Suzanne Strong

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2010-04-30T10:51:00.001+10:00

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Competitions and Blogger

2010-04-30T10:17:00.003+10:00

Hello there, I am not sure what is happening with Blogger but I am hoping my blog wont die in the next few days...

Anyway, I am currently trying to select some poems and maybe a story to send into a competition. I think it is good to just keep sending things into the universe and see what happens with them... : )

I am going to write a post on a novellas and I am also going to run some writing workshops for beginners. If anyone is particularly interested they can email me about it. I am running a writing therapy course for four weeks coming up in May. Writing Therapy - I call it Expressive Writing, is a superb way to release any emotions, memories or things that are holding us captive. I will post more about this later.

I thought maybe I should simply put something up on here, as I haven't communicated on here for so long.

Thanks so much for reading. I love having visitors.

The Wall

2010-03-05T09:05:00.002+10:00

A friend reminded me the other day that I should put up the Wall on here.

So here it is.

This was from the Amazon Shorts Competition. The%20Wall.pdf

Moving house...

2010-01-28T22:39:00.002+10:00

Hey anyone who is interested...:)

I am moving house at the moment and working a lot as well as studying, so there is not much writing happening. I am deferring university until next semester. I will do my film and television subject then.

The other day however, I thought of my main character and how she is still lying in a hospital bed, beaten up by her neighbour...a complicated story...but I am not sure where her life is going now...

She is in good company with her new Irish boy friend and her irritating mother. Roger her West Highland Terrier is waiting for her at home in her townhouse on the river at Hill End, Brisbane. It comforts me to think about her and know I will go back to her soon, to continue in her story. But for now, I am too busy. The story, the novella must go on in the background of my mind while I continue with all of the things I HAVE to do. No one is aware of the dreaming, musing and imagining that goes on in the writers mind when they are sitting on a train, bus, at a soccer field, on a beach, with a notebook...scenes, dialogue, character's thoughts, backgrounds...

However, there is a time for everything and for now my time is limited. I imagine the reader of this will understand this very well. At least I know in all of my busyness, I can still work in small increments. Quietly and patiently, the narrative can still develop, under any circumstances.

More novel writing until it is finished...

2009-11-26T10:31:00.005+10:00

So university is finished for the year for me. I am seeking to keep writing this novel and letting the story and central character reveal itself and herself to me as I go. I am resisting the idea of editing and being critical at this point. I am following the advice of many published authors who have said or written they wrote solidly for a number of years before they actually got the techniques or the craft of writing novels to where they felt it became more effortless. Phillip Meyer said he got better at writing good work, because he wrote for a few years with no success and probably bad writing until he understood intuitively how to successfully put the narrative together.

In many things practice makes perfect and writing is no different. I am seeking to write this narrative, for my own enjoyment as well as I would like to tell Sarah's story and to finish another novel. I have finished one. Peter Carey wrote three before he was well received by a publisher. I have realised I have written short stories for many, many years probably 20 years or more, and I have an idea how to write a short story. Now I have only been attempting novels for about five years, on and off, and only having finished one completely.

I am definitely learning from my university study and from feedback from tutors or other people and reading other novels. But, actually writing is going to teach me the most! So I want to do this every day. I wrote 1100 words today in an hour. That is not that hard is it?

Hemingway said to leave your idea with inspiration left so you are spurred onto continue the next day. Write so that you want to come back to it the next day. He even advocated not thinking that much about it until the next day and letting your unconscious work on it. He said reading other authors was a good idea so you didn't think too much about your work. I think this is good advice. It's good to have an excitement about what you are writing for the next installment.

In my novel I have an idea of the scenes I am going to write. They are in my mind. This morning I wrote some of them. I have also learnt that I need to slow my work down. To create scenes in a more full way. These are things you learn from feedback. I wonder if being a journalist goes against me in some ways cause our articles have to be so sparse and economical with words. I need to take the time to create atmosphere in the scene. I find I understand how it works in a short story but I need to translate this into my novels, exploring characters and backstory in a deeper and more interesting way. This novel I am writing I am seeking to work out how best to put in backstory and I am revealing things about her background through dialogue etcetera.

Peter Carey said in an interview with me, that each chapter he writes is like a mosaic tile, very important to the overall effect of the novel. He is so right. In each chapter, a sense of suspense, tension and climax should be created, so the reader is riveted and wanting to read onto the next chapter.

Once I finish my film subject next semester, I am thinking of giving university a break for a bit, so I can focus on writing. However, we will see, stay tuned for next year. I do love university. I found that it rushed my work last semester and this novel needs to breathe and live. But hopefully over this break I can write some substantial chunks of it. I wish to complete this novel for myself, and then rewrite it. According to what I have read, Jane Austen rewrote a lot of her novels so I need to get better at this skill.

These are my current thoughts. I have enjoyed writing this morning. I am going to try and maintain this momentum with this novel. Thanks for reading. If you are a writer, I hope your work is going well.

New Decisions

2009-10-07T07:58:00.003+10:00

Well, recently I had to hand in most of my first 5000 words of my novel for university. So for weeks and weeks I have struggled with a lack of plot direction and with a block...a total block. Blank. So I kept writing anyway and wrote some scenes for this character's life. It was enjoyable actually. I like her. She is fun to spend time with. :)

So after a lot of stress about the piece and realising that what I handed into my class did not possess a great story line, I woke up this morning and a plot line came to me fully formed. A plot with depth and potential for exploration of character and a story of intrigue and interest. It was a bit irritating because it didn't come to me a few weeks ago. But this is the beauty of art, things don't turn up on schedule.

