New Year Writing

January 15, 2011 in Academic Writing, MA Scriptwriting, Research, Screenwriting, Scriptwriting, Writing | No comments

Just checked my Semester One module results and was pleasantly surprised. I’ve had a bit of a rocky Semester One and holiday period so was worried. The Research Methodologies module was a definite challenge and Writing for Film was fun but intense. Masters level writing and presenting is quite difficult to get your head round at first because it’s based in previous knowledge but with different expectations. I’m enjoying learning the skills and developing my talent for writing, but it’s not an easy route.

Now I’m into Semester Two, with focus on TV and Radio. First few lectures have been information filled and, if I’m entirely honest, a little daunting. The amount of time to find to do the necessary research and writing is a struggle with everything else I’ve got on the go, but learning to manage your time efficiently is part and parcel of it.

As well as the MA in Scriptwriting, I have two short films; one a new script in preproduction and one a rework of a BA piece. Working with two directors, meetings, notes, etc. Busy busy. I’m also working on the Lancashire International Film Expo again this year, things are kicking into gear and I’ll soon be blogging about that.

Also on the blog cards is a guest post week on Somethingeveryday, Max Wallis’ social media writing project.

My next post will be a bit of a review of the Writing for Film module of last Semester and a brief overview of the script and reflective essay. I want to share my experience with anyone thinking of studying a creative Masters degree at the same time as working to support yourself. It’s a bumpy road but it’s also a lot of fun.

The Lancashire Writing Hub

August 26, 2010 in Events, Writing | No comments

My time as an in house volunteer at the Lancashire Writing Hub (LWH) is coming to an end. It has been an enjoyable and informative experience that I’m glad I undertook. I have written a few reviews and interviews for them (links below) and also had the opportunity to organise a live literature night called Word Soup for which we had a cinema related theme of Words on Screen. Word Soup is a regular night at the Continental that offers local and national writers a chance to perform their work and watch others’. A great opportunity to get some feedback and also exposure.

When I started volunteering and Jane Brunning (LWH Writing Coordinator) first suggested I curate one of the nights I was excited but also a little nervous. I have experience organising art events, having worked with Ric Michael on the LIFE festival, but I’d never hosted anything before. Putting together the line up was fun work as it meant contacting various artists and then crossing my fingers that they would be free for the night. Unfortunately a few weren’t but we did end up with an absolutely storming line up.

On the night itself I was unusually calm setting up the room, my pre-event nerves hadn’t quite warmed up. The artists started arriving and we sat down for a bit of food and a chat, all lovely people. Then 8 o’clock start time rolled round and I felt my stomach drop and the nerves kick in. Getting up on stage to welcome everyone was scary as hell but the audience were lovely and I only forgot to mention one thing.

The night went really well, with performances from Philip Burton, Sian Cummins, Norman Hadley and Mark Mace Smith. Plus the open mic slot which threw up a few gems. Bill Orrick provided some excellent music (and gave me a free CD, top man). Overall, my first time curating a live literature night was a resounding success, if I do say so myself, and I had a cracking time. Next Word Soup is October the 19th if anyone is in the Preston area.

A little bit about the LWH;

“The Lancashire Writing Hub is an online and offline writing and literature development project. We deliver live literature events, performance opportunities, and panel discussions across Lancashire, and run a writing portal offering local and national information about writing opportunities, alongside writing and writer’s development opportunities. We offer online and offline volunteering and publishing opportunities. The Lancashire Writing Hub is a They Eat Culture project.”

Links to my writing for LWH;

Cathy Crabb is a fantastic playwright who wrote the excellent The Roots of Love. She’s absolutely lovely and you can follow her on twitter @CathyCrabb. Review here.

Grace O’Leary won a Forever Manchester award for her play What Colour Was Her Blood? I interviewed her about her writing. The play is being performed on October the 14th at the Continental.

Tom Fletcher is a novelist from Manchester who wrote a horror novel The Leaping. Review here. Follow him on twitter @fellhouse.

A review of the Preston Tringe Special Word Soup.

