Today’s coffee break writing challenge. Write for 10 minutes on whatever the below image prompts in you. If you feel like sharing, post an excerpt of what you come up with in the comments field directly below.
Untitled, originally uploaded by Heartbeatbox.
For many desk jockeys come aspiring writers, a coffee break can be the only chance you get to disengage from the every day and be yourself for 10 glorious caffeine filled minutes.
If ‘yourself’ means ‘writer’, the break can also be a good time to break new ground with your writing.
The cafe is full of dead time; few distractions (if you go it alone) and no writing expectations. If you manage some words, super, if you don’t, no one’s likely to chastise you on arrival back at the office. The point is to provide your brain with new opportunities for creative thought.
So with that in mind, this is the first of a line of new writing challenges I’m calling #coffeebreak.
It’s not hard, you simply look at the photo and then write whatever comes to mind for 10 minutes.
Don’t be constrained by trying to figure out where this fits in your novel, the purpose is to limber up the imagination, not to add serious words to your quota.
Let me know how you go by posting an excerpt of what you write in the comments box below.
Winner of the 2009 Age Book of The Year, Steven Amsterdam's debut novel Things We Didn't See Coming launched in the US this month following critical acclaim in Australia. Amsterdam sends us his thoughts from his New York promotional tour on what's new, old and still the same for a debut novelist.
Things We Didn’t See Coming (TWDSC) spans 30 years and 9 stories, a sort of post-apocalyptic ‘coming of age’ narrative set in the not-too-distant future. Eschewing familiar caustic visions of depopulated futures, the narrative of TWDSC covers multiple ends and beginnings (including the ‘failed’ Y2K apocalypse) with less focus on death, and more on the relationships between survivors as they etch out their own unique visions of a troubled future.
Each story in the collection can be read in isolation, but together they span a grand narrative, expertly paced and consistent in tone despite the variety of environments and characters covered; from disease ridden badlands to flooded forests and lavish mansions, all populated with an eclectic cast of characters.
“The stories, once I realised I was writing a longer narrative, were kept in the same tone, ” says Amsterdam. “Some consistency was added in the editorial process. This included fleshing out enough to make sure the reader felt there was some overall narrative to adhere to.”
Top Shelf Fiction
Backed by the independent Melbourne-based Sleepers Publishing, Amsterdam’s original take on the genre has earned him praise at home in Australia and now abroad with the February… Read more
Last week:
This week:
Momentum is a bitch.
Perth Writers Festival 2010 is now less than two weeks away. This three day/four night event gets bigger and better every year, and in 2010 the lineup includes a fantastic variety of new and established writers with names like Irvine Welsh, David Finkel and Thomas Keneally bringing real cred to the Perth writing scene.
I’ll be hovering around the festival tent covering the ins and outs of the literary elite via twitter and each night here on the blog (free tickets would help – hint hint). The full timetable and ticketing options is up over at the Official Perth Festival Website.
Here are my picks for the best sessions to see at the Perth Writers Festival 2010:
Saturday 27th Feb
(8.30am) Breakfast with Tom Keneally – Tom Keneally has two new books: Australians is the first in a three-volume history on the humanity of our national tale; while The People’s Train takes us to the heart of the Russian Revolution. Join Tom as he discusses his fascination with history. Includes breakfast.
Price: $42.50
(9.30am) Writing Away from Home – Marele Day’s latest novel illuminates the beauty of Japan’s… Read more
“So what kind of novel are you writing?”
Over the course of writing your novel you will be faced with this question many times. Through politeness, friends and colleagues will take interest in this endeavor you have taken on. To them, saying you are “writing a novel” is akin to saying you are “building a boat”.
Most likely your friends and colleagues will have had no direct connection with anyone who has built a boat or written a novel. To them you are undertaking a ‘novelty challenge’. It makes no sense to write a novel (or build a ship) when there are plenty at hand (or at mooring). Hence you become a curiosity, and the question is asked “What kind of novel are you writing?”
This is a difficult question to answer.
A novel is the end product of writing. You do not “write a novel”. You either “have a novel” or you have pages of words. One does not pick up a cucumber and say they have a salad.
Once you realise this distinction, questions about novels become meaningless. You have no novel. You have pages, but so does papier-mache, and no one ever called a wad of glue soaked pages… Read more
Some tips for future producers on how to make a good movie adaptation. Cormac Mcarthy’s The Road vs Michel Houllebecq’s The Possibility of an Island.
- The Road: Studio funds project.
- The Possibility of an Island: Author funds project.
- The Road: Studio hire’s independent director with track record of gritty films.
- The Possibility of an Island: Author hire’s himself as director.
- The Road: Director turns up for premiere press conference.
- The Possibility of an Island: Director/Author cancels his own press conference and refuses to introduce film.
Results
The critics say of The Road:
“This expertly crafted ‘road movie’ does provide, thanks to the director’s brave commitment to realism, a poetic and intentionally devastating emotional viewing experience.”
The critics say of The Possibility of an Island:
“This film is of a quite exemplary tedium,” declared the Corriere della Sera’s critic, Maurizio Porro. “It is not the slightest bit involving … and is sadly lacking not only in substance but also in basic narrative structure. [It is] hard to make poetry out of confusion.”
Though you would never guess from the trailer…
Compared to The Road:
A collection of shots from Friday night’s La Fura Del Baus opening act of the 2010 Perth International Arts Festival. Taken on a Canon 5D Mkii with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens.
Still learning the ropes with this camera, but having a lot of fun. I was using my manfrotto fluid head tripod for this footage, which is a dream to use, though a little heavy to lug around at times.
I’m discovering more and more that the key to good video is people. At Friday night’s event I was awestruck by the number of people who came out to see the spectacle and their reactions are definitely the highlight of the video. I didn’t feel it was so important getting perfect shots of the show itself when there was so much going on in the crowd.
It was also nice to see all the families out enjoying art in the city once more. Nice work PIAF.
Everyday of the working week at a similar time, perhaps 10am or 10.30, I get up from my office chair, put my journal under my arm, a pen in my pocket, a re-usable takeaway coffee cup in my hand, and announce to my colleagues, all of whom are well used to this ritual, that I am going to get a coffee.
No one questions this ritual. I have never been asked what the journal is for, or why it is so frequently with me. My colleagues are privvy to some vague assertion that I ‘write’, but of what, none of this is discussed.
When I arrive at the coffee shop, an office worker with the same journal and re-usable coffee cup everyday, a similar story. The girls, one of whom is named Tani, know my order, know that even though the re-usable cup is takeaway, I will sit in, usually on the high bench where no one sits for long, or at the back, where the tables are rarely set for lunch. I get out my pen, open my journal, which has many pages covered in black scrawl, and begin writing.
While others flick through papers, skimming the news and… Read more