What I Don't Want to Read

In his book, "No Plot, No Problem", Chris Baty (Mr NaNoWriMo) starts by asking you to think about what you like to read, and what you don't like to read. Or should I say, read about. Not genres, but topics or subjects or plots or ideas. This is an interesting exercise, and I like to do it with a whole class. There are so many different opinions! I spent some time at the Crime writing festival in the bookshop, cruising along the shelves, and I've done the same in my public library. Reading blurbs, scanning the first page. We all do it. What turns you off a book? This is some of my list.

* Crime fiction that tries to be funny. Apart from Janet Evanovich (who is being very un-original these days), I simply don't like funny crime. Black humour or witty dry lines from characters is a whole different ball game. But quite a bit of the humorous crime or mystery books I've looked at are laboured and tacky.

* Anything that involves plane hijacking, terrorists, or spy stuff. Too much like reading the news at the moment, no matter how well researched it is.

* Any novel about serial murder that goes way overboard with the blood and guts and gore stuff, just for effect. I'm actually not that interested in the gore - I want to know how the person gets caught, and why.

* Most novels that change point of view and give the villain or serial murderer a voice in the book. Most times it doesn't add anything for me. If I cared at all, I'd want the detective to find it out for me, not be "told". I see this as a sneaky way of telling.

* Whiny YA novels where the main character seems to think her life sucks, and wants to tell me about it. Nup.

* Chick lit novels that are similarly whiny but for an older age group. Everyone raved about "I Don't Know How She Does It". I tried to read it and wondered why she bothered.

* Novels where the main character has a mental illness. They never seem credible to me. If the narrator really was mentally ill, how could they write something so cohesive? It somehow offends my sense of logic, and I lose empathy. No doubt others will say I am insensitive...

* Anything with vampires in it. This is entirely a personal response, created by having a series of students a few years ago who wrote the worst vampire novels in existence, and then I had to read them and give constructive feedback. It has scarred me for life.

* Literary novels about middle-class men whose lives have suddenly gone awry, often because they have been laid off or their wives have left them. So what? Suck it up. Don't write about it.

* Misery memoirs. Sorry, I know lots of people love them, and love the "winning through despite terrible ordeals" bit, but I can't bear them. They make me incredibly depressed. I couldn't even read "Angela's Ashes".

I'm sure there are lots more, but honestly, I usually give most things a go. Up to Page 50 or so. Before I chuck them back at the library. What do you hate?

When You've Had Enough

On Saturday I'm off to the Crime and Justice Festival, a good excuse to go and indulge in my passion for crime fiction. Among others, I'll be listening to Stuart MacBride and Barry Maitland talk about their books and characters, and drinking coffee and trying not to buy too many books. My friend G and I swap books sometimes, and swap recommendations constantly. It's great to find a new author whose work you love, and then read their backlist as well. But now and then I wonder about those writers who have been going a long time, whose main character is being trotted out for the 15th time, and whether they feel tired.

I've blogged before about the pressure of a series, especially one where you are expected to produce several books in a short period of time. I read a comment in the review pages the other day about Michael Connelly - the writer said Connelly's publisher must love him because he writes a new book every nine months without fail. That said, the new one is not about Harry Bosch (who's had many outings) but Jack McEvoy, who first appeared in The Poet. This was the first of Connelly's books I read, and it captured me immediately. I went on to read Trunk Music and Concrete Blonde in quick succession.

But nowadays, is a Harry Bosch novel capturing me in the same way? Is Connelly putting the same passion and hard work into his writing? Would it show on the page if he wasn't? Could I tell? I think readers can tell - take Patricia Cornwell. I don't know what happened to her writing, but I know that for me, as soon as she started writing in present tense, she lost me. I have to confess I have now stopped buying Janet Evanovich (although I might borrow from the library). For me, it's too much of the same old, same old.

But how do the writers feel? Do they groan when the publisher says, "I want another one of those, and we need it by 1 May"? Or are they still keen on their characters and have a secret pile of story ideas they can't wait to get to? Maybe that's a question I can ask at the festival... But one thing I have to say about Connelly's new book The Scarecrow - the background of print journalism and the way in which the internet is superseding hardcopy newspapers was fascinating, and what is even better is that Series 5 of The Wire uses the same context as one of its main plot threads.

