lifelong learning – the writer is a lonely hunter

September – a perfect time to reflect on a summer activity

by gailaldwin

The absolute highlight of my summer was joining an acting summer school at The City Lit. I’d been looking for a learning project that would be intensive (a full week from 10–4:30pm) and out of my comfort zone. I was delighted to find an acting improvers course and I enrolled alongside seven other students. Juliet Prague and James Jarrett were the tutors who put us through lots of drama exercises to sharpen our ability to respond in performance and develop skills as a company of actors. Theory input involved studying the art of movement as described by Rudolf Laban (1879–1958) who produced the following grid which refers to eight different forms of movement (or efforts) and the elements within them.

The eight efforts are punch, slash, dab, flick, press, wring, glide and float. The four elements are direction, speed, weight and flow.

EFFORT	DIRECTION	SPEED	WEIGHT	FLOW
PUNCH	direct	quick	heavy	bound
SLASH	indirect	quick	heavy	free
DAB	direct	quick	light	bound
FLICK	indirect	quick	light	free
PRESS	direct	sustained	heavy	bound
WRING	indirect	sustained	heavy	bound
GLIDE	direct	sustained	light	free
FLOAT	indirect	sustained	light	free

One exercise involved finding the image of a character and ascribing to that character the behaviours of an animal. I chose to act as an urban fox. All self-consciousness was abandoned as I trotted, loped and galloped around the performance space. We were then asked to incorporate Laban’s efforts and elements into the movement which extended my thoughts on the character considerably.

On Wednesday afternoon we were given scripts to study in pairs. With my partner, I worked on a scene from Road by Jim Cartwright. The play is set in a derelict area of Lancashire during Thatcher’s 1980s government, and it gives insight into the desperation of the residents. I played Brenda, an alcoholic mother who tries to extract money from her daughter in order to buy another drink and feed her addiction. It was a challenging script to attempt – completely different from the roles I play in everyday life – but I managed to learn the lines over the next 48 hours and delivered a performance which included use of a regional accent. Laban’s efforts influenced the way I delivered the lines and how I choreographed movements across the set. Others in the group worked on different scripts and we showcased our work in the John Lyon’s theatre at the end of our course.

I continue to think about Laban’s efforts and what I can take from these as a writer. Certainly, the efforts can be used to inform the description of body language in fiction. It’s also possible finesse lines of dialogue with reference to Laban’s efforts.

Is the table of Laban’s efforts any use in your creative endeavours?

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Happy Birthday to you

by gailaldwin

My debut novel The String Games is one year old today. It’s been quite a journey from launch to anniversary and here are some of the things I have learnt along the way.

Book launches

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invite everyone you know and turn the launch into a party to thank all those who have shown interest in your writing . Make sure there’s plenty of wine and nibbles, and loads of books to sell!

Make the most of opportunities

when I attended a Christmas lunch 2018 with the Society of Authors in Salisbury, I had no idea it would lead to an invitation to deliver a session at the Bridport Literary Festival 2019. Chance meetings are often the best!

Put yourself out there

Book is Judged by Cover-1

Press releases have enabled The String Games to feature locally, regionally and nationally in print publications and online features. I’ve also talked on local radio programmes several times. There’s nothing wrong with getting about!

Literary festivals

I’ve attended so many festivals as a participant but now I’m a published novelist it’s a delight to feature on programmes as an invited guest. Besides the Bridport Literary Festival, I’ve also delivered input at Sturminster Newton Literary Festival, Blandford Literary Festival and Stockholm Writers Festival. Get me, delivering at international events!

Finge Festivals

I write collaboratively as part of 3-She to develop comedy sketches. Last summer we took a show to Shaftesbury Fringe. There’s such a lot to be learnt from the process of writing with others. Love a good gig!

Curry favour with your publisher

I’m delighted that Victorina Press have show confidence and commitment in me as an author and thanks to my publisher, I attended the London Book Fair 2019. My novel is also a finalist in The People’s Book Prize. Covid 19 permitting, there’s a black tie do to celebrate this achievement later this year!
The team at Wordsmith_HQ continue to promote my poetry pamphlet adversaries/comrades and share my writing successes across their writing community. Good eggs all round!

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How to learn Spanish in Guatemala

by gailaldwin

I’m now at the end of my third week in Antigua, Guatemala, I have one more week here so I want to make the most of this fabulous opportunity to learn Spanish. It was after a fortnight that I noticed I was able to contribute more to the Spanish conversation around the dinner table and I certainly feel much less self conscious when trying to make myself understood. I’ve made a determined effort to learn the conjugations of a few important verbs and can now pose and answer simple questions using the past, imperfect, present and future tenses. The next step is to apply the rules to a greater range of verbs.

Much as my vocabulary in Spanish is growing, I seem to be losing the ability to recall words in English. I frequently have afternoon tea at a garden centre close to the school and when I walk around the grounds, I simply can’t remember the names of plants I recognise. Fortunately for me, the plants have tags which read the same in English as in Spanish (Begonia and Fuschia). Indeed, it strikes me that there are very many words in English that are similar in Spanish which must help to make Spanish one of the easier languages for English speakers to acquire. However, it is also easy to get caught out. For example, the Spanish word embarazada bears a striking resemblance to the English word ’embarrassed’ but actually means pregnant. You can image the humour and confusion in making such a mistake!

There are very many advantages to learning Spanish in Guatemala. For a start, the weather in Guatemala in January is lovely. I enjoy the way Antigua has all four seasons in one day: fresh and spring-like in the morning, a lovely summer’s day by noon, an autumnal chill in the afternoon and cold as winter at night. The city has lots of language schools where one-to-one classes are offered at very reasonable rates. Many Americans come here to brush up their language skills and I’ve enjoyed meeting other students from all over north America as well as others from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. My lessons take place on the roof terrace of the school with fabulous views.

With my teacher, Jasmin. (See the smoke coming from the volcano in the distance.)

Jasmin is a very patient teacher who is tuned into my utterances and laughs at my frequent malapropisms. Most Guatemaltecos speak at a measured pace and this makes engaging in conversation a whole lot easier.

Some of the other benefits of learning Spanish in Guatemala include:

fabulous sights and sounds of the city such as the rhythmic clapping when tortillas are patted into shape on streets stalls and in markets
humming birds in the gardens
fantastic ruins around every corner
Mayan crafts, cultural traditions and archaeology
chicken buses for transport around the towns (former US school buses spruced up for service)

I’m sure if I had more time, I would be able to think up many other advantages but as I have homework to do, I’ll leave you with some photos.