All I have is words

I studied English at Advanced Mains level in college and I have an MA in Creative Writing. I have taught Creative Writing, too, but, shall I tell you what? You cannot teach anyone to write creatively. You can mark their work, make suggestions, advise some serious editing, point them in the direction of books  that might inspire them, but . . . 

Writing has a lot to do with the way we think.  E.M. Forster, the novelist, said that you do not know what you think until you see what you say. That's putting what I said back to front. Let's think again.

A student said to me that any words put on paper are an act of creation. Ye-es. So. We'll try it.

You got out of bed this morning, visited the bathroom, made some tea? Interesting? I don't think so. Why? Millions of others did the same thing.

But, you woke up this morning and there on your pillow was a frog with a rhinestone collar around his dear little neck (or whatever passed for his dear little neck)  and standing behind him was a snow leopard? Getting better?

The problem with many students is that they love their own work. I had the opposite problem. I was too critical of myself, destroying much of what I wrote. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to write my novel 'Salt Blue'.

Although I could write, I felt the need not just to tell a story, but to use words 'creatively'. We'll look at  Page 173 in 'Salt Blue' and see how I handle this:  Stella, the heroine wakes up on the day she is due to fly to America. She's not been further than London before.

'I wake early. An ice candle crackles against the sleep-warm flesh of my thighs, claws at my belly, scrapes its way to the polished tin knocker guarding the quiet chambers of my heart and rattles hard.

"Wake up, little kiddie. Today you're off to find you're Great American Dream and you're going, frit-frightened or not."'

I might have said, if I'd listened to the student; 'When I woke I felt frightened about going to America and I had to force myself out of bed.'

What's the verdict on the last sentence? I've placed words in grammatical order and they make sense but would anyone want to read more or would thay have nodded off to sleep before reaching the next sentence?

You be the jury.

Libraries

Julia Donaldson, the new Children's Laureate and best-selling author, has spoken out against the Government's plans for closing libraries.

The Haverfordwest Library opens Monday to Saturday, when it closes at 1 pm. It has two 'late' nights a week, closing at seven o'clock  When I was a child  my local library opened all day on a Saturday afternoon, giving those who worked in the week time to browse.  I've wondered for years why library opening hours are not more flexible.

Wittgenstein, the philosopher, called language a 'key skill', providing access to other areas of learning and helping us to order our thoughts. We have four vocabularies: listening, speaking, writing and reading.  Reading exposes us to a wider vocabulary than we might otherwise have. The more books we read, the greater our language facility becomes.

  

I'm fond of  people's published diaries.  Nella Last's  'Housewife 47' gave me hours of pleasure. Nella's writing was part of a survey during World War II and she describes the monotonous dreariness of her life.  Frustrations in her marriage become apparent and she worries about one of her sons.  The war gives Nella  a role but when it ends she slips back into housework again and loses some of her vivacity.

  

'Housewife 47' comes in a DVD, too, but nothing can replace the written word and the feeling of solitude that being alone with a book gives.

Why don't libraries open on a Sunday?  Leisure centres do.  More people might use them then. As it's a question of money, libraries are probably doomed.  I suspect that  if they'd opened for longer hours, more people might have used them and they would not be facing closure now.