Friday 27 February 2009

The Constant Editor

I’m doing a considerable amount of editing at the moment – as part of my role as a university lecturer in creative writing, my own work naturally and in my role as editor with Bridge House Publishing. I’m also member of a couple of critique groups. So, I’m constantly playing with words. What a world to work in!
What do I notice when I edit?
One of the biggest problems is lack of tension in the plot. Often the resolution comes too easily. It’s a problem I find in my own work. How exactly do we get rid of the Deus ex Machina?
Telling instead of showing is also common, especially amongst less experienced writers.
Perhaps the third most common problem is shifting point of view. Yes, the omniscient author is coming back into fashion, but it has to be proactively that and not an assortment of misaligned mistakes. What is a little alarming about this category is that I see it also in published works, which have presumably gone through an editorial process. I’m not talking just self-published or small press either. I see it in works produced by the big boys.
An irritating problem amongst less experienced writing is incorrect formatting, especially in direct speech.
Then there is the odd miracle, the odd piece of writing which really grabs me and switches off that chuntering left-brained inner critic. I become absorbed in the story and the sheer brilliance of the writing. Bring them on!

Thursday 19 February 2009

Never quite finishing

I had quite a feeling of elation yesterday, as I finished an educational book I’m writing for Continuum. It’s actually a manual for teachers with photocopiable sheets for students. Except I haven’t actually completely finished it. I have one more mindmap to create. I have an introduction to write and a tracking sheet to supply. Then I have to take all of the formatting back out as they don’t want us to design it. I’ve had to format it though, so that I can see if it all fits on to the A4 spreads it’s supposed to fit.

There are naturally all the other editing processes to be done as well. Sometime later today I’ll be printing out a hardcopy. I expect I’ll cringe at a lot of what I’ve written. I’ll also more easily be able to do some cross-referencing. So, still a heap of work to do and the whole thing has to be with the publisher by 14th March.

Yet I still feel a little elated. I just don’t have to think of another creative lesson plan.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Writers or detectives?

“How did you that poem was about me and Alex?” asked my colleague.
She had been reading it out at the launch of a book produced by our students. She reads rather well and it was a fine piece of writing, enhanced by its simplicity.
It was about mountain climbing with a partner. I know she climbs a lot and that climbing feeds her creativity. She climbs frequently with our choir master. Oh yes, when you’re valued for your individual creativity and you tend to work in a bit of a vacuum, with even the most well meaning colleagues not quite understanding exactly what you do, in your spare time you join a choir where you have to work very precisely with other people. Climbing with a partner is like that too.
But Jayne climbs with various people, so how did I know it was Alex?
I guess I guessed, but I was led on by the degree of intimacy. These two do know each other well. Yet there were no sexual overtones. That would be about right. Jayne is single and Alex has a partner. They’re singing and climbing buddies.
“That poem was about climbing with Alex,” she said at the end of the reading.
“Ah, I thought so,” I said triumphantly.
I guess the truth of the matter is that we writers are nosy and observant. We share much with the private detective. We have to be like that in order to be able to write about life.
On another occasion I remember not being at all surprised when one of our friends announced her engagement to another one of our friends twenty years her junior. I’d seen it coming. Everyone else was gobsmacked.

Friday 13 February 2009

Day of contrasts – from disaffected youth to creative cafés

Yes, the boys at Ysgol Coed Menai are quite tough. Yes, I did hear a few more swear words than I’m used to. And I can’t exactly say that they were all perfect gentlemen, but I can say several very good things about my visit there.
First of all, the school is in a beautiful setting with glorious views form its windows. It’s accommodated in a beautiful old house and you drive through glorious woodland to get to it. You have to go along a track which leads to it, a caravan park which at this time of year seems empty and a farm. It’s off the road between the two bridges across the Menai Straits.
And none of the boys were rude to me, in fact.
They did work and they worked well. Year 8 boys did haikus about a new horror theme park we were creating. The Year 7s did acrostic poems about natural disasters. The 10/11 group worked on opposite poems about healthy living, flash fiction based on minor or negative characters in well known stories. All of them had a go at the Shape Game. One person has to draw a random shape and their partner has to make it into a picture - preferably something to do with what they have just been writing with.
These are very small groups, accompanied always by quite a few adults – teachers and teaching assistants.
I was given a very good but enormous lunch. Some of these youngsters may not get another meal. It was good food but, alas, left me with no appetite for the café later.
On this occasion, we won’t be building a book. That small number of boys won’t produce enough. But I am going to set up a web site and they can continue to add to it.
Then I went off to the Blue Sky café. They are absolutely doing exactly what a Creative Café should do. They have so much going on and their food is marvellous. Exciting times, indeed.

