Wednesday 8 February 2012

Yatta!

I've had my results for my Second ETMA in Start Writing Fiction and grab on to something, I got 90% again.

I am naturally thrilled, thrilled because the second ETMA was much longer and had more potential to go wrong, and  also because I am consistent.  What I'm less thrilled about are the comments about comma splicing which I had worked quite hard at removing and had enlisted the help of Phil and Rob in order to try and reign in some of my wild fancies where punctuation is concerned. I need a punctuation guru to guide me because I'm clearly comma blind.  I keep wanting to lengthen sentences and clearly this must stop.

It is far too easy to focus on the bad, because I've done exceptionally well, 90% in such a subjective area has to be hard to come by.  Part of me is dying to know what the others got because inner competitor wants to see where I fit in the bell curve, the final overall grade will be issued mid-march after they have been moderated - I may loose marks then.

So where does this leave me? I know I can write effective stories and those friends who have read these stories have enthused at me about my writing. But again this makes me wibble as I wonder if people are just being nice...  (again rational brain has to step in here and say I've had impartial feedback from a few quarters which has been good though pointing out the commas).

1. I need to stop wibbling, gain confidence by writing more and writing regularly - by doing both of these things I can improve my style and learn where to commas should be and you know, add some full stops in too.

2. Join a writers group, need to find one locally and join, more pressure to write and present and get some interesting feedback and perspective.  Continue to make use of friends who can nit pick and question my decisions and make me make my work better. Rob made a fantastic point about my latest work where I had disengaged from the characters in the short story to drop in background info and he suggested featuring the characters in that background to make it more vivid.

3. Write more, write everyday if I can. Set weekly goals.

Things my tutor said were : This is another excellent read, Jane.  I absolutely raced through it, it was so gripping. Right from the start, I was pulled in. This is boring old Northampton but something strange and alien has happened. Then there is a steady build up of threat and good, detailed description of neglect and poverty.

You give just enough of the back story, bit by bit as we go along for us to understand what is happening but the reasons why you reveal slowly...

Your time shifts are neat and clear and your presentation good except that slight tendency still to link sentences with commas.  I've marked a few.  It can be 'pacey' in action scenes, but not as a regular feature.

I am ridiculously proud of myself, it is something that I can do ;)

If you'd like to read the story, it's found here.

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Being Human

!Warning this post contains spoilers for series 4.1 of Being Human!

That's your warning, come back when you've seen it, go on I can wait.

Well that set the new series going with a bang didn't it?

Oh the angst of it all.  Firstly the sucker punch of Nina having been killed off screen. A distraught and broken George protecting his daughter or at least trying to.  Annie trying to help but being pushed away, it was a really tough episode to watch.  Considering the ending, which had me in tears on Sunday night (well done Toby Whithouse, I'm not easy to make cry), it could have been angst overload.

Thankfully the new leads were there on hand to add lightness to what was a dark old episode.  Tom who was the Werewolf brought up by Macnair last series, is quite a find.  He is by turns hard as nails, vulnerable, very funny and compelling to watch.  Hal the new vampire is more complex and I can't wait to see how he will fit into the story.

Interesting things I enjoyed, the idea that the triumvirate of Wolf/Vamp/ghost is not unknown in this universe and did it hint that it was a thing of power.  Also seeing a wolf that had reached old-age, and the implications of that.  And a lot of dark hints about ghosts who are thetherless.

Add in the old ones are coming and the future!dystopia subplot and this series is going to be bonkers and awesome.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

I loved the appearance of the vampire recorder played by Mark Williams, he was hilarious.


I thought Russell Tovey's swan song as George was incredibly moving and I cried a lot. 
 

Sunday 5 February 2012

SFXweekender

Well it's Sunday and we're home from the SFXweekender. It was epic.

There were  some problems, firstly the derailment which stopped people like Stephan Mangan, Anthony Head, didn't make it.  The queues for Autographs were beyond insane. So I missed my chance to meet my hero Brian Blessed and Sylvester McCoy and my chap missed out on getting Hattie Hayridge's autograph.  I did however, get to meet Eve Myles who I now have a bit of a girl crush on and I love the fact that she was drinking pints of wine.




