Getting some perspective

What's underneath?

My first uni assignment for this year is done. Not quite dusted yet as it involves a five minute presentation, which I can still spend time sweating over. I chose to write about first person point of view so I could explore the challenges I will have with my travel memoir. The critical aspects are the reliability of the character and the limitations this puts on how the story can be told. 

An ‘I’ character invites us into their unique way of seeing the world, but readers have to work harder to understand what the character is telling and hiding, or not revealing for the moment. From a writing angle using first person means that I will need to use devices such as memories, flashbacks or diary notes to cover some of the background. Creating scenes with conversations and actions will help flesh out the limited view.

Another angle

First person makes it easier to identify with one character, to wear and walk in their shoes. So I have been trying on the shoes of people in my life and trying to see the world from their perspective. This small exercise has triggered a series of sympathetic incidents in my world. It has allowed me to step back from my view, recognise the uniqueness of where I and others stand, as well as to feel for others in their situations.

First picks

At one of the seminars the lecturer recommended keeping a reading journal – a notebook of whatever degree of fanciness you choose - where you keep track of your responses to what you are reading and can record all the books you want to read in the future. After much mulling and wandering around the stationary stores, I decided that I wanted something a bit special. I am now the happy owner of a turquoise A5 moleskin plain page reading journal. I am going to use this to help me see more in what I am reading, more of the technique behind the story. 

More decorations

A quick check-in, how is my creative resolution going? What have I been up to lately? This weekend I have been making Easter decorations – similar to the Christmas ones with felt shapes glued onto ribbons which are draped on the furnishings. I found cookie cutters of a chick, an egg, a rabbit and a duck to use as templates. I also bought a pattern and some wool to start a small project for the newest member of our family, a baby boy called Jack – a son for my sister. I have been to two sessions at the French Film Festival, with a couple more next weekend. I still have intentions to develop the snippets we write in class, hang the curtains, make Easter buns, finish the winter scarf, paint the kitchen stools, fix a skirt hem. Sigh, so many fun things to do and not enough time!