I am happy to report that everyone had done their homework on 23 March! As it isn't compulsory, and everyone has such busy lives these days, I think that is very creditable. We had three stories beginning with the same first line, all developing differently but starting from the same opening, set in Paris. Two people chose the opening about meeting at a railway station. Liz, who was absent on 16 March, read us a story which was homework from the previous week, on which she had clearly spent a lot of time. Well done everybody.
After a little 'What is it? Where is it?' quiz, identifying places from photographs taken around the island, we discussed writing articles about Lanzarote.
Lyn brought a photo of a field of camomile flowers, for example, which we realised could stimulate a whole selection of ideas; flora and fauna of the island, useful plants and herbs which can be found growing wild, seasons and the delight of springtime on a volcanic island or just simply a description of the colour and beauty that surrounds us.
I look forward to posting the finished items which promise to include the following: Fiestas throughout the year, finding the quieter places, walking and/or cycling, seeing the island by bus, shopping and the local markets etc. etc.
If you are coming along on Friday (30 March) don't forget your notebooks, the ones that you use to jot down things you have heard or observed and ideas for stories that occur to you.
Reminders:
You are invited to submit entries for the Lanzarote Creative Group Short Story Competition, 200 - 500 words by Friday 20 April 2012. You can e mail entries, send them as an attachment or bring them to class. Please put your name on your entry and include a word count.
Entries for the Telegraph Short Story Competition, up to 2,000 words on any subject should be sent by e mail to storycomp@telegraph.co.uk by the last day of the month.
Lanzarote, unspoilt island
It is a fact that there is only one 'high -rise' building on the whole of the island of Lanzarote. The Gran Hotel in Arrecife, the capital, stands out as an easily identifiable landmark from land, sea and air.
One of the reasons why so much of the island remains unspoiled is the influence of the Lanzarote born artist, César Manrique. He and his contemporaries devoted their energies to ensuring that Lanzarote did not become overdeveloped. He spearheaded the movement to promote sustainable growth, allowing the island to retain its unique character whilst catering for the tourist trade, which is the lifeblood of the island's economy.
Seven places of exceptional beauty exist on the island because of his vision and skills as an artist and architect. The Manrique Foundation is his legacy and exists to maintain these monuments and to monitor development on the island. Local laws make it illegal to alter the typical Canarian buildings around the coastline and traditional building methods and materials are encouraged all over the island. The charm and character of the little towns and villages remains unspoiled and even the tourist resorts have been tastefully developed to combine the needs of the tourist trade with respect for the island's beauty and its status as a Biospheric Zone.
The population today, of around 120,000, includes many English residents, slightly fewer German, and a smaller number from elsewhere, who have visited the island and found their perfect second home or ideal retirement place in the sun.
The local people are friendly and welcoming and the pace of life is relaxed and enjoyable. Traffic jams are few and the crime rate is low compared to other places in Europe. The climate is pleasant all year round with gentle breezes to offset the heat of the sun in the summer and minimal rainfall in winter, when the temperature rarely falls below 12 degrees centigrade even during the night.
There is virtually no heavy industry on the island and that means minimal air pollution.
Lanzarote is the most easterly of the Canary Islands. It lies 100km (60miles) off the coast of Africa, is 60 km from North to south and 20km at its widest point. Despite its relatively small size it is extremely varied and interesting with a rich history and culture. Since the 15th Century it has been a province of Spain. The south of the island is dominated by the spectacular volcanoes which resulted from the eruptions on the 18th century.
The volcanoes in the north are much older and the plant life and appearance of the landscape are quite different. It is worth noting that despite being a volcanic island there has been no loss of life directly resulting from volcanic activity on the island in recorded history. The volcanoes are of the Hawaiian, or Stromboli, type which give ample warning over weeks, or even months, of impending eruption and every device invented exists on the island to monitor the volcanic activity.
Sue Almond
Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Latest update
After a fun session on Friday 16/03 members took away four story ideas started in class. If you have time please continue one of the stories to share with the group next week.
Don't forget you need a photo of someone or somewhere on the island that might be a starting point for writing something about Lanzarote.
Also remember, you need to keep up your note books and bring them along to share interesting comments and anecdotes that could be a stimulus for a story.
Don't forget you need a photo of someone or somewhere on the island that might be a starting point for writing something about Lanzarote.
Also remember, you need to keep up your note books and bring them along to share interesting comments and anecdotes that could be a stimulus for a story.
Friday, March 9, 2012
How is it going so far?
Week one of 2012 saw members of the Creative Writing Group discussing an anecdotal short story before having a go at writing one. An anecdotal story does not necessarily have a narrative structure that includes a conventional beginning, middle and end. The idea is to dive straight into the story, at the point where the event or anecdote you are telling us about begins, without background or lead up to that point.
Week two saw us writing short stories that revolved around misunderstandings, and began with some howlers and examples of ambiguity in published works!
Week three left us with a homework exercise: to continue a story from a synopsis and opening written in class. Our starting point was 'Positives and Negatives' and we looked at how good things can come from bad and/or vice versa.
