After the hectic and enjoyable month of February, these next two months will be a lot quieter. I’d like to thank all of those who kept up, followed, shared, and commented, making Black History Month Reading a success. Remember #ReadSoulLit has not seen its last days, its pressing on over on Twitter, Instagram, and on here. Please continue to link the hashtag when you blog or link to social media about books by black 
writers. This will help keep up the recognition that black writers so deserve. So why is everything quieting down for the next two months? Well I’ve enrolled in an intensive online writing course with Faber Academy. It’s called Getting Started: Writing Fiction (Intensive).
The course has about 15 participants mostly from England, an Australian, and me. The course started and
we’ve been challenged with writing prompts, but we’ve also been encouraged with George Orwell’s short stories (pretty fantastic writing). We’ve had to reflect on how much we read (I’ve got that covered), what we read, what to pay attention to, and we’ve discussed books we love and recommend and why. It was suggested we take a look at Reading Like a Writer A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them by Francine Prose. It so happens I have that one on my shelf and have already started reading it.
So far I’ve found the writing very challenging. I’ve done one round of writing prompts. We are supposed to write for 10-15 minutes on the ones that interest us the most and I found this excruciating. I could hear myself critiquing my writing as I linked one word after the next. I have to stop doing this or I’m never going to get over the hump. I must try to put myself in partial NaNoWriMo mode. I say partial because I need to focus on how I write things too. Tomorrow I’ll redo the prompts and maybe try the three that I haven’t done yet. I’m hoping that one of my attempts will jump out at me and that’s the one I’ll try to work on seriously. Try to make it detailed, descriptive, and interesting. This 500-word assignment is for Saturday.
I’ll also have the arduous task to critique two of my colleagues’ work. This should be interesting. This is what I usually do on this blog, with a twist of analysis and how I felt. In the end, it’s not the same thing. However, I’m glad that they gave us some specific guidelines to help us concentrate on the importance of writing. Here are the areas we need to consider when critiquing and I believe they are useful for book bloggers too: clarity – what kind of narrative is it? Is it clear? Is it easy to follow what is happening?, point-of-view – Who is telling the story? Do the view points change?, pace – Is the story lagging? Try to identify why you feel less engaged., characters – Are the characters engaging? Do we learn enough about the characters? Is there any information missing?, setting – Is there enough information about the place? Is the location clearly explained?, over-writing – Are there more words than are necessary? Are we told things that we as the reader can already work out?, and spelling and punctuation – work should be presented in a clean and precise manner. So poor grammar will be judged. As they say, being a careful reader is crucial to developing skills and awareness to help with writing. I’m pretty nervous about all of this but I’m throwing myself into it because I need the answer to the question that most of the other participants are asking as well and that’s, “Can I write?” So I hope you’ll enjoy reading my updates on this course and maybe a book review or two for the next 8 weeks….
Good luck with your class. I find writing workshops to be very helpful.
So far I’m pleased with the way things are going. It’s early days though. I’m a little anxious about Saturday.
Good luck with the course, it sounds very fascinating.
Thanks Karin will keep you all up to scratch. 😉
It sounds demanding but rewarding – good luck!
Yes but I feel as if it’s all going to be worth it in the end. Thanks!
Sounds interesting. Have fun with it!
Yes it is. Thanks Naomi!
I go back and forth with how serious I want to be about blogging. On the one hand, it’s just a hobby and I don’t want it to become something that requires serious effort since hobbies are supposed to be fun. On the other hand, I’m putting this out for public consumption and I know I should put in thought and effort. I look forward to seeing how this works out for you.
by the way, I see you added another comment option!
I’m mostly doing it to see if Wi have what it takes to write fiction. I love writing on my blog but it’s not the same thing as writing fiction , shot stories, or poetry. Yes I’m glad the change worked. Hope you’re feeling better these days. ?
If anyone is going to be in southern California on the 18th of April, check out Black Witers On Tour: http://www.blackwritersontour.com/
Sounds like a lot of work, but exciting as well! I took an online creative writing class a few years back that I really enjoyed. One of assignment was to write a piece as though I was a color. I chose the color lavender. It was one of the hardest assignments but it is a piece I am very of 🙂
I look forward to hearing about this as you go!
“One of the assignments …” Yes, I can write a sentence! This is what happens when WordPress gives you grief and you try to work around the problem by pasting and re-writing a comment to fool WordPress into thinking you hadn’t already submitted the same comment. Technology can be irritating some day 😉
?
Wow that sounds challenging! Well I’m giving it my best. This will determine if I can write. I hope to acquire better writing habits. Thanks Terri for the encouragement!
I’ve been meaning to say congratulations and well done with #ReadSoulLit I didn’t participate in every prompt, but it was fantastic to see all the recommendations – I’ve found some great new books and people to follow! I’m looking forward to using it with my reading throughout the year. Your course sounds interesting, and I like the idea of applying those critique tools to blogging. Good luck 🙂
Hey thanks so glad you participated. Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I wish I could have done more, but having the flu didn’t help. I think we have all enriched our TBRs and will continue do so throughout the year, since #ReadSoulLit is continuing. Thanks for the encouragement! Happy reading! 🙂
On the creative writing course I took we were encouraged to use free writing as the starting point for any assignment. It takes practice to write without stopping or thinking of punctuation but it does take the mind into an area that is often unexpected. It might help you with those prompts
Yes the prompts are good, but what I’ve learned is I have to write daily. That’s really important and that’s what I’m doing, especially since I’m a notorious procrastinator. ?
I’m intrigued by this writing challenge and look forward to reading more about it on your blog. I follow you on IG and Youtube, but ashamed to say I am just now discovering your site. I blame it on the fact that I’m addicted to my smart phone. I enjoyed this particular post. Thanks for all your internet contributions. They inspire me to read and write more. No doubt, you inspire countless others. I have found that letter writing is also a good way for me to write daily. It may be something fun to try if you ever find yourself in a slump. A good pen pal will give you prompts. Looking forward to your next post.
Thanks for the compliments and the support! I’m just doing an online writing course. It isn’t a challenge. I’m working on my third week and will soon post on how my second week went. Writing letters is a great idea. I have a pen pal I write to regularly in Canada. She loves postcards so I try to write regularly, however these days I’m just a little busy with my course, reading, and work. It’s crazy at the moment.