Rome and Italian

July 16, 2010 in Books, Language, Screenwriting, Story | 2 comments

Just downloaded iTranslate, an app that translates English into Italian with an audio clip, and a dictionary. Hoping to learn a bit of Italian before I go to Rome later this year. I’ve been wanting to go for a few years, since I really got into Ancient Roman history. I now know how to order a beer in Italian.

I rewatched the HBO series Rome again recently and I noticed from the dictionary app that “salve” is still used as our equivalent of hi in Italy, as it is in the Rome series. It’ll be cool to be in a city with such an awesome history, knowing the actors from the equally awesome series actually shot it there, albeit in a studio of facades.

Also been reading Conn Iggulden’s Emperor books again. They tell the story of Julius Caesar, beautifully written. Full of fighting, battles and smiteing, his writing also has some quite intense and exploratory emotional moments. It has a very manly feel, yet Iggulden also writes with skill about the women of Rome. There’s four of the books and they all run together seamlessly so it’s one epic story. His forum is great.

Just remembered I read an article about the HBO Rome programme, they can’t afford to do a third series apparently, which is a shame, but there are plans for a film, which is very exciting. I hope Bruno Heller is writing it, should be bloody brilliant.

On a separate note, terrible news. Spartacus: Blood and Sand second series is on hold because Spartacus has leukemia I think. I hope he gets better soon, he’s such an awesome dude. He plays the Thracian so well and I miss watching him wreak devastation. Started watching Spartacus because of Charlie Brooker’s review on You Have Been Watching and this article at the guardian. Fantastic.

How to write a Dissertation

April 5, 2010 in Academic Writing, Research | No comments

It’s that time of year again when you know thousands of third year students are sitting in their rooms busily avoiding writing their dissertation. They give you a year to do it, but most of us know it gets done in the last week before the deadline. Mine was a study into the art of procrastination before I finally buckled down and thrashed it out.

The most difficult part is knowing where to begin. What’s the first part you should write and how do you go about it? Structure is important in a dissertation, it’s not just a really long essay, it’s a thesis, a research report. It needs a bit of thinking about. A lot of people I speak to usually know what needs to go into their dissertation, they’re just not sure where to put all the bits. It’s like a jigsaw with no edge pieces to start from.

I’m usually pretty good at giving advice on essays and dissertations, probably because I’ve always enjoyed writing them, so here’s a list of all the bits you need – the edge pieces (bear in mind this advice applies to dissertations in areas like humanities, sciences will have their own structure);

  • Title page
  • Contents page
  • Abstract
  • Introduction and Literature Review
  • Chapters
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Appendix

Most of that is pretty self explanatory I think, the only one people usually pull a face at is Abstract. I’ll break them down a bit more.

Title page

The title of your dissertation is something that you probably won’t work out until you’re halfway through the research. It’s usually a statement followed by a question, for example mine was:

“Examining the historical similarities and differences in style, specifically the use of allegory and its intentions, from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno section of the Commedia to contemporary cinema over the last 20 years. How do modern film-makers achieve the same strength of allegory that afforded the Commedia with such longevity?”

Statement – what you are looking at. Question – what are you trying to find out? Try to keep is succinct, mine was guilty of being a bit too long-winded. You need to give the reader a clear understanding of what they’re about to read. On the flip side, don’t make it too short, it’s not a book, so don’t call it “The ghost of film” or something just as naff.

Some Universities will require you to put copyright -the date- -your name- and possibly something to explain its production, for example, I had to write “Dissertation towards the degree of BA(Hons) Screenwriting” and the University name. Check whether you need these.

Contents page

Do this just before you print everything off, so you make sure you get all the page numbers right. It should include everything from Abstract to Appendix.

Abstract

This is the bit that creates panic, but it’s vital. It is essentially a two page summary of your dissertation. It should be the last thing you write, when you know what you’ve written inside out. It’s a mini-dissertation, with an intro, summary of chapters and a conclusion. You’re not saying anything new in it, you’re basically giving a book report on your own work. The abstract is intended to allow anyone to read it and know what your subject is, what you’re exploring within that subject, what analysis you’ve made and what conclusions you’ve drawn.

