'Writing For The Web' at Cheltenham Literature Festival

Last Saturday found me at Cheltenham Literature Festival for the afternoon. The town was abuzz and I walked past several familiar faces who were lost in the crowds before I could remember who they were. I'm sure they were some of the famous authors due to talk that day.

The last time I attended the festival was when Anna Pavord talked about her book Bulb at The Everyman Theatre a couple of years ago. And very good it was too. This time I decided to sample something from the workshop programme and Writing for the Web tutored by the RSC's digital producer, Suzanne Worthington caught my eye.

My experience of writing courses is slight* and I don't quite know what I'd been expecting, but a workbook to go through was quite a surprise. However, it turned out to be just what was needed to structure the afternoon well. Suzanne took us through a number of short exercises designed to make us think a lot and to sharpen up our prose ready for publication on the web.

You can see if I succeeded because I was invited to guest post about Writing Great Web Content on the We Love Books Website. I've tried to encapsulate my key learning points from the course in 300 words. I found it quite a challenge, but an enjoyable one.

Lucy remarked via Twitter a couple of days ago she thought the piece could have been written by anyone and wasn't the 'me' she's used to on my blog. She's right, but I believe what's good for a website isn't necessarily the way we'd write for our blogs anyway. The needs of the publication we're writing for and its audience are just as important as using our natural style or 'voice'.

The workshop made me realise just how wordy I've become lately on Veg Plotting, so I welcome the opportunity to learn from the workshop and sharpen things up a little on here. Though let me know straight away if you think I'm not being me won't you?

BTW the references to being tipsy in the guest post are from the key learning point I said I was going to take home with me at the end of this enjoyable course. Write drunk, edit sober. It's a quote by Ernest Hemingway apparently. It means write like you're blurting things out to someone so your words are to the point. Then you come back and edit them later when your mind's clear and you can be objective about what you've written.

NB The picture is of Imperial Gardens, one of the main 'hubs' of the festival. As you can see, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the public planting as I sped past on my way to class. Looks like I'm still me after all ;)

* = the only other writing course I've attended was pretty awful, though it did make me decide via my Undecided post I'd like to be a writer. Progress has been slow so far...

Comments

  1. l14 October 2011 at 08:50

    I went to the festival for the first time on Tuesday. I saw Mark Kermode (brilliantly interesting), Ken Dodd (with tickling sticks and lots of jokes) and Colin Dexter (very sweet old fellow - made Ken Dodd seem young). I will definitely be looking to see what's on offer next year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lu14 October 2011 at 08:51

    that should have said Lu!

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP14 October 2011 at 08:53

    Lu - there's so much choice isn't there? Tis fab. We saw Ken Dodd a couple of years ago at Salisbury. He started at 7.30pm and we left at 1am!

    Let's see if there's anything we like the look of next year :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Caro14 October 2011 at 08:57

    Lovely post VP -your voice shone through! I'm going to enjoy zipping over to your links and thanks for sharing your top tips from the writing course, a course which would be good for me as I tend to be overlong in writing! (As in life, also on the web!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. VP14 October 2011 at 09:00

    Thanks Caro :)

    I've got lots more planned to tell you about from this and BlogCamp.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax!14 October 2011 at 09:43

    NB There's a difference between 'it could have been written by anyone' and 'anyone could have written it'.

    I might not have had the pleasure of recognising your voice while reading that article - but it's crisp, clear and memorable. Success!

    ReplyDelete
  7. VP14 October 2011 at 09:58

    Hi Lucy - thanks for clearing up my misquote - I'll correct it when I get back from Wales. I'm replying to you in haste!

    And thanks for the comment about the article itself :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax!14 October 2011 at 10:33

    Hi VP. I wasn't meaning there's a misquote - just meaning that to create a neutral voice is as much a skill as speaking in one with character.

    And I didn't want you (or anyone else!) to think I was meaning 'any ole person could've written that!' They couldn't!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mo14 October 2011 at 13:49

    I like this post better than the article :) Am I not supposed to say that?
    I think it's a Course I'd like to do...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anna14 October 2011 at 22:12

    Excellent advice from Hemingway who had the advantage of not being able to mistakenly press the publish button in between writing and editing :) Will have a look at your links over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Diana Studer15 October 2011 at 20:26

    That quote is a neat formula to describe how I blog - drunk I keyboard/scrawl the post as it falls out. The next day, sober, I edit.

    I enjoy and appreciate these posts - you have a gracious gift for teaching.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Esther Montgomery19 October 2011 at 11:00

    Having fiddled around for a while trying to find the right place to put the alt. text in the html, I find it has changed since the new Blogger dashboard came in. I've found out how to do it in the new way but have decided not to. Blogger has been complained to that the new html has made things more complicated rather than easier. I'm worried that if I do it in the new way and Blogger changes it that my pictures will be mucked up / vanish . . . So I'm waiting a little longer before doing anything.

    ReplyDelete
  13. VP20 October 2011 at 13:00

    Lucy - thanks for coming back and clearing that up. I was reading things too quickly on Friday before setting off for Wales, so any misinterpretation of what you said is down to me

    Mo and Steve - of course you can say what you think and thank you :) It was a very good course and reasonably priced too

    Anna - oh how I know that feeling! Managed to accidentally press publish in the middle of writing out the title last week!

    EE - you're most kind :D

    Esther - oh dear. Not quite sure I understand what the problem is with the new HTML (I didn't know there was a new one). I've yet to move onto the new Blogger dashboard. I see we'll all be forced over to it in the next couple of weeks, so I'll wait to post in more detail about the alt attribute until after then. Can you give me an idea of how you think attaching some text to your images might muck them up? Or what your worries are? That way I can see if I can answer your questions when I do further research/ have a go myself.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The bike shed22 October 2011 at 09:54

    Well you held my attention. I think writing concisely is particularly importnat on the web - and using white space too; shortish paragraphs, thinking about line breaks.

    But I'm going on

    ReplyDelete
  15. VP28 October 2011 at 08:18

    Mark - indeed :)

    ReplyDelete

New comments are not allowed.

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more