Reading Poetry

The week began with 63 poems - the ones in my new verse novel (out in March 2010). Having received notes from the editor, it was time to sit down and read the whole manuscript a few times before responding. It's been a while - publishers have schedules and there are often months between signing a contract and working on revision and editing (not always though). It was like reading it with a fresh eye, almost as if I hadn't written it. That's an excellent way to be more critical of your own work.

Then I went through the editor's notes, and scribbled responses for myself, plus I also had another look at a few things that had leapt out at me as not working very well. Revision now will be refining and tweaking. Sometimes it might take a week to find the solution for a line that doesn't quite work. After that, I read poems as I looked for suitable examples for my symbols class on Monday. This is not a class that has studied poetry as a separate subject, but I'm not about to "baby" them either! I paused to re-read two Billy Collins' poems that feature the moon, and filed them for study in class.

Today, I did a poetry reading at Bacchus Marsh. It's the first reading like this I've done in quite a while. As I told the audience, I'm more used to school visits these days, and the challenge of engaging 40 8-year-olds. Or perhaps those 15 or so tiny pirates at the bookshop the other day. You tend to forget what it's like to have a room full of listeners who are there because they want to be, because they enjoy poetry and they are keen to engage. From me, they heard the whole range, from the verse novel for kids to a recent poem about Hong Kong. It was funny that I realised, as I neared the end of the second reading session, how much (to me) I sounded like I do when reading to a school group. I think reading pirate stories out loud, with voices and actions, has given my poetry reading more energy!

The other reader was my long-time friend, Kristin Henry, and over lunch we got onto the subject of bad poetry and obscure poetry (by obscure, we meant poems that are written to be deliberately almost impossible to understand, usually in order to look clever). I've had poetry students who wrote like this and declared that if anyone couldn't understand their poems, it was their problem! There is a difference between being difficult or challenging, and obscure. I still read poems in the Age newspaper Saturday books pages and think, What on earth is that meant to be? So they get the four-time test. If I read the poem four times, slowly and with concentration, and it is still meaningless to me, I give up. I want a poem to communicate with me, show me something new, give me something to think about. Not give me a needless headache! What do you think?

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 ...

Writers' Celebrations!

It's been a great four weeks, celebrating new books with writer friends. And the topics are so wide-ranging that I marvel at their passions and knowledge! In early June, Bronwen Scott (who is working on a crime novel with lots of scientific stuff in it) celebrated the release of her first title, a non-fiction book called Spineless: Dealing with Pests and Pals in Your Home and Backyard. This fascinated me - I have as many pests as the next person, from spiders to wasps, and never mind the ants and millipedes. This is the book you need when you're not sure whether to attack with a broom, or be kind and trap and release. I listened in to an interview she did on Radio National, where listeners phoned in with questions about their own pests and what to do with them. A bit like the gardening show on steroids!

Last weekend, I launched Dee White's first YA novel, Letters to Leonardo. As I said at the launch, Dee has done a great job of creating a believable YA voice. This is a novel of mystery - Matt turns 15 and receives a birthday card from his mother. Usually no big deal, except Matt was told his mother was dead. Dee had over 100 people at her launch, and we all got to chat and eat cake and celebrate the book with her.

I had my own bit of fun today. Although The Littlest Pirate and the Treasure Map (Aussie Nibbles S.) wasn't launched as such, this morning I went along to Dymocks at Camberwell and discovered a whole bunch of lively 3- and 4-year-olds, all dressed up as pirates. One even had a little parrot on his shoulder. I read the picture book, we coloured in, shared some cake and I showed them my pirate flag and special pirate glasses. I wasn't brave enough to sing the pirate song I'd made up.

And finally I am allowed to announce that my friend, Gina Perry, has won a Silver World Medal in the 2009 New York Festivals Radio Programming Awards for her radio documentary, Beyond the Shock Machine. If you heard this broadcast earlier this year on Radio Eye on the ABC, you will know what an amazing story it is. Stanley Millgram ran a series of controversial experiments more than 40 years ago, designed to test how far people would go when instructed to give electric shocks to others in a test situation. While someone in another room answered questions, a wrong answer required the "tester" to give a shock via a machine in front of them. Compliance? Obedience? Lack of moral judgement? Who would go all the way on the voltage meter? And why did it take Millgram so long to reveal to the testers that the person in the other room was faking it? It is a fascinating story. Congratulations, Gina, and also to the ABC producer and team that worked with you.
Time for champagne!

