9/3/2018 0 Comments Genre: crimeThere’s always something so intriguing about crime fiction. The excitement in trying to guess ‘who dunnit?’ and the feeling of shock when we get it wrong. Stereotypically, a crime story features a beaten down detective or cop who seems exhausted about life but finds enough energy to passionately pursue the bad guy and unravel the truth. The detective will have a dark past that follows them in everything they do, and they are usually alone because love is not a feeling they can evoke after all the bad they have witnessed. Oh, how can I forget their unhappy relationship with their superiors? It’s fair to say that crime fiction follows an obvious pattern. However, it must be doing something right as we keep going back to it! I’m also not suggesting that all crime fiction is like this because that is certainly not the case. There are some crime novels that follow different paths, where the protagonist isn’t some alcoholic struggling through each day. Nonetheless, there is a formula to it and it is difficult to get it right. What is a red herring? Who should be the victim? Who should be the bad guy? I’m not at all an expert in it but I’m hoping I can shed some light on the genre by answering these questions to help you in crafting your crime fiction masterpiece.
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Since it is International Women’s Day, I thought I’d write about my top 5 female characters that I’ve come across in the books I have read in my lifetime. I want to focus on books for this list because if I based it around all stories, I’d have to start pulling characters from video games and films (maybe I’ll do that in a future post!). I’m not choosing these based on their influence around social issues or for a political reason. These female characters are my top 5 because when I met them I felt a bond with them. It sounds odd to say that I’m ‘bonded’ to fictional characters but when they’re written so well, they become more than that. We see that in girls who connect with characters like Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. They become more than people on a page; they turn into friends we can turn to when we lose ourselves in their stories. This is so important and is one of the many powers that fall into a writer’s hand. Some writers out there don’t put a lot of thought into their characters because they want to focus on the events in the story or other parts that don’t rely heavily on the characters’ actions. Nonetheless, they have a role in how the readers connect to the story and how some people see themselves. Therefore, I want to focus on the female characters that have influenced my life. The same can be said for male characters as well and one day, I’ll expand on them. For now, here is my top 5 female characters—the book edition (this was not at all an easy decision, let me tell you!) 6/3/2018 0 Comments Adelaide Writers' Week 2018On 4 March 2018, I attended the Adelaide Writers’ Week. I always get excited when I hear about the authors that will be coming and talking about their work. I remember last year listening to Paula Byrne speak about her Jane Austen biography and how it was inspired by significant objects in Austen’s life. Hearing that side of Austen’s story and Paula’s love for writing about people’s lives was absolutely astounding. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend one panel last year. This year, I was able to fit in two, although I wish it could have been more! The first was called Kinds of Madness and had the authors Alexander Maksik and Samanta Schweblin on the panel, which looked into writing novels about mental illness and how they approached the complexities of it. Then straight after that panel I listened to Rebekah Clarkson, Sofie Laguna and Wendy Orr talk about the books that changed their lives. Both panels provided a magnificent insight into the life of an author and allowed there to be a personal connection between author and book, author and reader, and reader and book. In honour of World Book Day (yesterday), I thought I’d write up a special blog post about five of the most influential books I have read. This is completely subjective. I’m not stating these are the top five influential books of all time, only that of all the books I have read these five have made the biggest impact on MY life. I have read a number of books in my 21 years and all stories have their own small impacts regarding how I see people and the world. So, in making this list, you might gain a bit of knowledge of who I am and how I live my life. I would like to try and avoid making this sound like a Creative writing journey post, so I will focus on how these books have influenced my life in general rather than write too much about their impact in my writing. However, one of the books listed here will be the subject of a Creative writing journey post. Therefore, I'll have to dabble in it a little bit. Nonetheless, I want this to focus purely on the books because we are celebrating World Book Day! Also, before I begin going through my list, I want to emphasise that although these books have been the most influential they are not my 'favourite' books. That's another blog post in itself (although you'll be disappointed to know that I don't really have a favourite book). Anyway, let's countdown my top 5 most influential books! 9/2/2018 0 Comments My #1 writing tipI came across an ABC news article that covered some interesting writing tips (which I shared on Twitter) and I decided I’d write a little bit about my number one tip I have regarding writing. However, there is a disclaimer. As much as I have studied the craft and have tried to hone my skills as much as possible, I still have lots of troubles and issues that arise in my writing. Questions and doubt fill my head, and I have become very familiar with the pain of writer’s block. I mean seriously, I’ve had a book idea in the back of my mind for the past five or so years and I STILL haven’t gotten around to finishing it. Everybody is different. We hear that all the time to make us feel more comfortable about our uniqueness, which is important! It’s the same when it comes to writing. Everyone has their own style and tone. People use language differently and get creative with how they structure it. This is where my tip grows from because the one thing I have learnt when it comes to everything I do is to embrace individualism. It might seem odd to read ‘creative writing’ and ‘Rooster Teeth’ in