Lessons in Writing

I have been attending a "Creative Writing" course since yesterday that is quite interesting. I met people who are into writing and are familiar with the writing "culture" so to say. I ve only been writing for myself without bothering much with the writing scene but it is quite interesting to exchange ideas.

Just a quick summary of what the seminar has covered so far:

- The importance of the first page of a book
- Practical tips on characters, themes and plot

I would have to write very much to go into details here, the gist is that we learned some very very practical tips about starting and planing a book (synopsis). About plot driven and character driven books, how to sketch and link the bits of plot and the different characters in a complicated web but still keeping an overview.

We had to write 2 exersices today. The first one was to write a story of 250 words in 20 minutes that had a certain theme. We could choose among 5 of them. And the second one was a lesson in Scene Setting and descriptive writing. We had to keep the scene setting in the background but still strong enough, so that the reader absolutely knows where the hero is. We had to combine emotion and the five senses in relation to the scenery.

I ll spare you with the first exercise so here is what I wrote for the second one:

Scene Setting: A sleepy village

"Bobbin climbed down the hill and tried to orientate himself towards his village. He knew he had to pass through the cementary with the weeping willows to find himself at the gate of the village.

But the hour was late and he could barely see anything apart from the eyes of flying owls and black cats that lingered around.

As he was approaching, the awful smell of smoke from the baker's chimney reached his nostrils. A few fires were still burning secretely under those heaps of red and black coals he could make out from the distance.

When he finally reached the gate he was afraid to open it lest he would disturb the quietness of the night. The village was deeply asleep and not a sound could be heard apart from the very faint bark of a distant dog."

The Engelados awoke

I am thinking to turn this blog into a Corfu-Earthquake one... Half an hour ago, at about 12.10 midday, we had another earthquake. It must have been about 3.5 Richter I believe. It shook for about 10 seconds.

PS: And for those unfamiliar with the greek mythology, the Engelados was the leader of giants and responsible for the earthquakes in ancient Greece. He was the son of Tartaros and of Earth, killed by Athena who threw Sicily over him and covered him. He now suffers in his grave and moves and causes all these earthquakes and volcano erruptions.

Source: http://lemnos.geo.auth.gr/

EDIT: If it was this Earthquake, which was 3.9 Richter then I was pretty close!