Followers

Monday 27 February 2023

Free Project: Action Plan & Workflow

 I have created a workflow for my Free Project: Existential Crisis.  This has all the stages of my production and given the short time scale (2 weeks) I will be working on each stage and blogging this as I go along.

Please find the link here: Existential Crisis: Neo Dada Film




Tuesday 21 February 2023

Free Project: Exploration of Cut-Up Ideas Milanote

 I have created a Milanote board to explore my initial ideas for my project a little further thinking about what I would like to research and explore throughout the work.  Here I am considering work that will inform my work and I am hoping push the boundaries of my ideas.





Monday 20 February 2023

About Page on Website

 I added my about me writing by copying and pasting into a text box on the About Page on my Wix website.  I checked that my fonts were consistent - I used Monserrat font for the titles and the text.



I then checked my mobile view and deleted some extra text that appeared at the bottom of the page



I will now add my Photograph to my About page - for this example I have just used a picture of a doll as an example.  I began by uploading my jpeg image from my desktop I clicked on Upload Image.  


I then clicked on 'crop and edit' in the right hand side actions menu.  I then adjusted my image by using a 'mellow' and then saved this and then chose the image to upload to my about page.  I also edited the title so that it was not the file format title.  





I then checked this in preview and saved it again to make sure that this look ed okay on the desktop view. 



I then checked the mobile view and this did not need adjusting as everything aligned correctly and looked good. 



I was happy with this layout and the colours and image is consistent with the rest of the site. 


Contact Page, Portfolio & Social Media Links

 Today we were  creating our Contact page to begin with.  So I went to my menu and to Contact Page and then clicked on the add button and chose a contact form which I customized the Input fields to match my website design 



I have completed the form settings to ensure that the contact page contacts go directly to my email.



I then I added a picture from unsplash just as a placeholder until I add my own images so I clicked on the 'Add' button on the left hand menu and then I chose the image that I wanted to upload.  I changed the Title of the image so that it was not the file name and format.  



I then previewed checked the design and in noticed that my name and title of website were not in the header so I changed this so they appear on each page and then I wanted the design of the website to be consistent so I went back to the contact page and right clicked on the background and then clicked on 'change section background' so that it could be the same grey as the homepage.



I then checked my mobile view and I needed to adjust my heading and name as these were too big so I just clicked on these and changed the font size and used the move tool to realign these. I then changed the order of the image and contact form were the wrong the round so I adjusted these and the saved.



All other pages are working okay at the moment so this has been checked.

I now added my social media links I wanted to add these to my footer so they appear on every page, I clicked on the 'Add' button and then social and then I chose a social bar.  I put this in place then deleted the ones that I was not using and added blogger and the link to this and the link to Linkedin.  I then saved and previewed these to check they were working. 



I then checked the mobile view to check they were also in the right pace and worked correctly

I added a gallery to my portfolio page ready for final project - I will adjust this once my project is completed



Free Project: Generating Ideas and Initial Research

 The next project for class should follow the brief for The Free Project - this should be a very exciting undertaking as it allows me to explore ideas and mediums outside what I would normally create.  On first thoughts I am tempted to create a performance piece and use sound for this piece.  I would need to ensure here I have a very strong concept as this will need to really push the boundaries creatively.  I started to think about performance sound that I have enjoyed and one of these was Pippi Lotti Rist.  Her videos explore the the feminine, gender, the body and sensuality.  IO lay on the gallery floor of The Hayward Gallery and her film engulfed you as you lay there; 'Down on the floor there is a projection of a woman's body. The camera homes in, turning as it delves into her lipsticked mouth. Unexpectedly, the next thing we see – just for a second – is the woman's puckered anus' (Searle, 2011)



