My writing week 2(43)

Hi all,

When my eyes are fixed, I am going to try a writing idea mentioned at the Emerging Writer's Festival. One of the panelists suggested that a good way to learn another writer's style was to type up one of their books. The novel I am writing is in the first person and past tense, so I decided to choose a similarly written novel. I remembered that James Bradley's The Deep Field is in first person, but it is in the present tense. I hoped Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake was in first person, but it isn't. I thought The Life of Pi by Yann Martel might be, and it is. It is also in past tense. It has the added advantage of partly being set in the jungle, because a lot of mine is set in the Australian bush. I won't type up the whole thing, just the chapters set in the jungle, and then see if I can find other critically acclaimed first person/past tense novels to study.

Still not doing much editing/writing due to tired eyes and mind.


Graham.

Comments

  1. greenspaceOctober 25, 2009 at 11:30 PM

    that's an interesting idea - you'd certainly become familiar with the writer's quirks, copy-typing their text.

    a friend of mine in London went to an exhibition of early Turner paintings, and Turner did a similar thing (as probably many visual artists did and still do) - copying paintings by other artists. she said his copy of a Titian was woeful, but his William Blake was excellent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Graham ClementsOctober 26, 2009 at 9:25 PM

    Most musicians start by copying/playing other composers music, so why not us writers.

    ReplyDelete

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