Wednesday is always a bit odd after the gear-shift of Tuesday. It's back on the courses, but it's also the last full day in terms of workshops and speakers.
In the third part of the Novel Writing course we went over the importance of knowing your theme, and of pinning down your period and setting. Tutor Simon Hall had already discussed the importance of hooks in the session on opening lines, but reiterated the importance of suspense throughout a novel in order to keep the reader's interest. He also pointed out the importance of imagination and of taking time for yourself, something I think most of us are guilty of not doing.
For the short course I picked Psychological Thrillers, taught by Erin Kelly, which occupy a unique niche between crime fiction, women's fiction, and literary fiction. I've read a couple of psychological thrillers and enjoyed them, but didn't realise that it's a genre largely written by women about women - although there's a notable exception in that the author of As I Go To Sleep is male.
Psychological thrillers have links to Gothic fiction, which particularly caught my interest. Setting is hugely important in both, and often the novel takes place in enclosed settings. Both are also "women in peril" stories. As Simon Hall did, Erin raised the importance of hooks - raising questions at the start that are eventually answered, and asking other questions as you go.
The evening speaker was Simon Brett, TV and radio producer and author of comedy crime novels. I'd been told he was excellent and he didn't disappoint. The evening entertainment was the Stage to Page performances, but I was tired so headed to my room to sit in bed with a book and a cuppa.
In the third part of the Novel Writing course we went over the importance of knowing your theme, and of pinning down your period and setting. Tutor Simon Hall had already discussed the importance of hooks in the session on opening lines, but reiterated the importance of suspense throughout a novel in order to keep the reader's interest. He also pointed out the importance of imagination and of taking time for yourself, something I think most of us are guilty of not doing.
For the short course I picked Psychological Thrillers, taught by Erin Kelly, which occupy a unique niche between crime fiction, women's fiction, and literary fiction. I've read a couple of psychological thrillers and enjoyed them, but didn't realise that it's a genre largely written by women about women - although there's a notable exception in that the author of As I Go To Sleep is male.
Psychological thrillers have links to Gothic fiction, which particularly caught my interest. Setting is hugely important in both, and often the novel takes place in enclosed settings. Both are also "women in peril" stories. As Simon Hall did, Erin raised the importance of hooks - raising questions at the start that are eventually answered, and asking other questions as you go.
The evening speaker was Simon Brett, TV and radio producer and author of comedy crime novels. I'd been told he was excellent and he didn't disappoint. The evening entertainment was the Stage to Page performances, but I was tired so headed to my room to sit in bed with a book and a cuppa.
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