Opening Keynote
We began day 2 with a talk by author Monique Roffey (@moniqueroffey13) on The Truth in Sex and Writing. As a writer of Fan Fiction which usually features a lot of sex, I am certainly no stranger to writing sex scenes into my stories. But as any FF writer will tell you, sometimes you feel you’ve exhausted every possible way of saying ‘…and they had sex.’ Especially when there are certain words you yourself are not a fan of using. One of my friends hates the word panties with a passion. I myself am not a fan of the word pussy. I could go on but you get the gist.
As such, I was probably looking forward to Monique’s talk (and reading) the most. When she did do her reading I quickly realised Monique’s writing style was nothing like mine, which was a pity as I’d hoped to at least ask her the age old question of how she kept each of the sex scenes fresh and different in her book. Having said that, I know a lot of the women at Grrrl Con loved her talk, and got a lot out of it. And I of course wish her every continued success with her writing.
>Related tangent< In one of the workshops I overheard someone say in a disparaging tone that FF was not real writing. Initially this upset me because that person could not have been aware that there was a FF writer in the room, but should have thought about how hurtful those words could be to such a person. But then I felt sorry for them that they had clearly not read the kind of FF that I have read, which would mean she would never have felt the need to say those words in the first place. I mention this here because although Monique’s writing style isn’t for me, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want her to succeed. The world is made up of so many different people, and lots of them will love Monique’s books. If this weekend has taught me anything it’s that there is room for all of us, because we all bring something different to the table.
Morning Workshop
Anyway, back to day 2. My first workshop was Leonie Ross’ (@leoneross) ‘How to edit the hell out of your fiction’. One of my first notes from this workshop was… don’t go off on tangents. See above. Apologies Leonie.
Now for the rest:
What makes for a 'good' sentence?
Don't go off on tangents (oops)
Clarity
Punctuation
Rhythm
Communication
It should move the story on
It should affect the person reading it
Leonie gave us a really helpful handout during this session and so most of my notes just add to that really.
1) Specificity - Details are emotional, that's why if we hear bad news, we don't want the details
2) Directness - You know how the character thinks/feels etc, but you need to make sure that is clear on the page. The key to this is directness. Know what you want to say. Don't try to be clever, just tell the truth.
3) Sentence length - Don't stick to five word sentences. Variety is key.
4) Parts of speech hierarchy / parallelism - You need to show the details, but sometimes you need to tell us what is happening.
5) Unusual Collocation - Using words that are opposites of the thing you are describing. Break sentences down to see if you can inter-splice new words to mix it up.
6) Purple Prose - When writing is over-flowery. If you're unsure what you're getting at, the purpose of the sentence needs to be clear. Don't lose sight of the point. How many metaphors do I have in one sentence? How many adjectives in the sentence? Am I taking away from the thing I am describing? Am I overfilling the empty room in the readers mind?
7) Wordiness - Redundancy - Too many words for the job. Saying the same thing twice.
8) Wordiness - Fake Intensifiers - Adverbs. An intensifier is added to an adjective that isn't required. Show the activities behind what you are describing.
9) Wordiness - Stretchers - Another way of being indirect, adding volume to your sentence but no value.
10) Wordiness - Thickeners - Adding a fancier word to again thicken your sentence. Don't try to show how clever you are, write from the heart.
Finally, make separate time to edit. If you're writing, write. If you're editing, edit. Don't try to do both at the same time.
I still need to look at Hemingwayapp.com which identifies those pesky adverbs. It colour codes your piece of writing so you can look more closely at what you have written.
Afternoon Workshop
Our second workshop of the day was ‘Writing without the male gaze’ with Desiree Reynolds (@desreereynolds). Here I discovered that my way of writing without adding in descriptions of my characters is actually not a bad thing. And I also got to talk about the Hawkeye Initiative and how it is helping to redress the balance of the overtly sexist male gaze on female superheroes. Google it if you’ve never heard of it, it’s wonderful.