It's like Bono from U2 said about one of their recordings that wasn't going well and nothing was working. He said they were "waiting for God to show up." I feel like God showed up for me this morning. Inspiration. It makes me excited when I can see a story line that I can explore. So yesterday I felt terrible and demoralised about this piece and now I feel like I want to commit to this one. And see it to its completion.

So, anyway. This post was going to be about how I was giving up university-but I am going to put off that decision now. What I do know is that I need time to write and develop my novel so maybe after semester 1 next year I will take some time off. Who knows? That is a long time away. Anyway, so on with the new plot.

Novel Progress

2009-09-14T09:00:00.002+10:00

Hello there,

I am writing a new novel and I have been enjoying writing it so far. But now that I have to hand in a large section of it to my university class, I am stressed. The novel is lacking strong direction at the moment. I am too close to it. I need to do a lot of work on the main character.

I have read that other authors more experienced than me have this problem. They get to a certain point in the narrative and they don't know where it is going. I guess it is a positive thing. I need to develop more fully what exactly I am trying to achieve in this novel. What do I really want to explore? The problem with this is, I have not had the mind space to fully explore the main character. This is what I need to do. A meeting with my tutor as well will probably help me. That is what I like about university is the fact that you have people to ask questions about your work. This subject has been really good in taking everything more seriously, more post grad students and less undergrad students. Nothing wrong with them but I need to be around other people who are serious about writing.

So, a crisis of plot for me at the moment. But I think these moments are good in writing a novel, cause these issues need to be clarified in your mind otherwise it will fail. It is all necessary for the deepening of the work. A novel takes a long time to write. The problem is you have to survive in the mean time. A novel takes a lot of thinking time. I don't have much spare thinking time. But we just have to fit in where we can, don't we? In this age of instant everything, instant messaging, instant pop corn, instant coffee, a novel is not an instant anything...anything worth reading has taken a fair while to create.

A Moveable Feast, I am there again.

2009-06-02T08:55:00.006+10:00

I just read over some parts of A Moveable Feast. He starts the memoir in the middle of a conversation;

"Then there was the bad weather. It would come in one day when the fall was over..." There is a melancholy about this memoir in the tone of the book but it seems to me in nearly every word he uses. It is like his soul was sad when he wrote about this time. It was the best and worst time in many ways for him.

He seems to have regrets about the things that happened in the end of their time in Paris. What I am amazed about is the amount of times he uses The to begin a sentence. But nevertheless the sentence is not boring or predictable. What is contained within the sentence is fresh, unique and the imagery is vital. I was always told don't start every sentence with The. However, I am learning that it can be done very well. I was reading Vikram Seth An Equal Music yesterday (that a friend leant me) and I was also surprised that he started a lot of his sentences with The..but the voice of the piece and his imagery drew the reader in. I am learning that some rules are not always correct, you can pull The with a superb voice. Both these pieces were first person, so that makes a difference.

Back to Hemingway, there was such sweet sadness in the ending of the A Moveable Feast. He describes his wife when he returns to her after being with a mistress:

"When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling, the sun on her lovely face tanned by the snow and sun, beautifully built, her hair red gold in the sun, grown out all winter awkwardly and beautifully..." (207).

And in regard to Paris, he loved it with a strong desire because it represented a time when he was with his wife in an innocent way. Their marriage broke up after his affairs. But this was looking back and knowing that this time in their life was golden and pure, even though they had no money or even position.

"There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other...Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy."

(A Moveable Feast, p.207).

Phillip Meyer at uni...

2009-05-26T08:02:00.003+10:00

Hello,

Wow. Seeing Phillip Meyer was excellent yesterday. He spoke about his life and the context of his first book. He spoke about the struggles of how he got to where he is now. It was so good to hear that it took 8 years and lots of writing. It is very inspiring. He wrote two books before he wrote this current one which has been well received. I have only written one complete novel and I am on my second one, now. What I have been realising lately is that it is going to take time to develop these skills.

Phillip was talking about how in every job the more you do it the better you get. I know this is true but it was good to hear his experience. He was saying how after a while you start to know what is working and what isn't. This is definitely the difference between a novice and someone who is developing. If you can identify the bad things with your piece then you can change them. He was saying how this has become more unconscious now and he is capable of writing a lot better quality first up, now. So I need to just keep writing, it was really good to hear that even when or if you become successful there has been a struggle beforehand.

He was captivating to me. The way he talked about his life and the deep concepts and he talked constantly, explaining lots of detail, reminded me of myself-when I get carried away. I found it totally intriguing. I was drawn into what he was saying and about his life because to hear another artist talk about his struggles and then feel they are somewhat similar to your own, is very comforting. He was self aware as well which I find refreshing. Totally inspiring. I wish I had more opportunity to talk to him actually. I know he would be a fascinating person to know. (He said he just wrote from morning until night for months and months - I need to get more serious about the time I put into my writing).

For us writers, the message is keep writing, keep going. Writing is what I want to do, so I need to just keep doing it.

Biography of Characters

2009-04-07T14:16:00.002+10:00

Yesterday at university we talked about biographies. I have to admit I do not enjoy biographies. I know the public seem to love them but unless the person is completely fascinating or someone I have long admired I am not interested.

