Thoroughly modern millennial

Tag: Creative writing

  • Writing | Write Like A Grrl

    Write Like A Grrl

    Last Saturday I pulled myself out of bed at 6am and hopped off on the coach to Camden. Why? Well, I decided to see if I had what it takes to ‘Write Like A Grrl’.

    You may have seen some of my tweets already but just in case you haven’t here’s the lowdown on the organisation.

    ‘Write Like A Grrl‘ was a course developed especially for female writers. Founded in 2013 by Kerry Ryan, the aim was to help women of all writing abilities to overcome the barriers that stop them from writing and give them the skills to keep on going. They now run both six week and one day intensive courses In conjunction with ‘For Books’ Sake’.

    Over 200 women had passed through the courses and I was about to be one of them.

    (more…)

  • Writing | Words & Music

    writing-music
    I think it’s fair to say for me writing and music go hand in hand. Putting on your headphones and listening to music is the easiest way to lock yourself into the world that you’re writing about and also put your mindset in the right ‘mood’ for scenes.

    I got inspired by this video by the lovely Linda on Youtube, that got me thinking about music and the writing process. In terms of what I listen to? I have a generic ‘writing playlist’ in my iTunes which I use for both when I’m writing blogs and writing fiction etc. The playlist is an amalgamation of the suggestions below – but here the more specific musicians, genres, tracks and themes I choose when I need to gear up to write specific scenes and stories.

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    The easiest playlists to compile are for big battles and fight scenes where you need your characters kicking some serious ass. I always go for something with charging guitars and drums as the rhythm helps with imagining the beats and more cinematic cut-aways for narration. Anything by 30 Seconds to Mars, Bastille, Muse and Florence + the Machine set the tone wonderfully – Knights of Cydonia (Muse), This Is War (30 Seconds to Mars), Pompeii (Bastille), and Drumming Song (Florence + the Machine) are particularly brilliant to amp you up.

    If I’m working on YA or a more contemporary storylines I go acoustic and indie (also cause I’m a hipster-sh*t). Taylor Swift’s earlier albums are pretty much primed background music for stuff like this, as are Joe Brooks, Arcade Fire and Kate Voegele’s back catalogues. If we’re going for more modern indie, Alessia Cara and Alabama Shakes have been firm favourites recently. Speaking of Taylor Swift, the entirety of 1989 is fantastic for big ‘screw you’ scenes a la Emma Stone in Easy A. ‘Get Over You’ by Sara Barielles and ‘Comeback Queen’ by Lolo also do the trick – and are generally super empowering to listen to.

    Badlands (Halsey) and The Small One (Sia) have proved great accompaniments to inner monologues, sadder moments and what I call ‘walk and think’ scenes (i.e. characters walking in the rain feeling nostalgic or particularly pensive *URGH ANGST*). Lyrically Sia and Halsey are fantastically inspiring songwriters too, so it fuels the fire to write better when I listen to them.

    Anything by Panic! At the Disco makes for great background music for ‘sexy’ scenes and parties…and banquets…basically any kind of period era gathering with fancy frocks and general debauchery (Vices + Virtues is especially fantastic for those). The Weekend are good for modern day versions of these scenes.

    And of course, actual soundtracks are ready made for writing epic sagas. My personal picks are usually Pan’s Labyrinth, anything by Studio Ghibli, or composed by Hans Zimmer. More recently I also highly recommend the new Force Awakens soundtrack – ‘The Jedi Steps’ is so fun to write to.

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    So fellow writers, what music do you listen to to get you in the mood to write? Pass me some suggestions in the comments below.

    Ria

  • Writing | Experimenting With Form

    writing-form-notebook

    Around the time of said scrambling writing/blogging midlife crisis last year I had the sudden (very obvious) realisation.

    I don’t really write much else other than my ‘novel projects’.

    More often than not a writer’s life is defined by the single task of getting that golden book deal, but sometimes too much too much emphasis and pride is placed on finishing an entire work of prose when other forms of writing can be just as interesting too.
    Over the past few years I’ve been hellbent on finishing a novel. This singular goal has meant I’ve often shut out the idea of trying out other genres or types of writing in favour of completing this one thing (or in my case five things).

    The more and more I delve into the world of writing the more I’m further my love for other story formats, not just in terms of what I enjoy reading but in terms of what I want to write as well.

    I started with poetry last year, just on a whim, to see what would come out. The results were fun. They were shorter than prose but I found myself veering towards a narrative style – similar to the slam poetry I adore watching on Youtube. After flicking through literary magazines like Litro, Popshot and Mslexia and trying out creative writing prompts online I gave short stories a go. Again, like poetry it was fun, non-committal and more importantly was an exercise in creativity.
    Experimenting with form was never something I set out to do. It kinda of just happened. The technicalities of writing form was never something I paid attention to but it’s something that I definitely want to get to grips with over the next few months. Who knows maybe writing novels isn’t my thing. My thing might be haikus or essays or flash fiction or slam poetry. But I won’t find out what my thing is until I give it a go.

    Time to get experimenting.

    Fellow writers (and non-writers alike)! Let me know if you’re having similar struggles about stepping out of your writing comfort zone in the comments.

    p.s.You can follow some of my writing escapades on my Tumblr and on Medium.

    Ria