So despite the hiccups most of which were unavoidable we did have the best time.  Now because we won the tickets we didn't have accommodation on site but being based in North Wales we were less than an hour to travel each day. We've remedied that for next year, we've already booked VIP tickets ;)

So Panels and shiz... I went to what become the Sylvester McCoy panel, (Sophie Alred had got stuck in the rail bru ha ha).  Sylvester McCoy decided to do the Q & A from in the middle of the audience.





Next off we went to Dan and Tony's Audience Participation Comic Creating work shop of awesome. It was Very silly and lots of fun.  Then to Paul Cornell's Just a minute with Joe Abercrombie, China MiĆ©ville, Sarah Pinborough and Toby Whithouse.  Much silliness followed.


Afterwards a how to get published panel and then the Blastermind quiz with our friends. During the Friday day I stopped by Sam Stone's stand, she's an author I met at Wrexham Comic Con and we've kept meeting at cons.  She introduced me to her friend and fellow author Raven Dane who was lovely and I may have bought her new Steam Punk novel: Cyrius Darian and the Technomonicon.  We saw some of the imaginarium but by this stage I'd been up 18 hours and could barely stand so we headed home.

Saturday we were back at Prestatyn by 9.40 am owch.  First port of call was Toby Whithouse Q and A for Being Human. ZOMG SPOILERS!!!! I know what's going to happen tonight and I can't tell you anything but the scenes were intense so my friends you need to watch Being Human tonight.

We stuck around for Eve Myles who was fantastic and Welsh and mad-eyed and lovely. Tales of John Barrowman's cock and all.  She came across brilliantly and I for one will be taking the baton up for the campaign to only drink wine in pints from now on.  She spoke passionately about Torchwood and Wales and Gwen Cooper and when she was talking about her beach and about Cardiff I may have got something in my eye.






She spent a lot of time with her head in her hands when talking about Barrowman's cock, just saying.





After that we attempted to get autographs and that didn't really work out so well the Queue for Brian Blessed was more than insane, I resigned self to the fact that it wasn't going to happen and due to Phil being eagle eared, he managed to get early in the queue for Eve Myles so I joined him.


After this there was Flash fiction, a good panel and funny, Unicorn sandwiches has taken on a new significance for me.

My boy went shopping while I went to the Brian Blessed Q and A for me the event of the weekend. Brian Blessed is by turns, hilarious, filthy, awesome, insane and wondrous and he held an over capacity crowd in the palm of his hand. There were moments of Gordon's alive, a tarzan yodel and opera. He's an incredible speaker his parting message was you can do anything you like if you don't let the bastards grind you down.



I then went shopping whilst my chap listened to people talk about maps in fantasy fiction, I stayed for a bit but really, it wasn't my bag.  I got a nommy massage, went and met Robert Rankin but couldn't pluck up the courage to speak properly, I iz an idiot noob sometimes.



We watched Norman Lovett and Hayridge's stand up which just about finished me off.  I didn't make it to the sing a long a buffy which made me so sad it's untrue but I was broken and not about to break self further.

I left the event feeling inspired and in awe at a really good weekend, it's given me quite the hunger to be geekier and to read more and to experience more and to write so much more. I left a little bit of my heart in Prestatyn, it was an amazing convention.


Any regrets, not meeting Paul Cornell and flaking out on Saturday but I'll be back next year and I'll have cobbled together a costume.

The good photos in this Blog post are all down to my boyfriend, the shoddy photos are all mine, save the Sylvester McCoy one ;)

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Tenterhooks

I've officially finished my OU short course in start writing fiction.  I'm awaiting the marks of my second assignment and as usual I am bricking it.

It is rather silly, I should have more faith in my own ability, the first assignment result was a huge boost as was the response from my readers.... Somehow that confidence evaporates the moment you submit for assmessment.

I wonder how real writers cope?

Also this week as a small challenge to myself I'm trying to write a 1000 word Zombie story in first person present tense.

Rock on.