However, using biographical questions like the ones we were given in out tutorial yesterday they have been useful for me today in thinking and imagining the childhood of my heroine or rather protagonist. I have created a pivotal moment in her childhood that affects her relationship with her mother forever. I do not think these pivotal moments always control our lives but they explain things about relationships we have. So I have this moment and I know what it is. Now the challenge is how do I show this to the reader?

I guess this is always the challenge. But as long as in my mind I can start hearing and living in her world things will happen, magically, majestically hopefully..:)

So anyway I was just reminded how biographical details of characters are very important. Of course I knew this before however this question has really helped to stimulate further knowledge of this character and her life, why she is doing what she is doing. I need to do more of this imagining. And it takes a long time to do this. It is like slow cooking - it takes time to create these things. Everyone in this world wants things instantly but what I am realising is how long it is going to take me - to achieve what I want to achieve. And that I need to focus in more on the details and live the moments with the characters, so the reader can too.

Zooming in with the camera lense and then out again. Close detail and wider scope. I learnt that in Veny's class and I am reminded all the time of how the senses need to be used to create a total world for the reader. Now I am signing out. I should be actually writing.

Feel free to comment if you wish - if you have any thoughts. I always love receiving your input. :)

Disgrace by Coetzee

2009-03-25T12:43:00.003+10:00

Hello

I just finished the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee. I loved his simple style and the way he used plain sentences that drew the reader into the narrative. The opening line is just superb about how this character has solved the problem of sex, for a divorced man of 52. Characterisation like this is enviable. His whole personality is expressed in this beginning and the novel unravels his demise at it progresses. Basically, he rapes a young student in his course at university. I found him detestable in the beginning of the novel but by the end not so horrible.

HIs faults became moderated and I think he achieved some self knowledge, even in the fact that he realised he had little self knowledge that is a form of honesty in itself. People living in denial do not know they are doing so, if they did know then they would no longer be living in it. :)

It was mentioned at university that he doesn't change throughout the novel. I do not agree with this. When I read the end of the novel he shows he has changed. Ever so slightly, but he has changed, his perspective, he starts to use the word love and he starts to believe animals have souls and he wants to protect his daughter. He has sex with an older lady who is not beautiful and starts to realise that his desires will not always be able to filled. He still has them but he resigns himself to a different life.

A novel that I didn't particularly like in the beginning did engage me by the end. The women characters seemed to be somewhat oppressed throughout the novel. Except for his daughter, who the reader feels slightly annoyed by for some of the novel but by the end she seems to make sense. She is seeking to be different, kind, and peaceful, and these things seem ridiculous when faced with violence and brute force. However, she is the most together character by the end of the novel.

There is a wonderful beauty in her embracing the ugliness of the situation around her and a wonderful scene where she is picking flowers in the garden and the sun is shining on her back. I think this novel - though it shows black African people as cunning and conniving, achieved some very subtle characterisation with the main characters.

The two African men and the down trodden African women in the book are less desirable characters. In fact the main black African character - David Lurie likes him in the beginning but in the end cannot abide him. So I know there will be racist interpretations about this. Sometimes though there are characters of certain racial backgrounds that we create that are not nice but this does not mean it is inherently racist. These were the particular characters in this story.

The white professor is not spared, he is violent in his own way, he takes sex from women and then drops them back onto the street. He is no better than the men who rape his daughter. So I think this is Coetzee's point. It is the women who have to put up with this situation. They are the wives, daughters, students, and veterinarians helping animals.

I cannot work out whether he has painted them with dignity or not, there is a comment on women and their subjugation that is a side issue, however, maybe as a woman these things are heightened for me. Women seem victims in this book but some of them rise above it, like his daughter, like the vet, like his ex wife, who seems strong and some don't I guess that is real. In some ways, they seem to make more sense than the men who are acting on impulse and their animal desires.

No wonder it won the Booker Prize, however I can also see that people could really dislike this book, for many reasons. But overall it has had a lasting effect on me. One thing was there was not a lot of beauty in it. But the characters stood out as real, and compelling and that is a major accomplishment!

Novel Idea (Noodle)

2009-03-09T08:47:00.004+10:00

Why do they call it a novel noodle? I am not sure. Well I have to take a novel idea to university today and it is clear my novel idea is no longer the same. Over a year ago I had a clear novel idea and had developed this idea fully and written a plan and everything and then major events happened in my life and now this novel has changed. It has to change.

I no longer wish to write the narrative that I had devised. But now I am a little bit lost with whether I should try to tweak the idea and still use it or start a new one.

I seem to have these commitment issues to novel ideas. This happened when I did Veny's Year of the Novel. The problem for me at the moment is that I have lots of short story ideas and the longer piece is eluding me. But I need to take something. So I am feeling a little apprehensive about the fact that it is not fully formed.

The tutor tells me you can use an idea you have right now but everyone in my tut are so sure about their narratives and so well into the novels. As usual I am the one who is artistically unsure of which one to commit to or rather had one that I cannot write anymore. It has changed but to what?

Anyway, it's all interesting and crazy. Maybe I just like living closer to the edge or something. I have to have an idea I am sure of and that I love otherwise how will I be able to present it to the tut class? In the tuts they make you share out loud writing and ideas, however writers are interior people. I don't understand why we have to be exposed every week, when most of our lives if we get published will be discussing final products that have been edited and worked on for years.

Why should we read out something we have scrawled in a few minutes and feel so vulnerable when if we become published authors, journalists like me will interview us and we can comment on what we have done, not write something half baked for the journalist to snigger at in the interview.