Day of contrasts – from disaffected youth to creative cafés

Yes, the boys at Ysgol Coed Menai are quite tough. Yes, I did hear a few more swear words than I’m used to. And I can’t exactly say that they were all perfect gentlemen, but I can say several very good things about my visit there.
First of all, the school is in a beautiful setting with glorious views form its windows. It’s accommodated in a beautiful old house and you drive through glorious woodland to get to it. You have to go along a track which leads to it, a caravan park which at this time of year seems empty and a farm. It’s off the road between the two bridges across the Menai Straits.
And none of the boys were rude to me, in fact.
They did work and they worked well. Year 8 boys did haikus about a new horror theme park we were creating. The Year 7s did acrostic poems about natural disasters. The 10/11 group worked on opposite poems about healthy living, flash fiction based on minor or negative characters in well known stories. All of them had a go at the Shape Game. One person has to draw a random shape and their partner has to make it into a picture - preferably something to do with what they have just been writing with.
These are very small groups, accompanied always by quite a few adults – teachers and teaching assistants.
I was given a very good but enormous lunch. Some of these youngsters may not get another meal. It was good food but, alas, left me with no appetite for the café later.
On this occasion, we won’t be building a book. That small number of boys won’t produce enough. But I am going to set up a web site and they can continue to add to it.
Then I went off to the Blue Sky café. They are absolutely doing exactly what a Creative Café should do. They have so much going on and their food is marvellous. Exciting times, indeed.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Priorities

I had a real dilemma yesterday. Should I go to a meeting which involved discussion of what I might be teaching next year? Maybe I needed to defend my modules? Or should I go and listen to a visiting speaker? We’d urged our students to attend the latter. One colleague had even changed the time of her class so that she and her students could attend.
There is a need to prioritise in the following order:
What is important and urgent
What is important but not urgent
What is urgent but not important
What is neither urgent nor important
(Covey, Seven Habits)
I decided the meeting was more urgent that the visiting speaker but not quite as important and anyway a senior colleague had to be there and I could trust her to defend my interests and take a global view of our entire programme.
The series of visiting speakers is called “Vital Signs”. In this situation, one could see how apt a name that really is. We have to remember what we are actually about. Lucy Walker, a young published novelist and playwright, who started writing on her BA Creative Writing programme, came to speak to our students.
One of my colleagues started the session off with a very focussed question and answer session. Then there were general questions from the floor. Lucy read at the end of the session. This is almost the complete reverse of what one normally does, but it worked extremely well.
One recognised the life style. Several projects on the go. A little teaching here and there. A few talks. And rejection. In Lucy’s case, one really nasty one.
I think I made the right choice. As a bonus, the talk was extremely enjoyable.

Monday 9 February 2009

Bridge House - beginning to take off?

I’ve now selected the stories for our two new anthologies – one is going to be called “In the Path of the Red Queen”. Or would “shadow” be better? My friend Debz has done it again. She’s written a story which stands out against the crowd. So, we’ll take the title from that. Not so easy as for “Making Changes”. I’ve now got to create some myth about the Red Queen which will pull them all together.
The “Children’s Suitcase” was a bit more difficult. Some of the stories weren’t so good and there weren’t quite enough of them. I’ve had to ask for more. I may be keeping two of my own in there but I’d really rather only have one. Now they’re all rolling in. It was worrying that there weren’t so many as I’d thought that writing for children was even more competitive than writing for adults.
I’ve commissioned the covers. Now the mass editing starts.