Autumnal Images for Writing

Here in the north of England, it's just starting to turn autumnal. The darkness is falling earlier; we're finding the mornings darker too; and the leaves are starting to turn to their familiar seasonal shades of red and gold. It's the time of year when we may remember the line, 'Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness' and feel like writing a poem of our own.

To write a poem about autumn, why not go for a little walk in a park or a tree lined street and observe your natural surroundings. Pay attention to the little details like which trees are starting to turn first. In my garden, it's usually our Norway Maple that's the first to blush red and shed its leaves.

Listen to autumnal sounds like the crackle of feet on dry leaves (or with the weather we've had, it might be the swish of windscreen wipers as cars drive through flooded roads!) Most of our local children will have gone back to school by the end of this week. We saw a couple of children running round a shop this afternoon, giggling non-stop. What sounds do you hear from a school playground the first week when the children go back to school?

Jot down some words or phrases that come to mind and see if you can come up with words that reflect the sounds of autumn. 'Crisp' is one that comes to mind - it conjures up the crunchy sound and texture of dry leaves on pavements and also ties in with idea that apples are ripe for picking.

Good luck with your autumn poem - e-mail me your finished work to gale.barker@tesco.net and I'll display the best ones on this blog.

Writing with Rhythm

You'll be aware that rhythm is important in music, but did you know it's important in writing too? Poetry, whether or not it rhymes, is dependent on rhythm. The words need to flow freely, not trip each other up, unless you want to create that effect for a special reason.

But in prose, short stories, novels, even articles, rhythm is important too. If someone were to read the piece out loud the sounds must move in an attractive way. Of course, it's even more important for a piece of drama to have rhythm too as it's designed to be spoken. Actors will find it very difficult to perform if the words trip them up instead of tripping off their tongues.

So how can you make sure your writing has rhythm? The easiest way is to read your piece out loud, putting a mark against any words or phrases that don't work. Often all you will need to do is rejig a sentence very slightly to improve the rhythm.

If you aren't musical and you don't feel you have an ear for rhythm, you can acquire one by reading poetry out loud to yourself. Even reading one poem a day will help you to hone your sense of rhythm.

So go with the flow - add rhythm to your writing and hear it swing!

Read All About It! My Adventures in Internet Publishing

I'm still very excited today about having my work published by Triond. I've now got two poems in Authspot and two articles in Writinghood and I've earned my first cent - so that's me on my way to my first internet million pounds!

It's inspired me to dig out my old files of work that I'd finished but not submitted and things that I'd left half done, so I'm working my way through those at the moment, getting short stories fit for publication.

I was also delighted to hear that one of my students has followed my example and has had his first article published on Triond too. I've started a trend. I hope they'll give me commission for getting them new recruits.

Why not have a look at the pieces I've had published there? Here are the links:

www.authspot.com/Poetry/Evensong-at-Kings-College-Cambridge.144909

www.authspot.com/Poetry/My-House-is-Five.145677

http://www.writinghood.com/Writing-Business/Opportunities/How-to-Write-a-Review.144107

http://www.writinghood.com/Style/How-To/How-to-Write-an-Acrostic%20Poem.144101

It's a fantastic opportunity for writers to share their work with other like-minded people and to earn money at the same time.

Happy surfing!

Some Useful Internet Resources for Writers

Going it Alone as a Writer

One of the things I did this week was to compile a list for my students of some internet resources they might find useful for their writing. We've now had our last class of the academic year and one or two people were already wondering how they were going to survive till September without any writing classes to go to! How could they keep their writing going?

Here are some writing resources I found which I thought they might enjoy using over the summer.

Increase Your Vocabulary

Students have often said to me, 'I wish I had a bigger vocabulary, but I don't know how to go about learning new words without it taking a lot of effort.' In our lessons, there are often some words mentioned which are new to at least some of them, but I wanted to find some way they could enlarge their vocabulary at home as well.

The Word of the Day site provides readers with a new word every single day. As well as definitions, it also gives examples from literature of the words being used in context, which really help helps to bring them to life. It includes information on the foreign word the new word was originally derived from. There's also an archive of past Words of the Day - I could happily spend hours browsing through this site!

Read Poetry

There's a vast amount of poetry available on the internet, but if you don't know where to start, there's a useful website that will send you a poem every week. It's from the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. A few of the poems are not very easy to read unless you're very familiar with modern poetry, but there are many that will appeal to a wider readership. Again, you can lose yourself browsing through their archive of poems. I particularly liked 'In Praise of Aunts', '-wards', and 'Muriel'.

Read Writing News and Features

If you want to know about competitions and markets for your writing as well as gaining access to a large archive of articles about all aspects of writing, Writing World is a very useful website to visit. You can also sign up there to receive a regular newsletter about writing opportunities, news, and features.

Of course, there is my own daily blog, The Writing Wizard, which provides step-by-step guidance on how to write for aspiring writers and this daily blog too.

These examples are just a few of the many resources for creative writers to be found on the internet.

The Public Library

Don't just confine yourself to online sources though. Public libraries still have a lot to offer, even in this technological age. My own, moderately-sized, library provides not only novels and non-fiction, but also books on many aspects of writing, collections of short stories, and even talking books on cassette or CD. I'm always surprised at how much is available, even in these days of library funding cut-backs.

I hope you'll enjoy sampling some of these websites. Don't forget to log in tomorrow though, to read yet another of my blogs on creative writing. And please do visit The Writing Wizard too. I'd love to add a touch of magic to your writing.