Turning Points in a Scene

I have a fairly extensive library of writing how-to books, and some of them are ones I recommend, some are not (one or two I actively de-recommend!). I always say to students that they should have a good look at a writing book before they buy it. Each book speaks differently to us. One that is perfect for me may leave you cold. Sometimes it's the style, but often it happens that I come across a book that tells me what I want to know at just the right time.

Last semester I co-taught a great subject we call Story Structure. I teach it with a scriptwriter who has a huge amount of experience in both scriptwriting and script editing (and as a dramaturg). We'll each talk about something to do with structure, such as scenes, and I approach it from a fiction writer's perspective, and she does the same from a scriptwriter's perspective. No matter how many times we tell students to listen to everything, that the principles apply to both, there are still those that declare themselves confused. "What does that script stuff have to do with my novel?"

So it was with a cry of "Aha!" that I read a chapter last night in The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass. This is the guy who wrote Writing the Breakout Novel and the workbook that goes with it. In the bit I was reading, he talks about turning points in scenes, something that we covered in class. We'd talked about the two turning points in Syd Field's classic movie structure, and then later we'd moved on to the beats and turning points in a scene.

Still, there were those in the class who couldn't make the connection. A scene is just a scene, isn't it? Stuff happens? Er no, not unless that stuff is interesting and involving and moves the story forward. Maass is talking about scenes in the middle of the novel - the sagging point - and how the turning points should be both external and internal for the viewpoint character. I wish I'd had his book in class - but there's plenty more in there for me to read and think about.

Daily Writing Goals

This week I have finally had time off to write. When I say "time off", I mean whole days for writing and nothing else. At least, nothing else that required me to show up from 9-5. The days stretched out ahead of me. Eight hours for writing. Think of all those words I could write. Except ... I knew from experience how easy it was for each day, and all those hours, to dribble away on stuff. Household chores, house building things, attacking the endless mess in my office (and going to the stationery shop), reading, etc. How to organise my precious days so they were spent on writing?

It's partly about discipline. Nobody was making me do the other stuff. They were merely procrastination tools, ones I tend to do while thinking "I'll write better in the afternoon", and then finding it was after 5pm and I hadn't written a thing. I thought about what would get my backside in the chair and keep it there. Should I set a number of words to write? Not relevant at the moment because my writing task this week is a major revision, which means some new writing and some rewriting. How about hours sitting at the computer, no matter what? In the end, I decided on pages of revised novel. I aimed for 15 per day. Ha! I thought. That's nailed it.

Not. Monday and Tuesday saw me finally sitting down at the computer around 2pm. Should have been plenty of time to work on 15 pages, but somehow it wasn't. Tuesday I accomplished THREE! Wednesday morning I had a fantastic Skype call with my friend K, who completed the Margie Lawson course on Self-Defeating Behaviours earlier this year. K told me that what works best for her is putting writing first, sitting down after breakfast and writing for 2-3 hours, no matter what. Then the rest of the day is free for all that other stuff, and you feel great because you have written.

Obvious, isn't it? Well, it is if you are a morning person. Which I am not. But related to this are other elements, such as getting a good night's sleep so you can be up and functioning by 8am. Eating breakfast and doing some exercise helps too. Mostly, it's about making a decision that writing needs to come before everything else, and sticking to it. I used to read about full-time authors who go to their desk at 9am and write until 5pm. That's a great day's writing, I thought. But I don't write like that. I'm not sure anyone does. Eight hours at the keyboard? At the speed I type, I'd be producing 8-10,000 words a day.

But it would be 10,000 words of babble. I need thinking and planning and pondering time. When I'm not writing, that's when I see plot holes, and develop exciting new ideas. But I still need at least 2 hours of typing to get it all into the story. When I have a normal writing week, there are two days where I cannot write at all. Not even if I got up at 5am (and Melbourne is so cold right now, there's no way I'm doing that!). But this week has shown me that I can structure those other days better, and get more done, simply by writing first.

Ready or Not?

