Therapy in Creativity

Those sharp eyed followers of my blog have already contacted me to say they noticed my change of title heading.  Ruth Snell Creative Writing is now re-labelled as Ruth Snell Creative Arts. The simple reason being that painting has formed a large part of my life lately and I've found it easier to reach people through my painting than my writing.  Not that my book has fallen into the mire.  A lovely message came in only today to say how much someone enjoyed the story, so it is warming to know people out there are reading it.

When you create a painting and show it to a viewer, what you see is what you get.  When you write a book, people are aware the creative process is more of a two way street.  They have to acquire a copy of the book and then engage some of their spare time to read it. It may not be what they expect or it can give them a few surprises.  Paintings aren't like that. A split second of viewing will either draw someone in or they will walk on by.  Their appreciation is more instantaneous.

Perhaps then it is time to consider the importance of a book cover.  What sort of judgements do you make on browsing in a book shop? Do you have expectations of how a book cover should look or does it not worry you?  The official line from those who conduct studies into such observations say that the cover of a book will firstly make a browser pick it up. This can occupy some four to six seconds and if the 'blurb' on the back cover is attractively written, you have another hook in on a possible purchaser.

Is it all about hard sales? Well, the general idea in writing a book is that you want your 'message' to get out there. You have spent tremendous amounts of time writing the thing. Imagine if someone was paying you by the hour ...

For me the creative process must make me feel better about myself.  That is why for me, designing - and painting - the cover of my books is important to me. The reader will hopefully have 'more of me' in what they take from the bookshelf. The package must be more rounded.  I read several years ago that the singer/songwriter, Kate Bush, was very serious about record covers. Before she made it as a hit in the music world, as a young teenager, she would take a train into London on Saturday's to browse the shops.  If she bought a record (LP to us oldies) she would sit on the train back to Kent pouring over the record sleeve, absorbing the design.  At this point she didn't know what all the songs on the record sounded like, aside from the one perhaps she'd heard on the radio, but for her it was important to take in the cover design as it led her to understand more of what the music was portraying.  Occasionally there were surprises but more often than not, the design emphasised the audio effect.

So if you are a writer and plan to publish, think carefully about your book cover.  You may not be artistic but that doesn't matter.  The point is that you know what you want your cover to be like. And, painting is a very therapeutic occupation.  Writing can be extremely stressful. Even if you have the most perfect plot in the world and stunning characters, time for editing could be tight, your laptop may be playing up or even worse, crash losing your work. Painting (or drawing) may even help you understand what you are trying to say.  Art, in all its forms is highly enjoyable but it can help the mind to cross over to another discipline.  Think carefully about your book cover and make it intrinsic to the text. Make it ... you ...

Happy creativity!

http://www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk/artists/ruth-snell

Creative Writing Workshop on Russian Literature and it's importance to Western Literary Culture

Last year I ran a creative writing workshop near Plymouth where we focused on the styles of the Russian writers.  Each literary gem has something to teach us.

The first image of Russia is one of bleak Siberian winters, heavy fur coats, Communism and the Kremlin.  Scratch behind this imagery and you will find something far different.  All of this is reflected in their highly successful literature which stands as a classic on the world stage.

What is their technique?  Don't forget many writers who put their feelings onto paper were locked up and/or disappeared under the Communist regime.  Some will say things haven't changed.  However, as artists we are not here to judge that per se.  We just want to look and enjoy.

If you want to get started on a good Russian short story then look no further than Anton Chekhov.  His short story The Cherry Orchard stands alone as a wonderful work of art which grasps the cusp of change in 'old' Russia when we see that a family hanging onto old, traditional standards are 'in the way' of financial property development.  It shows the first type of capitalism entering Russia when the poor peasant is no longer poor.  Servant turned master and all the rest of it.  At the end of the story, only the truly traditional servant is left caring about the family, the house and the orchards.  Money talks.

At school, a truly wonderful teacher of Literature, Mrs Barbara Allen, took us through some of the work of Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol.  Gogol carries something into his work which makes us all look at ourselves from time to time.  He puts his finger on the pulse of human frailties.  If you haven't read any of his work then it's worth a try.

Russian Flash Fiction?  How about reading some of the work of Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko to give you a stunning overview.  Quick reads such as The Bathhouse, The Galosh and The Hat are food for thought.

In Russia it was important to be successful in both the short story form and poetry before even contemplating the novel.  It was a true marathon.  So, if you haven't yet looked at Russian literature then it is worth a go and is something more accessible than you think.

Magna Carta and Inspeximus .... the Link

We now, in 2015, stand on the threshold of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.  A document signed by King John in 1215 after pressure from the Barons - not to mention the church - speaks of freedom and liberty.  King John was a very unpopular King and was eventually pushed into a tight corner at Runnymede where he was encouraged to sign the document we recognize today.  As a legal document, the Magna Carta has never been revoked and English law is founded on its beliefs.

The word 'Inspeximus' means literally in Latin = 'We have inspected' and comes from the right of land owners to show that what they have is legally theirs.  At Domesday, a record was taken of all land holdings (manors) and what they consisted of; from people to livestock and woodland.  In later years, a re-visitation took place and in 1381 when King Richard II was on the throne, an Inspeximus grant of Walkhampton manor took place to certify ownership.  Walkhampton was a Royal Manor and the premier lead manor of The Roborough Hundred.  Plymouth barely existed and was just a small fishing village called Sutton. 