I will keep you posted. If anyone else has had doubts about their novel. Let me know. I should get back to my Novel Noodle they call it. Why Noodle? Anyway it's all fun and games...

Rules of Attraction by Easton Ellis

2009-03-07T13:07:00.008+10:00

Wow, supremely depressing but something more..makes you wish you could cry about their world but you couldn't if you tried.
Easton Ellis paints the characters as shallow, mean, nasty and frankly, stupid, but somehow he shows something that draws you to them at the same time.

Sean, I really liked him. He made the book for me, even though he was a fool, a drug dealing user, but he loved someone and she didn't love him. Lauren, is also stupid. She loves a guy completely unworthy of her love. Why do we do that? It's a question I cannot answer.

This book, written so differently starting in mid sentence and finishing in mid sentence is definitely amazingly constructed and his detail about characters is something I need to learn from. At first it is difficult to get into the different points of view, every chapter, but then I found as soon as I started reading their voices, they must have been so well created that I knew exactly where they were and what they were doing.

It was interesting that - particularly with Sean and Paul how differently they portrayed their time together. Paul smitten by Sean and Sean barely acknowledging that he was even with Paul. It was tragic but very true to life. Perceptions of events by different people especially with love, is a fascinating and endless topic.

Paul says to Gerald a guy who likes him, "No one ever likes the right person," which could be described as the whole premise of the novel.

Sean loves Lauren, Paul loves Sean, Lauren used to love Paul, Lauren loves Victor, Victor loves Jaime, Paul used to love Mitchell, Susan loves Sean.

The other premise is everything is boring - they are constantly bored with everything, people have abortions, commit suicide, take drugs, have sex, attempt suicide, take cocaine, don't pay their drug dealers, and the characters are constantly bored with it all. There is no reaction or emotion towards it.

I mean the way Easton Ellis writes about all of the drug taking and sex etc ad infinitum the reader does feel bored and overwhelmed with it. Everything is meaningless and no one cares about anyone, except who they will have sex with or where they will score from next. The parts that keep you reading the novel are the parts where the characters actually reveal they have something more to them.

Sean tells Lauren he loves her, they agree to get married (which ends) actually that's probably it, except there are some scenes with Victor and empathy towards some people in the crowd that are good. Mainly, Sean has the scenes of something more to him, with his dying father and his overbearing brother. He, for me is the character that stands out in all of his ugliness he was something actually. He had something deeper to him, the way he describes Lauren and the way he loved Lauren.

One thing though it does become funny in some scenes where a girl talks about all the people who are sleeping with each other, cheating on partners it just sounds absurd. Which is the point I guess. There are constant 80s references that I love because I grew up then. It is amusing the references to the things they are wearing, swatch watches and tab and diet coke and radios and tapes.

There is a line at the end where Sean says and nothing has changed and they all seem to go back to their hopeless behaviour. Sean picks up a girl he's not interested in, Lauren goes off with Victor who is using her, Paul chases more boys...the meaninglessness of their behaviour continues.

This is a truth in some people's lives. Only through spiritual transformation can people change, but these people, there is nothing they wish to do beyond feed their physical desires. So their cycle goes around and around and sometimes it disgusts them like with Sean when he says he doesn't want to sleep around anymore only be with Lauren. But eventually her lack of love for him destroys that.

So anyway, this was a bit of a ramble but it's the kind of book you have to ramble about. You feel like you have to have therapy after the book or debrief or cleanse yourself somehow. I think it is the same with Less Than Zero. Life is so dirty and disgusting in this book and its all over you, and you need a bath.

It is great to read books like this. I will take a lot from Easton Ellis in techniques and I will admire what he has done. But my basic philosophy is different. Although, I think this book proves Easton Ellis is not really a nihilist he is showing the greed, futility, reality, shallow qualities and pain of the 80s. The funny thing is AIDS does not come into the novel. Maybe it was only just being discovered. Some of those characters in this book would have AIDS, and would probably have died in the following years of that or another STD.

This is a rich book. A book that completely enveloped me into its world. The characters are stunning to me in their abhorrence and depth and in the fact that he keeps you reading about people you don't even like! He is an exceptional writer. This book I could try to say I enjoyed it, but it is much more than that. So I could say, it was amazing.

A revealing deep book about shallow, self centered, people doing whatever they wanted. It is the result of believing in a nihilistic world. It is people living what they believe, with no spiritual framework for life. At least they are being honest and authentic, so many people believe nihilistic things and yet they live in a valued filled world, that is based on spiritual ideas.

Anyway now I am off the topic. Characters that are living without morals, come what may. That's the ugliness and sincerity of this book. It is honest, raw and gritty, and remains, lingers...impacts. whoa. I could say so much more but I will stop now.

Actually I just had a thought, and maybe someone can comment on this. Is Easton Ellis sort of commenting on the 80s the way Nick Hornby is also commenting on the 90s? I think they are doing similar things. I am so thankful that maybe this decade compassion for other people is not totally out of the question, I feel like there may be a different feeling now. Actually even in Hornby's novels this theme of self centered character who doesn't care about anyone actually decides to be different, so Hornby differs to Easton Ellis like that. The character in About a Boy changes at the end and in High Fidelity.

Anyway, I like the comparison with these authors. Also, I wonder who is writing for this decade? And indeed what would we write? Are we all just out for ourselves as usual? Of course it is the same but there are peculiarities that will be distinguised in this time over any other. There always are in history. Different world leaders, different economic climate, different wars being waged, threats or lack of threats.

