Writing tips...

Other half coming soon

I'm no expert, but I have been struggling with this writing caper for many years in many different forms from the pragmatic to the professional, from report writing to academic to creative to the just plain fantastical. Ah well, to be more specific, plays, poetry, short stories, a completed (done and dusted) novel and a few incomplete ones.

I guess we could all come up with a list of writing tips, and I'm not trying to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs (although I suspect my own grandmothers never did such a thing) but in coming up with these I was trying to clarify what it is that works for me, or what it is that I think might work.

So I thought I would do this thing - for the next however long I will put up a writing tip a week, scheduled to come up on the same day. Along with this will be a writing prompt - something to push against to do a bit of writing. The prompt might be a picture, an idea, a quote - I'm not sure yet, but it will be something you might choose to use, or lose.

I get the feeling that this blog is read mainly by other writers, or people interested in the process of writing, along with the Book Length Project Group network, so I'm hoping it will be of interest and of some use.

The first one will go up in the coming week.

Writers' retreat - New Norcia

A small group of BLPG writers went to the New Norcia retreat, and Pat has sent this report. Sounds like they had a great time! Well done to Pat for all her hard work in organising this, and to Trisha for the writing prompts.

Here's Pat's report and a couple of photos from the retreat...

New Norcia

The retreat to New Norcia was a blessing in unexpected ways. True, I was expecting peace, I was expecting quiet – and it was provided in full. I was expecting impressive architecture and interiors filled by paintings and object d art and had the pleasure of viewing it. But I also found the vibe was friendly and on Saturday night the pub was a revelation of steaming life. There were check shirts and cowboy hats dancing to Joe Cocker, truck drivers at their regular stop, and happy young backpackers behind the bar. I wasn’t really expecting the unstrained flow of conversation, not just about writing, but about the life behind writing that informs and shapes it for each one of us in our own time and space. I wasn’t really expecting to learn so much about my fellow writers and their journeys toward writing. If anyone remembers the show on SBS called ‘Front up,’ it was a bit like that. Scratch any ordinary person on the street and find a fascinating story underneath. We read to each other and the feedback was intelligent and informed. It’s true I didn’t do as much writing as I’d planned, but I was probably having too much fun.

 

My take on Margaret Atwood's "In Other Worlds - SF and the Human Imagination"

Over the last few days I've been rearranging my bookshelves - my equivalent to rearranging the underwear drawer. I can't seem to throw out my old books either (I thought) as I rediscovered some torn and yellowed volumes from high school. My handwriting hasn't improved since then, but more disturbingly the quality of the observations in the margins hasn't shifted much either. Seems I am destined to be eternally immature, despite my best efforts to conform to an outwardly changing image.

Anyway, the old and the new are now in authorial alphabetical order under six categories - Novels, Non-fiction stuff about ideas, Plays, Poetry, Short Story Anthologies, and Memoir. A seventh category, Miscellaneous, is miscellaneous.

I mention this along with Margaret Atwood's book because I have been taking breaks in my categorising and cataloguing to read it, and in a funny kind of way, it has probably influenced how I have interpreted it.

I found the reading satisfying in the same way that I now look at my neat bookshelves and find them satisfying. Some interior designers talk about autobiographical décor, and it's good to know that our eclectic taste in household stuff now has a name to legitimise it. If the furniture is autobiographical, I'd say the books we read and keep are even more so.

In Other Worlds might similarly be seen as an autobiographical account of Margaret Atwood's relationship with Science Fiction from the time she was a child to (loosely) current times (the book was published in 2011). I found it to be enjoyably fragmentary. This fragmentary but lightly themed approach is satisfying in the same way as it is to rummage through a box of dress-ups. You can go through the box systematically, or pick and choose, or take a lucky dip in to see what you come up with. For me, given that I was in my sorting out and cataloguing mode, I enjoyed reading it systematically from front to back, and I suppose the various essays, literary critiques, observations, talks and self-disclosures about this whole sci-fi field has been edited or arranged in that particular order to provide a sense of chronology.

