Beatroot Workshop

Ahem,

Now we're not in a position to be lecturing anyone, but here at Beatroot we are passionate about the written word and so every month we'll be recommending a piece(s) of work / writer(s) that we feel you should read (for whatever reason).
Each month will be themed - should we run out of themes, we'll just start over again, as I'm sure we'll miss out lots along the way.
There will be a few recommended tiles each month that could take the form of a novel, script, film, poem or whatever we feel like...you get the idea.

The first theme is: North American Short Fiction.

Raymond Carver

Considered one of the greats of American short fiction, Carver's work is both profound and unsettling. His work evokes the bizarre and often hilarious truth's of our everyday lives through carefully and expertly drawn characters, deft use of location and a sharp, witty use of dialogue that is hard to match.
If you want to learn how one can distill an idea or concept that could span an entire novel down into a few thousand words, then look no further than Carver.

We recommend 'Will you please be quiet, please? published by Vintage
ISBN: 978-0-099--44989-8
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Will-You-Please-Quiet/dp/0099449897/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226591856&sr=8-5

Most notably read 'Neighbors' - it's both creepy and hilarious, and good combo in our book!

Beatroot

To those of you who dabble in the screen writing side of things, here's an interesting link.
You may have seen the adverts on E4 and thought 'Ohh, that sounds good' - it is! Have a gander and you'll notice that not only do you get the chance to pen an online episode of Skins, but you also get to work with the team of Skin's writers in a workshop environment.

Criteria:

1600 words (max)
At least 3 characters (none from Skins)
No more than five locations

The rest is up to you!

http://www.e4.com/skins/writer-mini-episode.html

By the way... check out this nifty little program: http://celtx.com/ and you'll be producing professional looking scripts in no time! Word just makes us itch.

We all know that making a living from the written word is easier said than done. Give yourself a leg-up by entering some writing competitions, you never know who may stumble across your work one day. It's all about shamelessly publicizing yourself...

Here's a great list of competitions (in the UK)

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/whatson/writingcomps.html

Beatroot