Mask.
Lockdown Kernels by Saffron Swansborough
Fallen Angel by Stuart Carruthers
The Vacationers by Victoria Watson
Saving Face by Janie Reynolds
The Mask by Fran Duffield
The Mask by Ivor John
The Masked Stranger by Richard Lewis
The Mask by Gill Hilton
The Mask by Sho Botham
Harold by Vera Gajic
Masks by Rosalyn Hurst
The Mask by Lesley Dawson
………………………………………
JULY
TASTE
This is an entry from Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. Read it Here
In fiction, the characters’ five senses are what allow us to get lost in the story. But few writers realise which of the five senses they lean on more heavily than others. As a writer, you will have a natural inclination toward one sense over the others. One sense that is often overlooked or undervalued is the sense of taste. Read it Here
A lot can be learned form food writers and restaurant critics. The first great food writer was Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Although he was not a chef, Brillat-Savarin has been one of the most influential food writers of all time. He is known for his 1825 book Physiologie du Goût (translated variously into English as “The Physiology of Taste”, “The Philosopher in the Kitchen”, etc.) Read it Here
Long practice has taught me that one pleasure leads to another.
A Tasteful Ending by Grant Mcfarlane
Curry Love by Shevlyn Byroo
The Yellow Rowing Boat by MaryPat Campbell
Funny Money by Martin Bourne
Autumn’s Overcoat by Stuart Carruthers
Fleeting Pleasures by Fran Duffield
Atrocity Exhibition by Ivor John
Jules & Julia by Vera Gajic
One Pleasure Leads to Another
by Richard Lewis
The Sweetest Pleasure by Mia Sundby
One Pleasure Leads to Another by Miriam Silver
Mellow by Lauren Holstein
A Secret Life by Lesley Dawson
………………………………………
I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU
In an interview in the Rumpus, Melissa Broder speaks with Greg Mania about Milk Fed and her writing process.
“I’m still doing it the same way I’ve been doing it: dictating the first draft into my phone, three paragraphs per day, using Siri and Simplenote (free notes app). Don’t stop or proofread or think about it or change anything until the whole mass of clay has been thrown down—even if I see things are spelled wrong, or Siri is missing stuff (always). Just keep going. Encourage your own messiness. This part takes about nine months.”
I asked our writers to use this line from Melissa Broder anywhere in their homework:
I’m in love with you and you don’t want anything to do with me so I think we can make this work.
They Always Get Back Together by Ali Giles
Heathcliff by MaryPat Campbell
It Hurts Too Much by Sho Botham
Number 9 by Martin Bourne
I’m in Love by Rosalyn Hurst
Love Actually by Lesley Dawson
Where Did the Fun Go? by Stuart Carruthers
I’m in Love by Ivor John
The Beauty by Richard Lewis
I’m in Love with You by Miriam Silver
………………………………………
A SECRET LIFE
We called it alimony.
The line came from a Southbank talk by John Le Carre where he refers to the payment made to agents in the field, “We paid them a pittance and we called it alimony.”
Alimony – early 17th century (in the sense ‘nourishment, means of subsistence’): from Latin alimonia ‘nutriment’, from alere ‘nourish’.
I then read from A Perfect Spy by John le Carre. The novel starts by introducing the protagonist Magnus Pym and tracking his movements across “a south Devon coastal town” on his way to a Victorian guesthouse, where he is addressed by the elderly landlady who says, “Why Mr. Canterbury, it’s you.” In this deft use of dialogue, LeCarré illustrates the essence of the classic writing technique “show, don’t tell,” revealing that Pym has a secret life, has visited the guesthouse before and is travelling under a pseudonym.
The subject for the homework was: A Secret Life
Alimony by Karen Akroyd
Futureproofing by Saffron Swansborough
What I Would Say by Martin Bourne
Silvia’s Garden Shed by Sho Botham
Aunt Elizabeth by Victoria Watson
Secret Lives by Rosalyn Hurst
A Dress To Die For by Garf Collins
The Conquer Room by Stuart Carruthers
A Sign of the Times by Gill Hilton
A Secret Life by Fran Duffield
Secrets by Miriam Silver
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MEMORY IS THE THING WE FORGET WITH
For this week’s timed exercise I gave our writers this sentence to use in their piece:
Ribbon, bell, emerald, stamp.
This line comes from The Memory Police by the Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa.