There are observations regarding a fairly wide range of speculative novels that have entered the author's orbit over the years - H. Rider Haggard, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Yevgeny Zamyatin, HG Wells, Winthrop, Ursula le Guin, Sherri Tepper , Kazuo Ishiguro, Bryher, and others. Some I had just handled and lingered over in my concurrent reorganising activity. Others, like that of Kazoo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go is one I haven't yet read, but now will.

When Margaret Atwood came to the Perth Writers Festival earlier this year, she sat with China Mieville to debate the finer points of the field. I gather that sometimes people get very upset over apparently competing categories - I wonder if maybe it's a mapping thing, including, but not entirely to do with territoriality, status and an idea of scarcity. Incidentally, mapping is something else that is discussed in one of the essays in the book.

If you're still not sure what Margaret Atwood's thoughts are with regard to Sci Fi, I think this book goes a long way towards giving a more rounded understanding of her perspective on the debate. More importantly it gives a sense of her long-standing love and respect for the whole field, whether it be considered high, middle or low-brow.

Five stars from me!

Other good blog sites provided by writers networked into this group...

louise-allan.com great book reviews and reflections on life

Contemplating life

The Incredible Rambling Elimy elimy.blogspot.com has great book reviews and reflections on writing

burinsmith.com for great reviews and writing reflections and bentown.wordpress.com  for food

Little Blog of Phlegm, (actually to do with phlegm) and vego camper (to do with preparing vegetarian food whilst camping).

Maureen Helen lanches new blog!

What a great, thought provoking read. Well worth visiting this blog with posts on the Western Australian health system.

Maureen Helen has previously given presentations to the Book Length Project Group.

Distraction and reading

In his much lauded book of 1982 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes wrote about a concept called punctum. This related to the art of photography, and it meant the thing in a photo that caught your eye, that the viewer kept returning to think about, even after the photograph has been removed. This was contrasted against the idea of studium, the boring bits, or boring photographs, if you like. The bread and butter that backgrounded the honey.

Punctum provides a little reward each time, I think, and because of this we tend to seek more. I mention this because the idea of it has influenced the way I think about the changes that are taking place in our collective way of being in the world, and particularly what I think might be our increasing distractability. While this might be seen as linked to the ability to multi-task (as a positive thing) I wonder if there is also something in this increasing skill of dividing attention (that is quickly flicking between one thing and another) that reduces our ability to concentrate on one thing, and to follow through with it. I think we are seeking punctum at the expense of studium - in other words we want the icing without the cake, and with much the same result.

What does this have to do with reading? Well, in some ways, it means we are reading more - which is a good thing, although the more we are reading might be a kind of flit, flit, flit as we go from one thing to another like dragonflies over a pond. (Yes, I also read somewhere about the tyranny of we, and when I say we, really what I am saying is me.)

What I had started to find was that my concentration and patience to tolerate studium was reducing, and my seeking out of punctum increasing, which might be all very well, but it meant that I was missing out on finishing some very good books that needed to settle in before they revealed their considerable gifts, often deeper and more valuable than those of the easier to read 'hold your attention' 'gripping' books (not always, but sometimes) and more soul-feeding.

So what did I do? I made a decision to settle my mind, to get out less, stay in more, reduce my screen time, increase my page and notebook time, to be mindful of the things around me, and to sleep and daydream enough to restore and repair. The whole thing has been restorative and anxiety-reducing. My concentration is improving. The novel I am writing, one that had been stuck for a little while, is starting to move again. And I am back to reading more books.

I might have the whole punctum/studium thing wrong, so I am going to pick up Barthes' book again and read it to see. It's been quite a while and I have changed in the interim. But I'm changing back.

Inspiration = a good book

Every now and again I need to remind myself what it is that I really value in books (as opposed to writing). Nothing tells me that more clearly than the books themselves. I love them for their own sake, for what they teach me, and because they inspire me to try to create something of value that will also give someone pleasure and inspiration. Granted, this will be yet another book in a burgeoning living reef of books. Still, within the limitations of my abilities, it will be the best I can write.