Introduction and Literature Review

More book reports. This section should be about 4-5 pages long. It is probably easier to write it after you’ve written the body of your dissertation as it’s also a kind of summary. The introduction element means explaining what you’re going to be looking at in your dissertation – break down what is in each chapter and, more importantly, why it’s necessary for it to be there.

At the same time, you should be combining the literature review into the introduction. This essentially means explaining which sources you used at each point of the research, and whether the source was any good. You might want to go into the source’s opinion on the subject, the validity of its argument and whether there are any areas you feel it failed to address (note, this is good because you can start to explore the gaps in the research, earning you those crucial marks for originality).

Chapters

I found the easiest place to start writing my dissertation was at Chapter 1, as it’s technically the beginning. How you split your chapters up is entirely up to you, depending on what you’re looking at in your dissertation, but a good rule of thumb is to have three. For example;

  • Chapter 1 is all about context – What are you looking at? Define it, not with a dictionary quote, actually explore the definition using sources. What’s the history behind it? Why is it relevant (this is key, you really need to explain what your study is going to add to the ongoing debate around your subject)?
  • Chapter 2 is where you look at the arguments already surrounding the debate, analyse the key texts and opinions, see what the trends in methodology are, explore the approaches to your chosen subject. You need to demonstrate an understanding of the area and being able to critically and analytically explain the arguments surrounding it does just that.
  • Chapter 3 is where you can bring your own, original contribution to the debate. You’ve looked at the context of your thesis, you’ve studied the sources, analysed where the gap in the research is, now it’s time to fill that gap. Here you present your argument, supported by a clear methodology, to explain what you’ve found and the conclusions you’ve drawn.

Conclusion

After the main body of your dissertation is written, now is a good time to write your conclusion, which is essentially just another summary. The key difference with the conclusion however, is that it’s a retrospective look at the research and findings so you’re writing in the past tense. It’s also a very good place to suggest how the research you’ve done might be expanded upon, you’re basically offering the reader a new idea and ways the research could be directed from this point on.

Bibliography

Check with your University to see whether you are referencing in the Oxford or Harvard style. Either way, your bibliography should contain a full list if books, journals, articles, films, computer games, comic books and websites that you referenced in the abstract, introduction, chapters and conclusion of your dissertation. Examples of referencing format;

  • Books:  Name, date. Title. Place of publication: Publisher. If it’s been edited or translated, put Ed. Name. or Trans. Name. before the place of publication.

eg. Bemrose, S., 2000. A New Life of Dante. Exetor: University of Exetor Press.

  • Films:  Title (Director, Date)

eg. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994).

  • Websites:  Author, date. Title. Available at http://www.webaddress.com (date accessed).

eg. Parker, D., 1996. The World of Dante. Available at http://www.worldofdante.org/about.html (11/03/09).

Appendix

Your appendix should contain all the extra bumpf that you’ve referenced in the main body of your dissertation and the reader may find interesting. It can contain transcripts of interviews, statistical research, a copy of a questionnaire you sent out, images, diagrams, graphs, and so on. If you have lots of extra stuff, it might be worth having more than one appendix, so Appendix A might contain images, Appendix B interview transcripts. Keep it ordered and make sure you caption everything to explain what it is.

And that’s it, everything you need to include. As with everything, it’s a good idea to check with your dissertation supervisor before handing in as they’re the authority on how your University wants your dissertation. Remember – it’s the starting that’s the hard part, once you’ve sat down and committed the time, it should come quite easily.

Feel free to comment if you have any questions about my post.  :)

Grimm Love film review

March 7, 2010 in Screenwriting | 3 comments

A love story of sorts, Grimm Love is based on the story of Armin Meiwes, a German man who posted an advert on a forum called the Cannibal Cafe “looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.” He received several replies, but most of the respondents could not go through with the act. His eventual victim was a man by the name of Bernd Jürgen Brandes. On March the 9th, 2001, the two men met and the act was carried out. The crucial point of discussion at the time was that this was not a simple murder case, as Brandes willingly allowed Meiwes to do what he did.

