Londoners

It is fair to say that my ECP (Extended Creative Project) is currently causing a smidgen of stress.  My project is a Flash Fiction piece based on the current economic situation. Flash Fiction is a type of short story which is essentially very short snapshots of life. It is to the point and often leaves the reader with a feeling of poignancy.  The story can be a few words or a few hundred but is much shorter than your average short story.

I have been reading through a list of authors my ECP mentor suggested could be helpful with my research. Unfortunately I didn’t relate to any of these so far (I’ve got a few to go) – perhaps because many of them were written in the 1960’s and 1970s and I found them a bit unrealistic and psychedelic. Personally I want to focus on realistic everyday people. I also dislike the writing style of short story writers such as Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein who use repetition far too much for my liking.  So I was beginning to think there weren’t any relatable short story writers out there (apart from Ernest Hemingway who I have already mentioned I like). When my Mum presented Mr Ball and I with a guide to The Literary Festival at Royal Festival Hall, I was excited to see Craig Taylor  - a writer who I was familiar with as he was on my Uni compulsory reading list.  He was going to be talking about his book Londoners. Craig Taylor had written it after interviewing everyday people and writing their stories. To me it sounded right up my street and to me it sounded like Flash Fiction! Finally someone else was already doing something similar to what I want to do! So Mr Ball and I headed to London to hear all about it.

Craig Taylor spoke about how he struggled to adapt to living in London and eventually found himself evolving and learning the secrets of the city. He used this experience to understand that anyone can be a ‘Londoner’ (in their own opinion) regardless of how long they have actually lived in the city and he developed his book around this. I enjoyed listening to what inspired Craig and how he compiled his research. This has triggered a few ideas for the coming weeks and I even felt inspired enough to write a few pages on the way home!

Other News

After the official university work had been done Mr Ball and I headed to the BritishFilm Institute to treat ourselves to a cocktail – I had my usual Cosmo and Mr Ball had a Southbank both were very scrummy. We enjoyed them in a comfy coffee shop style lounge area surrounded by writers and readers and I felt very much at home! Then we headed on to Canteen - a British themed restaurant where I had steak (a little bit fatty) and Mr Ball had chicken and chips (apparently good). Then we were both naughty and had a slice of carrot cake – well why not it’s not every day you get to be a Londoner –or is it?