I suppose I tend to choose to read books either on the basis of their being of value to me at this particular time in my life, or more frequently it seems that the choice is serendipitous. So although it concerns me sometimes that I have so much admiration for the books that I have reviewed on this blog, because it might seem that the net is spread a little too wide, in fact I have so much admiration for these books because they are (in my opinion) very, very good and seem to have pulled off what must be to any writer who has tried to do likewise, an act verging on magic - the completion of stories (already something to be admired)  that feel real, effortless in their execution, sophisticated in their expression, and emotionally intelligent and courageous in their exploration of character and circumstance. I find that lately I am falling in love (or at least falling in like) with each new book that I read.

I am currently in the middle of reading Joyce Carol Oates incredible (no, really incredible!) book published in 2012 - Mudwoman.  (OMG!!!) If you are looking for a book that incorporates depth of character, political perspicacity, form as function, just plain writing skill at the elite athlete level, then this is a book to read and study. I certainly intend to do so. (For me) it is reminiscent of Susan Johnson's The Broken Book as it disorients the reader along with the disorientation of the protagonist, but in the same way that the poetry of e.e. cummings might do. You have to give in to it, swim with it, if you are to discover the wonders of the underwater world that it reveals. Whether we are to take this as the world of the collective unconscious, the dream world, the imagined life after life world, or more prosaically (possibly) the world of writerly metaphor, it's worth diving in.

Apologies for the purple prose, but I am in the purple prose mood this morning. Hope you find time to get hold of a copy of this remarkable book and read it. Would love to know what you think of it.

Book Review - "Life in Half a Second" by Matthew Michalewicz

A lovely-sounding lady (via email interaction) called Jody recently sent me a review copy of this book, subtitled How to achieve success before it's too late, a timely gift out of the blue for a few different reasons.

The one that is of relevance to this blog revolved around the concerns expressed in the course of the Australian Society of Authors Congress which was held in Sydney last month. Like the music industry, the book industry is in a state of some uncertainty with regard to what the future holds in relation to authors' livelihoods. This is because of apparent diminishing p-book sales, variable e-book sales, and the looming take-up of the industry by large and powerful companies which are making what they see as good business decisions. They probably are good decisions in the shorter term, but what happens if the writers stop writing?

It won't happen, of course. Writers, being the peculiar people that we are, will continue to write, but the practicalities of earning enough to be able to eat, support our families, and pay the bills does tend to steal time away from our primary activity, which is likely to impact on the quality of what we are able to produce.

The long and short of it is that writers, like anyone else, need to be able to become somewhat entrepreneurial, if they are to survive. While many of us have spent the better part of our lives writing, honing that skill, not so many have invested time and passion into learning the skills of entrepreneurial success. This is where Author, Matthew Michalewicz's excellent book comes in.

I hesitate to call this a self-help book, because although it is eminently readable and practical, its scope is a little wider than the genre label might suggest. The author's personal philosophy shines through as he reveals his take on the all-important question of creating meaning in life, and the great satisfaction of not merely entertaining dreams, but actually realising them. It seems that we might even exceed our most dearly held goals, given the right attitude of mind, skills and work ethic.

This very readable book tracks through actions for achieving any goal that the reader might have, whatever that might be - whether it is to develop a successful business, write a book, write a very good book, become a body-builder, or start a successful charity to address a benevolent cause that is dear to your heart. While Michalewicz doesn't claim particular originality with regard to the ideas contained between the covers, he writes that he has used the approach in each of his business ventures.

The author has the credentials to write this book with some credibility, having achieved considerable success in a range of different endeavours. I don't suppose he was obliged to write this book to make his fortune, but in sharing his process, others might learn the techniques that have worked so well for him.

Michalewicz uses the metaphor of five doors one passes through, in order to achieve what it is that they wish to achieve, and at the end of each chapter details specific actions that guide the reader towards attainment of the goal. The book includes footnotes relating to the research supporting the writer's particular claims, and although these are interesting, they are possibly not essential to the text given the author's expertise in the area.

