Levels of Critquing

Levels of Critiquing
I’ve just been talking to one of my students about critique groups. They are good to go to, even for our students over and above our own workshops. But there are so many possibilities. Here are a few:
Tea party. It makes you feel nice. “I really like the way you talk about the trees bending in the wind.” It’s good to have that once in a while. But is it actually productive?
Harsh. Every conceivable problem with the piece is discussed. Nothing good is acknowledged. There is even discussion about how publishable the text might be. It can make you want to give up sometimes.
Balanced. The good points and the bad points are mentioned and you can come out of that feeling okay. However, you can never be sure what the balance actually is.
Genre specific. This can be useful, as you can concentrate on the particular requirements of your field. However, cross-fertilisation is also good.
My brand: I say what is good. I say what works less well. I give advice about how the piece might be improved. I summarise what I’ve said – emphasising the positives. It’s a nice method, but doesn’t paint the whole picture. I use this also with my students in workshops and always try to pick the comments the most useful to them.
What is the most important thing that they are doing right?
Which fault is pulling the work down the most?
Which is the most effective step they can now take to improve their work?
Maybe there is an argument about going to a variety of critique groups:
One that makes you feel good.
One that tells you how it is.
One that is genre-specific.
One that is balanced.
I also argue that there is much to be gained by showing a finished piece to someone who has never seen it before. Critiquers can lose objectivity if they see a piece several times.

The Books Have Come

They’ve arrived! My lovely creamy, yellowy copies of The Prophecy. I did worry a little that they may not come in time. They have and they all look good.
Over thirty books out and I still get quite a kick out of seeing their glossy covers. However, I don’t like opening them. I find sentences I want to change. It’s odd as well – I don’t quite recognise them. I’m so used to seeing my books as double-spaced A4 sheets. They don’t look quite as if they belong to me when they’re in the form of books on the shelf. Who is this Gill James anyway?
I’m going to have to pick the bits I want to read soon and practise. That’s enjoyable, though. I think we’ve got a fair audience. Perhaps the free chocolate cake and the free carrot cake is attracting them….
Is text enhanced by performance? Or should the text speak for itself? I know often in critique groups, one tends to underread. I did have a friend, though, who could make the direst texts come to life. At readings anyway one has to actually perform. Practise I must, therefore.

Book Launch Imminent

I’m getting so excited. My book "The Prophecy" launches on 18th September. It actually comes out, of course on 14th September. We’re holding it at the Nexus Art Café in Dale Street, Northern Quarter, M1 1JW. Fans, if you want to come along, you’re most welcome, but do RSVP to admin@theredtelephone.co.uk. Carrot cake and chocolate cake free on a first come first served basis. Books for sale, obviously, and I’ll be doing a few short readings.
It’s a great venue and very appropriate. I’m hoping to get them into the Creative Café network. They’re actually a really good example of the Creative Café. The epitomise it – and they’re still pushing it further.
It was good yesterday, having the excuse to go and visit to pay the deposit. I just had to try a piece of the chocolate cake ….

Sonya Sones’ “What My Mother Doesn’t Know”

This book is a little bit different. It is a poetry novel. I found it extremely readable and the verse form did not put me off at all. If anything, it enhanced the emotional involvement. That’s good news for the teen reader as well. Emotional involvement is always important. Poetry novels also have the advantage that they are quicker to read – even though they stay with you longer. An efficient process, therefore.
If this hadn’t been a poetry novel, because of its content, it would be “chicklet-lit”. Chicklet-lit is like chick-lit but for the next generation down – for the young adult. It already has a little more gravitas than the Bridget Jones style novels. In this form, though it really takes off. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as close to a protagonist as I do to Sophie in this novel.
Is it something I’d like to have a go at myself? I certainly think so. It is definitely something I’d recommend to my students. It would be fantastic for their Final Portfolio, an important final year module.

Writers do a lot more than write

I’ve just had three weeks’ leave from my post at the University of Salford. I thought during that time I’d have some time to write. I did very little in the end – partly because my father died, partly because my daughter got married and partly because I was ill. But that wasn’t all the time – some of the time my husband and I were having a holiday at home and even without those three life events I may not have got an awful lot done. In between day trips and a weekend away for the wedding, and admittedly lounging around doing nothing because I felt so ill, I also had to deal with some urgent domestic business and work on some publicity for an upcoming book launch. I even did a short radio interview.
It’s almost easier when I’m at work. In fact I’m writing this at work – and I do it without feeling guilty. Fortunately my employers expect me to write – what a fantastic day job, but they do also give me plenty of admin, plenty of marking and plenty of meetings to attend, but in the end they’re all to do with writing so it feels good.
But I’m lucky if I can squeeze in two hours a day / 2000 words. I used to manage that even I when I worked full time in a school as a Head of Department, though admittedly then I wouldn’t have been able do the talks and school visits and all the marketing and presence creating that I now do.
Many writers, especially those who have become renowned do complain of this. They become public figures and are in demand. They have to become used to writing in hotel rooms or on the train.
Then there is writer’s research – which can be a good procrastination tool anyway. That research can also just be a matter of sitting back and observing life.
In addition, there is a very positive upside. Reading is an activity that is essential for writers. It happens also to be my default activity. I don’t have to feel guilty, then, if I’m indulging myself in a good book. It’s part of my work!
What a wonderful life-style!

Kotuku (Deborah Savage)

Kotuku
Deborha Savage’s Kotuku is an interesting read. There is some mystery and Savage is very clever in the way she gradually reveals how Wim’s best friend Jilly actually died. Wim is extremely well drawn also. She is a true young adult with all the uncertainties that go with that age and a fair amount of self-absorption. A believable real person is revealed from time to time through the trappings of adolescence.
Yet at times, although the novel is well-written, the narrative can be a little too introspective for even an adult reader. It may irritate a young adult who needs fast pace and high drama. There is risk taking – Wim is very brave in the way she handles her demented great aunt – but it does not go quite far enough. In addition Savage is a little too insistent on the reality of a fantasy thread. It would be much wiser to leave the decisions about this to the imagination of the reader.
This book doesn’t quite have the impact of some other similar more literary Young Adult novels. However, it is very readable and it’s conclusion is reasonably satisfying. The question of course is, how does she attain this style and what is preventing her from perfecting it?

Working with editors, non-fiction

As usual. A book I sent to the editors back in March has lain dormant for some time, almost to the extent that I thought the publishers had changed their mind about wanting it after all, and suddenly it has sprung into life again, just as other projects are also coming to a head and just as there are some very significant things happening in my personal life.
Now, I have to add in some more detail, discuss some other sections and make some alterations. It’s all go, naturally. It always seems to be that way: when you have all the time in the world, nothing much happens, and just in those precise weeks when you have a lot on, all the rewrites come in.
I also had two of my other non-fiction resources reviewed. They were quite favourable reviews and where they did make comments was mainly actually to do with what had been intended anyway. Yes, this was meant to be a resource for the most able. Yes, there is an oddity about the order the German grammar was presented. It is in the order of what makes the greatest difference to learners at GCSE level. That is why we start with the perfect tense.