Finding acorns

Visual stories

As a writer, I admire photographers and poets. They have the ability to distill meaning and stories into a single frame or page. Some poets need only a few lines to draw an image in your mind that is so crisp.

As a writer, there is pressure to get as many words on the page as possible, so that when it comes time to edit, you have words to lose.

But sometimes it doesn't matter how many words you write or speak, the message is still unclear. Sometimes a single frame can capture what you're feeling deep inside...

There are authors I love for their scarce prose - Maxence Fermine ('Snow' and 'The Bee Keeper'), Tara June Winch ('Swallow the Air'), Nerida Newton ('The Lambing Flat') and Patrick Cullen ('What Came Between').

With a lean style comes a raw honesty, because all the superfluous words have been stripped away.

I hope that digital publishing sees a return to the shorter writing forms - short stories, novellas - and perhaps new forms of writing that take advantage of the opportunities that the digital space offers.

 

You can follow me on Instagram @findingacorns to discover my visual stories. Here's a sneak peek...

        

I'm reading...

My latest readings have taken me from Nagasaki to Gundagai to Saigon, following the journeys of central characters as they deal with loss, love and childhood memories.

While each book explores the same themes and tells the story of a central female character, that is the extent of the similarities. But it got me thinking about universal themes and story structures. 

A Pale View of the Hills (Kazuo Ishiguro)

I started out with Kazuo Ishiguro's 1982 classic - A Pale View of the Hills - the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in London, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. But most of the story is set in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggle to rebuild their lives after the war and she develops a strange friendship with Sachiko, a wealthy woman reduced to poverty.

It's an interesting cast of very distinct characters. Some are lovable, some are not, but you can't help but be intrigued by their stories. 

What I love most about Ishiguro's work (and it's common in other books of his that I've read) is the depth of story and undercurrents. At only 183 pages, it's a short novel with a lot of things unsaid, a style I personally enjoy in a book. 

Purple Threads (Jeanine Leane)

The subject matter lightened with the reading of Jeanine Leane's debut novel Purple Threads for which she won the 2011 David Unaipon Award. Leane weaves a beautiful tale based on her life growing up on a sheep farm in Gundagai with her Aunties and Nan who you warm to in the first page. Told through the eyes of a child it has all innocence and honesty you'd expect, and more.

For me the stand out was the characterisation of the dialogue and Leane's evocative descriptions of place. There was a real sense of seasons turning, time passing and an unquestionable connection to the land.

Like Ishiguro, Leane's book was short - 10 short stories and an epiloque, but again it felt like it contained so much more.

The Rainy Season (Myfanwy Jones)

Myfanwy Jones, The Rainy Season (2009) is a full length novel where everything is spelled out. Through the central character; Ella, who is coming to terms with her feelings of rejection, Jones explores expatriate life in Vietnam; a country in the midst of change, and the unacknowledged soldiers of the Vietnam War. It creates an interesting landscape and dynamic for a story.

Although I tend to shy away from full length novels (it's a time issue!) there were many parts that resonated and I was intrigued to know how the story ended. I also liked the insight into Vietnamese life but was secretly happy when the central character ventured beyond her expat friends and into the dusty back alleyways. 

Reading each book it was clear that even though they had similar themes, they were very different stories, each told in their own style. Where A Pale View of the Hills appealed for it's 'white space', Purple Threads shone through the characters and setting and The Rainy Season for it's clarity.

Image: Cover designs by Blue Cork, Miriam Rosenbloom and Two Associates.

QWC launch 2011 program of events

The Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) 2011 Program of Events has officially been launched and this year there are some new surprises. I don't know about you but the thought of writing workshops and the chance to meet like minded people inspires me to keep on writing.

For short fiction writers, the 2011 program offers:

Short Story Clinic led by Angela Slater

 Thursdays - 24 Feb, 31 Mar, 12 May, 23 Jun, 4 Aug and 15 Sep

6pm - 8pm

Part of the developing writers series, the Short Story Clinic is 'for writers who are serious about writing and submitting short fiction'.

 

Crafting Short Fiction with Trent Jamieson

Sunday 17 April

10:30am - 4:30pm

This masterclass focuses on advanced writing techniques and tutor feedback on a sample of your work. Trent Jamieson will step you through the elements of powerful short fiction and help you understand and strengthen your own stories.

 

Free drop in sessions for members are a new QWC initiative, designed to squeeze inspiration and good old fashioned creative writing time into your work day. 

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Mondays - 7 Feb, 7 Mar, 4 Apr, 9 May, 6 Jun, 4 Jul, 1 Aug, 5 Sep, 3 Oct and 7 Nov

 7:45am - 8:30am

Drop in for some creative writing exercises before work!

 

While I can't make it to the Monday sessions the concept of creative writing exercises before work is just the thing for establishing good writing habits. As is a commitment to a series of monthly classes where you critique and have your work critiqued.

Of course there are the usual creative writing workshops and masterclasses, Poetry Series, Year of the Writer and AWM Online Learning Centre as well as an extensive regional program to choose from. For inspiration, check out the QWC 2011 Calendar of Events.

For I Will Fly To You

Here's a little bit of Friday joy...

For I Will Fly To You is a short, multi-layered and interactive piece by writer Isabella Mead and animator Felicity Yee. 

Commissioned by Experimenta, the online artwork combines text, animated visuals and sound. The viewer is taken on a journey in which they come face-to-face with a peacock, a hummingbird and an owl.

Enjoy!

Finding my feet in short fiction

When I first set out writing Finding acorns over a year ago I was fascinated with the creative writing process (and still am). But it seems my blog has found its feet in the short fiction world. Through no badgering or coercing, but rather that it found its own way there. 

Writing is a bit like that for me. As an avid free writer I don't set out with a destination in mind. I'm happy to let the characters dictate how many words they need to tell their story. 

I guess at some stage in the process (in my early writing years) I thought that one day I would write a novel. But the moment I set off on that path of telling stories I realised that my style was more condensed. I was happy to do away with pages of description and provide just enough detail for the reader to get a sense of place and fill in the white space. 

I remember in London stumbling across the work of Maxence Fermine in a dark timber shelved bookstore on Fulham Road that served tangy, sweet lemon cake. I've read Fermine's fable Snow five times and the third in the trilogy; The Beekeeper maybe a few less. The same is true of the other short fiction in my bookcase - Swallow the Air (Tara June Winch), Mama Kuma (Deborah Carlyon), The Sitters (Alex Miller)... In fact, The Sitters is the only of Miller's work I finished reading. 

More recently I've been reading short story collections and literary magazines as time to read becomes more precious with little acorns around.

And just the other day I found a cafe in one of Brisbane's hidden laneways  where copies of a hand-bound zine we for sale in a vintage suitcase on the counter. It followed a discovery of an old friend who hangs out at Shelbyville and has created a fabulous zine - Li'l Laundromatic. This discovery that writing can merge with design and doesn't have to be the stock standard books we see on bookstore shelves was liberating. It can be small. It can be hidden. It may contain white space. But it has a lot to say - beyond the words and in the places where it exists.

On that note, I hope you like the new design and the place my blog and I find ourselves - exploring the world of short fiction.