Every era is different its human nature that stays the same.

Novel Writing subject beginning...

2009-02-22T12:44:00.004+10:00

Hello again

(I will get back to doing a blog on Hemingway soon if anyone was wondering.)

I have started to read The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis and I think it's cool the way he starts the novel in the middle of a sentence. His manner of narration is to write in first person with each section a different character talking about their experiences. It is quite an overwhelming style. Lots of telling, but it does draw you in with their voice and the subject matter.

The characters some of them if not all of them are very unlikable; they are hollow, bitchy, shallow, drug taking and hedonistic. I guess this book is like Less Than Zero was - nihilistic and a lot of sex and drugs and the meaningless of life. I did like that movie didn't read the book though.

I am enjoying reading something really different but I would probably not write something similar. There are some things I am learning from him, the conversational narrative voice style that I have always liked and often used. I really like that. But as for spending a whole novel talking about how they have abused, raped, disrespected, took drugs with, hated, how they were raped by two guys and more...I wouldn't do that.

I guess he made a very poignant point about his society in the 80's when he was writing. Commentators say he was writing about how hollow his generation was and the novel perfectly fulfills this function. It is superb at it in fact. I am definitely enjoying it though and I will probably have a look at Luna Park his other novel that people tell me is better than this one.

Starting university tomorrow. Yay! Hopefully, I can sort out tutorials so they fit on the day. I am looking forward to this subject I have wanted to do this subject for ages now.

On another note I have started to work on some short stories this weekend. I am thinking of submitting to competitions just as a way to give myself deadlines for my work. It is just a good way to keep disciplining your process and writing all the time, and getting yourself out there. Things are calming down in my life and I am going to focus on my writing now, a lot more.

Stay tuned for more about this subject and my writing including my poetry, that I seem to be writing more than ever. I never wrote poetry before, but now I am regularly writing short poems, enjoying words.

See you soon :) Say hi if you want to on here, it's nice to hear from a reader.

Documentary Subject

2009-01-24T09:02:00.002+10:00

Hi again

I think my last blog sounded like I am not optimistic about my year ahead. This is not the case. I am very excited about the prospect of this year for the things that are happening. I am going to do a media writing subject at uni which involves script writing and documentary making! Something I have never done before!

How exciting! I have friends who are working with kids in Africa and other parts of the world and ever since I was very young I have wanted to help people. With a camera people can be helped a little easier, because other people can "see" what's happening more than just with words on a page, although we all know I love words on a page!.

I am excited by the prospect that I might have skills that could help people in a tangible way around the world. Ever since I visited Nepal years ago I have wanted to do this. Actually, before that. That is why I became a journalist to travel and shed light on people's struggles around the world. Somewhere on my journey the path veered off from this.

However, it's not over till it's over. So now I am still contemplating my subject choices and whether to enrol in the Masters or stay in my current course. There are lots of considerations in my life - probably most of which I haven't gone into on my blog.
But I will keep you posted on these subjects.

I am missing the Hemingway world I just left and I am looking for a new book to dive into. Maybe if I do the novel subject I will be reading novels or if I do Advanced Narrative then I wont have novels to read...now I am just rambling.

See you at the next post.
:)

Fine in 2009!

2009-01-09T17:40:00.013+10:00

Hey, anyone who is reading,

2009. Well, I love New Years. I always have hope at the beginning of the year, which quickly diminishes as the months wear onto into the disappointing realities of mundanity, and then quickly return to another New Years day where somehow I am tricked again into a blind optimism. But I think it is necessary and should be embraced every year and a new start. It's also great at New Year to sit back and see the good things that happened in the past year.

For me, this past year has been quite traumatic. So I think this year ahead can only be better, hey? My friend at work was hassling me to write another post, and I have been wanting to do it for ages, but I am so busy.

Well this year, promises a new year of university, changing subjects and maybe courses and in the middle of all this what does one do with all the gloomy economic news?

Well my mind goes back to Bob Dylan - (where it often goes, sadly) and how in the sixties when everyone thought Cuba was going to bomb the USA, (one particular night everyone was bracing for Nuclear War) where was Bob Dylan? He was playing his guitar in a little bar in New York.

Everyone thought the world was going to end and Bob did too, but he was playing his music, performing and creating. I think of the orchestra who apparently played while the Titanic sunk - not sure if that is legend but the idea is amazing anyway. Some people were made to create and should this stop when the world is ending or perceived to be, or do we need art even more then? Amidst all the gloom we need to see a movie, watch a play, read a book, sing a song to get some relief. I think I want to be playing in the orchestra while the ship is sinking, (although dying a horrible death doesn't fun).

So contrary to advice from people around me I am going to continue to travel to Brisbane every week for my post graduate study in Creative Writing. What else can I do? My next post will be about The Sun Also Rises. Wow, what a book!

Amazingly intricate and spine tingingly, complex characters, fabulous Hemingway. A world I was happy to dive into every night. So superbly painted and done with such compassion and insights into the characters. Now I am starting to talk about it already.

I am going now and will be back soon so I can talk about Hemingway. His first novel. Wow.

Uni, internet and trying to absorb everything for dialogue.

2008-08-29T10:11:00.005+10:00

Hey anyone who's interested.
I haven't posted for such a long time. I have started uni which is really great. I live for it every week. The feedback from 20 other people reading your work is a bit grueling but also exactly what I wanted. The lectures are informative and fun. It feels like such a luxury to sit and talk about writing - compared to when I was an undergrad and I studied some subjects that weren't that exciting. Or rather weren't my passion.

