Janet Cameron

Some fiction writers can slip into various personas Copyright Janet Cameron In "Writing in the First Person" in The Creative Writing Coursebook , Elleke Boehmer considers the problem of choosing a viewpoint. Of the first person viewpoint, she says: "This is one of the central decisions a writer must make. It affects not only the angling, but the force, atmosphere and shape of a piece of writing, especially, perhaps, of fiction." Writing your Autobiography or Memoir One of the most pressing problems with autobiography is what to leave out. If it’s your story, then everything in it may be of overwhelming interest to you. You need to take on board a deep awareness of this natural human partiality. Being objective is never easy, but your memoir will work better if you choose key incidents in your life rather than trying to cover everything. Most people have probably experienced a problematic first day at school or in a job. So, ditch all those “so what!”...

Have you always seen yourself as a "writer" and created stories and non-fiction from an early age, or is there something that happened to inspire you to put pen to paper? Jennifer Young: I resisted the description “writer” for years and still do at one level. I have never seen myself as a writer but as someone who writes. You don’t call someone who breathes or eats a “breather” or an “eater”, and writing is just something I do. And yes — I’ve written, or thought about writing, for as long as I can remember. And that’s a loooong time! 2. You write both fiction and non-fiction, but which do you prefer?   Jennifer Young : Fiction. Don’t get me wrong — I love writing non-fiction (for those who might be interested, I’m a science writer and I specialise in Earth science) but fiction sets you free in a way that non-fiction doesn’t. My scientific background has taught me that you should check your facts, be accurate, go back to the source material. In fiction, a...

Photo: Bing Images H elen Simpson has elevated the short story genre into an art form.  Insights into female experience, marriage and motherhood inform Simpson's work. Helen Simpson was born in Bristol in 1959, and grew up in London. She went to a girls' school, then studied English at Oxford University before moving on to research the seventeenth century, taking a PhD in Restoration Comedy. Her big break came when she won an annual writing competition, a success that propelled into her writing career. The BBC website quotes her:  "They had an annual competition and you had to write a story of your life in 700 words and you had to interview someone. And the story of my life I made up. I first of all wrote it straight, it was so boring - basically I did homework, so I made up a life story for myself. I gave myself four or five brothers and I had dramatic divorcing parents." As a result of her success, she became an editor for Vogue magazine for five ...

If you want to create a great character, you have to  abandon your own inhibitions. Ideally, the result will be a character the reader can identify with. The human personality is a mix of ambiguities and idiosyncrasies that make characters real and often endearing.  The best-ever writing advice comes from Ernest Hemingway: "Write loud and clear about what hurts." It's worth developing this important concept when it comes to great characterisation. Your characters can be composites of several different people. Most Creative Writing lecturers advise against hijacking a whole, real person as a model for a central character, as it seldom works. If you have a specific motivation for your central protagonist and s/he is based on a real person, this might inhibit you from developing your character in the way you have planned. Whatever method you use to people your fiction, remember that without that all-important sense of recognition, your reader may not become emotio...

Public Domain, Wikipedia Raymond Clevie Carver was born in 1939 in Clatskanie, Oregon. His parents were a waitress and a sawmill worker. Until his death on 2 August 1988, he lived in Port Angeles, Washington. Carver left high school early and enrolled part-time on a creative writing course at Chico State College run by John Gardner, and later he studied at Humbolt State College. Eventually, after many different jobs, he became an English professor at Syracuse University. His books have been translated into over twenty languages and his short fiction helped revitalize the genre during the 1980s, with work that presented complex issues in a deceptively simple style of great and evocative power. Raymond Carver and Dirty Realism Raymond Carver's fiction, known as Dirty Realism, "...navigates the apparently contingent lives of its small-town protagonists in quizzical unadorned prose," says The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. His characters are ordinary, ...

Go Your Own Way if you Dare. Photo by Janet Cameron Both conventional and inventive narratives play a part in the health of culture and society.  But conventions and inventions have entirely different functions in our society and in our writing. Conventions Conventions are elements that are familiar with both the creator and his/her audience beforehand. These consist of: Favourite plots Generally accepted ideas Stereotyped characters Popular linguistic devices Common metaphors Conventions serve their own particular functions, for example, the sharing of meanings and images allows a continuity of values. These are essential in maintaining cultural stability. Conventions are also important to an individual' s sense of security, helping to avoid identity crises, tension and maybe even mental breakdown. Inventions Inventions, on the other hand, challenge our understanding by confronting us with new perceptions of meaning that we may...

Publi Domain Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was born in Cuba and grew up in San Remo, Italy. He fought for the Italian Resistance in WW2 from 1943-1945. In " Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature ," Calvino begins by describing the difficulties for writers in being heard, since even the most sensational and explosive writing can fail to impact on readers, "All is as nothing, like the sound of the wind." Words pose no danger to writer or reader, and those of the poet or writer tend to be swallowed up - unless and until the work is persecuted. When this happens, the true power of literature is disclosed, a challenge to authority. The persecution of literature has a knock-on effect. Whenever writers are persecuted, there must already be restraints on discussion and political thought. Fiction and poetry can fulfil the important role of giving a voice to those deprived on one. Two Wrong Ways of Thinking About the Use of Politics in Literature Calvino pos...