Fun things to do in Portsmouth in Autumn.

With summer coming to a close and autumn swiftly creeping upon us, I thought now would be the perfect time to talk about what events are going to be held in the local area.

Portsmouth is a seaside city and this leaves most people forgetting that there are a lot more things to see and do apart from grabbing an ice cream at the pier and basking in the sun. Halloween is fast approaching and Portsmouth has a lot of exciting and different things happening in and around the town centre.

If you find yourself stuck for ideas on a weekend then why not make the effort to travel a little outside of Portsmouth (only a half an hour drive) and visit the local apple picking farm. Having been around since the 1950’s Hill Farm Orchards is the perfect place to pick apples have it be for fun Halloween games or for a quick bite to eat.

Portsmouth is also home to the infamous ‘Ghost Walks’ hosted by Dark Encounters. They will take you for a wander through the cities historical streets. But this is not for the faint hearted! Costumed historical characters will shock you with some horrifying and gruesome facts on the city's most famous tales.

If a ghost walk doesn't take your fancy then join the rest of the city as they watch Portsmouth's 22nd Halloween Parade on the 31st October at 7pm, starting at Pierce Island. You won't be disappointed with the costumes, music and dances that happen on this particular night. They also invite you to join in with the fun as everyone is asked to dress up. 

If you can't make the parade then not to worry as a 'Pumpkin Smash' will be held on the following weekend (October 24th) at the Portsmouth Farmers Market between 8am-2pm. Simply go along smash a pumpkin and win a prize! Good fun for all ages. 

Hopefully these ideas have helped you come unstuck for things to do around the autumn period and also make your Halloween weekend that little more interesting. 

Sian.X

Dissertation prep - Month of August

The last time I wrote I was stuck for ideas and felt like everything I wrote was rubbish.Yet I have managed to write nearly half of my dissertation - that's nearly 5,000 words!

I don't know how it happened, I think I stopped stressing so much over it and just got something written down even if I wasn't too keen. First drafts are never great and this is what I needed to remember. My first draft of anything is no where near as good as my final piece. 

My story still has a long way to go and I'm still not sure on the ending or some of the characters, but that's ok! 

One thing I have noted so far is that I need to add more description and depth to both my characters and setting. I also still have a lot of plot gaps that need to be filled in order for the story to make sense.

At the moment the main symbol to my story is the snow globe which I really enjoy writing about, it gives the story a meaning even though I'm not so sure on where it is going. 

I hope that by the beginning of September I can fill all the gaps and power through the word count before I go back to Uni and show my tutor what I have done.

Just last week I was in Edinburgh and I saw a open mic poetry/comedy show during Fringe Festival in an underground pub. It was funny and very clever. One man's poetry stood out to me as he was literally retelling parts of my dissertation idea. I am focusing mine on social media and clean eating and how this is taking over society. This man was also talking about social media and how people only present the 'good parts' of their life and not the reality. He used Facebook as a simile of someone's ego and I found this interesting and will definitely be looking into this more in my own writing. He also said how we are not meeting/seeing the real person on social media we are simply only touching a glass screen of their 'face', also interesting. I found it very odd how we randomly went to this open mic night (not planned) and a man stood up and helped me out with my own dissertation - THANK YOU!

Sian.X

Dissertation prep - Month of July

A very, very late update on my dissertation process.

Over the past month I have been stressed and stuck for ideas and cannot seem to write anything down that I actually like.

Since I last updated I have read another book called "The Ocean At The End Of The Lane" by Neil Gaiman. I'm really not sure whether I liked this book or not. It was odd and I didn't really get the whole thing. I read it very quickly, I think because I wanted to get it over with.

However a few things did stick out to me. One of the characters - the stereotypical evil one was manipulative and I liked this. It added something to the story. I also liked how Gaiman used the evil character as a metaphor for the weather and feelings/emotion.

The next book I moved onto was Alice Hoffman's "Practical Magic". I have yet to finish this but so far I really like it. It is different from the average witch story. Last night I watched the film adaptation with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in and really enjoyed it. It had the element of love, sadness, heartbreak and everything most people go through. It was real yet had that strong element of magic throughout.

I particularly noted down the main plot at the beginning with all the girls in the family being cursed and how everyone fears the family. I also liked the symbol of the beetle, whenever it made a sound you knew a man close to the family was going to die. It was very clever and I will definitely be thinking about this when I write some more.

I also watched "Shawshank Redemption" as I initially wanted to write something to do with a prison and this did help a lot (I wrote 3 pages of notes). Yet still when I write nothing seems to be coming together.

Praying that over this next week I have something good to show and it all starts coming together!

Sian.X

Dissertation Prep Week 4/5

Today I finished Jane Yolen's novel Briar Rose. It is a retelling of the classic traditional fairy tale Sleeping Beauty where protagonist Becca goes on a journey to uncover her Grandmother's past. This novel also reveals an important part of the Holocaust about Chelmno - a concentration camp in Poland where 320,000 people died.

I'm so glad I read this book, although not the best I've read it gave me so much inspiration for my own story. What initially drew me to the book was a review by the Library Journal who said the novel "Showcases Yolen's skill at transforming the real world into a realm of fantasy". Mixing reality and fantasy interests me and from reading this book I have come up with an idea of choosing a fairy tale (at the moment I am thinking of Snow White) and intertwining this with real life events that are happening across the world today such as the all the awful terrorist attacks going on. 

I am not sure yet how I am going to do this but I think (I hope) once I start writing it will all fall into place and the idea will make sense. 