But focusing on writing for three or more hours a week is heaven for me.
Craig Bolland is a really interesting and informative lecturer. He did a lecture on voice which was really great the other day.

Something I have been learning recently from being online and meeting people who connect from all around the world via a blog or your website or whatever. I have come to really appreciate chatting to people from different places, and in relation to writing we can learn a lot of nuances of language. Uk ways of speaking, American slang, people with English as a second language it is all so useful. If you are typing or chatting to someone it is very conversational and a great way to pick up how to write dialogue. It is right there for us to see.

On the internet words are the only thing you have. So I am learning that it can help my writing, particularly of dialogue and this is a pleasure. I always used to hate dialogue but after a course a few years ago I discovered the liberty and beauty of dialogue. How the author can say so much in dialogue, or in what is left out of dialogue?

I used to hate it and think I couldn't do it but now I have fallen in love with it. I am writing more stories with more dialogue in it than before. Hemingway wrote so much conversation and it was dynamic and real and harsh sometimes but it put you right there in between the two people.

So, I am really enjoying exploring dialogue, especially in relation to have different opinions expressed in a short story or novel. A character might think this and someone else might think that. This seems very exciting to me, inserting ideas into the narrative and showing differing opinions. The web of life, the beauty of the world.

Also, if you chat to writer friends I have found I start to tell stories to them. In a story way, (I think I do this in conversation too). And one friend and I were writing a dynamic comedy together whilst chatting. It was fun. I can feel the life of language on the internet. I haven't felt it before.

Craig mentioned this in his lecture, exploring different voices and tones going on the internet and playing around - he mentioned pretending to be someone else which I won't do. But the other stuff I can really understand how it can help to generate ideas, remind us of what dialogue and conversation looks like on a page.

Anyway, I have handed a short story in to uni and I will be having a consultation in another couple of weeks. So depending on how I go, I may or may not talk about it.
(: No I probably will share about the feedback.

See you later. Feel free to comment if you wish, it's always great to hear from people.
(:

Editing Using my Imac

2008-06-23T10:08:00.005+10:00

The other day I discovered an effective editing technique for myself. I had heard it said that you should read your work out loud to see what works and what doesn't. I had tried this before and it didn't seem to work for me. Then after playing around with Garage Band on the mac I realised I could use the audio recording facility to hear my story read back to me. Then I could do more versions and read it out loud and edit it as I could hear the things that weren't working and I wanted to change them.

When the story was merely the words on the page it didn't have the same effect on me as hearing the problems read out loud. It seems to make it more tangible when you read it out because you feel as if you are an outsider to the text. Hearing a story is a really good way of seeing whether the dialogue works or the text is flowing correctly. If the sentences are too long or not clear enough. For me this has provided another dimension in editing. For a longer piece maybe you could take one chapter at a time and read it out. It would have to be after the whole manuscript had been written.
I am starting my Grad Certificate in a couple of weeks and I am very excited to learn more, write more and to receive feedback from others and from a lecturer. Bring on July 21.

Lost some of my work...

2008-06-05T13:09:00.008+10:00

Don't you hate it when you have written something you are really happy with and then you discover you have saved over it or lost it? Well that is what has happened to me. A part of my novel that I enjoyed writing has now disappeared. Dissipated out into the air. The words, letters that created the piece have gone.

I want to be like Peter Carey and Ernest Hemmingway who didn't care. Peter Carey said he routinely threw out good writing to challenge himself to do even better work and Ernest Hemmingway in A Moveable Feast lost his whole first novel, left it in manuscript form in a taxi. He didn't care that much. They had a robust attitude to their writing and didn't believe in holding onto things. I will get to that soon. I will write the piece again and it will hopefully be better than it was before. That is very possible- everything needs work after the first draft anyway.

Anyway I wanted to write this blog, knowing there will be other writers who have had this happen and can empathise with me. One must let go and hold our pieces lightly. If I wrote it once I can challenge myself to do it again.

Peter Carey, Paul Auster, Ian McEwan

2008-05-28T09:04:00.004+10:00

I really enjoyed watching Peter Carey, Paul Auster and Ian McEwan on ABC recently being interviewed by Jennifer Byrnes.

It was great to hear the perspectives of three men who have written for many years. I have followed Peter Carey's writing for the past few years, especially since I was able to interview him and after studying some of his work at university.

Anyway, it was great to see what Paul Auster was like, his thick accented deep voice with a slight lisp (I think), his New York perspective, his giving and unassuming personality. Ian McEwan and his story about getting into writing because he never wanted to get a job.

The thing I was really encouraged about was when they all agreed that every book they come to write is a NEW challenge. I would've thought that once you had written ten or fifteen books your techniques are there or something and then you know where you are going (they would do to some degree) but it is refreshing to know that each book presents a new adventure of discovering how best to write THAT particular book.

Peter Carey said all of the books he wrote before he was published set him up to write Bliss, and then writing The Illywhacker (which he said was extremely challenging) prepared him to write Oscar and Lucinda effortlessly. I remember Bob Dylan saying, also in his early career about all of the songs he had written up to the point contributed to him writing Like A Rolling Stone effortlessly.

I can see the value of simply writing, practicing the craft.

