Master of Arts in Writing

It’s official, I’ve been accepted into the Master of Arts Writing Program and yes, I’m EXCITED!

I was accepted into the program via recognition of prior learning and also had two of the units credited for the very same reason. When I first applied I wasn’t sure that I would have a chance as I hadn’t completed an undergraduate certificate let alone a diploma.

I’m lucky that in Brisbane there is so much support for writers and I have always had other options than just the courses that the universities offer. It was these masterclasses, workshops and critiquing groups that have helped me become the writer I am today. The writer with the confidence to apply for a course seemingly out of their reach.

Now I look forward to my first unit – Real Life Writing and the challenges I’m sure it will bring.

New page

I have now put up a new page under the How To section on my website. It’s called Finding An Idea and like the title says it’s all about how to find ideas. The exercises are ones that I use to come up with new ideas and some are more successful for me than others.

The ones that are most successful for me may be the exercises you find the least successful.  Give them all a try and see which one works best for you, it may even be a combo of two of the exercises.

Not every idea fishing exercise is on here. If you have one that has been left off and you think other writers should know about it, please leave a comment.

Unusable ideas?

I have come up with some crazy ideas over the years. Some of the ideas I have tried to turn into stories, others I have known from the beginning would never make it beyond the initial idea stage.

Even knowing I’m not going to take the idea any further, I still like to write them down and put them into the idea folder. Reading this folder when I’m at my most uninspired can sometimes strike the spark that helps get me writing again.

If not I can always use a couple of my ideas in a wordpool to source better ideas that are more suited to what I want to write about. What is a wordpool you ask? Basically you list whatever comes into your head, most people give themselves a time limit for this – I find 15 minutes is more than enough. You then look through the wordpool and pick out words, phrases, sentences that inspire you.

I’m Back.

Where did I get to? I went over to America for two weeks which was fantastic and if you get the chance definitely check out Las Vegas. However be sure to avoid Elvis impersonators as they seem to be a little too friendly – if you catch my drift.

We went to Disneyland, went on rides and looked around. If you are a Queenslander imagine Dreamworld ten times bigger and that was only half of the place. We also visited Universal Studios in Hollywood, out of the two theme parks I would have to say I enjoyed this one more because it’s focussed on an adult audience instead of children. I’m sure the half of Disneyland we didn’t visit was more teenage and adult focussed  but we didn’t have time to check it out. Shopping was on the agenda next!

Editing Wish Consequence

Listening to Matchbox20 and deciding what part of my short story Wish Consequence to edit next. The funny thing about doing a structural edit on any story is that it has a domino effect. Okay, maybe funny is the wrong word…frustrating is more suitable.

The positive side is that it makes your story stronger and if you can step back from the editing process you will see the improvements from first draft to finished, polished manuscript.

My tips for editing are make notes on your entire hard copy of the manuscript first in red pen so that it stands out. Look for the usual: spelling mistakes, pet words that get overused, punctuation. Then go back looking for other errors: make sure the characters stay true to their nature or that they have a good reason for doing something against their nature, etc.

After I have done this on the hard copy, I go back to my computer and make the small changes. I correct the spelling and anything else that doesn’t alter the story too much. Then I tackle the big changes, deciding as I go what I need to do to make it the strongest story it can be.