One of the things I like to do is read blogs by editors and agents. Apart from giving them a "human" face (because we all know agents and editors are either gods on pedastals or monsters), you can gain some useful insights into the process of acquiring manuscripts or taking on new clients. What they're looking for, what they aren't. We already know they're not looking for crazy people who pursue them into the bathroom at conferences. Or who call and berate them for not accepting a manuscript. But given that there are a lot of people writing novels or picture books or memoirs, etc., what are these agents and editors looking for?

Apart from the usual (specialising in certain kinds of books), they'll happily tell you they don't really know - but they'll know it when they see it. "Hmph!" you snort. "Coulda told you that already." They'll talk about things like a story that leaps off the page, an intriguing voice, a plot with a difference, characters you really care about ... all things that sound vague to many writers. How do you get these things? Do they come by magic? Why won't anyone tell me something precise and exact that I can use?

Well, it's an inexact business. Even publishers can't predict a best-seller: the first novel that takes off and sells hundreds of thousands of copies; the break-out million-seller from well-known author that seems like all his others; the diary story that's been done before but somehow this one strikes a chord with its audience. There's a big difference between Janet Evanovich's twelfth novel and "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier. JE's publishers were always going to get behind it and put the big money into publicity. "Cold Mountain" did it kind of on its own, from what I know. Or should I say, readers did it.

OK, so if there's no recipe for success, is there a recipe for not succeeding? Of course there is, and the one thing that I see mentioned over and over again is - the writer sent it out before it was ready. I've heard two examples recently of this. A fabulous idea, a great voice, but the writer hadn't learned how to craft it onto the page successfully. That's the key word - CRAFT. Craft takes time. Craft is not banging out a first draft and getting so excited that you immediately print out ten copies and mail it out to the ten biggest publishers.

Craft is five, ten or twenty drafts. Craft is giving it to experienced readers you trust and truly listening to their critiques, even if it hurts. Craft is going to seminars or courses to learn what you need to. Craft is reading and then trying to better the best books that you admire. In the Weekend Australian Review yesterday, M.J. Hyland talks about her new novel This is How. She says, about the first two years of working on the book: "it simply didn't work. The voice was wrong, the rhythm was wrong ... ", it was "an awful, awful two years". She adds, "I'm talking about not a dozen drafts, 25-plus rewrites, over and over ... I had to go back to the drawing board three times."

I've been guilty of it myself. You work on something for ages, and you've done three drafts, so you're convinced it's ready to go. But all the while, a little voice inside is saying, "Let it sit, and give it one more go." That's the voice to take notice of, the one that's saying you might be ready, but the manuscript isn't. Not yet.
(The photo is of Taupo Bay, in New Zealand, by the way. I always feel inspired when I'm there, which is not often enough!)

Sleeping and Writing

Over the past few months, quite a number of articles have been published in various newspapers and magazines about the effects of not enough sleep. Some of these include tiredness (obviously!), stress, poor immune system, falling asleep without realising (e.g. when driving) and, strangely, inability to sleep. I guess that last one is what my mother used to call being "overtired". But the studies also show that lack of sleep can lead to obesity, mental impairment and depression, among other things. Not sure about the obesity, although it seems to be the effect on your metabolism that's the problem.

While I was away on holiday, I got an amazing amount of sleep. At home, I wake up several times each night. Sometimes it's to put the cats out (and they hardly ever go out at the same time!), often it's because of my husband tossing and turning. I have just had ten nights of sleeping on an excellent bed, and probably seven of those nights I slept through without waking. Each time it happened, I was surprised, not least because each time it reminded me of how poor my sleep at home must be.

What effect did this have on me? For a start, I had a lot more energy. Not "get up and go" energy but a deeper core of simply being able to cruise through each day without feeling slow and achey. It didn't take very long at all before I felt restored and ready to write, and my brain also felt like it had extra space in it, space I could use for creating, thinking and putting good words together. Of course, when you realise this, you can't help wondering how much poor-quality creating might be going on at other times!

Writers tend to think they don't need to be fit and healthy to write. After all, don't we just sit all day? In fact, we need to be as healthy as we can possibly be in order for our brains to function well and for us to put energy and enthusiasm into each day of wordsmithing. That means food (including snacks) that restore and feed us properly - keep the chocolate for a reward! Not too much coffee or alcohol. Exercise that helps to keep our bodies functioning, such as stretches and walking. Hours at the computer lead to some awful injuries to our arms, neck and shoulders.