Will Lyn's character find a way out of her mounting financial difficulties?
Will Helen's heroine, who risked her own life to save a child, make a full recovery?
Is Sandie's main character, facing redundancy going, to decide that this was a wakeup call and go off travelling before it is too late?
How is the child, in Marc's story, waiting nervously for his music exam going to fare?
What happens as Sue's characters start to blame each other for the multi-car pile up in a busy street?
If you think this sounds like fun you need to be there next week to join in and find out what happens.
Week four will focus on openings and first lines, our own and a few famous ones!
Don't forget we are working towards a short story competition within the group (200 - 500 words) and entries in the Telegraph Short Story Competition (up to 2,000 words and a £500 first prize).
In the next couple of weeks or so we need to be offering things to the group from our notebooks, ie things that we have seen, overheard, been told etc that we have jotted down as possibly providing a stimulus for a story idea.
Also look out for a picture or photograph of someone or something on the island of Lanzarote that you might like to write about.
Hope to see you there, Fridays 11.00 till 13.00 in Costa Teguise.
Week two saw us writing short stories that revolved around misunderstandings, and began with some howlers and examples of ambiguity in published works!
Week three left us with a homework exercise: to continue a story from a synopsis and opening written in class. Our starting point was 'Positives and Negatives' and we looked at how good things can come from bad and/or vice versa.
Will Lyn's character find a way out of her mounting financial difficulties?
Will Helen's heroine, who risked her own life to save a child, make a full recovery?
Is Sandie's main character, facing redundancy going, to decide that this was a wakeup call and go off travelling before it is too late?
How is the child, in Marc's story, waiting nervously for his music exam going to fare?
What happens as Sue's characters start to blame each other for the multi-car pile up in a busy street?
If you think this sounds like fun you need to be there next week to join in and find out what happens.
Week four will focus on openings and first lines, our own and a few famous ones!
Don't forget we are working towards a short story competition within the group (200 - 500 words) and entries in the Telegraph Short Story Competition (up to 2,000 words and a £500 first prize).
In the next couple of weeks or so we need to be offering things to the group from our notebooks, ie things that we have seen, overheard, been told etc that we have jotted down as possibly providing a stimulus for a story idea.
Also look out for a picture or photograph of someone or something on the island of Lanzarote that you might like to write about.
Hope to see you there, Fridays 11.00 till 13.00 in Costa Teguise.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Writing Group reconvenes after break!
The writing group starts again, the first of a block of eight weekly classes, on Friday 23 February 2012 (1100H - 13.00H)in Costa Teguise to be followed, after Easter by a series of 10 week blocks.
Over the eight weeks topics will include:
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
First Lines - how important are they? What do they give away, tone, genre, style, setting .........?
Positives and negatives.
Beginning/middle/end?
What can you make of this? (Openings, titles, single word starters.....
Short Story Competition (up to 200 words)
For more information and details of venue please phone Sue 630 751 106 or ask at The Book Shop, Costa Teguise.
Over the eight weeks topics will include:
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
First Lines - how important are they? What do they give away, tone, genre, style, setting .........?
Positives and negatives.
Beginning/middle/end?
What can you make of this? (Openings, titles, single word starters.....
Short Story Competition (up to 200 words)
For more information and details of venue please phone Sue 630 751 106 or ask at The Book Shop, Costa Teguise.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Short Story Competition
Louise Doughty, author of six novels, five plays for radio and 'A Novel in a Year,' has now introduced, through her column in the Telegraph, a writing club where you can get feedback from Louise and swap work and tips with other writers. To join visit www.telegraph.co.uk/books
To enter a monthly short-story competition you can e mail your story, no longer than 2,000 words, on any subject, to storycomp@telegraph.co.uk by the last calendar day of each month.
All stories must be original work and the winner will be announced by Louise in her column in the Saturday Telegraph.
The competition was launched on 14 January so there is still plenty on time to get in an entry for the first month if you have a story ready, or one you could polish up in in time. If you cannot get a story ready for January's competition then you might like to work on an entry for February.
Good Luck!
Novels by Louise Doughty:
Crazy Paving
Dance with me
Honey Dew
Fires in the Dark
Stone Cradle
Whatever you Love
To enter a monthly short-story competition you can e mail your story, no longer than 2,000 words, on any subject, to storycomp@telegraph.co.uk by the last calendar day of each month.
All stories must be original work and the winner will be announced by Louise in her column in the Saturday Telegraph.
The competition was launched on 14 January so there is still plenty on time to get in an entry for the first month if you have a story ready, or one you could polish up in in time. If you cannot get a story ready for January's competition then you might like to work on an entry for February.
Good Luck!
Novels by Louise Doughty:
Crazy Paving
Dance with me
Honey Dew
Fires in the Dark
Stone Cradle
Whatever you Love
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Writers wanted
Hi. Happy New Year!
Rita at the book shop is now working for the Lanzarote Business Association. She is looking for volunteers to write articles for their website. There is no money involved I'm afraid but it is all quotable experience on the old CV! Any writing is good practice and seeing your name in print anywhere is always encouraging and confidence boosting.
