tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7062539749638785311.post5659668517476583189..comments2023-12-01T19:38:52.834+00:00Comments on One Chapter More: Worries and suchlike - on creativity and titlesMaxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09834500144919015776noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7062539749638785311.post-29430182294675468872013-01-11T10:51:32.586+00:002013-01-11T10:51:32.586+00:00Thank's very much for taking the time out to w...Thank's very much for taking the time out to write such a considered response. <br /><br />I can completely see where you're going with regards the ideas you throw around - you must be a subsriber to Harlan Ellison's idea shop to come with good ideas so quickly!<br /><br />However, I stand by the assertions I made regarding what the title limits, in terms of culture, gender and time-space. Given the module's position and singularity, I feel this is both unnecessary and one-track minded. <br /><br />I ended up writing an SF piece that used the ashtray motif metaphorically - my close dialogue needs some improvement in order to sustain it.<br /><br />Finally, regards twenty minutes a day - its something I've started, and intend to continue with. Thanks!Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09834500144919015776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7062539749638785311.post-35330982959054514622013-01-05T12:47:33.073+00:002013-01-05T12:47:33.073+00:00Well, mate, since you ask - I doubt if I or Iain o...Well, mate, since you ask - I doubt if I or Iain or China, or for all I know the other two, would use 'The Ashtray' as a novel title, but I for one would jump on it as a title for a short story.<br /><br />Contemporary? I see a couple wandering around the stalls of (say) Camden or Portobello Road, and the decision whether or not to buy an ashtray - a beautiful object, perhaps, or one with a coloured patch in the centre with a family crest or a company name - might tell us all we need to know about their relationship.<br /><br />Or a pub landlord or a regular, mourning the smoking ban. Or elebrating its demise, putting the shiny ashtray on the bar.<br /><br />SF? Same couple perhaps, at a street market or antique shop a century hence, wondering what this glass or metal object with the strange flutings on the edge was FOR. Or someone in a more distant future, repurposing it: maybe thinking an ashtray was where the ancients kept the ashes of their dead relatives.<br /><br />That's one of the tricks of the trade, which (I guess) your course is trying to teach you: a title is important, but it doesn't limit what your story is about. Look at a volume of classic mainstream short stories, your Maupassant or Maugham or whatever, and see what they do with titles. Look at a collection of Ballard or Clarke and you'll see the same.<br /><br />Oh, and in general: if you have a decent social life and a wonderful girlfriend, and you're getting through your course work OK, count yourself successful and very lucky indeed. Make the most of it and don't worry about not having time for your own writing. Twenty minutes a day is time enough for a few hundred words, which over three years is plenty of time to write a million words of crap, which is what we all had to do and is what it takes to become a publishable writer.<br /><br />As RAW said: '"Don't worry; be happy." The wisdom of the ages and the sages.' I wish I'd known that when I was a student!<br />Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03493440163559858462noreply@blogger.com