‘Ribbon, bell, emerald, stamp. The words that came from my mother’s mouth thrilled me, like the names of little girls from distant countries or new species of plants.’ A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss the 1994 novel, has a dream-like tone influenced by Kafka. An English translation by Stephen Snyder was published in 2019.
The story follows a novelist on an island under the control of the Memory Police. An unknown force causes the people of the island to collectively ‘forget’ and lose their attachment to objects or concepts, e.g. hats, perfume, birds and ribbon. The Memory Police enforce the removal of these objects from the island, and of the people who continue to remember, such as the author’s mother. Some, who continue to remember, escape from the island or hide in safe houses to evade capture by the Police.
Ogawa’s weightless and unadorned prose weaves a world where memory is always associative; we remember not just the object itself but what it conjures. Birds are byways to flight, lightness, quickness, youth, song, mornings, twilights, migrations. They partake in stories, paintings, metaphors and myths. Each object that is disappeared takes layers of personal and shared knowledge with it. One of the inspirations for the novel was the Diary of Anne Frank.
I gave our writers this quote from Alexander Chase to use in their homework: Memory is the thing you forget with.
Memory by Karen Akroyd
A Funny Hat by Sho Botham
Billy by Victoria Watson
Memory is the Thing by Rosalyn Hurst
Memory Is What You Forget With by Lesley Dawson
Jules & Julia by Vera Gajic
The Stone Bears Your Name by Stuart Carruthers
Going Back by Ivor John
Memory is a Way of Forgetting by Richard Lewis
I Must Write it Down by MaryPat Campbell
Memory is the Thing you Forget with by Miriam Silver
…………………………………………
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
When you are on the dancefloor there is nothing to do but dance.
When book dealer Yambo suffers amnesia, he loses all sense of who he is, but retains memories of all the books, poems, songs, and movies he has ever experienced. To reclaim his identity, he retreats to the family home and rummages through old letters, photographs, and mementos stored in the attic. Yambo’s mind swirls with thoughts, and he struggles to retrieve the one memory that may be most sacred, that of Lila Saba, his first love. The novel is steeped in nostalgia and filled with vivid, sometimes wondrous imagery.
Aside from being an internationally acclaimed novelist, Umberto Eco was also a Semiologist. He made a wider audience aware of semiotics by various publications, most notably his novel The Name of the Rose, which includes (second to its plot) applied semiotic operations. Semiotics includes the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, allegory, metonymy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Eco proposed that every cultural phenomenon may be studied as communication.
I gave everyone this title for their homework: A Sign of the Times
A Sign of the Times by Victoria Watson
A Sign of the Times by Lauren Holstein
A Sign of the Times Haiku by Saffron Swansborough
A Sign of the Times by Sho Botham
A Sign of the Times by Grant McFarlane
A Sign of the Times by Ali Giles
Listen to Ali’s piece read by Mia Sundby
An Eyebrow Raising Sign of the Times by Jill Webb
A Sign of the Times by Karen Akroyd
Signs of the Times by Rosalyn Hurst
A Sign of the Times by Lesley Dawson
A Sign of the Times by Martin Bourne
One Foot on the Ladder by Stuart Carruthers
A Sign of the Times by Ivor John
A Sign of the Times by Richard Lewis
A Sign of the Times by MaryPat Campbell
A Sign of the Times by Miriam Silver
…………………………………………
JUNE
THE LOVER’S DICTIONARY
For this week’s timed exercise I asked everyone to open their piece with this line:
I wrote a good omelette… and ate a hot poem.
“I wrote a good omelet… and ate / a hot poem… after loving you,” writes Nikki Giovanni in her poem “I Wrote a Good Omelet.” The poet, whose seventy-eighth birthday was just last week, describes going about various common tasks in strange and humorous ways, replacing, for example, “car” for “coat” in the phrase “drove my coat home” and “bed” for “hair” in “turned down my hair.” Through these playful reversals, Giovanni mimics the dizzying feeling of falling in love, as if the speaker is unable to focus on anything after being with their beloved.
In The Lover’s Dictionary David Levithan finds a fascinating way to tell us something about love. Told entirely through a series of dictionary entries, this modern love story is abstract, quirky, and so incredibly charming. The reader only receives brief windows into this romantic relationship, but it’s so interesting to see these small glimpses through the lens of different words. Levithan’s conceit is fascinating, and he completely pulls it off. For example:
acronym, n.“I remember the first time you signed an email with SWAK. I didn’t know what it meant. It sounded violent, like a slap connecting. … And the next time you wrote, ten minutes later, you explained.I loved the ridiculous image I got from that, of you leaning over your laptop,touching your lips gently to the screen, sealing your words to me before turning them into electricity. Now every time you SWAK me, the echo of that electricity remains.”
