Ruth Livingstone

Metaphors – can you can have too many?

My journey through the furrows of a book, where literary gems lie strewn amid the tumbled weeds of a partially ploughed landscape, strewn with half collected crops of obtuse words, overworked adjectives and obfuscated prose ….

Tangled Jungle, photo by Ruth Livingstone. — Can’t see the wood
for the trees.

The use and abuse of metaphors

Just read a book of short stories (Dr Mukti and other tales of woe by Will Self) and found myself drowning in a sea of muddling metaphors, distracting similes and obscuring adjectives.

Here is an example of a metaphor used in the book: ‘this was only the lull before the storm hit the frail vessel of his foundering career’. This is not the greatest of metaphors but, compared to some in the book, it is reasonable in the context of the story. Why is this a reasonable metaphor? Because it conjures up a useful image for the reader and adds an element of suspense. From this metaphor, we are aware that the character is in difficulty at work and we are waiting, in anticipation, for the storm to strike. Continue reading “Metaphors – can you can have too many?”

I passed!

Open University – Start Writing Fiction Course. Three months of reading, writing and thinking – with two assignments to submit – kept me busy. Some of it was easy. Some of it was challenging.

Yes, I passed the Open University course. Yippee!

This was the Start Writing Fiction Course, A174, and counts for 10 credits. Three months of reading, writing and thinking – with two assignments to submit – kept me busy. Some of it was easy. Some of it was challenging.

Worth doing? Yes. Definitely.

One of the fun things about the course was the student forums. Our own ‘Tutor Forum’ was poorly attended, which was a shame. The course would have been greatly enriched with more active participation. There were four or five of us who regularly contributed and I am sure we got far more from the course by posting work, discussing others’ work, asking questions and sharing difficulties.

There was, however, an active Sudents’ Cafe. This was a forum where everybody from any tutor group could participate and it was a lively place.

Many of the A174 students are going on to do the Open University’s A215 course, Creative Writing, (worth 60 credits). Sadly, I am not one of them. But I hope to keep in touch with the friends I have made. And, I am looking forward to starting at Birkbeck in October.

First story up … on the Olympic Storyteller site

Yes, my first ‘story’ is up on the Olympic Storyteller site.

‘But that’s not a “story”!’ I hear you cry. No, this is not a work of fiction. And, making a wild guess here, I reckon that BT are not sponsoring us Olympic Storytellers because they wanted prize-winning fiction writers. No, they are after ‘stories’ that relate to, or comment on, the events surrounding the London 2012 Olympics.

Thinking of the stories I wanted to tell, I decided to ………

(Go on. Read what I decided to do here. And don’t forget to hit the [like] button. Thank you.)

Submitted

My final Open University assignment is submitted. Marking awaited. And no, somewhat to my own surprise, I did not leave it up to the last-minute, but submitted with 24 hours to spare.

Feel a bit lost now. What next?

I’m doing a 3 day course in ‘Short Story Writing’ at Knuston Hall in September. That’s next.

In October, I start at Birkbeck. Four years of part-time study, leading to a B.A. degree in Creative Writing. Can’t wait!

Putting it off…

Final part of the final assessment for my Open University course (A174 Start Writing Fiction) is due in at the end of this week. Friday lunchtime, to be exact.

I am trying to avoid tinkering right up to the deadline.

But I can’t bring myself to submit it. Maybe I will miss that one typo? Or maybe I have misread the instructions and there is some vital ingredient I have omitted? Or maybe it is complete rubbish and I have time to start again, if I need to?

Or maybe I just don’t want to say ‘goodbye’ to the course? It has been good fun and the 3 months have flown by.