But to all of that, I'd add good sleep, and put it at the top of the list. If we're rested, we're better able to cope with deadlines, blocks and that knotty bit in Chapter 4 that just won't work. If we're rested, we can cope with burnout, lack of ideas and deal with interruptions without losing our temper. We don't need coffee or anything else that might be a stimulant. We have headspace and are relaxed enough to use it well.

Some people hate routine. They think that being creative is all about burning the midnight oil, or the 3am oil, that going to bed earlier, at a regular time, and getting 8 hours is boring. If I was 20 or even 30, I'd probably think the same. But I'm not - and I love a great sleep!

P.s The winner of Tracey Binns is Lost was The Well-Read Rabbit! Please email me your postal address to kidsbooks at optusnet dot com dot au. Thanks, everyone, who posted a comment.

Writing Away

For many of us who have to work in "normal" jobs to pay the bills, time away to write is a treasured thing. No phone, minimal email contact, peace and quiet. Some writers go to residential retreats where everyone there is writing and the atmosphere is one of intensity and production and inspiration. Or possibly days and days of staring at a blank screen! Others take the opportunity to find a place far from the madding crowd - a motel or bed & breakfast or wood hut - and write alone.

But when you try to combine writing with other "away" things, like family and outings and social events, trouble can strike. Other people wonder why you're hiding from them, or being unsociable. Or else you go along with everything and everyone and writing doesn't happen. After a busy semester of teaching and hours of infuriating paperwork, I couldn't wait to get away from it all and find some sanity and headspace again. Yet here I am, five days in, and I haven't written a thing.

However, I have caught up with family news, spent wonderful hours with them all, and been for many inspiring walks. I'm sleeping better than I have for weeks, and hardly thinking about work at all. And I have been thinking about my novel (in its second major revision) and mulling over various changes and gaining character insights. I've read over most of the revised chapters and feel I am on the right track at last. Tomorrow will be a writing day, between walking, coffee and conversation. It's all good!

The Endurance Factor

“Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck—but most of all, endurance.”—James Baldwin

I found this quote today while doing some reading on all sorts of different topics, and also in between grading a huge pile of student work. Grading creative writing is something that could be termed an oxymoron perhaps - how can you give originality and pizzazz a grade? Funnily enough, it's not so hard because before you get originality, you have to have strong ideas, structure, characterisation, dialogue that works well, a facility with language, and a good grasp of grammar and punctuation. I guess that's why we teach all that stuff - because from there comes great writing and then ... originality.

I digress. Sort of. Because when we talk about creative writing students, there's a perception that of course they're all talented - why would they be studying writing otherwise? It's true that our students have talent, that germ of something which means when they write, at least a little something happens on the page. But it's what they do with it that makes the difference. Endurance plays a huge part in it. I've seen quite a few very good writers in my classes whom I thought would one day, sooner maybe than later, see their work published. But although their talent might shine, without endurance it fades. I see them a few years on, and they've given up because it got too hard - either to fit it into a busy life, or the rejections were too much to take.

Writing is hard. Good writing is harder. Great writing can take years to develop, to grow, to learn how to do. The myth persists that a great writer is born with the talent, and no doubt for a very occasional person, that's true. But again, it's what happens after that. The road to publication can be long and rocky. Just ask the guy who wrote A Confederacy of Dunces. I saw that mentioned today as an "instant American classic". Yep, it was just a pity that he submitted it over and over and over for years, and finally killed himself. It was his mother who eventually found a publisher, and it became an instant classic. Hmmm.

What makes great writing? I think it is that ability to somehow put words on the page in a way that readers engage with. Just as well we have a wide range of readers, people who love Dan Brown, people who love Annie Proulx. Because words on the page have different effects on different readers. Nevertheless, along with the ability has to come a number of other things. As Baldwin says, discipline is a must. If you can't regularly commit to putting plenty of words on the page and then reworking those words until they sing, you won't get far. A book-length work is a huge, scary undertaking. There'll be plenty to tell you you're mad. Only self-discipline keeps your backside in that chair.