For the homework I asked our writers to emulate the treatment of The Lover’s Dictionary and break their story into a series of 5 or 6 word definitions. This would be an interesting way of working out what their story is actually about.
Love Letters by Saffron Swansborough
The A – Z of Vital Signs by Ali Giles
The Lover’s Dictionary by Victoria Watson
The Alcoholic’s Dictionary by Grant McFarlane
My Time by Sho Botham
Margaret and Me by Gill Hilton
ABC of Unrequited Love by Ivor John
Four Seasons by Richard Lewis
Five Words by MaryPat Campbell
Reversals by Miriam Silver
The Party Pooper by Lesley Dawson
…………………………………………
WE CAN ONLY DIE IN THE FUTURE
For this week’s timed exercise I asked our writers to open their piece with this line:“Tell me things I won’t mind forgetting,” she said.
This is the first line of Amy Hempel’s short story, “The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” In Hempel’s first and most anthologised story, the narrator fails her terminally ill best friend, almost entirely in subtext. She visits the beachside hospital, bearing welcome, “useless” facts and jokes, but when an extra bed appears for her to stay the night, she panics and decides to go home. Hempel doesn’t give us the final goodbye, or the bad-news call, or any of the other obvious scenes a “maximalist” writer might dramatize. Instead, we get the tacit admission that the narrator bailed before the end, enrolling in a “Fear of Flying” class the same morning her friend is buried.
Hempel has said that the idea for “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” was suggested to her by her teacher Gordon Lish, the fiction editor of Esquire in the 1970’s, in a fiction-writing workshop that she took at Columbia University. Lish told his students to write on their “most terrible, despicable secret, the thing you will never live down.”Hempel has said that she knew immediately what that secret was for her: “I failed my best friend at the moment when I absolutely couldn’t fail her, when she was dying.” Hempel, like her most admired writer, Anton Chekhov, knows that grief, by its very nature, resists ordinary attempts to articulate it. Grief cannot be talked about; it can only be objectified in efforts to avoid it. Read In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried.
“My favorite compliment that I got from a writer early on, was someone saying to me, ‘You leave out all the right things’. That was wonderful to hear. To know you’ve given your reader credit for being able to understand without you having to say it.”
For the homework I asked our writers to use these two lines from Amy Hempel in order in their piece.I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive.
The Book of Life by Saffron Swansborough
Hiding by Ali Giles
Kir by Victoria Watson
Severed Head by Mia Sundby
Legs/Teenage Dreams by Lauren Holstein
Woe is Me by Sho Botham
Death Bed by Janie Reynolds
Today I’m Alive by Ivor John
Locked Down by Vera Gajic
I Feel the Devil’s Love by Stuart Carruthers
The Present Tense by Fran Duffield
Big Sister by MaryPat Campbell
Severed Head by Miriam Silver
Missing Inaction by Martin Bourne
…………………………………………
A GOOD TURN
For this week’s timed exercise I showed our writers some photographs I had taken of a van that was parked near my house.
I asked everyone to write about the fictional owner of the van.
I then read and discussed the Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett. Miss Shepherd, or rather, Margaret Fairchild was born in 1911 in Hellingly in East Sussex. A gifted pianist, according to her brother in about 1932 the middle-class and well-spoken Margaret Fairchild studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in Paris under the virtuoso Alfred Cortot. She led a chequered life eventually ending up in Alan Bennett’s driveway where she lived for 15 years in a hand-painted yellow van. When she died in 1989 Bennett immortalised her in his diaries, which he later turned into a radio play, a novella and a film. Read The Lady in the Van.
I gave our writers a quote from the novella to use it in their homework: One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation.
The Slum, theMum and the Staycation by Saffron Swansborough
The Neighbour by Jill Webb
Quid Pro Quo by Ali Giles
Trouble Crossing by Richard Lewis
Thanks for Nothing by Stuart Carruthers
The Good Neighbour by Fran Duffield
All Sorts by MaryPat Campbell
The Earth Mother by Miriam Silver
Good Turns and Strangulation by Mia Sundby
Afternoon Tea with a Difference by Lesley Dawson
…………………………………………
May
IT ALL STARTED WITH A DREAMFor this week’s timed exercise we discussed the idea that every story has two sides to it. With this in mind I asked everyone to write two contrasting viewpoints of the same story using this opening line:
She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent.