Grimm Love is a dramatisation of those events and a reconstruction of the 2 hour long video tape that recorded said events. The main plot line focuses around Katie Armstrong (played by Keri Russell), an American criminal psychology student writing a thesis on Oliver Hartwin (played by Thomas Kretschmann), a cannibal killer, and his victim Simon Grombeck (played by Thomas Huber). Their history is told in a non-linear style through Armstrong’s research. This is my first problem with this film; Armstrong is almost extraneous. She’s studying criminal psychology, she’s fascinated by cannibalism. And that’s it, that’s all you get, no reason why she’s interested in it. There’s a sequence at the start where she has a voice over about feeling alone and needing someone to understand you, but there’s no development.

Which brings me to my second problem. This woman has far too much to say. Her meaningless monologue comes in over parts of the film where Hartwin and Grombeck are just getting interesting and then, more ramblings from this girl with an annoyingly high-pitched voice talking about beauty and truth and understanding. I wouldn’t have minded if she was reading sections of this supposed thesis she’s doing, but it’s not, it sounds more like bits from her blogspot. I think the only reason she’s in there is because the rest of the film is about gay men and the producers realised it wouldn’t sell in America without a pretty girl in it. I was hoping she’d be a bit more of a Clarice Starling character, obsessed with cannibalism because of some dark secret. There’s a scene toward the end where she finally gets hold of a copy of the tape, dropped off at her door by some mysterious helper. I was expecting them to meet and for her story to run parallel, culminating in a relationship between them where she explores her obsession on “safe” ground. But it doesn’t happen. She gets the tape, watches it, cries, and then the film ends.

The third problem with this film is that the extra plot of Armstrong means none of the characters get enough development. I was wanting an in depth exploration of how a human being can possibly come to commit the acts that Meiwes and Brandes did. When it was first released in March 2006, the German government banned the film as a breach on Meiwes’ privacy. I can see why, the film seems to be an excuse to tastelessly use the morbid curiosity of humans to create a shock film, badly hidden by an attempt to psychoanalyse. I’ll give Grimm Love some credit, there are a few lovely little sequences between Hatrwin and Grombeck where you can see that here are two human beings with a strong need that can only be satisfied by each other. There’s a sense of companionship, love, mutual discovery. There’s just too little development of the investigation into human interactions and in a way, I find it quite disrespectful.

Robert Harris – History Writer

March 4, 2010 in Books | No comments

Robert Harris’s books feel like they’ve been written for me. My favourite two periods of history are Ancient (Egypt, Greece, Rome; I love it all) and Modern 20th Century history. The former because the culture of the time forms the basis of the latter. Harris writes about both in his fiction work. Not only does the subject matter interest me, but he’s a fantastic story-teller.

Imperium and Pompeii are both set in Ancient Rome, stories of honour and glory. Imperium I picked up in a coffee shop after being berated by the biggest Rome fan I know into learning a bit more about Cicero, the greatest orator in Roman history. My biggest problem is that, as much as I love the culture and art of Rome, the politics goes straight over my head. Imperium has gone a long way in teaching me the structure of the Roman Republic. Whilst very heavy on the politics, it’s an easy read because it’s told through the eyes of Cicero’s loyal slave Tiro (Tiro’s a legend, he invented shorthand) so you learn all the dirty little secrets of the characters involved. Harris based the book on real writings left by Tiro, so you really feel involved in the complicated world of Roman politics.

Pompeii takes a different stance. It’s a disaster adventure story told in a countdown style, almost like a Roman 24. The Jack Bauer of the story is Attilius, a young man who works on the great Aqua Augusta aqueduct that waters the Roman empire. A problem arises with the water and he’s suddenly on a desperate mission to figure out what’s happening. Because Attilius is essentially just a plumber, you really connect with him as he searches for the problem. Harris’s description of the actual eruption is brilliant, I feel like I’m actually sitting in a Roman coastal villa watching it happen. I picked this book up in Oxfam and was amazed that someone had donated it obviously unread. It’s brilliant and whoever it was obviously only read the first few pages. Even more shocking, or exciting for me anyway, is that it’s signed by Harris. Why would you give this book away, I don’t understand. Mind you, I can’t complain, their loss, my gain.