Luck? Yes, even though we hate to admit it. The story idea that somehow magically taps into the zietgist of the time. The editor who absolutely loves Shakespeare and receives an unsolicited manuscript that draws on Hamlet in a new way. The agent you meet just when she's heard of a publisher looking for a book just like yours. But it's not all luck. You make your own luck by being aware of the industry and researching your markets properly.

Love? I guess he means a love of writing. If you love writing for its own 'self', for what it gives you, for the thrill of having written, for how it gives you the licence to do almost anything in words that you dream of - then love helps a lot too. It especially helps when you're getting lots of rejections. But it's endurance that will get you there. Like building a house, you must believe that as along as you keep going, keep adding wood and nails and cement and pipes and a roof, then one day you may well have what you dream of - publication.

And then you must learn to endure all that comes with it - the pressure of each book after that, the reviews, the critics, the long hours at the desk (because you learn that each new book brings its own problems and you will never know it all)... Goodness, I'm starting to depress myself here! But it is endurance, and it is hard - never assume it will be easy because that way lies the road that holds those signs that say things like You're not good enough and I knew you'd fail and How come others can do it and not you?

You have to ignore them because, after all, as a writer you have chosen something that you may do for your whole life. Something that will have moments of ecstasy, moments of deep despair, and a whole lot of days of staring at a blank screen. Endurance doesn't have to be like carrying a heavy sack up a muddy hill in boots that are two sizes too large for you. But it does have to be something you cultivate inside yourself, like a solid warm extra organ that gives you the fortitude you need to keep going.
(And for those of you who know me, can you guess what the house is going to be called when it's finally finished? No, not Emoh Ruo. ENDURANCE.)

Creativity and Depression

What a great way to celebrate 500 blog posts - write about depression!! But I've been wanting to write about this book - The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression- for a week or more, even though I haven't finished reading it yet. So now's the time. I've also been thinking about the topic over the past two days while I've been attending the Reading Matters conference.

Why? Because several of the writers talked about problems with writing - getting stuck on a book that's not working (Bernard Beckett) or having to set a daily word target because of frittering away hours (James Roy) or realising that even when she was in a quiet room at Varuna, she still wrote at the same slow pace (Alison Goodman). We all struggle with our writing. In fact, James Roy quoted someone who said if you find writing easy, then you're not a writer! For me, attending the conference and listening to so many terrific writers talk about their craft is one of the ways I overcome creative slumps.

It would be easy, however, to sit and listen to them talk, see all their books on the bookshop tables, and think - Why am I bothering? Why don't I give up now? In "The Van Gogh Blues", Maisel talks a lot about this feeling, and why creative artists (writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, etc) experience it. Sometimes it can lead to a terrible depression, rather than fleeting feelings of despair, and he also talks about the necessity of getting to grips with reality - that you do have to pay the bills, you do often have to have a job which squeezes out time for creating. I know several people, excellent creators, who have indeed given up and gone off to do something completely different.

There is so much in this book that to try and summarise it in a couple of paragraphs is misleading. So I will pick out some of the things that, so far, have struck a chord with me. One is that you can opt to matter, that instead of buying into the whole notion that life itself is meaningless and we're just here until we die, you can choose to make your own life meaningful through creating. Think about how many people you know who either just exist, or who are waiting for whatever they think the afterlife might offer (and they say it's got to be better than here). Maisel says that for a creative person, neither of these attitudes will work. It is only by choosing to make your own life matter through your creations that you will find what you need.

He also discusses those artists for whom meaning is based in the marketplace. Becoming famous, making lots of money, receiving great reviews - none of these will feed into creating what matters for you. It has to reside inside you to endure, and you have to keep "opting to matter" rather than let it slide. It's also about being connected with the world - about caring for others as well as yourself, not letting your ego move you into ruthless behaviour or lording it over others.

Your decision to matter, to fuel your own creativity, comes from self-understanding. Maisel says, "Until you come to grips with your personality and your human nature and can say 'This is who I am and this is who I am choosing to become', not only will meaning elude you but so will a genuine enthusiasm for life." He goes on to talk about your personal power supply, how many people are "slowed down by the facts of existence" and lose their own energy and creative power.

