My writing routine had a bit of a sledgehammer taken to it over recent weeks as I've been moving house. Everything suffered a little except maybe my day-to-day journal. I haven't updated that short fiction site for a while now so I'm keen to bring some consistency back to that. I am now onto an 11-day streak with "showing up at my desk" each morning so the regular fiction writing is also starting to happen again.
In other news, my Goldsmiths course came to an end yesterday. After 10 weeks, those of us who had made it through to the end, read out what we'd been working on. There was an impressive variety of writing. 1st person plural stories of asylum seekers coming to Britain, insights into the work of Russian translators, and a couple having breakfast as the wife begins chemotherapy.
I shared my story Objects of Silence that I'd been working on throughout the course. A story that began from a place of memoir/autobiography but branched out to become a story of the changing relationship and communication difficulties between Will and his father. I drew a lot of it from my own life but made great efforts to keep it fictional. The relationship I show is not the relationship I have with my own dad. But I'm glad that I did draw from my own life, more so than I have before. It illustrated to me the breadth of areas that must be drawn from, in order for a character to feel real. I think that's definitely a lesson I can take forward to other projects. I had some great responses and more great feedback.
It would be great to keep in contact with some people from the course. There was definitely a shared interest there I think. Though there is always an awkwardness to these things I feel, exaggerated by only ever meeting one another virtually. We'll see what happens. It's been a great 10 weeks and I've come to the end feeling as though I've learnt a lot, met some great people and gained a good deal of confidence.