Tags
alice munro, close edit, creative writing, helen lamb, janice galloway, Magi Gibson, mentoring, poetry, short story, womens writers, Writing
Well folks to sum up my meeting with my uber talented mentor – AWESOME! We worked on two of my short stories, where Magi pointed out how I tended to go for the big ending. To be honest they ended like an episode of Eastenders, “You’re not my muvver!” After this was pointed out, I could see where the problems lay with both stories. I was also able to identify that the stories pretty much wrote themselves in the beginning, but I had forced myself to end them, rather than giving them the time and thought they deserved to finish them and make them credible. What an insight! I have already scaled one back but it’s still not quite there yet. I have the other to work on still. We also completed a close edit of one of my poems. I asked Magi, “Will I ever be able to do this on my own?” She said when we start the writing group and I have to critique the work of my peers then I will automatically start to apply this to my own writing. Already, I can see the difference. I now understand the less is more rule and can see how cutting back words can give weight to others. It really was such a valuable meeting. I feel I am really starting to achieve my goal.
Magic Magi also suggested reading short story collections of Scottish women writers such as Janice Galloway and Helen Lamb. One of the writers we also discussed was Alice Munro and how clever she is at building on the psychological nature of her stories and how good she is at dropping in little hints about her characters into the prose, almost without the reader noticing it. It is so nice to have some guidance and be pushed in the right direction.
We discussed how in the next meeting we will complete a close edit of the stories and discuss which publications to send them to in the new year. I have to say 2013 sounds exciting already!
Merry Christmas everyone! More posts in the new year!