According to the information about the author at the end of the book, Matthew Michalewicz 'is an international expert in entrepreneurship, innovation, and success psychology'. He 'has a track record of starting businesses from scratch and selling them for tens of millions of dollars'. He has written a number of other books including Winning Credibility, Puzzle-Based Learning, and Adaptive Business Intelligence. At the time of the book being published he was lecturing at the University of Adelaide as a Visiting Fellow on the subject of technology commercialisation. A link to his website is included here.

Rememberence day, November 11

Book Review - The House of Fiction by Susan Swingler

The House of Fiction wasn't on my list, but I saw it at the Fremantle Arts Centre on the weekend, and after having seen the author interviewed on Australian Story about a week ago, couldn't resist buying it. As I said to the lady in the bookshop, I can't not buy a book when I go into a bookshop, and this one jumped out at me. She said she didn't mind at all.

This has pushed other books on my list further down, especially since I found myself strangely drawn into the story once I'd started reading. The writing style is unobtrusive and leaves the intrigue of the story itself to do the work. It does this in a self-contained way that suggests considerable restraint on the part of the author, quite a feat, given the content.

The House of Fiction is a memoir published last year by Fremantle Press, and concerns that part of Susan Swingler's life which involves the departure of her father when she was four years old, leaving her mother a single parent in England in1950. Her father was Leonard Jolley, head librarian of the University of Western Australia's library for many years, and husband to iconic and well-regarded Australian novelist, Elizabeth Jolley.

The book is an exploration of the mores of the time as much as anything else. The story ultimately reveals that Elizabeth (previously Monica) and Leonard were lovers while Leonard and Susan's mother Joyce were still together. The then Monica was a friend to both of them, nursed Leonard when he was in hospital with a flare-up of Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the two women (Leonard's wife and his secret lover) subsequently had Leonard's first daughters only five weeks apart. While this was hurtful and unorthodox behaviour, it was probably not a very uncommon story post World War II when the world had been torn apart, lost any innocence that it still might have had, and where the urge to procreate would have been strong.

The other aspect of the story was the secrecy that surrounded this, and continued to do so over many years - Joyce did not know that the woman Leonard had left her for was their friend Monica (Elizabeth Jolley) or that Monica's baby was fathered by Leonard, and Susan did not learn of this until she was 21. This was compounded by a further web of fabrications which left the people involved confused as to what could be believed, and angry at the deception.

This, while interesting, was not the most gripping part of the story for me. What impressed me was the exploration of the psychological aspects - how secrecy, half-truths, fictions disguised as reality, might shape the world of the developing child, causing a potential fracture in their understanding of reality and the ability to trust. In Susan's case there had been enough stability and love from her mother and maternal grandmother during these formative years to protect her from the potential damage of this behaviour. Even so, she alludes to these difficulties, and the hurt remained it seems, up to, and throughout, the writing of the book. This part of the story was courageously and thoroughly explored by the author.

The other thing that impressed me was the author's commitment to appraising the situation with as much honesty as she could - and the positioning of herself within the story, underlining the fact of its subjective nature, only added to this. To my mind, Elizabeth comes out of the story reasonably well in the circumstances - people are only human and sometimes they fall in love with people who already have other commitments, act on those emotions, and people get hurt. Good things come from that too - in this case, two more children. Elizabeth did, at least, try to provide some comfort for the child left behind across the ocean. There seemed to be some generosity in her actions as well as some arguably less generous impulses.

Not for the first time, this book made me reflect on the sacrificial nature of the confessional, or semi-confessional text - that the author exposes self for the sake of the story. I think this applies to the work of Elizabeth Jolley as it does to Susan Swingler. There is, in that, an impulse to explore a truth, the various ways in which humanity is expressed for better or worse.

An advertisement about finding love...

Difficult to segue into this topic from a blog about all things writerly I know, but I'll try.

Some friends have recently started up a local face-to-face dating service (and no, this is not a euphemism for something less lovely). They are hoping to direct people to the relevant website.

The idea is to enable people to meet up either for speed dating, or to facilitate them getting to know one another on a purely friendly basis (just friends). This might even lead to slow-dating (a bit like the slow-cooking movement).

The new service is called IYQ and is currently in the process of organising social events for people to get together in Perth. You can find their website here.