This line is from The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson had long been fascinated with split personalities but couldn’t figure out how to write about them. Then one night he had a dream about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. “In the small hours of one morning … I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis,” his wife Fanny said. “Thinking he had a nightmare, I awakened him. He said angrily: ‘Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.’” Stevenson later elaborated on the dream in an essay called “A Chapter On Dreams.”
The opening line of of this week’s homework was: It all started with a dream.
Queen of the Dance by Lauren Holstein
Sweet Enough by Ali Giles
Listen to Ali’s piece read by Mia Sundby
Divebombing by Saffron Swansborough
Roots by Victoria Watson
Something I Don’t Know by Stuart Carruthers
Starring Part by Grant McFarlane
The Dream by Martin Bourne
It all Started as a Dream by Miriam Silver
In My Dreams by Vera Gajic
Evil Face by Sandra Banks
…………………………………………
NOTHING TRAVELS FASTERFor this week’s timed exercise I gave our writers this opening line:
Kettle, plug, fridge, milk, coffee. Yawn.
This was an exercise in Pace and the line came from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Instead of taking the readers through the whole process of making a cup of coffee, Douglas Adams simply chose the words associated with the action, allowing readers to fill in the blanks.
The most important thing to keep in mind when you’re outlining your story and thinking about pacing is balance. A single story can’t and shouldn’t be all fast or all slow.
Instead, there should be a trade-off between the two. This provides variety, makes the story interesting, and keeps the readers hooked. Think about it as music: it’s the highs and lows combined that makes a song appealing to the ear. If it was made up of a single, flat note, it would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it? Read attached pdf on pacing your story.I read from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and asked you to open your homework with this line from Mostly Harmless, the fifth and final part of the Hitchhiker series: Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Travelling Light by Gill Hilton
The Lies, Deceptions & Falsehoods of Grief by Victoria Watson
This is Not Here by Stuart Carruthers
The Speed of Divorce by Grant McFarlane
Chinese Whispers by Jill Webb
Highly Strung by MaryPat Campbell
Bad News by Sho Botham
Voiture en Panne by Martin Bourne
Nothing Travels Faster by Miriam Silver
Bad News by Fran Duffield
Larkins by Catriona Millar
…………………………………………
THE ALIBIFor this week’s timed exercise I asked you to use this scenario:
The Colonel has been found dead in the library, it looks like suicide. You are being interviewed by a detective. “When did you last see the colonel?” they ask. Are you the murderer?Agatha Christie considered the opening of her 1941 novel, The Body in the Library to be one of her best openings, it was certainly her favourite.
Mrs Bantry was dreaming. Her sweet peas had just taken a First at the flower show. The vicar, dressed in cassock and surplice, was giving out the prizes in church. His wife wandered past, dressed in a bathing suit, but, as is the blessed habit of dreams, this fact did not arouse the disapproval of the parish in the way it would assuredly have done in real life… Read Ronald Knox’s 10 Commandments for Detective Fiction
I asked everyone to use this line from The Body in the Library anywhere in their homework piece: No innocent person ever has an alibi. The title for the homework was: The Alibi.
The Alibi by Gill Hilton
The Alibi by Victoria Watson
No Alibi by Lou Beckerman
The Alibi by Stuart Carruthers
The Alibi by Rosalyn Hurst
The Alibi by Janie Reynolds
The Alibi by MaryPat Campbell
The Alibi by Sho Botham
The Alibi Maker by Vera Gajic
The Alibi by Ali Giles
The Alibi by Miriam Silver
The Alibi by Fran Duffield
The Alibi by Karen Akroyd
The Alibi by Catriona Millar
…………………………………………
THE SECRET NOTEBOOK
If your work doesn’t have trouble it may as well be a shopping list, unless of course there is a gun on your list or strychnine. With this in mind I asked our writers to feature a shopping list for one of the following in their 20 minute timed exercise:
Poisoner Burglar Kidnapper Pirate Ghost Murderer Assassin Evil Mastermind
Following the death of Agatha Christie’s daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie’s secret notebooks, 78 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Mixed in with these literary traces there are telephone numbers, maps, shopping lists, doodles and aide-memoires demonstrating that Christie saw no difference between her life and her work.
The title for this week’s homework was: The Secret Notebook.
I also asked everyone to use this line from The Thumb Mark of St Peter anywhere in their piece: Everyone is very much alike, really. But fortunately they don’t realise it.