Week Four:"it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave"

This week’s studies invited us to look deeper into the stories and characters we’re creating during this course. In my various readings and research, I found a great deal of material, which has made me consider the path I am taking with my final assessment.

Instead of trying to expand upon my original piece this week, I chose to branch off completely into a different story. I haven’t yet decided which story I will go forward with, but I’ve definitely enjoyed using these various resources to direct me with my writing this week.

There was a lot in “Love Many” by Niamh Campbell that I found useful for my work. The way Campbell explored the world of modern dating, in particular the specifics of Tinder was fascinating. I admired how Campbell presented the various facets and expectations of modern dating and demonstrated how the narrator feels and reacts to the situations she faces, allowing the story to resonate with the reader.

The narrative has a very personal feel to it but is also incredibly relatable. I found myself identifying quite strongly with what the narrator was feeling. I hadn’t heard the specific term “platonic lovers” used before, but the concept was easy to understand, and the reader is able to draw their own conclusions from what is written. For example, even though it is not explicitly written, the reader can infer that the narrator only agrees to the “platonic lovers” arrangement because she wants to see more of Timothy.

The story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield demonstrates a really interesting narrative perspective. Miss Brill is not actively involved in any of the small stories she witnesses, so she acts as an all-seeing narrator. The description of the crowd and what Miss Brill sees is very vivid and the depiction of her relationship with her fur is interesting and original. We can infer from the narrative that Miss Brill is lonely; she sticks to a pattern where she can engage with people because she can’t engage with them elsewhere.

I admired the way “Grist” by Georgina Hammick explores the various different aspects of love and relationships. The description of the small intimacies/traditions in the relationship, and how they gradually fade away as the man falls out of love with the woman is really touching and I enjoyed the imagery Hammick used to convey those small intimacies.

The story discusses various different questions, such as the value of relationships, the ending/aftermath of relationships and the hardship of loss in a way which allows the reader to form their own opinion, whilst viewing the opinions of the characters and the situations they go through. I loved the way that Hammick made the story both personal and relatable on a general level, in a similar way to Campbell.

In most books I read, the writer generally sticks to the format of the people meet, fall in love, and everything goes well, so I enjoyed looking at these different – and more realistic – accounts this week. “Love Many” in particular portrays a common situation in a way that remains interesting, and although the reader may guess that the story won’t end well, they are still interested in what happens between the characters, and perhaps even hopeful that it may turn out better than expected.

These stories inspired me to write a love story with an impediment, which I had never tried before when writing romance stories. It was interesting to set up a romantic situation with a ‘road-block’ of sorts and explore how the characters would navigate around the difficulty (or if they could). My aim with the story is also to highlight the moral questions surrounding infidelity and whether it is more acceptable if the people are in love.

For my drama course this week, I looked over “Jane Eyre” – a book which I’ve not read before, though I’ve seen several movie versions. Watching the live performance for my module set me on the path of exploring the description of the relationship between Jane and Rochester to inform my creative writing extract for this week.

I think the below extract demonstrates the relationship between Jane and Rochester very well:

In this extract, Rochester has to ask Jane to marry him about nine times (obviously depending upon how you count), and her incredulity that he could even possibly want to marry her demonstrates how unusual their relationship is. Indeed, although they are both deeply in love with each other, they have never confessed their feelings, or acted like a couple, so their swift engagement seems peculiar to everyone. As Mrs Fairfax puts it:

“Now, can you tell me whether it is actually true that Mr. Rochester has asked you to marry him? Don’t laugh at me. But I really thought he came in here five minutes ago and said that in a month you would be his wife.”

I tried to copy an element of the abrupt proposal in my own creative writing work this week (see Week Four Writing) by making Bradley’s admittance that he is married and his request to see Morwenna again very sudden and without an introduction of sorts. If I expand the extract, I would like to focus more on Morwenna’s reaction following the conversation, echoing Jane’s bewilderment in the above extract if possible.

Our seminar this week was centred around the progress of our blogs and getting feedback on our work, which was quite beneficial. There are a few elements I’d like to add to the blog after seeing everyone’s work:

- Story drafts – as of yet, I haven’t redrafted any of my extracts as I haven’t submitted them for feedback, but I will be posting redrafts soon

- Reading lists – I have a running reading list (see Reading List) that I will be adding to over the course of the term

- Story planning – I would like to choose which story I’m going to go ahead with at some point this week and start some plot planning that I can post on here

Our seminar leader this week finished with the idea of truly getting under the skin of your character and becoming them in order to write them. She reflected that last week we looked at the outside of the character, but this week we’re asked to really get in their heads and see the world as they see it, which I think is a fascinating way to look at things.

I’ve seen in my own work that dialogue and description feel more real when you truly engage and become the character, and so I would definitely like to dig deeper and polish this skill. It would also be good to stretch my comfort zones by trying to write as characters that I wouldn’t usually write about – I think the idea of becoming the character would help me to refine my ability to do that.