the same sentence. I assume most people don’t think of one when the other is mentioned. However, the discovery of Rooster Teeth around 10 years ago has had such an impact in so many parts of my life, it would be unfair to not link one without the other. You see, this company represented a part of my life I was embarrassed to talk about. When I’m not working, reading or writing, I’m usually planted in front of my television playing a video game. While I was in primary school, it was a time where it was acknowledged that playing video games was okay but you couldn’t seem too invested or passionate because that would make you weird. I suppose the same could be said about anything back then. Even my love for reading and writing could have been weird when I got too involved with it. It brought on a social anxiety because I realised the things I really enjoyed doing didn’t involve what most people enjoyed (unless they were in the same boat as me and felt they couldn’t express their love for their passions, in which case I hope that’s not the case now!). 6/2/2018 0 Comments RTX Sydney 2018On the 3rd and 4th of February, I found myself at RTX Sydney 2018. I always planned on going since I experienced it last year on a weekend pass. When the tickets were first launched I bought them. Then, a couple of weeks before the convention was on there was a second round of tickets made available to be a VIP… and I had was lucky enough to get one. So, I had this awesome opportunity to be a VIP. Yes, it was expensive but it was 100% worth it. I got to see so much, and with that I learnt so much. I was surrounded by people who loved the same stuff I did and aspired for similar futures. There were magnificent cosplays and huge smiles everywhere I looked. To see so many people gathering for an online company built on the hard work of people who wanted to make people laugh really hit a chord with me. It highlighted the passion to do what I loved and how hard work could translate into such happiness. But what was it that I did? Well, why don’t I tell you more. I was going to call this blog post 'the power of writing' but I feel like what I want to write about doesn't cover that. We have all probably been told once or twice in our English classes how influential texts can be. There have been texts that have sparked animosity and damaging action. There have been books that have shown us true happiness or pulled us out of an emotional hole. Writing has the ability to influence, damage, inspire and more. A writer who wields the weapon of writing can strike a heavy blow or simply be the support a person needs. However, writing also has the ability to educate and allow people to have a voice. It can show a different perspective and bring to light issues that would otherwise be left in the dark. This is what this post is about, hence the very uncreative title. As you may have noticed by now, writing has and always will be a major part of my life. It provides me the chance to speak my mind and communicate where I cannot do it vocally. Having the confidence to speak my mind or voice my opinion has always been my weakness. For me, not allowing myself the chance to be ignored is better than physically being ignored, which has happened a lot in the past. I craft my skills so that I cannot be ignored, so the issues and opinions that I want to be publicised are done in a way that I don't have to be vocal and are more permanent than noise in the air. It sounds dramatic but I think fellow writers might understand... hopefully. However, in later years as I transformed into someone more confident, I found another underlying reason on why writing is so important to me. To be able to communicate issues in a way that exposes the truth behind relevant issues and to be a voice for the ignored or voiceless motivates me to continue. 24/1/2018 1 Comment Genre: Young AdultYoung adult or YA as a genre is quite broad. It can be stand alone, focussing on ‘young adults’, the challenges of growing up and the endless battle of hormones, or it can blend with other genres, like the Harry Potter series by J R Rowling, which blends YA with fantasy. The same can be said for the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, which mixes YA with supernatural and romance. There are many examples out there but what makes young adult fiction? How does it differ from teen or the recently emerged ‘New Adult’ (NA) The main indication is the protagonist. YA literature focuses on appealing to that audience, generally aged 14 and up. The maximum age most people deem to be around 30ish, but YA novels have been read by all age groups (everyone can relate to teenagers/young adults because we are all that age once in our lives). With this target audience, the protagonist is generally of high schooler age, making the character more relatable to the readership. However, the same could be said for teen or NA fiction. 17/1/2018 1 Comment What is a... Microcosm?Microcosms, as the name infers, are smaller versions of something relatively large. This literary device can be used to represent the whole world and certain aspects of society, as seen in stories like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Or, they can be used for something a bit smaller, like in George Orwell's Animal Farm, where the farm portrays the events in Russia during the Russian Revolution. Although that is still quite a large event to encapsulate in a small setting, these examples are just some of the most power uses of the literary device. But why use a microcosm? As mentioned previously, this literary device is used to represent one quite large topic, setting or situation through something on a smaller scale. It could be an event, a country, a political movement, the world or society as a whole. Generally, the way microcosms have been used in literature is to focus on an aspect of humankind and represent it on a smaller scale to bring awareness to the reader. In my years of reading, I don't think I have seen anything largely positive represented in a microcosm although I'm sure they're out there (if you know of any, please let me know because I would love to read one!). |
AuthorCharlotte is a reading and writing lover who has completed a creative writing intensive course at the University of Oxford and is a current university student studying a double degree in journalism and creative writing. If you are curious to learn more, check out the 'About' page. Archives
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