Here are the notes I took:
Start a process of re-thinking your female characters.
Your female character's description can be left to the reader's imagination. Beauty is not a character trait. Your female character doesn't have to be beautiful, but similarly, if she isn't she doesn't have to be the villain.
As writers it's not your job to like your character. They don't always have to do the right thing. It's okay if they fuck up because that's what real people do.
Tackling female stereotypes is an on-going fight. You need to work at it.
The story is the most important thing. What does your story need. What is it telling you to do? Let your story lead you to where it is going to go.
You can't represent all characters all the time. If your story is about a woman, a man, a black person, a white person, a disabled person, a gay person, it's about THEM. You don't need to put them in to make it diverse, they can't be there to serve any purpose other than to serve the story.
You can't include all characters just so a particular culture is represented. You can only represent the characters that your story is about.
You can't write for other people, only for yourself.
Writing exercise - Write a character without description. No jobs, no mirrors, no descriptions of how other characters see them.
Rules of writing - You don't always need to 'show not tell'. You have to do it how you do it. Let the story lead you.
Closing Keynote
Our closing keynote from day two was by the Poetic Legend Patience Agbabi (@patienceagbabi). I stole those words from the Grrrl Con Storify and I’m not ashamed because they perfectly encapsulate Patience’s brilliance. She read to us from her Poetry collection Telling Tales. My favourite quote has to be "The story ends where you put the frame, but however it begins, remember my name."
A couple of notes I took from Patience:
When re-working old texts find a form that suits you, that fits.
Consider what it is like to walk in the other writers shoes.
Patience also read a poem titled 'Eat Me' about feeders. Very powerful stuff.
That’s What She Said: Nasty Grrrls
We ended day 2 of Grrrl Con by attending the spoken word night ‘That’s What She Said: Nasty Grrrls’ at TriBeca, where a piece on Trauma by Katie Watson (@kwatsonwriter) moved me and my fellow WLAG Lou to tears. It was beautiful and sad and everything in between.
We began day 2 with a talk by author Monique Roffey (@moniqueroffey13) on The Truth in Sex and Writing. As a writer of Fan Fiction which usually features a lot of sex, I am certainly no stranger to writing sex scenes into my stories. But as any FF writer will tell you, sometimes you feel you’ve exhausted every possible way of saying ‘…and they had sex.’ Especially when there are certain words you yourself are not a fan of using. One of my friends hates the word panties with a passion. I myself am not a fan of the word pussy. I could go on but you get the gist.
As such, I was probably looking forward to Monique’s talk (and reading) the most. When she did do her reading I quickly realised Monique’s writing style was nothing like mine, which was a pity as I’d hoped to at least ask her the age old question of how she kept each of the sex scenes fresh and different in her book. Having said that, I know a lot of the women at Grrrl Con loved her talk, and got a lot out of it. And I of course wish her every continued success with her writing.
>Related tangent< In one of the workshops I overheard someone say in a disparaging tone that FF was not real writing. Initially this upset me because that person could not have been aware that there was a FF writer in the room, but should have thought about how hurtful those words could be to such a person. But then I felt sorry for them that they had clearly not read the kind of FF that I have read, which would mean she would never have felt the need to say those words in the first place. I mention this here because although Monique’s writing style isn’t for me, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want her to succeed. The world is made up of so many different people, and lots of them will love Monique’s books. If this weekend has taught me anything it’s that there is room for all of us, because we all bring something different to the table.
Morning Workshop
Anyway, back to day 2. My first workshop was Leonie Ross’ (@leoneross) ‘How to edit the hell out of your fiction’. One of my first notes from this workshop was… don’t go off on tangents. See above. Apologies Leonie.
Now for the rest:
What makes for a 'good' sentence?
Don't go off on tangents (oops)
Clarity
Punctuation
Rhythm
Communication
It should move the story on
It should affect the person reading it
Leonie gave us a really helpful handout during this session and so most of my notes just add to that really.