Rists' images merge together and flow and you as the viewer become part of the performance this interactive and overwhelming feeling is something that I would love to be able to do on a large scale, obviously we are rather confined here to something a little bit smaller scale.  I can't necessarily have people lying on cushions in a gallery like Rist; 'Up on the mezzanine, I lounged on body-shaped cushions, pairs of stuffed jeans and headless upholstered torsos, plumping them up in vaguely orgiastic piles. It was soothing to lie there, amid a labyrinth of diaphanous curtains' (Searle, 2011) so perhaps I need to think how else I can engage the viewer in the performance.  In terms of concept for performance I do want to really do want to look to something that is different and so this time I do think I would like to perhaps move away from gender and womanhood and into something perhaps more existential.  Something more about life and death and the nature of existence as lately I have been reading Nietzsche again and Zizek and the important questions of life need to be addressed within art.  This reminds me of the neo expressionism of David Bowie... 



                             David Bowie, The Head – Outside, 1995, private collection. Art Sheep.

This artwork was used for the Outside album however I like the idea of neo expressionism used within the film/performance work as this might express ideas of existence and following in Burroughs and Bowie's footsteps using the cut up techniques to really start to explore ideas could be interesting as a starting point, perhaps the resulting work will be a dithyramb of some beauty.  Burroughs technique involved; 'The cutup is a mechanical method of juxtaposition in which Burroughs literally cuts up passages of prose by himself and other writers and then pastes them back together at random. This literary version of the collage technique is also supplemented by literary use of other media. Burroughs transcribes taped cutups (several tapes spliced into each other), film cutups (montage), and mixed media experiments (results of combining tapes with television, movies, or actual events).' ( Burroughs Cut Ups 2001) I like this as this technique was not confined to just words but to film and sound.  This is something I would like to explore as recently I had stared to consider the moving image and how I might use this within my work, I had ideas of layers of days upon each other and this existence and the repetitive nature of life. Below is Burrough's film that does use a series of cut up clips to create an Avant Garde film which does use repetitive sound and movement and has its roots in Dada and Surrealism; 'It almost has the same air as a drug trip or a severe fever dream. Even the most esoteric of film students would have trouble arguing that this does' (Kahn, 2022)


"The Cut Ups," (1966) William S. Burroughs

The idea that it is almost like a fevered dream does appeal as I do think my own best ideas come in the night in a fevered dream!  The Dadist and Surrealists were keen on the unconscious and using this as a source of inspiration and with rise of Freud and Jung and psychoanalysis this method exploration in art is still used to today and many artists look to their unconcious for inspiration.  Like automatic writing perhaps almost this could be an 'automatic film'  

Here I am just exploring ideas and thoughts in my next post I will start to bring together final ideas that I would like to develop for this small project. 

References

Searle, A. (2011) Pipilotti rist: Big time sensuality, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/sep/26/pipilotti-rist-hayward-gallery-review (Accessed: February 20, 2023). 

Rutten, M. (2023) David Bowie: From popstar to neo-expressionist painter, DailyArt Magazine. Available at: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/david-bowie-from-popstar-to-neo-expressionist-painter/ (Accessed: February 20, 2023). 

William S Burroughs Cut Ups (2001) LanguageIsAVirus.com. Available at: https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques/william-s-burroughs-cut-ups.php (Accessed: February 20, 2023). 

Kahn, J. (2022) Watch William S. Burroughs' 1966 avant-garde movie 'The Cut Ups', Far Out Magazine. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/watch-william-s-burroughs-1966-avant-garde-movie-the-cut-ups/ (Accessed: February 20, 2023). 

Sunday 19 February 2023

The Book of Lost Things: Reflection

 

The Book of Lost Things II was created because I very much enjoyed the process of creating The Book of Lost Things I.  The Story of Milk in (Lost Things I) was a vibrant tale of a young woman whose life had become rather directionless until she has a very strange encounter with the church of St Jude and Matt the Monk.  In the mirror story The Story of Honey (Lost Things II) Honey is just about to embark on a journey to England for his PhD studies which is on the transformational power of St Jude .  The book if it was made into one would have alternate chapters of Milk and Honey and I do think that this would work very well indeed.  I enjoyed the process of writing these stories and using literary devices of teh short story and comparing my work with Maupassant as this was an interesting exercise and made me really look at how I had used language with my story and how this is conveyed to the reader.  If I had more time on this I would do much more analysis and research as I do think that this would prove most interesting.  I will add a little more research on target market as I have placed this book for sale on Blurb and  I want to test where I would find an audience for this work.  

