Top Tips:

1. Exercise your muscles

writing poetry

writing reviews

Book club

2. Master the computer

3. Don't censor yourself

4. Copyright & theft?

5. Join us

6. Useful references

1. Exercise your muscles

The ability to write is like a muscle - the more you exercise it the stronger it gets. Try to write everyday - for instance keep a diary and make a point of writing in it on a regular basis.

'How am I gonna do that?' I hear you say

Well there's never a good time - little and often is better than nothing at all. If you think the head space in the gatehouse is a bit inconvenient remember that T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) wrote his magnum opus The Seven Pillars of Wisdom from the back of a camel! You can still see the improvised notebook he used - adapted from a massive accountant's ledger. It had to be big and chunky to cope with his lifestyle.

If you're ready to start, click here to read a short beginner's guide to writing a short poem

2. Master the Computer

Computers are really essential tools for any aspiring writer. Getting to grips with what the computers have to offer is really going to help you out. If you have problems storing paper records then I can show you how to make the most of the free storage facilities for things like diaries and notebooks on the internet.

Reply to any messages from me or the writer's group. And not just a few monosyllables - write a proper response - give some feedback - it's all good practice. For example - the people who provide the gatehouse laptops are offering a ten pounds prize (ok it's not massive) to anyone who comes up with a good catchy title for the project's webpage - have a go!

3. Don't censor yourself

Any subject will do - you probably want to start with your own story, but you can also write about politics, pets, sport, or just make it up based around something you overheard that sounded cool. Someone rang me the otherday and asked if they could read me their new poem. It was about tai kwan do - not the most likely of themes - but it really worked as a poem. The stuff you write at the beginning of your journey, may not be as good as how you eventually end up. But it is still a valuable resource. Don't be over critical of your first efforts - just start and keep going.

4. Copyright theft?

Many new writers are initially a bit paranoid about showing their stuff to other people - especially via the internet. Let me first state that I have twenty years experience as a publishing professional including electronic and internet distribution - so I know a bit about it. The Welsh author of strange tales, Arthur Machen, wrote a story about a writer who sent his unpublished story to a publisher. It was rejected but later appeared under someone else's name. Machen started another 'urban legend'. It can happen. The best defence is to get your work out there. Because in the end - copyright exists from the moment the work is written down - if you don't believe me - check it out on the internet. The only problem the author has is in proving when it was written. Computers provide an indelible datestamp at the first creation (check out the Harold Shipman case if you still have doubts).

So no guarantees but all authors have to take a calculated risk. Besides - if you are talented enough to have a few paragraphs lifted by another author - chances are there is plenty more where that came from! A friend of mind recently picked up a book that had a whole chapter lifted from her website. She contacted the publisher to complain. The result was she got a contract to write a book of her own! Not a bad result if you think about it. So - remember -
'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.

5. Join us

To join us and learn more, send an email to:

gatehouse_gatehouse@yahoo.com

or join our group conference by sending an email to:

gatehouse_gatehouse-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

In your email, try submitting a review of something you have just read or seen, maybe on this website. For a crash course in how to write a review click here for BBC Get Writing website.

If you need help on email then come and see me at one of the wednesday sessions and i will help sort that out.

Chris's email: gatehouse_gatehouse@yahoo.com

Useful books:

For storytellers and fans of Starwars:
The Writer's Journey, Mythic Structure For Storytellers & Screenwriters by Christopher Vogler, published by Michael Wiese Productions.

For Poets:
Writing Poetry In English by James Fenton
This work offers a masterclass for both the reader and writer of poetry. It discusses the work of poets as wide-ranging as W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Tennyson, Milton and Blake, covering all varieties of poetic practice in English.

For aspiring pedants:
New Hart's Rules, The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors
published by Oxford University Press, 432 pages.

Poetry for Beginners

Edited from the BBC Get Writing website

Introduction

Poetry is an intense exploration of language which seeks to uncover new ways of describing the world.

This session includes:

Understanding poetry

Exploring language and names

Choosing you subject

Using breath and form

What Is a Poem?

You mustn't rush to the end to find out what it means, but every line, every phrase, every word is an end in itself.

The first rule of poetry is: don't bore yourself. When you start a project, you have a rush of energy, a downpour of ideas and you probably write your best lines straight off, without thinking. So whenever you write, make a habit of stopping every now and then and asking, 'Am I bored?' And if the answer is 'yes', look round, breathe in, listen out, take aim and start again. And then again. And then again.

How Do I Start?

Write a poem about water, try to listen and speak water.
Or if your prefer, a poem about an old man, listen to how he (or it) sounds.

Before writing, spend a certain amount of time listening.
Take a day picking up rhythms in the world around you.
Map them by tapping your feet or punching the air.

Then allow the water (or the old man) to speak its names.
Start with the ones everyone knows, such as River, Rain, Dribble and so on.
Then get to the secret names, in which water appears to be calling itself.
For instance, one of the names for water could be
'oscillation-endlessly-shaken-into-an-entirely-new-structure'.

Note down those names with your left hand along with any other names that spring to mind.
(If you are left handed then reverse these instructions)
Perhaps the name of the moment before you fall into a pond, or the name of the feeling of seeing yourself in a puddle... The result is a kind of proto-poem.

Use your right hand and computer to edit the proto-poem.
Here's an example by Alice Oswald about stones:

When a Stone Was Wrecking His Country
When a man went to fight a stone,
He clenched his knuckle-stones, he lifted his foot-stones,
He upheld himself like the last megalith,
He kissed his lady like a white abandonable sea-pebble,
He felt as justified as a set slate.

He saw the sky like an open flint
And the starlings shaken and fallen about like gravel.
He wanted to go carefully like making a wall.
He went as far as meteorites disappear
Into the holes and shadows of the universe like a curious
pumice;

Went among tree-boughs like the dark detail of marble,
Went among animals like various amethysts
And men of rock and flowers extempore as lava
And came to confusion like a heap of shale.
He came to despair like moisture coming up through chalk.

He had to oppose everything, he had to grind away
At his own tooth-stones, saying:
'if I could sift the silicate from these bones,
if this complexion of feldspar,
if this ego-dragon spiralling like a fossil…'

but he couldn't rest, like a little grit under an eyelid
till his head like some god-in-a-boulder
rolled from its purpose and came down among stone-kind.

That's enough for now -
please do write your own piece on the topic either of water or old men,
and send to me via email at:
gatehouse_gatehouse@yahoo.com
I will then post the next section on:

What Should I Write About?

I have an idea for a 'collective' poem on the theme of weaponry.
It's called 'This is not just a gun . . .'.
If you've seen the Marks & Spencers advert on the TV, you might get my drift.
For example:

'This isn't just chocolate,
it's creamy, luscious Belgian Chocolate,
ooooozing with flavour,
stored in oak casks
since 1492.'

or that kind of thing.
Only my first verse goes:

'This is not just a gun.
It's a [fill the blank]'

In the blank space please let me have some real, detailed, descriptions of guns, as available on the internet. Email me the results to gatehouse_gatehouse@yahoo.com & I will add them to this page, and show the the second verse. You can also add your version and/or any comments or criticism via the gatehouse blog.

. . . to be continued

The above guide is based on material written by Alice Oswald for the BBC Getwriting
beginner's course on poetry. If you can't wait then please do check it out for yourself.

This initiative is part of the Oxford Sunday Times Literary Festival
and the Oxford Homeless College Digital Brain.

Last revised 1/2/6