From Rome to Germany, my favourite book of Harris’s so far has got to be Fatherland. I picked this out of my parents’ bookshelf at about 13 years old because it has an eagle on the spine (come to think of it, so does Imperium, I think I’ve discovered a theme here) and have read it at least once a year since. It’s the fantastic story of Xavier March, an SS Sturmbannführer for the German Kriminalpolizei. I’m going to stop there and just enjoy that sentence. I love German, it’s such and aggressive, guttural language, and suits the story so well. Harris takes off where history stopped and writes about the Europe Hitler wanted. Set in the 60s, Germany has all but won the war and Xavi falls unexpectedly into the discovery of the holocaust. He teams up with an American female journalist Charlie, who lends a splash of colour to the grey story of the German Reich. This book is brilliant, full of conspiracies and hidden danger, whispered threats and guns. It’s a book I literally cannot put down until I’ve read to the last page.

I’ve still to read Archangel and Enigma, but if the other three are anything to go by, Harris will climb even higher in my favourite author list. I think his talent for writing about history stems from his background on programmes such as Newsnight and Panorama. He has a very analytical, observational style that gives his writing so much depth. I really cannot stress enough how good this guy is. And I’ll stop there before I start gushing.

Interesting collective nouns

February 19, 2010 in Language | 4 comments

Some of the uses of collective nouns remain in frequent use today, such as a swarm of bees, a flock of sheep, but the majority of collective nouns are the territory of the serious word nerd. The ones that have stuck seem to be those that are descriptive of the animal, or alliterative, such as a gaggle of geese.

In the Italian Renaissance end of the Middle Ages, around the 15th century, it was considered to be an indicator of exceptional breeding and good culture for one to know the collective nouns used to describe animals. Some that I like, and have decided to share should you need to prove your good background in the pursuit of a mate, are:

  • a business of ferrets. (All ferreting about with little briefcases and little bowler hats. Makes me giggle anyway.)
  • a mumble of moles.
  • a mutation of thrushes.
  • a parliament of owls.
  • a shrewdness of apes.
  • a gang of elks. (In hoodies, listening to rap.)
  • a skulk of foxes.
  • a clowder of cats.
  • a crash of rhinoceroses.
  • a caravan of camels. (Whilst this is funny as a mental picture, it’s interesting to note that caravan is a word that originated from Persia and was assimilated into the English language at around the same time.)
  • a pride of lions.
  • a siege of heron.
  • a deceit of lapwings.

A few make me wonder what kind of drugs they were on then. I’d love to know which 15th century man looked at an ape and thought “Now there’s a shrewd creature,” or who thought they’d been lied to by a lapwing.

Preston is my Paris at Word Soup

February 17, 2010 in Events, Writing | No comments

Last night I was at the Continental pub for Word Soup, a literature event held every month, this time with the theme of love. It was a very enjoyable night, sipping Kronenbourg at a table with a candle and a rose, very atmospheric.

As part of the release of the Preston is my Paris zine, issue 8, Word Soup hosted their submissions. I was lucky enough to be chosen to read, which was nerve racking, but people enjoyed my piece, which was lovely. I thought I’d share it here as not everyone will get hold of a copy of the exclusive zine.

Thanks to writer Jenn who runs Word Soup (author of A Kind of Intimacy) and Adam and Robert who are the photographers that crafted Preston is My Paris.

……..

I fell in love with a boy from Preston.

I fell in love with a boy from Preston. A boy who climbed its trees and played football down its cobbled, terraced streets. A boy who went to a good C of E school just around the corner from his own two-up-two-down with a loo still outside. A house that rattled with the cold but the fire was always on, a string of socks hung out in front to dry. A house that even with nothing, never went hungry.

He fished in the Ribble with string and a door hook, broke into warehouses to play in the timber and fabrics and steel. He rode the VW van with his father, from scrap yard to garage, the back rattling with the much needed parts. He worked the market in Winter and Summer, chapping and chafing to flog knives, forks and spoons, all allegedly real silver.

