Inspired By Others

Yesterday, I spent well over an hour listening to Helen Garner read from her work and talk about writing. It was a great afternoon that began with a series of tiny writing workshops - tasters - run by us teachers from the VU professional writing course. Then we all gathered in the bigger space to listen to Helen. It was such a pleasure, not least because she is a very good reader, with lots of variety and intonation in her voice. No matter how good the writing, listening to a droner destroys the experience. I loved her piece about her two sisters and her with their ukeleles, playing songs while watching the Sydney Olympics.

She is a writer who focuses on the real. She has written a lot of nonfiction, and said her weekly column for the Age newspaper was one of her favourite writing "jobs". Her word limit was 770, and every week she made sure the piece was exactly 770 words, no more, no less. It was a great exercise in paring down and making every word work. She talked about writing every day, and also said (before she read from The Spare Room) that in hindsight she wished she hadn't called the main character Helen, because she got sick and tired of constantly defending the book as a novel and not a memoir.

With the Melbourne and Brisbane Writers' Festivals coming up soon, this session was a good reminder of how simply listening to a published writer talk about their work, their ideas and how and why they write can be so inspiring. Writing means spending a lot of time alone with your computer and your own tortured (sometimes) mind as you wrestle with what needs to come out onto the page. You can forget that it's not just you - that most other writers feel the same way, have the same experiences, and find ways through it all to the end.

I wish there were more sessions at both festivals on fiction writing/fiction writers. I've whinged about this before, I know! But there are many writers who find those sessions, especially the Conversation or Spotlight ones, act like a real spur for your own writing. You attend a good session, you listen, you think, you talk about it with your writer friends, and you go back to your own work with renewed excitement and determination. I often come away from a session with an idea for a poem or a short story.

On the other hand, I'm going to be on the other side of the microphone this year. I'm doing an Artplay session on Sunday 30th August in Melbourne (it's where kids get to have their own writer's and illustrator's session and make their own books too). My partner-in-books that day will be Shaun Tan. And in Brisbane, I'll be doing some sessions on the Schools Days, two of which will be online with remote schools. Yes, I've already started preparing, and trying not to feel nervous, but the kids are usually fantastic and we all have a great time. (And of course, both Festivals have their own Facebook fan pages!)

Goals vs Dreams

I've been goal setting for years. My very first taste of this tantalising exercise was way back in the days when my daughter was at primary school. Goodness knows why I went along to a parents' session that involved goal setting - all I remember was the part of the course on developing your own photos in a lab! But many years later, I found the notes I'd made at the time and was astounded to find that a few of the things I'd put down back then (such as "attend a writing conference in the US") had been achieved. If you'd asked me what I'd written down, I would have had no idea.

Later, I worked in a community arts centre and there I ventured into my second round of goal setting. The session was new to me, but familiar to nearly everyone now. 1. What would you like to achieve one day. 2. What do you want to achieve in 3 years. 3. What would you put at the top of the list if you had six months to live! I kept the handouts from that session, but not the goals I set. However, the two experiences stayed with me, and I have done a range of goal setting exercises ever since. Usually around February or March each year, after the initial New Year's resolutions have worn off and I can be practical about it.

Except, a few years down the track now, I have been finding the whole goal setting thing a total yawn. A list of jobs. An obvious list of stuff I already know I have to do (including deadlines) so why bother going through the motions? I've been giving this a bit of thought over the past few months, in the face of what looked like just another list of THINGS TO DO, and have come to some conclusions.

1. Deadlines and things contracted (with future due dates) don't belong on a Goals list.
2. Jobs such as cleaning out your office don't belong on a Goals list either - if only because this will be an ongoing job that will keep me busy until Infinity.
3. Jobs and commitments that involve other people don't belong on a Goals list.
4. What might help to re-inspire you about Goals is to change the word to Dreams, and then have a good think about the difference.
5. Dreams involve inspiration, excitement, anticipation and happy planning. They involve little steps, each one of which makes you feel good. Trips to France are included in Dreams. Completing a revision by 30 June, or fixing up your tax records, are absolutely not!
6. Dreams should include a couple of things that are wonderful to contemplate, but probably unreachable in practical terms. The exciting bit is when you start to see them become reachable.

