Natscwclub’s Weblog

We had an interesting session taken by David Baboulene http://www.baboulene.com/ on Plot v Character.  His talk was based on one of his forthcoming books on how to write story for film and novels. I’ve summarised what he said as;

Three types of plot action with poor characterisation: characterless action (nature etc), emotionally detached action (no character empathy so no meaning to the audience) and character detached action (character does things that don’t reveal anything new).

True character is revealed by actions. Action taken by a character defines a plot event. Why is this important? Because if you have a character fixed in advance (no change during the story) it can damage your plot and if you have an event fixed in advance it can limit your characters.

What connects plot and character? Conflict. Conflict triangulation is where conflict gives a character opposing choices.

Antagonist must be strong and imposing and convincing – the antagonist must take actions. The harder you work on the antagonist, the better the protagonist becomes. The protagonist is only as good as the forces against him/her.

I think that was it, if not apologies to David. See you all at the next session.

Write to live, live to write (apologies to the Hell’s Angels).

writing-help-pp Hi and thanks to those who came to my session on writing help. The link at the start is the PowerPoint I used as the basis for my talk. Hopefully the links on the PowerPoint work.

Please note that because something is included on the PowerPoint does not mean I endorse or support it. They are examples of some of the things a learner writer might explore on their journey to improving their skills – it’s also worth remembering that most of these cost money and that to improve your writing skills you can’t beat sitting down and writing. Obviously you might need someone to offer advice which is where some of these come in; but reading your writing out loud to a mirror can reveal a lot, and it’s free.

The committee have held a meeting and come up with a program for this year. We couldn’t agree on whether to meet ever 2 or every 3 weeks so we are meeting in 2 then 3 then 2 then 3 weeks, there’s compromise for you. Notice there is now one blank date. We are looking for a volunteer to either lead a session on a writing related topic or suggest a topic they want covered and we will find someone to lead it.

Here are the minutes from our inaugural meeting;

Inaugural Session Minutes

Date:              Tuesday 18 March 2008

Venue:          B1 – 03

Time:             1700 – 1815

Present:        Chris Wills, Dave Anderson, Clive Essery, Paul Askew, John Spriggs, Jeanne Bartram, Lorraine Faulkner.

Apologies:   Dorothy Bone, Kieran Wisely, Gilaine Young, Bridget Harris-O’Neill, Pauly Carroll, Richard Powell, Susan Kavanagh.

1.                  We introduced ourselves and found a range of experience and interests.

2.                  We tried a post-it note brainstorm to find out what those present wanted out of the club. The results in no order;

·        Improve English skills including grammar

·        Manuscript layout

·        Writing the novel submission synopsis

·        Writing dialogue

·        How to choose and approach an agent

·        How to edit writing

·        Talks by writers

·        Research

·        Article writing

·        Encouragement, motivation, support and enthusiasm

·        Competitions internal & external

·        Anthology of our writing

·        Feedback and constructive criticism of our work

·        Short stories

·        Book recommendations

·        Exposure to wider source of material

Poetry and scriptwriting weren’t mentioned but they can be included.

3.                  Committee – a closely fought election campaign for the positions resulted in;

Chair – Christopher Wills

Member’s person – Lorraine Faulkner

Other person for which we haven’t thought of an appropriate title yet – Paul Askew. Suggestions for the third man gratefully received (with apologies to Graham Green).

4.         Next session – most wanted another session in about 2 weeks and to meet roughly every 2 weeks.

5.         We discussed various options like bringing in stuff to read out, setting a theme to write for, some taking a lead on some of the topics etc.

6.         It’s clear we need a program.

7.         I will talk to the member who offered to give seminars to us and try and arrange suitable dates.

For the next session in about 2 weeks, we can either have a seminar, or if that isn’t feasible we can bring in something we have written and want feedback on.

Theme – the airport

It can be a poem, an article, a short story, a scene from a novel. (You don’t have to stick to the theme if it doesn’t fit with what you are writing)

Don’t bring more than 1000 words or we won’t have time for everyone. Obviously a poem or an article can be as short as is appropriate.

You or a volunteer will read your piece and we will all contemplate and then offer constructive comments and praise.

You don’t have to bring some writing if you don’t want; just listen and comment – but you won’t improve your writing by not putting your head above the parapet.

So a seminar if it can be arranged, or a review night. I’ll get together with the committee and come up with a proposed program before the night so we can all comment on it.

Confucious once said you will never complete a long journey unless you take the first step… (or something like that, and it was probably in Chinese anyway) So get that pen out.

We have held our inaugural meeting and below is the agenda for the meeting.

Inaugural Meeting Agenda

Date:              Tuesday 18 March 2008

Venue:          B1 – 03

Time:             1700 – 1800

1.                  Hello

2.                  Introductions

3.                  What do you want to get out of the club? Bring a list – ideas might include:

·        Skills sessions on writing subjects like, plot, character, setting, poetry, article writing, writing short stories for magazines, how to get published, novel writing, scriptwriting for film, theatre and tv, overcoming writers’ block, how to get a story etc.

·        Competitions internal and external.

·        Visits to writing places like Jane Austen’s home, Charles Dickens’ home etc

·        Talks by writers – we can invite them in or go to talks given at libraries, bookshops etc by writers

·        Bring your stuff in to read out for positive comment and suggestions.

·        Visits to writing events like the Writers’ Weekend at Winchester etc.

4.                  Committee – volunteers/elections

5.                  Seminars – A volunteer who has a book in the shops and a publishing and film deal has offered to give free seminars on ‘How to write’ for us.

6.                  Next session – what shall we do? Do you want a seminar on how to write? Do you want to bring stuff to read out for positive comments and suggestions? Do you want someone else to read out your stuff and listen to positive comments and suggestions?

7.                  Date/time/place of meetings.

8.                  Date/time/place of next meeting – bring your diary.

9.                  AOB.

Welcome to the nats creative writing club blog site.

Who are we? What are we doing? What is the purpose of this blog? Why not use a website?

We are like-minded (yeah right) writers-in-training who work for national air traffic services (nats).

We have recently formed a creative writing club to further our individual ambitions in the writing field (where is this field?)

This blog will act as a record of our existence e.g. calendar of events, meeting minutes and comments. Also we will post links to our members’ blogs, including mine – the intention (hope) is that they will post some of their work on their blogs. And finally we will put writing advice on here as we acquire it from our events. Please comment, positively or negatively.

I have decided not to use a website because a blog seems more live and interactive. A website can be constructed amongst an enthusiasm of ambition but then left like an unwanted book collecting dust in the dark corner of a library (what’s a library?).

Please add comments to the posts and please visit other members blogs, including my own. It may be a few days from today (Friday 2 May) before any are live.