1) Specificity - Details are emotional, that's why if we hear bad news, we don't want the details
2) Directness - You know how the character thinks/feels etc, but you need to make sure that is clear on the page. The key to this is directness. Know what you want to say. Don't try to be clever, just tell the truth.
3) Sentence length - Don't stick to five word sentences. Variety is key.
4) Parts of speech hierarchy / parallelism - You need to show the details, but sometimes you need to tell us what is happening.
5) Unusual Collocation - Using words that are opposites of the thing you are describing. Break sentences down to see if you can inter-splice new words to mix it up.
6) Purple Prose - When writing is over-flowery. If you're unsure what you're getting at, the purpose of the sentence needs to be clear. Don't lose sight of the point. How many metaphors do I have in one sentence? How many adjectives in the sentence? Am I taking away from the thing I am describing? Am I overfilling the empty room in the readers mind?
7) Wordiness - Redundancy - Too many words for the job. Saying the same thing twice.
8) Wordiness - Fake Intensifiers - Adverbs. An intensifier is added to an adjective that isn't required. Show the activities behind what you are describing.
9) Wordiness - Stretchers - Another way of being indirect, adding volume to your sentence but no value.
10) Wordiness - Thickeners - Adding a fancier word to again thicken your sentence. Don't try to show how clever you are, write from the heart.
Finally, make separate time to edit. If you're writing, write. If you're editing, edit. Don't try to do both at the same time.
I still need to look at Hemingwayapp.com which identifies those pesky adverbs. It colour codes your piece of writing so you can look more closely at what you have written.
Afternoon Workshop
Our second workshop of the day was ‘Writing without the male gaze’ with Desiree Reynolds (@desreereynolds). Here I discovered that my way of writing without adding in descriptions of my characters is actually not a bad thing. And I also got to talk about the Hawkeye Initiative and how it is helping to redress the balance of the overtly sexist male gaze on female superheroes. Google it if you’ve never heard of it, it’s wonderful.
Here are the notes I took:
Start a process of re-thinking your female characters.
Your female character's description can be left to the reader's imagination. Beauty is not a character trait. Your female character doesn't have to be beautiful, but similarly, if she isn't she doesn't have to be the villain.
As writers it's not your job to like your character. They don't always have to do the right thing. It's okay if they fuck up because that's what real people do.
Tackling female stereotypes is an on-going fight. You need to work at it.
The story is the most important thing. What does your story need. What is it telling you to do? Let your story lead you to where it is going to go.
You can't represent all characters all the time. If your story is about a woman, a man, a black person, a white person, a disabled person, a gay person, it's about THEM. You don't need to put them in to make it diverse, they can't be there to serve any purpose other than to serve the story.
You can't include all characters just so a particular culture is represented. You can only represent the characters that your story is about.
You can't write for other people, only for yourself.
Writing exercise - Write a character without description. No jobs, no mirrors, no descriptions of how other characters see them.
Rules of writing - You don't always need to 'show not tell'. You have to do it how you do it. Let the story lead you.
Closing Keynote
Our closing keynote from day two was by the Poetic Legend Patience Agbabi (@patienceagbabi). I stole those words from the Grrrl Con Storify and I’m not ashamed because they perfectly encapsulate Patience’s brilliance. She read to us from her Poetry collection Telling Tales. My favourite quote has to be "The story ends where you put the frame, but however it begins, remember my name."
A couple of notes I took from Patience:
When re-working old texts find a form that suits you, that fits.
Consider what it is like to walk in the other writers shoes.
Patience also read a poem titled 'Eat Me' about feeders. Very powerful stuff.
That’s What She Said: Nasty Grrrls
We ended day 2 of Grrrl Con by attending the spoken word night ‘That’s What She Said: Nasty Grrrls’ at TriBeca, where a piece on Trauma by Katie Watson (@kwatsonwriter) moved me and my fellow WLAG Lou to tears. It was beautiful and sad and everything in between.
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