So I've thrown away any of my Goals that sound like Jobs. I've put plenty of Dreams back on the list, things that I want to do just for me and no one else. Things that make me happy just to think about them. Things that don't rely on or respond to anyone else except me. I've been to France (and that was a dream come true!) - maybe now I'll start thinking about South America ... or Alaska ... or Canada ... or ...

What Inspires You?

I'm sure many of you have already seen the YouTube clip of Susan Boyle singing on Britain's Got Talent TV show. If you haven't yet, it's here. According to the Age newspaper yesterday, 14 million people had seen it in a week. It's probably up to 20 million by now! Why is this video of a woman singing in a talent quest so amazing? For me, it's two things. She so obviously loves singing and says she just wants to sing in front of a big audience for once. And when she arrives on stage, so many of the audience immediately judge her on her appearance (as do the judges) and are showing scorn before she even begins to sing. Once she starts, however, everything changes.

In his book, No Plot, No Problem, Chris Baty asks you to list all the things you enjoy in a novel (and the things you don't). For me, something I love in any story is transformation. In the Susan Boyle clip, that is exactly what I see, over and over. Not only are the audience and judges transformed by her performance, but it's almost as if she is not! She is very emotional afterwards, and happy, but she has done what she set out to do - achieved her dream. The rest is just the icing on the cake. So I also see the whole thing about reaching for your dream and making it happen.

Dreams can be powerful things. They can keep us motivated and striving for what seems like the impossible - and maybe that's what a dream should be. Not a deadline, or a manuscript that has to be written for a certain purpose or to pay the bills. Those are things clearly within our reach, as long as we work hard and produce the words. A dream is "the big thing" - the one that makes your heart race when you think about it, the one that keeps you awake at night, planning the next few small steps you'll take towards it. The one that you have to have faith in, believe it might one day be possible, and that belief keeps you going, no matter what.

For me, it's seeing someone like Susan Boyle that encourages me to believe in my own dreams. I read about people who achieve wonderful things, but seeing it like that, in full colour, right before my eyes, is stirring and emotional and inspiring to me. So what inspires you, as a writer? Is it real stories like these? I don't mean so much what inspires you to write (which can be movies, other writers, an exciting idea, etc) but what truly moves you and inspires you to also reach for your dream?

Flying Home From Perth

I think I am becoming an inveterate plane sleeper. It amazes me when people say, "Oh I can't sleep on planes." And I think, Why not? It's like sleeping in the car when you're a kid. I'm almost to the point where I sit down, buckle up my seat belt, we take off and zzzz...... Something about the hum and the quiet (unless there's a screaming kid). Although I can't say the seats do much for the comfort level. This amazing sunset photo was taken after I woke up!

When I look back now on the Poetry Festival (seems like ages ago although it wasn't, but I've been to Sydney since then), this is what stands out for me:

* the keynote address by Fay Zwicky, not least of all because she had just been to see Gran Turino with Clint Eastwood and referred to it many times in relation to her life as a poet. I loved the movie and totally understood what she was saying, although no doubt some others might not have. She was very inspiring.

* the keen interest that everyone had in listening and contributing, and in writing and reading poetry.

* the opening party of the Perth Writers' Festival, in the grounds of the University of WA - and me getting lost looking for the bus back to the hotel and discovering a spooky sunken garden.

* the opening of the poetry festival by an Aboriginal person named Sean (sorry, Sean, I should have asked someone who you were!) - it was the most eloquent, stirring welcome to country I have ever heard, and from now on, anyone who just does the "lip service" thing will just be annoying! He brought tears to my eyes and raised goosebumps.

* the rain - I got soaked to the point of dripping onto the carpet on my walk back to the hotel one day, and it was wonderful. I'd almost forgotten what rain felt like.

I'll report on the Northern Sydney School Librarians' Conference shortly - it was terrific!