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The Exeter Novel Prize

21/4/2013

Sophie (right) and the big cheque.

If you've just clicked through from the Home page, then you may have seen our announcement of the forthcoming Exeter Novel Prize. We are very excited about this opportunity to champion an unpublished novel and are thrilled that London literary agent Broo Doherty has agreed to be our judge and that Exeter Writers are sponsoring the prize. We will be having a launch event in June and hope to see lots of people there.

I'm very keen on writing competitions as my students well know. A listing of any sort should be added to the CV because it demonstrates a high level of competence. Don't forget that if your story doesn't win one competition, it might well win another. I know this to be true! Placing depends on the judges preference, you don't have to cross the line first or keep a ball in court to win. What you have to do, is write it and send it, then perhaps go and sacrifice a metaphorical goat if it makes you feel better.

The photo's rather blurry but when Sophie won the Luke Bitmead Award for her novel The Generation Game, she said the whole evening was a blur. She has since had two novels published to acclaim.

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Character

8/4/2013

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Take a little long armed blobby creature...

At my book group yesterday, I was very offended when the book being discussed - The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - was described in a very derisory tone as reading 'like a creative writing exercise - you know, think of a character...pfft.'
Now, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so it wasn't the insult to the masterly book itself I took issue with. It was the idea that creative writing exercises were stupid and that thinking up characters was either simplistic or unnecessary.

...and a chicken

Shakespeare thought up Malvolio, Jane Austen thought up Elizabeth Bennet. Dickens - Miss Haversham and Uriah Heep. Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Julia Donaldson - the gruffalo.
The creation of characters is a serious and time-consuming business. There is no story if no one's in it. The success of the last Bond movie for me, was that James Bond finally got a life. He was no longer the two dimensional action hero stereotype of the previous films. He was flawed, vulnerable and I/we cared all the more as a result.

Oh yes, and there's the ingredient that goes in everything.

The character of Futh in The Lighthouse is a very complex individual. Somewhere on the autistic spectrum he endeavours to come to terms with his life whilst on a walking holiday. In the event, he is unable to cope physically or during the various interactions with others that he has along the way. It is a very bleak but always compelling book. The reader gains considerable insight into the difficulties the life offers someone like Futh.
When I was thinking about character before I wrote this, I thought I would search the free images to find a photo to accompany this blog. What I found for the word 'character' very near the top, was this little tryptic of slides and I thought what a wonderfully whacky recipe for a character they would make.
I thought the last one particularly pertinent, for the relationship between author and their characters is so very close. A glitter ball comes to my mind and the face of someone new on every facet.

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The Exeter Novel Prize

Character

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