On the market the Levis arrived, as did his voice. Hair broke through on his cheeks, the subject of many a man-to-man chat in the labour club. He practiced the art of darts and pool. He listened and made friends as he played and drank. He learned the language of men, the skill of their game, in drink and at work.

I fell in love with a boy from Preston who watched his father die, from age and drink and pain from the war. He passed as his generation did, falling into silence for lack of anything to say to a youngster. The lads were faster, quicker and a different kind of sharp.

He bought new clothes, got a haircut. He began to learn his trade, went to the Poly to study, got an education. He drank in student bars and introduced the rich ones to the local girls and the pretty girls to his friends. He sold, bought, talked.

He changed his name, tippex on the business cards. Found wealth and success in the trick of words. He learned the skill of business and the business of people. My husband acquires, develops, invests. My husband drives a Beemer not a VW van. My husband wears a clean starched shirt, a neat pressed tie and a soft tailored suit. But his hands are rough and there’s grit in his knees.

I fell in love with a boy from Preston. The mills his grandfather remembered are washed with alcohol and the sweat of our childrens’ friends.

I fell in love with a boy from Preston, a boy whose footprints litter the city.

Essay Writing – a few things that make writing an essay a much easier job

February 10, 2010 in Academic Writing, Research, Structure, Writing | No comments

Universities are locked in a gruelling battle with the internet. It can be said that easily accessible, throw away media has turned students into creatures of the viral world, that the very thought of books terrifies them. I have to admit, in the University library in my town, I see more students sitting downstairs on facebook than I do in the ranks of books upstairs. The opposing view could be that students minds will be enriched by the vast wealth of information available on the internet.

I give it its due, the internet has bestowed students with fantastic gifts, including three tools that a University might tell you not to use, but you can. You just have to be clever about it. The internet should not be used to cheat at writing essays, but it can help you be better at writing.

Wikipedia gives you an immediate reference to information. The key is to get a general idea and then follow the footnotes at the bottom to the actual sources. Don’t ever acknowledge your use of Wikipedia, don’t make reference to it, don’t quote it, don’t use any ‘facts’ from it. Remember, it’s not a published encyclopedia.

Googlebooks allows you to search book titles and keywords directly from the text. This is good for getting a general idea of which books you need to be looking at, as it helpfully lets you preview the book, limitedly. Like skim reading, you catch the key words and the important chapters, but you need to go back and read it fully.

Googlescholar is like Googlebooks but searches journals, theses, conference notes, etc. These may be available in full on-line, which is useful, saving the often arduous mission of getting hold of a hard copy.

These services should be used sensibly. You can not write an essay from Wikipedia, it’s a sure-fire way to fail. Or the age old trick of fragments from Googlebooks. You can pull it off messily, but an essay doesn’t hold together if you don’t understand the bits where the page is greyed out. I can’t really think of any negatives for Googlescholar, it’s generally a really useful piece of essay-writing kit.

Most useful of all though, a library. At some point you have to take a pen and paper, and lots of change for coffee, to the library. Pull an all-nighter on the proper books, do it all in one go and you can get the main body of research for a 1,000-3,000 word essay started easily. Same goes for writing. Somehow, when 3 am rolls round and the deadline looms, it’s easier to think of what to write when you’re surrounded by words.

Preston is my Paris Gallery and Word Soup at the Conty

February 6, 2010 in Events | No comments

Preston is my Paris have now set up their live gallery at Unit 15 in the Guildhall Arcade, Preston. They’ll be there all through February featuring work from the project and selling books through the publishing strand. Open 11-5, Thurs to Mon.

They have a very interesting little live photo booth to take a photo of every visitor, which is a nice idea. Very social media in process.

In conjunction, the launch of the February edition of the zine on the 16th at Word Soup is hosted by the New Continental. The deadline for entries to the zine is the 9th Feb. Send your entries of under 1000 words with a subject of “Preston” to prestonismyparis@gmail.com.

« Older entries