I have reached an important
decision. I would like to start posting to my blog again.
In the past many of my posts were
reviews of novels that I had enjoyed. However my current aim is for my blog to
document my journey as a writer, reflecting the process of my writing. I
thought I would start with a brief post about Curtis Brown Creative.
I attended the Six Month Novel
Writing course in spring 2014, tutored by Louise Wener and Anna Davis. I reflected
on my experiences on approaching the end of the course in a previous post here:
- http://iandavidkirkpatrick.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/curtis-brown-creative-approaching-end.html
So ten months further on, what
have I achieved? Firstly I completed the re-write of “Ilona”, the mid-life
crisis crime thriller that I had been writing throughout the CBC course. I
submitted it to a number of literary agents, with a degree of initial optimism,
but an undercurrent of realism. It was rejected by all of them, although both Gordon
Wise and Sheila Crowley had the decency to offer some excellent suggestions about
narrative voice and pacing which I intend to act upon in a future re-write. So I have decided to shelve "Ilona" for a
while. She's glaring at me as if I've somehow betrayed her, but if I'm honest I
think my new novel has a better narrative voice, better pace
and represents a more commercially viable proposition.
Over the course of the last six
months I have been working on a second project, a Mature Young Adult novel with the working title of "Safe
Sext". This explores the consequences of the sexting phenomenon for a
group of teenagers, who unwittingly find themselves at the centre of a revenge
porn shit-storm.
I have just signed up for the Curtis Brown Creative Summer School
in July, once again led by the excellent Louise Wener. I intend to workshop an
extract from “Safe Sext” as part of that course. So why have I decided to fork
out more money and return to CBC?
What CBC offer is a sympathetic magic; a sense that your writing
will be transformed through a process of sharing, workshopping, meeting and
listening to other writers. Creativity through a process of contagion. It
sounds ambitious; yet for me it worked. I was inspired, enthused, challenged
and forced to raise my game.
Anna, Louise and Rufus were a constant source of encouragement and
reassurance to me. Together they equipped me with the tools that I hope will
enable me to achieve my ambition of publication. They make no promises. It’s a
journey that I’m still negotiating, but I feel that CBC have given me a
road-map.
