Blog posts with my creative writing experiments
Time to boast? So sorry, but yes, I won the Crime Story Competition in Writing Magazine and my short story was published in the January 2012 edition of the magazine.
I won the Crime Story Competition in Writing Magazine and my short story was published in the January 2012 edition of the magazine.
‘Congratulations! Your application to become a BT Storyteller for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been successful.’
Yikes! Now what?
Oh my goodness, gracious me. I swear I had forgotten all about it. Then I came home from holiday and found this email waiting for me.
Dear Ruth
Congratulations! Your application to become a BT Storyteller for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been successful.You have been chosen to Continue reading “I am an Olympic Storyteller!”
I was disappointed. The writing seemed somewhat flat and the character remained distant. So, at the suggestion of the assignment, I retold the same scene using the present tense and from a first person perspective.
How do you create ‘real’ characters? Characters that are round, not flat? Personalities that are interesting? People your readers care about?
For a recent Open University assignment, we were asked to write a scene using a stereotypical character, but showing the contradictions in the character in order to make him or her ’round’. I had in mind a suited business person, very successful, whose family life was a little less organised. I wrote the scene in the third person and past tense (the classic ‘literary’ story telling style).
I was disappointed. The writing seemed somewhat flat and the character remained distant. So, at the suggestion of the assignment, I retold the same scene using the present tense and from a first person perspective.
Here is my first attempt, written in the third person. Continue reading “Characters – making them round.”
Walking along the South Bank with my daughters, I mused on how much history and how many iconic landmarks were contained within a few short yards. When I decided to write a flash fiction piece, this little story (and the linkages) just seemed to pop into my head.
They agreed to meet at London Bridge and make another attempt to cross the gulf that separated them.
Walking along the South Bank, they made slow progress. The same arguments were replayed; until, outside The Globe, she responded dramatically – as she always did – leading to a public exhibition of tears and tantrums on the steps of The Tate.
He accused her of being theatrical and she shed more tears as they walked past The National and accused him of orchestrating their disharmony – in full view of the queue outside the Royal Festival Hall.
Eventually she managed to govern her emotions, but not until they reached the facade of the old County Hall. By then it was too late. Things had moved on, he said. He decreed they would never see eye-to-eye if they kept circling round in the same old way. As his opposition hardened, she came to the realisation there were some bridges that could not be mended.
At Westminster Bridge they agreed to stop battling against the tide. The time for negotiation had passed.
By unanimous decision, on reaching Parliament Square, they elected to go their separate ways.
Here is the walk:
Another Monday, another microfiction prompt from Stony River. Tell a story in 140 characters.
Here is mine.
After she kissed the frog, she realised her fairy godmother had mixed up the spells. The ugly monster was so pleased, she couldn’t tell him.
Ruth Livingstone 