I will continue on this journey with thsi work and I do think it has 'got legs' and could certainly become a larger book.  Also I would be interested in how I would develop this as a writer and turn it into a longer novel,  I know that I want to find out what my charaters will do next..

Finalising Chapbook & Adding to Website

 After uploading the book to Blurb, I then began to set up my book on the site.


I went to 'Sell Your Book' and completed the details of the book

I then set up my book for sale and chose my profit margin 


My book was now set up on Blurb and I could now add this to my website.  At this stage, I also ordered a copy for myself so that I had the physical version.  I think copied the invite link to add to my website so that users could preview my book on blurb

I created a page on my website and added an introduction to my book, I then added an image of the front page as I wanted to add a link to Blurb for the flipbook preview.  I created a back to portfolio button and linked this all up so that the site is easy to navigate throughout and is consistent.





I finalised and then republished sit and checked this was all working correctly with all links working live. I also checked the mobile view again to check adjustments that needed to be made. 



I added more space for each section and then republished.  Everything is now working and This project is complete!

Thursday 16 February 2023

The Book of Lost Things II: Project Plan

 


Book of Lost Things II: Project Plan

This is my project plan that I will be following throughout the term to ensure I keep on track with my project work.

Wednesday 15 February 2023

Creating my Book on Blurb

 I have already downloaded Bookwright onto my desktop and so I begin by choosing the book I would like to create, in the spirit of the chapbook I choose a trade book, 6"x 9" in standard colour with a hardcover image wrap.




Bookwright then open and asks me to add photos and as I had a few I had already chosen I imported these into my project.

I then carefully chose the layouts of each page using the payout tabs and customising size where needed and then I copied the text for each page from my google docs on my Drive.

I added all the picture credits at the end as these were not y own and came from Pixabay and Unsplash contributors, I also added copyright.
My additional piece on the theme of lost things was of loss of knowledge/memory, just some of my musings
I then added all the chapters and the Story of Honey
I spellchecked and proof read this several times but I always fear I will have missed something...
I kept the layout simple and added page numbers through the top menu on Add and Page Numbers which I place in the corner of each page.
I added title pages to each section and I used Century Schoolbook font throughout just varying text size for titles and credits


I finally saved everything to a file on my computer and then uploaded this to Blurb



As this could take a while I will complete another post once my book has finalised.




Writing Drafts: The Story of Honey



 I have completed my first and in the case of the first chapter second draft of The Story of Honey 

The drafts can be found here...

Chapter One: Story of Honey

Chapter Two: Professor Zimmerman

Chapter Three: The Journey

I also have been collecting some images to use with my story and have been collecting the picture credits to add to the end.


I have also completed an additional piece on Memory/Knowledge.  I will work on the drafts further and begin adding these to Blurb.




Tuesday 14 February 2023

Finalising Urban Landscape Project for Website

 After finalising the images and curating those that I would be using for my portfolio I then began putting this together as a collection using Photoshop 




I created a white canvas background by clicking on 'new' and then in the dialog box choosing 'print', I chose A3, 300dpi resolution and created the canvas.  I then opened the images I had already prepared and added the images and used tranform and move controls to place the image.  I then use the Text tool and added text I used Book Antiqua 30 pt font Italic and used a soft grey as this would fit into the look of the portfolio and the website.

I also wrote an introduction to go with the images that I have taken and I will put this in a gallery on my website.  I have chosen to use only the portrait black and white images for this through curation.

I opened Wix and went to 'Edit Site', I clicked on 'Menus and Pages' in the left-hand menu and then clciked on 'Add Page' and named it 'Urbanity Bites', the name of my portfolio. I then clicked into the page and added a title and short introduction.  I added a sliding gallery and clicked on 'manage media' to upload the images that I had prepared.