My violin playing provides another lesson for me. I have to practice every day to get the techniques and get my fingers moving effortlessly across the strings. I have seen an improvement in the 6 or 7 lessons I have had. Applying this to writing, I need to just keep doing it and each time hopefully I am absorbing (unconsciously) technique. I have finally started to write my novel again! Random scenes. I haven't written it for ages, lots going on in my life, and I have been writing poetry which has been great too, to use words in a more free flowing way.

I am going to remember that even writing veterans like Peter Carey and Paul Auster come to each book and feel like it is a fresh challenge, a new unchartered writing journey. This fact encourages me. I want to keep writing so that maybe I will be able to say all those novels, stories and poems I wrote that maybe not many people knew about, prepared me to write another piece effortlessly.

Emerging Writers Festival Melbourne

2008-05-13T13:41:00.003+10:00

I flew down to Melbourne for the weekend, specifically to check out the emerging writers festival and to see some friends. Melbourne delivered characteristically chilly weather, the Town Hall where the panels I attended was ostentatious, regal and beautiful all at the same time.

The festival was refreshing. I love the well established writers festivals. I really enjoy listening to published authors talking about their work or how they managed to get where they are today, the struggles and triumphs or intellectuals discussing some high philosophical subject matter. However, it was refreshing to attend a festival where people who have not yet become well known were featured on panels and were sharing their knowledge. Where the "not yet" writers or the emerging writers were acknowledged and their experiences were shared in open forums and discussions about how to make it when you are undiscovered or what to do when you are undiscovered.

There was an interesting panel on getting your work out into the public arena, with discussion of a poems on menus, buses, trams, when you wait for a coffee at the counter, on sign posts on a mountain trail. Getting your work out into the public arena where it can be read and appreciated or not as the case may be.

Spoken word and zines were discussed, web techniques, self publishing, book distribution, marketing, blogging of course, all of these things were discussed as well as editing, quality of work and attending courses. Though a lot of things I had heard many times before, some of what the individual emerging authors had to say was a fresh take on certain aspects and I appreciated this.

The Zine and Small Press Fair was wonderfully creative. Little match boxes with life paintings inside on miniature match box size canvases, comics, zines, boxes with concertina illustrations, drawings, mini shots (Vignette Press) which is one short story per little booklet, so many gorgeous items, skillfully constructed, inventive, inspiring and interesting. It was a pleasure to attend the festival. It inspired me to continue with some ideas I have had of late. Hi to Simon Groth who chaired one of the panels I attended and did a great job.

Art to do or not to do? (From A Pocket Full of Poesy)

2008-04-13T08:17:00.003+10:00

Who really gives a crap about art, anyway?
The artist slaves away,
All day,
In solitude and self annihilation,
For the hope of some acylation,
Which may or may not eventuate,
It may be after they’re dead, too late.
Writing a poem, song or book,
Painting a picture to hang in a nook.

But art is undervalued
And maybe it should be,
It doesn’t provide survival for me,
Except for our souls, it speaks to a deeper part
Of the human heart.
It should be seen as essential
And a link to the spiritual
Instead of relegated and delegated
To a place of marginalization,
Or condescension
Because it cannot be measure by the money you make,
Or the time it can take,
It cannot be measured in a laboratory,
Or simplified in its glory.

It takes its place in life,
Amidst all our strife,
Never to go away,
Heaven forbid the day,
That we ignore the beauty and vulnerability,
Of artistic expressions,
Or let science, progress or materialism bull doze our inner artistic impressions.

Art, to do or not to do?
What would I have if I didn’t have you?
It’s not really a question that a real artist entertains,
For what else would they do with their brains?
They are wired to create,
Something thought provoking, and hopefully, great,
That can cause people to pause or sigh
Or even to cry,
That can call us deeper into the question of why?
That may simply provide a space to reflect,
In parts that we often neglect,
And allow us enjoyment,
Meaning replacing bewilderment,
Love instead of despair,
Hope, and sometimes, someone to care.
An artist, to be or not to be?
It is not a choice I make, it is who I am-me.

My book in the library...

2008-04-07T09:07:00.005+10:00

Hello again,

I haven't blogged for a while, a lot is going on in my life.

My book A Pocket Full of Poesy is now in my local library, in the local author section and in the Non Fiction Poetry section of the shelves in two libraries. It is nice to see my book on the shelves.

I know a lot of people do not respect self publishing and I never did either. It was when I discovered a literary journal who published on lulu.com that I started to look into it further. Then I realised how I could publish work that was not accepted elsewhere and see if people enjoyed reading it as well as feeling like I had accomplished something. I first published my short stories and people really liked them. I also discovered that a number of bookshops (independent) will take books on consignment. These have been all good discoveries to make through this process.

It is a confidence boost to publish your own work. A number of famous authors have self published their books at some point in their careers, some of these include; Margaret Atwood, William Blake, Lord Byron, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane, e.e. cummings, W.E.B. DuBois, Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Benjamin Franklin, Zane Grey, Thomas Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Robinson Jeffers, Spencer Johnson, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Louis L'Amour, D.H. Lawrence, Anais Nin, Thomas Paine, Tom Peters, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, Irma Rombauer, Carl Sandburg, Robert Service, George Bernard Shaw, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, William Strunk, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf.

I find this heartening. There is a stigma towards self publishing but it does not mean that a writer is not good at their craft, as we can see with the list above. (It does not mean it will be great writing either, I am just saying the format doesn't dictate the quality of the work.)

