Academic Writing

There was an interesting article in the ACLS magazine recently about academic writing. Academic writers anyway seem to be paid a salary for having ideas so don’t so much need to be paid for their writing. In fact their writing is a way of spreading their ideas.
I’m a rather unusual creature, in that I research and teach in “creative writing” so much of my work has a commercial presence as well. My work is not too commercial, however, as it includes a good degree of experiment. And so it should if it’s part of the learning offered at university.
I do get a ALCS payment and a PLR payment each year. Both are mainly to do with two books and yet I have over 30 in print. We were surveyed by ALCS here at the university last year. A fascinating process. Every time we photocopied something we had to copy the title page and say how many of which pages we’d used.
A friend of mine has published her novel an e-book and is giving it away for a few weeks. It’s gong well.
I expect once the e-book-reader technology settles down it will become popular with academics. I’m personally looking forward to that.
All food for thought.

Writing in 2009

I suppose 2009 has not been a bad year.
I’ve had two Young Adult books come out. Annoyingly, though, they came out within three weeks of each other – one had been delayed for almost two years. I’ve also got a couple of academic papers under my belt. I’m certainly enjoying teaching creative writing at university level. The writing itself is still going quite well and I’ve still plenty of ideas. I just need to make sure I do get enough time to write. And I’m beginning to see what my retirement might look like.
Carrying on with Bridge House has been fun. We’ve got eight book out this year. It’s been a bit hard to keep to deadlines – we were ambitious, life events happened, and sometimes authors were slow to respond to edits or proof-reading – they too had life events and deadlines with other people. But we just about did it and our publications have been a delight. We continue to champion the short story. We begin to be recognised by other publishers and generally by the people in the world of books.
The Red Telephone took off in the summer – that is our imprint for Young Adult books and is in fact now publishing three of mine. We’ll be bringing another one out by another author in June 2010 – hopefully.
There are some exciting projects to look forward to next year – not least of all the animal anthology we’re doing to support Born Free. There’s also plenty planned elsewhere at Bridge House and The Red Telephone. And I have plenty of my own projects and plenty at the university. All good stuff.

Writing isn't Just Writing

I say this because yesterday was my first day as a full-time lecturer at the University of Salford. Somehow, though, that is part of me being a writer. I’m employed as a writer, and the fact that I have an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing helps.

I spent much of yesterday in front of a computer screen, tapping away at this and that. I was doing all sorts of tasks which belonged to my job as a lecturer, which I have because I am a writer.

I even did some direct writing: I worked for about one hour on a proposal for a book about the Young Adult novel. I didn’t do any direct writing on my own creative projects, though I did check out some blogs of people I met at the weekend. And in my search for conferences to do with creative writing, writing for children and young adult literature, I stumbled across some web sites which gave me some more information about my craft and about other publications in the field.

During the rest of the day, I watched a little children’s television, and did some reading. I think these are both essential for someone who writes for children. I also took up a marketing opportunity. Our local SCBWI organiser is creating a web site showcasing us. She is producing a flyer about the web site for the forthcoming Manchester Literary Festival. I sent her two book covers and some blurb about them, along with links to my site in general, the pages where people can see more about my books and order them, and to my blog.

I did still fit in two hours writing, producing just under 2,000 words. But that is so automatic, it’s like cleaning your teeth. You feel terrible if you don’t do it.

Artist’s Treat

Julia Cameron, in her books The Artist’s Way and The Right to Write describes something called the “artist’s treat”. I’ve tried to programme that into my working life once a week now, but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it happens without me planning it. Like the other Wednesday when I met Emma for coffee. She showed me a little quarter of Manchester that I didn’t know existed but that was within minutes of all the places I do know. I was going to the theatre than night and if I’d gone home, I’d have had turn straight back round and come out again. However, that now gave me time to kill. So, I had a good wander around Manchester. It’s a city I love, with a lot of life and buzz.

The whole point, I think, of the writer’s treat is not to have too great an expectation. You just relax and let things happen. You absorb so much subconsciously as you stroll around. I remember once a trip such as this to Winchester cathedral. It followed a surreal day – full day’s teaching at secondary school, followed by a pantomime rehearsal – even our Cinderella was male and he went, still dressed in drag, to the local station to pick up his girlfriend. Then, I and the other members of my MA group were expected to just stroll around Winchester cathedral and ignore each other if we met. We thought our lecturers had gone bananas. It so happens that a half decent short story for children came out of that. Not that one should do this expecting inspiration. It is a way of allowing a gap. Gaps are useful. It gives you a distance form your work, and it does allow seeds of ideas to be planted. Now, I try to create these occasions.

I love the buzz of cities like Manchester, but I hate retail therapy, though I do like having and wearing nice clothes. The trouble with shopping for them is it feels like pressure. An artist’s retreat has to be no pressure.

I’m off to meet my editor for lunch and then on to the CWIG conference in Cambridge. This involves negotiating the M25. Even without that, I always allow an extra half hour for every hour of journey. I could arrive one and half hour early, therefore. Also, I don’t know how long lunch will take, so I may not be able to check into the college straight away. Therefore, I’m flinging the English Heritage and the National Trust handbooks into the car. We’re members of both. If I have time to kill… but I won’t force it. It’s all about sitting back and letting something in, whilst feasting your senses and cranking up your optimism.

Academic / Writer

Most of my writing yesterday was academic. I am wrestling with a book proposal which builds on my PhD thesis. It’s almost harder than writing from scratch. I’m submitting three sample chapters, one of which is actually the introduction. The chapters should be about 7,000 words long. Currently the one I’m working on is running at 5,800. I think, like I tell my students, I need to add more concrete examples.

I’m also making progress with the Creative Café. I’m getting quotes for designing the logo and getting the first bits and pieces printed. It’s potentially a very exciting time. I just have to keep fingers crossed that I get the funding.

I really value my job. It’s as if someone has said, “Gill we value what you do. We’ll pay you a retainer.” So, I have a living wage and get to do what I do anyway:

· Write books

· Give talks

· Critique other people’s work

· Talk to people about writing

· Write critically about writing and literature

· Go to interesting conferences

· Give papers at interesting conferences

· Research into interesting matters.

· Look for funding for projects

. Occasionally I get what might be described as a bonus. I get a royalty cheque or I go to a reading and sell a few books which my publisher has sold to me at a discount.

What a fun life!