How does this relate to writing? Think Romance Novels perhaps. Or the link between reading a good book, and spending time getting to know one another. These introduction services aim to facilitate relationships in a deep and meaningful way, rather than by way of commodity, a form of alienation all too prevalent in contemporary societies.

Drawing a long bow? Ah well... As my mother is want to say, it's what we do.

National Kindness Day starts 16 days of kindness

November 6 is National Kindness Day in Australia, and starts the 16 days of kindness from 6-21 November.

Why be kind? Well the most obvious answer is that kindness creates a better world for us all to enjoy.

The Australian Kindness Movement makes for a convincing case. The following quote comes from their site. (Follow the link above to learn more and here for suggestions of how to contribute to the celebration of kindness.)

"Being kind is an enjoyable experience. It makes you feel good, and useful, and alive, and it validates you as a human being. When you are kind it triggers a number of beneficial physical and psychological responses. The most obvious response is the 'feel good' sensation,which has been officially titled the "helper's high".

The person who receives a kind act experiences the 'feel good' response, too. It's a nice experience when someone smiles at you, or thanks you, or compliments you, or helps you in some way. It creates a bonding, and in that moment there is a greater sense of worth about yourself and people in general. It is a feeling akin to falling in love, and in that moment you have fallen in love - with the whole of humanity."

 

The Broken Book by Susan Johnson

When I tracked Susan Johnson down at the Australian Society of Authors Congress in Sydney a few weeks ago with her book in my hot, acquisitive little hand, and forced her to sign it for me, with a wheedling smile and a dance of the cover of her book in her sight line, she was very gracious about the whole thing, wishing me well in my own work, in the inscription. She said she hoped I liked it and that it was a book that polarised - people seemed to either love it, or hate it.

I am firmly in the love camp, and I have been trying to put my finger on precisely why. I can't quite...

What I can do is note that this is a remarkable novel, and I can't understand why it didn't win some sort of literary prize (did it? Surely it has!?). I love the fragmented nature of a story that still makes perfect sense, and the style (to say it is confessional is to do it an injustice, only because that word has become associated in literature with a kind of cultural cringe about 'women's writing' - it is, at times, deeply intimate but never cloying). Johnson's expertise in carrying off an unorthodox structure is impressive, and through her own example, she infuses the work with an understanding that the best writing is not just something utilitarian, but art. Capital A Art, I think.

The latter is central to the story, inspired, rather than firmly based, on the life of Australian writer Charmian Clift aka (in Johnson's novel) Katherine Anne Elgin 1923 -1969. Clift collaborated on three novels with her husband, the writer George Johnston (who won the Miles Franklin for My Brother Jack) and had two novels entirely of her own making published in 1960 and 1964 - Walk to the Paradise Gardens and Honour's Mimic respectively. She was a well-known (and loved) columnist and a short story writer.

The Broken Book refers to the novel that Elgin (Clift?) is working on when she dies. In some ways the slippage between the real-life Clift (if such a person - any person - could be pinned down) and the fictional character Elgin, creates a space where (what I think ) the central questions of this novel are posed: What is art? How do the actual lived experience of the writer and the work inform one another? Where or what is the line where/when a written work crosses over into the territory of art? Is writing, or any artistic endeavour, a form of neuroticism? Is it worth it? Who gets hurt along the way? It seems that in this case, the answer is often the writer herself.

What I loved about this book was not just the subject matter, which I assume would be of interest to most writers, but the book itself. I mean, not only the insights Johnson displays in this sensitive and compassionately imagined story about the relationships between husband and wife of that era, parents and their children, and the desire for some sort of transcendence through knowledge or art, but the way in which the words Johnson has chosen catches fleeting human experiences and shows them for the beautiful, complex, often painful, but ultimately joyful gifts that they are.

I can't say any more about this book, except to recommend it to my fellow writers. The three last books I have discussed in this blog have encouraged me to keep going, not because I have a hope of equalling their outstanding artistic achievements, but because it is a beautiful thing to do. And sometimes, for one or two people, a good book implants a kernel of understanding that wasn't there before. And that is really something.