Once uploaded (my upload speed is the pace of a snail!) I went into each file and ensured I had added the title and that they worked in the gallery, I reordered them to make sure I was happy with the flow of the images and then once I was completely happy with the arrangement I republished the site.



I added a suitable introduction at the top of the page and added an introduction as part of the portfolio.  I liked the way that this looked and now I will finalise completely just by adding a button to the front portfolio page and a back to portfolio button on the top of the new page so that there is ease of movement round the site

I will test all this again once I have published other works this term.




Form in Writing

 

Guy De Maupassant The Necklace (1884)


The form my writing is taking for this small project is part of a short story, a narrative written with a God's eye view.  I also wrote a short essay, a little thought piece on knowledge and memory.  

The short story  'brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot'  (Short Story n.d) This is the perfect form for a chapbook and although I am writing this as half of another story I do think the first three chapters have the characteristics listed here.  

I am going to look at another short story here as an example of this form and compare how this is written to my own writing.  The story I have chosen is Guy de Maupassant's 'The Necklace'.  It concerns a young woman who is envious of the social status of others and wished to rise through society but in this small story her chance of this ever happening is blown when she steals a necklace to wear at a ball, then loses it and so to replace it has to spend the rest of her life paying off this debt, only to discover that the necklace was not worth anything really at all.  It is interesting to note that I have the book version of this and I also looked up the web version the web translation is poor by comparison so I will hand type from the book version as this is about writing well after all!  

So I will compare my opening paragraph with that of Maupassant.  Maupassant begins;

'She was one of those pretty and charming young girls who continue to be born from time to time, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks.  She has no dowry, no expectations, no means of coming across any rich or distinguished man who would understand, love, and marry her.  She let herself be married to a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Education' (de Maupassant G. 2008:55)

Maupassant writes using literary realism and in my own work I will be doing the same, I want the characters and atmosphere to ring as true to life as possible.

My own first paragraph begins:

 'Honey sat on his dilapidated porch, in his house in Miles City, Montana.  He was just on the cusp of everything going in the right direction. His PhD thesis was going well, his Professor at the University had agreed that he could go to England, and he really wanted this, no needed this for his PhD to succeed. So why, when he sat here in his favourite pair of jeans and t-shirt with the legend Elton John did he feel like he would rather bum around Miles City with his mates for the next three years.  Perhaps he was afraid that this was the point life would get too serious. He would also have to fit in with all those stuck-up English people who probably knew more than he did and even if they didn't with their posh British accent would sound like they did.  Honey ruffled his slightly long wavy brown hair, he should get clean and get ready for work.' (Van-de-Velde 2023)

In Maupassant there is a concise use of language that, like poetry has said much in very few lines, we may not yet know the girl's name in Maupassant but we know she is pretty, poor, with no prospects, and is she is married, probably not happily but there it is.  In my own piece, we understand that Honey is American, likes, Elton John, and bumming around but he has dreams about his PhD and going to England.  I have used a much more wordy and descriptive approach which is perhaps more acceptable in a longer novel,  I suspect that really I am trying to write a longer novel and really my three chapters do only just begin the story..

In Maupassant's tale, the girl is obsessed with social status and it pains her;

'Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself intended for the delicacies and luxuries of life.  She distressed at the poverty of her pension. at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugly curtains. All these things. of which another woman of her rank would never even have been concious, tortured her and made her angry' (de Maupassant G. 2008:55)

Here we now know how she feels inside, we are taken into her heart and to understand her, her anger at her poor status, laid out before her every day in the home that she feels is not good enough for her. Again here the text is concise yet still manages to convey depth of feeling through use of adjectives for her house and the use of alliteration such as 'suffered ceaselessly' and the depth of her anger is strengthened by how her own house 'tortured' her with its shabby appearance.


