Creative Writing: Initial Ideas

 In Media Project I we are looking at creative writing and, again, I will be exploring ideas for my chapbook.  So I want to work on a theme that interests me and as I have done this previously I am tempted to do a 'mirror' book which would perhaps be 'The Story of Honey' and my first chapbook included 'The Story of Milk'.  The Story of Honey again might incorporate themes of loss but this will be an entirely new and different story.  Honey could be a man in this story and perhaps his life is in complete contrast to the The Story of Milk.  

 The Story of Honey - Image by Arwin Neil Baichoo

In terms of research and thinking of other authors, this time I really want to concentrate in the characters and the creation of characters. I may look at the author Barbara Pym as her characters really stand out;  'Barbara Pym, shrewd observer of a certain kind of middle-class Englishwoman, no longer young and not quite beautiful, whom society finds it easy to overlook.' (The Barbara Pym Society - Barbara Pym Society, 2022) I also enjoyed Pym as it is a time that I grew up at the end of, with the church at the centre of the community and the vicar coming to visit.  Times have changed now so much, but perhaps not so much in academic circles where rivalry and jealousy, funding and grants are still just as important.  

I also might look at much more over-stylized novels such as the work of David Cronenberg and his book 'Consumed' obviously most famous for movies like 'Crash' (Screenplay by Cronenberg - novel by J.G. Ballad and Videodrome. The Independent stated that: 'David Cronenberg's Crash, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, is one of the most sexually explicit and disturbing films ever made.' (Crash: The Uncensored Screenplay, 1996)

David Cronenberg Crash (1996)

The stylized language and look of the film create a cold and distant portrayal of obsession with car crash victims.  By looking at different styles of writing this should inform my new piece of work

References

Barbara Pym Society. 2022. The Barbara Pym Society - Barbara Pym Society. [online] Available at: https://barbara-pym.org/ [Accessed 26 April 2022].

The independent. 1996. Crash: The Uncensored Screenplay. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/crash-the-uncensored-screenplay-1351617.html [Accessed 28 April 2022].