Helen Brain's Blog
Posted by Helen Brain
I've been reading an interesting biography of P.L. Travers, the Australian born writer who wrote Mary Poppins.
She was a complex person, always searching for spiritual fulfillment and a personal guru who would feed her hunger for love, acceptance and a satisfying long term relationship.
The Mary Poppins books only made her a fortune after Disney's film starring Julie Andrews was made in the mid sixties. She died a very wealthy, but lonely woman, desperate for recognition. Most poignant is the way she tried to get a bronze statue of Mary Poppins erected in New York's Central Park, to join the existing statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson.
The attempt failed, as only $2100 dollars was raised, $2000 of it contributed by Travers herself.
It was a sad end to a sad life.
Read more about P.L.Travers in Mary Poppins she Wrote The Life of P.L.Travers by Valerie Lawson. It is published by Aurum, ISBN 9781845131265
Posted by Helen Brain
Learning to Write
I teach writing at an online writing college. For the first year I taught a course called 'Write a Book for Children.'
But as I worked through the full course with my first students, I realised that most people, unless they are naturally gifted and great readers, don't have the nuts and bolts basics of putting together scenes, characters and situations.
So I wrote a new course, the Basics of Creative Writing, and the response has been overwhelming. I am amazed by the number of people who have signed up.
The course consists of notes and 60 exercises to complete, and the surprising thing to me is how interesting marking the assignments is.
When I was a school teacher, faced with a pile of essays to mark, my heart used to sink. I hated it. I have a low boredom threshold, and doing the same thing again and again made me feel desperate.
But now its different. With almost 70 students, I'm spending every morning marking, but its always interesting.
My students range from teenagers to retirees. People facing midlife crises and wanting to follow their dreams, scientists who want to stretch the right side of their brains, and people who loved writing at school and want to regain the pleasure.
It's astonishing how different their responses are to the same exercises. Of course the exceptional student is a great pleasure, but more satisfying is the student who starts out with no technique, and by the end of the three modules is able to write a scene that moves me, and makes me want to read more.
Find your Voice as a Writer
My biggest challenge as a teacher is helping people to find their own voice. And the thing I am strictest about is removing all 'alien' sounding words - the forsooths, ruby heads, zephyr winds, bejewelled hands, piteous gazes and other words that sound outdated, but jar with the rest of the work. These were usually imprinted in childhood or adolescence, and the writer has adopted them as 'writerly.'
If you don't use a word in every day speech, don't use it in your writing, (unless it is spoken by a character who does use it everyday. ) Stay true to the way you speak normally, and your writing will sound genuine and appealing to the readers.
Posted by Helen Brain
Many primary school teachers know that when girls hit the 10-11 age spot, the going gets rough in the classroom. Peer pressure, fighting, and nastiness become much more prevalent at this point, and only die down again as girls reach high school.
I've just received a review copy of "Ginger Snaps" by Cathy Cassidy, published by Puffin, and it really impressed me. Cassidy really understands the ins and outs of relationships between girls, and the stresses they cause. Being cool, being in with the popular kids, being weird or freaky.... these issues are taken apart and explored through the eyes of 12 year old Ginger, the girl with the secret (- she used to be weird.)
Compare a book like this with Madonna's English Roses series and you realise what a real writer, one with writing skill and emotional intelligence does as opposed to a celebrity wannabe writer with a 'cool' idea.
If you want to learn to write for this age group look out for Cathy Cassidy's books.
You can read a review of Gingersnaps in the Reading and Literature section.
Posted by Helen Brain
After reading the nauseating 'English Roses' series by Madonna I got really depressed about the state of children's literature. Why are the bookshops filled with piles of paint by numbers books like these? It's the triumph of marketing over literature, sales over imagination, MacDonalds over Michelin stars.
Madonna obviously never lost herself in a book as a child, or she'd realise just how impossible it is to lose yourself in a flat one dimensional world.
What a delight to find a REALLY good book. A real meat and potatoes, mull over, think about, wish I'd written that book. One that lives with you and enriches your inner life.
'The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place' by E.L. Konigsburg is not new - it was published by Walker Books in 2005. But its a wonderful, thoughtful, intelligent book, for girls who think the 'English Roses' is trite and boring.
E.L. Konigsburg rules.
Posted by Helen Brain
Writing is a craft which has to be learned and practiced. This week I've posted six articles that show you how to cut your descriptions of action, and how to rewrite these passages to build the mood, and to show the relationship between the characters.
The first article is called Learn to Write: How to cut unnecessary words.
Then I've written two series of exercises so you can practice what I've taught you. The answers to the exercises are in separate articles so you don't get tempted to just read the answers. I also explain why I made the changes I did, and what I was trying to achieve.
The first set of articles is in writing for children. You'll find the first at Writing Exercise in Cutting Unnecessary Action. The answers and explanations are in the next article, How to Trim Unnecessary Action.
Even if you're not writing for children, try these exercises as they teach valuable skills that apply to all forms of creative writing.
The second set deals with a passage of writing for teens or adults. Again the skills can be applied whatever genre you're writing, so do try them.
You'll find the first in the series at Learn to Cut Unnecessary Words. The answers to the first exercise are in Learning to Trim Unnecessary Words and to the second exercise in Exercises in Cutting Creative Writing
I'd really like to hear from you if you found these exercises helpful, so feel free to leave comments.