If anyone is interested you can get more information from Rita but basically the possibilities are endless. The items should be positive towards Lanzarote but she says they could include anything, even book or film reviews. Rita's e mail address is ritabellamy@gmail.com
Regards
Sue
Rita at the book shop is now working for the Lanzarote Business Association. She is looking for volunteers to write articles for their website. There is no money involved I'm afraid but it is all quotable experience on the old CV! Any writing is good practice and seeing your name in print anywhere is always encouraging and confidence boosting.
If anyone is interested you can get more information from Rita but basically the possibilities are endless. The items should be positive towards Lanzarote but she says they could include anything, even book or film reviews. Rita's e mail address is ritabellamy@gmail.com
Regards
Sue
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
World Book Night
I am curious to know if any of the free books from World Book Night have found their way to my usual base of operations, Lanzarote.
There were one million books given away free in a party atmosphere all over UK and Ireland in 5 March 2011, two days after World Book Day. The specially produced books, 25 titles, are clearly identified as coming from the event and the idea was to encourage reading. Readers were asked to share and pass on the books. I was a recipient through the hospital library in Bolton where I joined the Six Book Challenge earlier this year, when I also received a free book!. I have passed my book to Ann, who like me is a member of READ (Read Enjoy And Discuss) the Book Club founded by Rita from the Book Shop in Costa Teguise. It will be passed on but do let me know if there are others out there for us to share. I had already read ten of the chosen books, now eleven, and there are a couple more that I have added to my list. If you are interested type 'million book give away' into google. If you want to write you need readers. Three cheers for this and any initiative that encourages a love of books.
Here's what Sarah Broadhurst, one of the givers on World Book Night, had to say:
___________________________________
"I am sure we can all tell some wonderful tales about last Saturday’s WBN, but here is mine. I decided to give away Lee Child’s Killing Floor because my chosen site was the local pub. I wanted to encourage all those skittle/darts/pool players, those who chew the cud at the bar and those who pop out on a Saturday night for a bite to eat in the pub, to rediscover the joy of reading. Boy did I achieve!
I put a poster up in the local shop, notice board, village hall and the pub itself and I wrote a bit for the local paper. But because I am in the trade I thought I would take the opportunity to share a great deal more than just Lee Child and I took nearly 200 proof copies of books, going back for years, down to the pub with me. I came home with a dozen books. The pub buzzed, I am surprised we didn’t drink it dry. Folk came from all over and I did indeed press Killing Floor into the hands of some very bemused lads who then started talking books, reminiscing about their GCSE, one even recited some Wilfred Owen! Most admitted they hadn’t read a book since leaving school, most promised they now would.
One million books were given away that night. I was proud to be part of the inaugural event and if the publishing industry repeats it I shall apply again. If not, most of us readers in the pub promised to meet same time, same place, next year and bring at least ten books each from our shelves at home to share with others. World Book Night now is born, we must keep it alive."
There were one million books given away free in a party atmosphere all over UK and Ireland in 5 March 2011, two days after World Book Day. The specially produced books, 25 titles, are clearly identified as coming from the event and the idea was to encourage reading. Readers were asked to share and pass on the books. I was a recipient through the hospital library in Bolton where I joined the Six Book Challenge earlier this year, when I also received a free book!. I have passed my book to Ann, who like me is a member of READ (Read Enjoy And Discuss) the Book Club founded by Rita from the Book Shop in Costa Teguise. It will be passed on but do let me know if there are others out there for us to share. I had already read ten of the chosen books, now eleven, and there are a couple more that I have added to my list. If you are interested type 'million book give away' into google. If you want to write you need readers. Three cheers for this and any initiative that encourages a love of books.
Here's what Sarah Broadhurst, one of the givers on World Book Night, had to say:
___________________________________
"I am sure we can all tell some wonderful tales about last Saturday’s WBN, but here is mine. I decided to give away Lee Child’s Killing Floor because my chosen site was the local pub. I wanted to encourage all those skittle/darts/pool players, those who chew the cud at the bar and those who pop out on a Saturday night for a bite to eat in the pub, to rediscover the joy of reading. Boy did I achieve!
I put a poster up in the local shop, notice board, village hall and the pub itself and I wrote a bit for the local paper. But because I am in the trade I thought I would take the opportunity to share a great deal more than just Lee Child and I took nearly 200 proof copies of books, going back for years, down to the pub with me. I came home with a dozen books. The pub buzzed, I am surprised we didn’t drink it dry. Folk came from all over and I did indeed press Killing Floor into the hands of some very bemused lads who then started talking books, reminiscing about their GCSE, one even recited some Wilfred Owen! Most admitted they hadn’t read a book since leaving school, most promised they now would.
One million books were given away that night. I was proud to be part of the inaugural event and if the publishing industry repeats it I shall apply again. If not, most of us readers in the pub promised to meet same time, same place, next year and bring at least ten books each from our shelves at home to share with others. World Book Night now is born, we must keep it alive."
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