Research on the Internet - D.H. Lawrence

I spent a very pleasant morning at the University of Huddersfield having my library induction. Not only are the newly refurbished facilities top-notch, but it's also amazing how much we can use the library's wonderful resources without even setting foot in the place!

Today I'm going to share with you one of the resources that the librarian told us about - one that you too can use on the internet without having to be a member of the university library. It's Intute.

When you search for something on Google, you may end up with lots of references which aren't what you're looking for. For example, if you were to type in 'hairdressing', you wouldn't just get articles about how to do hairdressing - you'd get hundreds of adverts as well for hairdressing salons and products.

Intute is a site that has been put together by university librarians and academics, so if you use it to search for something, you know that somebody reliable from the world of education has already filtered the sites it leads to and checked that what you find should be useful.

I decided to use Intute when I got home to find some more information on D.H. Lawrence, whose short story, A Sick Collier, my Thursday night class had been studying. Intute directed me to a website run by Nottingham University, which has a famous archive of works by and about D.H. Lawrence.

Particularly interesting was the D.H. Lawrence Portal which you can access by typing in www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/ This provides a wealth of information about the author, his works, and his links with the East Midlands. It's a great place to look if you want to find out about his life or to see some of the collieries that provide the backdrop to his writings.

Another useful site which I found was www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/dhl-00.htm.

It's possible to read lots of DH Lawrence's works straight from the internet, including A Sick Collier, which was originally published in The Prussian Officer and Other Stories (1914). If you type the name of the collection into Google, you should eventually find the text of the stories.

Finally, if you'd like to read about some of the greatest short story writers, there is a very informative article on the mantex site: www.mantex.co.uk/ou/resource/story-00.htm.

Happy browsing!

Be Specific!

When we're writing, it's easy to grab at the first word that comes into our head. Take, for example, the sentence:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth.

How about being more specific about what type of fabric the cloth was made of?

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a square of silk.

Or:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in her damask cloth.

You could also give a fuller description of the cloth, by naming the colour, but again, a little attention to detail goes a long way. Compare this sentence:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a red silk cloth.

with this one:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a crimson silk cloth.

You can also play with the word order to add greater emphasis:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth of crimson silk.

Doesn't that sound more poetic?

Try making simple changes like these to your writing and see how they bring it to life.

My Fiction Feast This Weekend

This weekend, I felt like taking things easy after a very busy week and so I decided to catch up with some fiction from TV, a DVD, and a novel - consuming them, that is, not writing them!

The TV was tonight's instalment, the final one, of the BBC adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I did find it very moving, but all the way through the adaptation, I wasn't sure whether I found the girl tragic or just plain stupid. I don't know whether the book would be more convincing and whether some of the mentality of the central character is lost in the transfer to the small screen.

Then again, I suppose as a liberated, educated, 21st century woman, it's hard for me to really get inside the mind of a character from such a different society. I suppose we were meant to admire her idealism and her loyalty to Angel Clare, but some of the time I did feel she was making life needlessly difficult for herself.

The DVD I watched was one I had been given for my birthday back in February but not got round to watching. It was still sitting on the shelf in its sellophane, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it last night, especially as I'm making a point of watching French films regularly these days.

It was La Vie en Rose, the acclaimed film about the life of Edith Piaf. It was a fantastic film and the actress who played Piaf did an incredible job. I must admit I managed to soak with my tears all the mansized tissues I had in my pocket and I didn't want to break the spell by getting up to look for some more, so watching it was rather a soggy experience. In fact, I can't remember when I cried so much at a film. If you haven't seen it, I can thoroughly recommend it.

The novel I carved out time to read was a Medieval romance, A Knight's Vow, by my friend and fellow creative writing tutor, Lindsay Townsend. Again, it had been sitting on my shelf since last term and it was only when our mutual friend, Kimm, told us last week that she was in the middle of reading it that I thought I'd better get on and read my copy too.

I wasn't sure at the very beginning whether I was going to like it, but by the second or third chapter I was really caught up in the feelings of the central characters and then I found it very hard to put down - I began reading it on Friday and finished it on Saturday. Lindsay certainly knows her history (she studied medieval history at university), and the details she includes are fascinating. If you would like to read an extract, log on to Lindsay's website, which I designed. It's at www.lindsaytownsend.co.uk.

If you don't normally read fiction, why not make it your goal for the month to read a novel. You'll find it makes a refreshing change from sitting in front of the telly all evening.