In my own story, Honey is also from a poor background which is alluded to throughout by the house, furnishings and his belongings


Honey Devlin had never travelled outside the United States, actually he had never travelled really in the United States, his parents were fairly poor working in menial jobs that just made ends meet.  Honey had stayed at home when he started university, and worked in the bar to pay his parents rent and to have just enough to go out occasionally.  Honey realised as he pulled the old suitcase out from under the stairs that belonged to his Father that really he did not know what he should pack.  After giving the suitcase a good clean, his Father must have used it back in the 70s when he was a young travelling salesman, he genuinely sold Bibles door to door, he always said it was the best job he ever had, until people stopped believing in God and started to believe more in MTV and technology. (Van-de-Velde 2023)

The fact that this begins that he has never travelled shows that he does not have the means, he comes from a poor background and he has stayed home to go to university so he can afford, here on his first trip he is using an old suitcase from the 1970s because that is what he has.  Here I have written less descriptively but this highlights more of his history and social status through his parents and his background. 

Here comparing my own work briefly to the work of Maupassant, I realise I am less consistent and in places, I do need to be more concise and precise.  I still have to go over my drafts again and I will rework some of the text as it certainly could be improved for the final piece. 


References

Short story (no date) Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/short-story (Accessed: February 14, 2023). 

de Maupassant G. (2008) first published between 1877 and 1891, On Horseback and Other Stories, forward by Anthony Guise, Capuchin Classics, London

Short stories: The necklace by Guy de Maupassant (no date) East of the Web. Available at: https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml (Accessed: February 14, 2023). 

The necklace (no date) enotes.com. enotes.com. Available at: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-two-examples-alliteration-necklace-505935 (Accessed: February 14, 2023). 

Monday 6 February 2023

Creating My Website: Homepage

 I opened Wix and I chose a template for my subject area, Photography.  I liked this template as it was clean with a single image. 




I then changed the text on the homepage by double clicking on the text and clicking 'edit text' and then used the dialog pop up box to change the font which i changed to Rozha One font and I used all capital bold letter for my name



I added text by clicking on the plus button at the top of the left hand menu and then clicking on text and added 'heading' and then I used the move tool to move the text box in place and then I double clicked to write on this and change to the same font as my name for the title on the homepage. 


I then sourced and image Pixabay and I clicked on the image on my homepage and then clicked on manage media and this opened the dialog box as below.  I then clicked on the blue 'Add Media button on the box and then I clicked on upload from my computer. 


After uploading the image to the galley, I clicked on the right hand menus 'crop and edit' and then clicked on 'Filters' and I used a Black and white filter and then I saved the image and added to the wix gallwery for the haomepage




I clicked on 'Preview to checked what it looked like - I did not like the slide gallery and will change this to a single image.




I then wanted to change the navigation menu so I click don the third icon down on the left hand side menu and clicked on Pages, I then deleted all pages I did not need and so I ended up with four pages I needed, Home, Portfolio, About and Contact page.  I then clicked on 'Save in the top right hand corner to ensure all my changed were saved correctly. I then previewed again and checked all the pages correctly and that the site was starting to look how I wanted it to in terms of the design.


I then changed my copyright to my own and the correct year by clicking into the text in the footer.  I checked then that it appeared on all pages and saved this to ensure my copyright always appeared



The last change I have made for my homepage, just for the moment, is changed the section background.  I right clicked on the section and then' 'change background'  I then clicked on 'colour' and changed this to the light grey and then saved this again 


My final completed design for today looks like this in preview



I am really happy about this design I think the grey and white colours work well and the font looks right on the site.  The image has impact and although this still needs work it is a great start to my website. 

Analysis: Mil Millington - Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About

 I wanted to write about Mil Millington as his story are also set in a university and are aimed at the same readers that I intend to capture with my own stories 



Things my girlfriend and I have argued about by Mil Millington (2011)

I chose this story to begin with as this story reflected somewhat the Story of Milk who also worked in a low-level job and whose life is not going well, Millington has a girlfriend who is German and there is the culture clash and in my own story Milk is Snglish and Honey is American, therefore, I wanted to look at the use of language and how this story has been written to inform my own work here.

