Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting

Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting
April showers bring May flowers

Friday 7 June 2019

⌗IWSG, Wednesday 5th June 2019

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late....she said looking at her pocket watch...
It's that time of month, busy like a bee, it slipped her mind. No pocket watch or calendar could save Humpty Dumpty.....

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Every month share your thoughts about writing prompted by a question.


           


If you would like to know more and join this enhancing group. go here

This month the question is :

Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favourite to write in and why ?


When a child , I loved stories involving people I could relate to. As I grew up my favourite characters just got older with me.
Now I enjoy all ages for my protagonists, read fiction and non-fiction about children and adults.
The genre never really mattered as long as the characters felt real and belonged to whatever universe they evolved in. I began writing with poems and non-fiction : descriptions, impressions, thoughts.

I started reading science-fiction very early on and it grew on me as I learned maths and physics, also as I took an increasing interest in the Universe. As I read, I started to write sci-fi stories too and still enjoy writing them. They are less outer space now and more anticipation.
Historical fiction was always fascinating too. It was a trip into the past : I learnt a lot and this genre fulfilled my itching for time travel.    
When these two genres are combined, I am in Heaven. However I have never written a story about time travelling : I choose a period in the present, the past or the future and stick to it. My characters on the other hand are free to time-travel in their minds : to reminisce, discover new aspects of a forgotten period or visit a faraway culture.

Fantasy and magic come next as a reader. As a child Dragons and Ghosts, later I discovered J.R.R.Tolkien at 14 and entered a whole new dimension. However I have never written a story with anything fantastical about it. The closest I get is 'eerie' or 'unexplained'.

In Poetry, the narrative poem is my favourite read. My own poems explore the narrative, the contemplative and the reflective. Sometimes they can take on a dreamlike quality and appear as fantasy but they are rooted in experienced truths.

Mysteries and Crime are all-time favourites. I started with the Famous Five when learning to read but quickly preferred Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood, the Treacle Pudding or other Wishing chair type stories. My late sister stuck to the Secret Seven and the Naughtiest Girl, who was, for her, along with Dorothy Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister, what she had to live through every day with....me ! For my part I would get lost in the land of "Do-As-You-Please' !

Arthur Conan Doyle then took over with Crime. My writing has not explored mystery or murder as of yet. I suppose a weekly diet of Hitchcock humbled me as to my ability to create meaningful suspense ! However the great film Director introduced me to Daphne Du Maurier. A strong female voice that I could identify with. In the same vein, Jane Eyre was The Revelation amongst the Brontë Sisters' work. To succeed in emulating these all-time greats would be quite an achievement indeed !

Finally, at 17 I discovered John Irving. And my ultimate goal as a writer was now clear.

Theatre is never far away : Shakespeare, Marcel Pagnol, Sartre and Jean Cocteau; Thorton Wilder, Brecht, Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. Although I was incapable of writing a play, my mastery of dialogue was poor, at best, I have dabbled in this genre...without success. Hence my hitherto unwritten novel !

Science Fiction

C.S. Lewis
John Wyndham                                           Arthue C. Clarke                       Ray Bradbury
Isaac Asimov                                              Kurt Vonnegut
Georges Orwell                                          H.G. Wells                                 Aldous Huxley

Historical Fiction

Jean Plaidy
Robert Merle                                             Lian Hearn
Philippa Gregory                                      Dian Gabardon
Carlos Luis Zafon

Fantasy and Magic

E. Nesbit
Enid Blyton                                             Penelope Lively                           Susan Dickenson
Barbara Euphan Todd                             Aiden chambers                           Elizabeth George Speare
J.R.R. Tolkien                                         C.S.Lewis                                    Terry Pratchett
J.K.Rowling                                           Philip Pullman                              Lev Grossman
and most recently, fellow writers           Yvette Carol                                 Lisa Fender

Crime and Mystery

Enid Blyton                                          Arthur Conan Doyle                     Michael Crichton
Jo Nesbo                                               Paula Hawkins                              Elizabeth Georges
Stieg Laarson                                       Karen Giebel                                 Agatha Christie

Poetry

Keats
Coleridge                                             Wordsworth                                   Robert Burns
Shakespeare                                         Rimbaud                                        Baudelaire
Ted Hughes                                          Gerard Manley Hopkins                Sylvia Plath
Kenneth Koch                                      Billy Collins                                  Carol Ann Duffy
and most recently,                               Tamar Yoseloff                               Rebecca Gethin

Collections Fiction

John Irving                                          H.E Bates                                      Robert Merle
René Barjavel                                      Umberto Eco                                Bernard Werber
Boris Vian                                            Kafka                                            André Brink
Jostein Gaarner                                    David Lodge                                 Robertson Davies
Margaret Atwood                                Carol Shields                                 Margaret Forster
Paul Auster                                          Pat Barker                                     Kasuo Ishiguro
Henry James                                        Shakespeare                                  Charles Dickens
Mark Twain                                         Jack London                                  John Steinbeck
F. Scott Fitzgerald                               Sartre                                             Camus

Graphic Novels ( over 300 in our bookcases )

Belgian School                                  French School                                Italian School
Argentine                                          Windsor Mc Kay                            J.B. Frost
Peanuts                                              MAD  artists


Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, give your input, ask questions and I will be sure to reply.
Have a lovely week End.