Writing for joy

Although I'm very glad I did my Masters, and I'm looking forward to the future challenge of a Phd, nothing beats writing just for the pure joy of it.

In my current project I'm moving away from issue-based realism, letting go of the logic and just letting fly - mostly with luminous greeen vomit! (not mine, the characters...)

I'm finding the words are flowing more easily as I focus on action-based scenes. Even though some of the scenes are quite tense, and the main character is struggling with memory loss and trauma, approaching these themes from a speculative fiction approach is very different. I'm finding that it's giving my writing a freshness and immediacy with an added dose of zing (kinda like a triple shot of espresso).

The speculative fiction genre gives me more freedom to express a character's internal tensions. There's nothing like gross bodily functions to illuminate how you feel inside!

It seems that, when I get down to basics of what I really love to write, that I don't care as much for the constraints of realism as I thought. What perhaps I need to do is to use what I've learnt about the brain, about resilience, about trauma and memory and to mould and stretch that within the context of speculative fiction writing.

Who knows, I might create a whole new sub-genre hybrid in the process!

Excited and petrified

Last night we had the first meeting of our Masters cohort in children's and youth writing. It looks like it's going to be a great year, but really bloody busy.

Although we're all writing for young adults (rather than children) everyone's project is different and exciting. I can see some great books resulting from this year - hopefully mine will be one of them!

The research work (exegesis - what does it mean anyway???) seems a bit daunting but I'm sure I'll get through it somehow (assuming I can find that magic fairy who I'm sure owes me a lot of favours).

The first meeting ended well with us all enjoying a well-deserved alcholic beverage at a local cafe, where the service was electic but nonetheless entertaining. It was my first time at an establishment where the wait staff asked one of the guests to explain the wine list to oher guests, but I'm always up for new experiences!

So the course is off to a great start. Now all I have to do is get writing...