I will begin by looking at a little extract here from Millington: 

'Nothing keeps a relationship on its toes so much as lively debate. Fortunate, then, that my girlfriend and I agree on absolutely nothing. At all.

Combine utter, polar disagreement on everything, ever, with the fact that I am a text-book Only Child, and she is a violent psychopath, and we're warming up. Then factor in my being English while she is German, which not only makes each one of us personally and absolutely responsible for the history, and the social and cultural mores of our respective countries, but also opens up a whole field of sub-arguments grounded in grammatical and semantic disputes and, well, just try saying anything and walking away.' (Millington M thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com)

This is the beginning on the webpage (a weirdly terrible page, which I am assuming is meant to be like this as a joke*) I am referring to this only because my Millington books are happily sitting on my bookshelf at home and so I cannot reach out to quote from there at this present moment when I am sitting at my work, at my desk in my awful tin box of a building that has escaped being condemned several times.

t the beginning of the text note that it starts with a hook that set the tone for the writing, in two lines we know that he and his girlfriend argue. This is then strengthened by the next sentence, with the use of adjectives strengthening the writer's first person point of view. Then by using hyperbole ' she is a violent psychopath' works well to get the reader's attention, to get the reader to take the writer of the story's point of view, and to ensure they read on...more interesting the writer then states they are both responsible for their own countries history which is something that you discover upon speaking to those from another place that you discuss the differences and similarities and then find yourself explaining a strange idiomatic practice of your country as it really doesn't make much sense.  

the text goes on to listing items of annoyance..

'Examples? Okey-dokey. We have argued about:
Ahhhhhhhh

The way one should cut a Kiwi Fruit in half (along its length or across the middle).

Leaving the kitchen door open (three times a day that one, minimum).

The best way to hang up washing.

Those little toothpaste speckles you make when you brush your teeth in front of the mirror.

I eat two-fingered Kit-Kats like I'd eat any other chocolate bars of that size, i.e., without feeling the need to snap them into two individual fingers first. Margret accused me of doing this, 'deliberately to annoy her'.

Which way - the distances were identical - to drive round a circular bypass (this resulted in her kicking me in the head from the back seat as I drove along).

The amount of time I spend on the computer. (OK, fair enough.)' (Millington M thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com)

This is a list which is devices that you can use in a story but it has to be interesting so here there is a description - the item on toothpaste refers to something that happened when brushing your teeth the majority of people can relate to this as this immediately brings to mind.  Throughout the writing uses similarities and the comfort of British humour and mannerisms to tell a story - the website is about himself and his girlfriend arguing however the book as Robinson point out is 'At thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com, Millington details the ludicrous, colorful fights between himself and Margret, a German woman with whom he's had a longstanding relationship and two children. His novel features a similar couple–Pel and Ursula–who have similar fights, and it employs some of the same wry, dry, despairing, quintessentially British humor, but otherwise it's a separate entity whose title just happens to trade on Millington's small share of Internet fame.' (Robinson, 2003)

Millington does use humour, wit, and hyperbole throughout but he also tells a good story and created characters that makes the reader want more - this is what makes this book work and in my own story I have been working on the characters for some time but I do need to make the writing stand out much more to make this story compelling enough.  

I will be studying the text and use of language here further but mostly I will redraft and reraft again until I believe the words on my own pages are compelling. 


*;Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About, is a carryover from his hilarious (and hilariously ugly) cult web site. (Robinson, 2003)

References

Millington, M. (no date) Things my girlfriend and I have argued about. Available at: http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com/ (Accessed: February 6, 2023). 

Millington, M. (2001) Things my girlfriend and I argue about, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/familyandrelationships1 (Accessed: February 6, 2023). 