Time has moved on and much has changed.  However, to hold the 1381 Inspeximus grant in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office was quite a special feeling.  So much can be learnt from our surroundings.  We just need to know how to look.

Creative Writing Before and During Inspeximus - Plymouth and South Devon

I founded Plymouth Proprietary Library Writers Group in 2009.  A literary diamond in the city which doesn't get the attention it deserves.  However, working full time means that any voluntary work (i.e. for library committee ... read unpaid charity work ... and the rapidly growing PPL Writers Group) is limited.  I gave up sitting on the library committee as certain traditional ideas were different to mine.  Never mind; we all move on.  The Plymouth Proprietary Library Writers Group apparently continues to thrive and has now moved into the Plymouth Arts Centre.  I sincerely wish them well.  I rarely spend much time in Plymouth these days unless I have to.

Occasionally I dabble with competitions for poetry and short stories.  Admittedly not as often as I would like to, as the day job gets in the way.  A brief summary of results found in my shambolic filing system is as follows:

2010         National Association of Writers Groups        Runner Up for the Ten Minute Radio Play
with:  THE LAIRA QUATRAIN   (Play)

2010         Delivered Magazine                                  
with:  AN ODE TO WOOLWORTHS (Poem)

2010         Graffiti Short Story Competition                    Shortlisted
with:  GOING HOME (Short Story)

2011         The Herald Plymouth
with:  POETRY PUBLISHED

2011         Poetry Rivals 2011
with:  A CLOCK STRIKES THIRTEEN (Poem)

2012         West Country Writers Association                 Third Prize - event held in Bath, Somerset.
with:  CONTINUUM (Short Story)

2012         Write Around Totnes
with:  THE TOTNES ODYSSEY (Poem)

2012         The Stephen Spender Prize for Translation
with:  THEOCRITUS - (Translation of a pattern poem from the original Classical Greek into contemporary English)                                                     Commended by Professor Edith Hall

2013        United Press
with:  SUNRISE OVER LAIRA MILL (Poem)

2013        EXCite Poetry Festival of Exeter
with:  FORMULA ONE FERN (Poem)                          Shortlisted

2013       Literature Works
with:  NUMBERS (Poem)                                               Published on Literature Works website

2013       Wells Festival of Literature                              Shortlisted
with:  PTERIDOMANIA (Short Story)

2014       The Great British Write Off
with:  RIVER ERME:  DEVON (Poem)

2014      The Yeovil Literary Prize                                  Commended by Judge Annie Freud
with:  FORMULA ONE FERN (Poem)

2014      Fylde Brighter Writers Competition
with:  COFFEE (Poem)                                                   Shortlisted

2015      The Sentinel Annual Short Story Competition  Second Prize
with:  JAIL GRAIL (Short Story)

2015      Carillon Magazine                                             Shortlisted
with:  MISTAKEN IDENTITY (Short Story)


Top Tip:  never take entering competitions seriously.  As someone who has been involved in the judging process, choosing a winner isn't easy and will vacillate considerably depending on who is in your panel of judges.  Supporting competitions as and when you can is important for creative writing as a whole.  But then, not easy for those of us working full time ... so just treat it as a fun hobby but nothing more.

Inspeximus:  Poetry from the Manors of the Roborough Hundred was written over a long period of time and I had no deadline to publish it by, so it was possible to write on other themes occasionally.

The Story So Far ... Inspeximus

Grateful thanks to everyone for the interest in the book.  I'm now being asked what I'm working on next.  Well, I'm always working on or with something and my work does take time but I don't talk about it when it's 'work in progress'.  A piece of art grows gradually; writers, painters, musicians etc always have to let their creations evolve from within.  I don't consider it something technical enough to be clinically planned out in advance and bolted together.  If any 'bolting together' is done, its usually at the very end in the final editing process.  From the beginning and for a large part of the book's evolution, you enjoy 'it' finding it's own way out and upwards.  It is similar to nurturing a plant.  You keep it warm, water it and watch it shoot.  The green shoots don't always spring up where you expect them to.

Marketing a book takes time and patience - it also brings a few surprises.  I was delighted that Waterstones Plymouth and Lee Furneaux Books in Tavistock have been selling copies.  Sales have also done well in the creative writing environment and with local history enthusiasts too, as Inspeximus is now being publicised in Totnes.  Interestingly Plymouth Arts Centre (where I was a member) weren't interested in selling copies.  So, I didn't renew my membership last month.  Support works both ways in business.

I was lucky to have the professional services of SilverWood Books in Bristol help me in the final editing and publishing process.  I can't recommend them enough.

Lee Furneaux Books of Tavistock now stocking copies of Inspeximus

Lee Furneaux Books of Tavistock in Devon is now stocking copies of Inspeximus: Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred.

Inspeximus: Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred by Ruth Snell

Inspeximus:  Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred by Ruth Snell.  ISBN: 978-1-78132-302-1. Published by Silverwood Books of Bristol with a release date of 6 October 2014.

... Re-examines an area in south west Devon where the bustling community around Buckland Monachorum was once more heavily populated than any of the Plymouth manors.  Moving from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Norman Conquest and beyond, the unusual genre of weaving poetry from manorial and local history seeks to peer into the past through a searching tangent of the imagination.  Each manor had its own story to tell and was occupied and worked by colourful personalities.

Here in the early 21st century with so much destroyed by either war or development, a stop to pause and look by physically visiting former manorial sites and envisaging how people would have lived, offers a tangible breath of the past.