Swanwick Writers' Summer School - Day 3
Aug. 13th, 2015 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clhollandwriterOn Monday I felt even worse about getting up than I had on Sunday, but I dragged myself to breakfast and the second part of the Novel Writing specialist course. In it Simon Hall discussed characterisation, and how you can say so much with a character's appearance and mannerisms before you even start to look beneath the surface. Then we did look beneath, at drivers and backstory, and the importance of "gritting the wheels" to give characters something to struggle against.
I skipped the first part of the short course and sat down to do some writing. It was at this point I discovered my keyboard wasn't working. Since I only got the thing three days before I was not impressed and spent the next couple of hours in a mood. However a friend turned out to have the exact same one as me (even down to the colour) and offered to lend it to me since she was doing her writing the old-fashioned way. She is at the top of my Christmas card list!
Since I planned to go to a workshop session in the afternoon, I moved my quiet time to the second part of the short course and spent a little while in bed eating cake and reading the book I bought on Saturday. Then I went to the hour-long workshop on fantasy where we discussed tropes and cliches and how to avoid them.
As I was feeling a bit grungy I skipped the evening speaker Della Galton, even though I know she's really good. After that it was the poetry open mic, which was interesting as always. It overran and no one seemed to mind although a few people slipped off for the fancy dress disco. Once again I got to bed very late.
I skipped the first part of the short course and sat down to do some writing. It was at this point I discovered my keyboard wasn't working. Since I only got the thing three days before I was not impressed and spent the next couple of hours in a mood. However a friend turned out to have the exact same one as me (even down to the colour) and offered to lend it to me since she was doing her writing the old-fashioned way. She is at the top of my Christmas card list!
Since I planned to go to a workshop session in the afternoon, I moved my quiet time to the second part of the short course and spent a little while in bed eating cake and reading the book I bought on Saturday. Then I went to the hour-long workshop on fantasy where we discussed tropes and cliches and how to avoid them.
As I was feeling a bit grungy I skipped the evening speaker Della Galton, even though I know she's really good. After that it was the poetry open mic, which was interesting as always. It overran and no one seemed to mind although a few people slipped off for the fancy dress disco. Once again I got to bed very late.