Robinson, T. (2003) Mil Millington: Things my girlfriend and I have argued about: A novel, The A.V. Club. The A.V. Club. Available at: https://www.avclub.com/mil-millington-things-my-girlfriend-and-i-have-argued-1798198231 (Accessed: February 6, 2023). 

Chapbook: Timed Writing Exercise - The Story of Honey Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Professor Zimmerman

Honey, dressed in his best smart grey flannel trousers and his favourite white shirt, stood nervously outside Professor Zimmerman's office.  He resided in an annex of Bearback University that specialised in the Liberal Arts.  Honey suspected that the university had hidden the professor in this back corner as they felt slightly embarrassed by his presence in the main corridors.  Zimmerman was a middle-aged man of around 50 who dressed as if it were still the 1890s rather than the 2000s, he often wore a maroon worsted fitted velvet jacket with tails that flew behind him as he walked.  Zimmerman had quick little steps that sometimes made him look like he was floating along the corridors with his slight frame and long mop of grey/brown hair that looked as if it had never seen a comb.  Honey was wondering exactly what Zimmermann had in mind today when the door swung open and Zimmerman's voiced chimed out 'Ahh Honey Devlin, how wonderful, come in, come in'  The professor threw himself behind his desk and moved a large pile of books out the way so that he could actually see Honey on the other side. 'So Mr Devlin, what marvellous ideas do you bring me today, I do hope St Jude has been treating you well'.  The professor knew that St Jude was his pet subject and he had already been locating obscure documents for his thesis.  'Professor Zimmermann I wondered if I had permission to go to England to study this St Jude's church, I understand the monks there are most unusual and they have ancient documents dating back centuries, I know this trip would really get to the heart of what I want to explore here.'  Zimmerman laughed, 'Yes, the monks are indeed most unusual and I have personally been speaking to Matt the Monk, to discuss the situation.  I have very good news he has offered you a room in the monastery attached to the church and access to the documents you are referring to.'  Honey's eys lit up, this was fantasic new, 'Well this is great, I was hoping to go as soon as possible... .. I ' Honey stammered as he was embarrassed that now he would have to discuss the financial position he was in frankly otherwise his whole plan would go terribly wrong. 


This is the beginning of Chapter Two - it does need work and development, as does Chapter One and I also need to research further as I will be using Saint Jude and I want to ensure accuracy in this area.  I will also be researching catholic monasteries and the different orders to ensure that this also is correct in the story 




Friday 3 February 2023

The Chapbook: Planning


What is your final idea?  Please explain in two sentences the theme and the form your writing will take.

I will be creating 'The Story of Honey' which is the other half of 'The Story of Milk' I created last year.  Honey is an American PhD student studying St Jude and is about to embark on a trip to England to research the Saint and the impossible!

The form of the writing will be prose/short story and I am aiming to create three chapters as I did with 'The Story of Milk' 

Considering the form, how do you intend to layout your book pages?

I will use text and image throughout and it will be in three chapters - the images will be my own and stock images (copyright free)

How many pages do you expect there will be?

Around 40 pages 

Are you going to use images?  Are these your own images (illustrations/photographs) or copyright free images that you will source?  

Yes, as above a mixture of my own and copyright free images 

What is the plan of your time and how much you will need to spend on this?

Remember writing is something that you will need time and concentration without disturbance - you must make sure that you plan time to do this.

I plan on spending 16 hours over two weeks on the book and adding this to my blog with research 

What do you imagine the final book will look like?  

I imagine it will be a standard small book size with a hard cover, I would like to create this on Blurb 

Have you considered the cover page/contents page/back cover with blurb?

Yes I will be using Blurb software and I will use Photoshop to create the cover page and to quality check the photographs that I use - they will all be photographs not illustrations to mirror my first book

Drafting and redrafting will need to be done?  Who would you get to proofread your work?

I will use a spelling and grammar checker and I will get my partner to check my book for errors before final publication 


The target market for my book is millennial as they are the largest market and consume book hard copy and digital books so they can be reached in many ways through advertising and online and physical bookshops