I liked the structure of the chapters as every other chapter was a flashback in Becca's life to when her Grandmother would tell her and her two sisters the story of Briar Rose. I thought this was clever as it allowed me to connect with the story as the flashbacks linked with what was happening in the present the chapter before. The story heavily focuses on the past and present but I'm not too sure if I want this to be an element of my own story. 

What I certainly will take from the book is the introduction. There were quotes from Jack Zipes and Ralph Harper that I found particularly interesting that I want to use in the critical essay following the creative piece. 

This week I hope to have started writing the intro to my story and having a good outline of what I want to do and also to continue reading adult fairy tales.

Sian. X

Dissertation Prep - Week 2/3

Over these past two weeks I have been reading Enid Blyton's " The Magical Adventures of the Wishing-Chair" to help progress my understanding of Children's fairy tales. This classic story was a favourite of mine growing up. Having not read it for a while I decided to delve back into my childhood and re read it.

I had forgotten how vast Blyton's imagination was. The story drops two children, Mollie and Peter into different worlds whilst they undertake an adventure together alongside a pixie named Chinky. Blyton uses detailed descriptions of each character that the children meet along their journey and this is something I definitely want to do in my own.

Although the language is a little out dated having been written in 1937, the story still holds meaning and a sense of value within the fantasy genre. We get to escape the real world and meet various creatures; from goblins to witches to magicians. Although the children have a lot of fun riding on the wishing chair they do come to a halt when they are greeted by wizards and giants. The children team up with Chinky, creating a sort of "dream team" in order to get out of these awful situations. Such as when they are trapped in the castle with 'The Snoogle' near the end of the story. 

After having just recently finished the book I have taken inspiration from the intricate detail used to describe each character as an individual. I also like the idea of everything coming to life (the chair) and how an object plays a big part in the story. The children are on an ongoing adventure and I like that. I like how both the children and the reader don't know where they are going to end up. Whether that be an open country field or a castle with an endless amount of rooms. 

The idea of morphing is interesting to me as within the fairy tale genre anything goes and I want to create characters which are memorable to the reader and ones no one has ever heard of before. Blyton also brings in an 'old wife' tale' when Mollie and Peter's neighbour visits. They told their neighbour that if he pulls a face and the wind changes his face will stay like that - and of course the wind changed and it came true. I enjoyed this element of the story as it is something that parents would say to their children and obviously it would never happen. Yet by Blyton including this it made the fairy tale come alive as she has intertwined Mollie and Peter's 'fantasy world' (with the wishing chair) and the real world (with their family and friends). 

In my previous post I discussed how every traditional children's fairy tale has a "loyal" character. Within this story the loyal character is most definitely the wishing chair. The chair saves the children when it is most needed and always comes back to save them no matter what. I think this is important even within an adult fairy tale (which I want to attempt) as a story can be as dark as you like but an element of hope must always be there. I believe this because every story needs a little bit of hope to guide the protagonist through their journey. 

I am now moving on to adult fairy tales and I am currently reading Briar Rose by Jane Yolen- so far so good. 

Sian X.

Starting the dissertation / WEEK ONE.

Throughout the next 11 months of tears, stress and a lot of comfort food I want to write a timeline of my thoughts and ideas and see how these change throughout the year. I feel this will benefit me to see how both my ideas and writing have developed in order to help me gain the best possible grade.

It is the first week of June and also my first week back at home for summer. To start of my dissertation research I have begun to read around the subject I am focusing on. As I am undertaking a Creative Writing dissertation I have decided to write a fairy tale and at the moment I am thinking of writing a contemporary fairy tale which challenges the traditional.

Yesterday I read four traditional children's fairy tales including; Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.

Whilst reading I was noting down all the features of the main characters such as the villain, the 'loyal' character, the princess and the saviour (usually the prince). I also took note of any symbols such as the apple in Snow White and the spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty.

Reading these fairy tales has helped me form a basis of the traditional fairy tale and the important elements of them.

Over the weekend I hope to continue reading more traditional children's fairy tales in hope of some inspiration before moving on to adult fairy tales where I hope to find more detail and gore.

Praying I stick to this!

Sian. X 

The end of Second Year

 I have finished my exams and my room is beginning to become more and more empty as I pack up to go home for summer. This year has gone so quickly and surprisingly a lot quicker than first year. Although second year comes with a lot more work than first it was still a lot of fun!

Moving into a new house was exciting especially with 7 other people, it was just like halls all over again but a tad quieter. My course got a lot more interesting as I was allowed to pick 3 units that I wanted to take on for a whole year and was not limited to just compulsory units. Although I feel I could have done a little better than expected I still surprised myself with some of the marks I received.

The social aspect of Second year was still at a high yet I was more strict with myself when it came to important deadlines and of course exam season. I had two exams and hopefully they were the last exams I will ever sit! 

Since I have finished Second year all I can say is that my time has been filled with friends, food and a lot of alcohol. It's like a throwback to first year where all we did was go out and get drunk. This weekend is my last weekend in Portsmouth before I go home, I am very sad but also quite excited to go home and be in the comfort of a CLEAN house with lots of food that I haven't bought! 

Summer holds a few exciting things for me including a months work experience at a Publishing company in London, a weekend away in Dublin and Bestival with a few close friends in September. 

Although sad to be moving on to my last year at University I can thankfully say that this year/term has been a good one. I have grown closer to friends (3 of them who I will be living with next year) and met so many new people. I have explored Portsmouth a lot more by making use of the beach which is just round the corner of my home to eating at so many unique cafe's and restaurants that Portsmouth has to offer. 

So here's to third year! (and to a lot tears and stress)

Sian. X