Having been around the band scene for a long time and having two partners who were in bands and produced their own CDs and sold them, I began to wonder why authors could not try to do the same thing. In the music world on Myspace there are a number of talented musicians who write really good songs and produce and market the cds themselves and sell to a small but devoted fan base. I believe there are some people who self publish who are quality writers. Maybe they haven't found a publisher who wants what they write (JK Rowling took ten years to find a publisher willing to publish her Harry Potter books) why we are so scared to take matters into our own hands?

Self publishing means you can write what you want and if you are serious you will make it the best piece of work possible. The stigma against self publishing is still real and though the standard of self published work can be low, it can also have gems within its range. I simply wanted to move forward in my work and expose it to as many people as possible, through my own means. All I would like to say is don't right people off who publish on the web or who self publish, it does not mean they are good or bad. Read their work and see for yourself.

I would recommend self publishing- it gives an author a sense of accomplishment, whilst you are writing the novel or waiting the many months before you receive the rejection letters. In this process you can achieve something and keep the book forever. Those of us who choose to self publish are in good company shown by the author list above. And for those of us who wish to put our art out into the world and not wait for someone to discover us, self publishing is a perfect and acceptable way to do this.

Everyone creates art so that others can see, read, touch, hear and experience their work. Self publishing for authors is like an exhibition for a painter, maybe someone important will notice your abilities, but even if they don't you will be communicating with people through your work.
The great thing is people will get to read your work which is what we want. I have people who have read my stories and poetry from all over the world and around Australia. Internet story websites are also really good for exposure as well. Anyway, enough of my ranting. Thanks for reading. All the best for your creative endeavours whatever they may be.

Getting away...

2008-03-10T07:05:00.008+10:00

I managed to get away for a couple of days recently. It was extremely peaceful and relaxing. What is it about mounds of green mountainous rock and deep green broccoli trees standing beside running streams through lime green grass, that draws us deeper and to more tranquil parts of our soul?

The romantics talked about it, beauty and truth. Beauty stimulates in me a longing for something more than our physical life. I took a few photos of the trip. I think beauty reflects who we are and reminds us we have a soul. Beautiful poetry, glorious music, rich paintings, pristine beaches, the immaculate white of daisies and the intricate tiny world of perfectly designed flower petals and the minute insect communities that inhabit these areas.

I went away to Northern New South Wales, an exquisite part of the country. It looks like England probably because the English planted oaks and pine trees and other stunning greenery when they came over two hundred years ago.

When I am surrounded by beauty and I am exploring or getting away or traveling I find my mind opens up and I am inspired. Travel is a deep experience for me. It is experiencing the world, seeing new things, taking on an adventure or a challenge, encountering new people and cultures, finding out about Others around the world. It is about learning, exploring; yourself, the geographical and philosophical world and other people's societies, history and culture. It provides perspective for me, insight, it stimulates change in my life, enlightens me, inspires me, opens my world up instead of closing it down (as so many other things do in life).

Of course, traveling is fun for goodness sake! Downright, freaking good fun. I don't see the point of living and not experiencing the world around me. I don't have a desire to have a pristine lawn and the latest BMW four wheel drive, or children with straight, white teeth, give me a mountain track and an untouched river, a cultural and physical journey any day of the week. Show me something about life, living, myself, how the world works, the world's history, its ugliness and shining glory. To me travel, has two levels the physical and the internal.

When I traveled in Nepal it was striking, edifying, enriching, educational and wonderful all at the same time. I put some demons to rest in Nepal and most importantly, I put to rest certain things in relationships and felt freed from the control of my past.

Anyway, I have rambled enough. I would like to post some photos. Feel free to share your views on traveling or getting away. I love to receive comments. Thanks for reading.

New Poetry Book

2008-01-21T09:23:00.002+10:00

Hello

I have recently been writing poetry and I have just published a collection called A Pocket Full of Poesy. If you want to check it out or purchase it click on the below link.

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=877719

Thanks a lot for your visit, it is good to see you.
Suzanne

Reviews:

a good voice 7 Mar 2008

by Julie Powell

I happened to notice A Pocket Full of Poesy by Suzanne Strong and thought it a good idea to comment on something other than novels.

Beauty Divine, the first poem of the collection, had so many levels but I will only talk of my immediate response. My first impression was that it wasn't about a plant at all but a person whose harsh life had moved to an even harsher death. 'Down to a solitary green stem' brought to mind someone who was in the last stages of cancer - such sadness.

Still, the poem had hope, as if in death (whether a plant or person) there is life around the corner, though to me it was filled with hurt.

I don't read that much poetry so I may be completely off track but I will say it was a powerful and emotional string of words.

Constant, the second poem made me smile though I still feel there was an aura of sadness about it. Poetry of course is like music, helping us dance with those difficult emotions that roll around inside waiting for release.

Poignant indeed but well constructed and certainly something to think about.

Julie Elizabeth Powell, author of Gone

Shamelessly brilliant 20 Feb 2008

by Aleksander Granger

It has a very special way of being human, which so much poetry seems to lose, and I love the down to earth voice it has. It's brilliance is really in its simplicity.

Colourful and lively. 23 Jan 2008

by jadzia1994

Suzanne's poetry book has a great start to it. The poems I have read are colourful and lively and bode well for more of the same. Her style is jaunty and playful full of fun and joy of life. I love her poetry it's just my cup of tea, and I'm sure it will be yours too.

Regards Anne Rogers

Author of The Shift Worker (Poetry)

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