Finding the Plot

The Parisot Writing Group met last week for a morning workshop on plot development with Jacqueline Yallop, the author of Kissing Alice, Obedience and Marlford.  We are lucky that, in this small area of rural France, we are surrounded by so many creative and talented people.  Among the topics we discussed were the different plot structures, including the string, the mirror and the seesaw.  We were then given a short paragraph and asked to plot either the beginning, middle or end of the story.  We finished off the session by attempting to write a story in only 140 characters.  We then re-wrote the story using 100 words and it was amazing how long 100 words suddenly seemed!  We all enjoyed the session and agreed that the time passed far too quickly!

The House at Zaronza by Vanessa Couchman is published!

Last night I attended the launch party, along with other members of the Parisot Writing Group, for The House at Zaronza, my friend Vanessa’s first book.  The novel, which falls under the genre of historical fiction, is set in Corsica, a place I love.  We are so proud that one of the Parisot Writing Group has achieved such success and we were thrilled to join the celebrations.  I’ve enjoyed reading Vanessa’s short stories and I can’t wait to read The House at Zaronza.  It is published by Crooked Cat and is available through Amazon.    

The Parisot Writing Group (PWG)

I realised I haven't mention the writing group I belong to on my blog in any detail.  I formed the PWG nearly two years ago at the library in the village of Parisot, Tarn-et-Garonne, France.  It has been a rewarding experience and has really helped me with my writing.  We started out as a group of nine.  At that time, some of us had been writing for a while and others were new to writing.   We meet up for three monthly sessions in both the spring and autumn.  The sessions are just over two hours long.  Having the meetings structured in this way means that most people make every session and we still have eight original members plus two new ones.   The first group proved so popular that I started a second group last autumn, as I didn’t want the number of the original group to be more than ten.    We are now at a stage where everyone feels comfortable sharing their writing and trusts each other.   This year we kicked off with a weekend writing workshop with Amanda Hodgkinson, which proved a great success and we hope to have more author led workshops over the next twelve months.  One of our members, Vanessa Couchman, has been writing fiction since 2010 and is about to have her first novel, The House at Zaronza published by Crooked Cat later this month, which we are all excited about.  You can check out this link for more details.

The Gift

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything on here.  For once I have a valid excuse - I’ve been writing my novel.  The Gift is now at 83,000 words and I’m enjoying the whole process.  I really feel things are coming together, although I recognise I still have some work to do!  

Writing Workshop

At the weekend I was privileged to host a writing workshop headed up by Amanda Hodgkinson, the award winning author of international bestseller, 22 Britannia Road and the critically acclaimed novel, Spilt Milk.  There were nine of us for the weekend, all members of the Parisot Writing Group – a supportive and lovely bunch of people.  We all agreed the weekend was a great success, but it was over far too quickly.   Now it is back to some hard graft on my novel, The Gift.  The feedback I received from Amanda and the group means I’m looking forward to working on it again and I have a clearer idea of what I’m trying to achieve.  I know I echo the sentiments of the whole group when I say that Amanda was an inspiration.

The Ginger Tree

I’ve just finished reading The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd (see my book blog Nita Reads).  The Ginger Tree caught my eye as I was looking for stories based in Japan at the beginning of the 20^th century to give me further insight into Japanese Culture.   The Ginger Tree is the story of a young woman who travels to China in 1903.  In the end she settles in Japan, buying a house in Yokohama in 1914 – this would have been about the same time that Agnes Salvesen was in Yokohama.  The book was a delight to read and, as well as observations on the culture, it also highlights the restrictions placed on women during this era.  Agnes Salvesen must have been quite a woman!  I can’t wait to start writing about The Salvesen Sisters, but at the moment I’m working on The Gift – again!  

Birdsong

Last week I was lucky to see the stage production of Birdsong.  Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks, is one of my favourite books so I was interested to see how the play would compare.  We covered writing for stage, film and radio in one of my open university courses so I know that a huge amount of work goes into adapting a book for film or stage.  The first couple of chapters in the book set the scene before the First World War and I remember I found these a bit heavy going.  In comparison the play leaps right into the action as it opens in the trenches and the backstory is interlaced throughout the play to great effect.  The actors all gave moving performances and were just as I had imagined them.   The play was stunning and especially poignant given that it marks the anniversary of the start of the First World War.  I recommend going to see it if you get the chance.