As I said, I'm still only halfway through this book. There is so much in it - and I'm not suffering from depression, yet I do have periods of feeling totally uncreative and wondering how on earth I can get out of it. Maybe when I've finished it, I'll write more about the subject.
In the meantime, to celebrate Blog Post Number 500, I'm offering a prize!! Anyone who posts a comment about this whole thing of creativity and/or depression will go in the draw to win a copy of my latest book, Tracey Binns is Lost. If you post as Anon, please do put a name of some kind at the bottom!

Post 499 - Creativity

Good gracious, I just realised that this is Post No. 499. I had better make sure No. 500 is a darned good one! Thank goodness it's 499 today, as my brain is struggling. We are in workshopping mode in class; consequently I have workshopped 17 picture book texts in the past week, marked 15 assignments on myths and am getting ready for the final onslaught. Another 50+ assignments to mark in about 9 days. No wonder I won't be writing for a while.

I've been pondering over the brain power question. And reading a great book on creativity, which I'll save for Post 500 perhaps. Is our creativity limited? Or is it actually boundless, living somewhere inside our head, and the problem is that we don't know how to manage it or release it properly? I make it sound like a caged creature, don't I?

But sometimes it feels like that. It feels like a tiger behind bars inside my head, growling and snarling because in front of the bars is a pile of "other work" so high that all I can hear is a faint whine. Or all I let myself hear is the whine, because to acknowledge the tiger is pacing the cage and getting extremely angry is a bit risky to my mental calm. So I toss a leg of lamb over the pile of work and hope that keeps the tiger quiet until I can let her out.

Yes, I probably need to leave this metaphor well alone, and get back to the "other work". The sooner it's conquered, the better. Then it's me and the tiger, off to the mountains, or the beach, or the wild blue yonder...

Diving Into Poetry

This week, I've dived head-first into poetry. I'm not sure why this happens, but it kind of creeps up on me. First I read some poems (these were ones I wanted to use in my mythology class), then I wrote a couple, then I wrote more for my new verse novel, then my book order arrived, which included four books of poetry. Somehow, when my fingers did the ordering online, they clicked on books of poems and verse novels. Now I'm fully indulging! And remembering all the things I love about poetry, what each poem creates as I read it, and how often something in a poem will spark an idea and off I go to write.

Of course, the book I grabbed first was Ballistics. This is Billy Collins' new collection, and as the very first poem is about Paris, I had to stop and re-read it. Having heard recordings of him reading quite a few times, now whenever I read one of his poems, it's as if I can hear his voice. Weird, but good.

Next book in my pile was one I read about in a review magazine and actually misunderstood what it was. The book is The Cuckoo's Haiku: And Other Birding Poemsby Michael Rosen. I thought it was a book about writing haiku (despite the subtitle) but it's a great collection of haiku about birds. And not only that, the watercolour illustrations of birds by Stan Fellows are beautiful. If you're a haiku fan, I can recommend it.

I've also ordered three verse novels, again from reading about them in other people's reviews or blogs. I've read novels by Ron Koertge before, and was surprised to see a verse novel by him (hidden poet inside us all?) - Shakespeare Bats Cleanupis about a 14-year-old boy who gets mono (a disease) and is quarantined at home for a few weeks. He can't go to school, and he can't play baseball, his favourite sport. He's reduced to writing poems to entertain himself! What I like about this story is the way form poems sneak in - the narrator is under no illusion that his poems are world-class, but he still manages to use the forms and say what he wants. There are shades of "Love That Dog" in here - the idea of a kid who isn't keen on poetry and ends up writing it and drawing more from the experience than he thought possible.

After many years, Sharon Creech has written a follow-up to "Love That Dog". It's called, of course, Hate That Cat. I haven't read this one yet, but am looking forward to it. More poetry, please, more!

What Do Reviews Do?

When you have a new book out, you hold your breath. Will the reviews be good? Or awful? Will your book be reviewed at all? Do reviews make any difference? There have been studies done on the reasons why people buy a book. Reviews come way down on the list. Top reason is word of mouth. I think it's why so many authors have leapt into blogging and Facebooking and Twittering - trying to create their own word of mouth. The jury is still out on how well it works, but in the meantime, we try it anyway because the reviews were minimal, or they were in magazines with a low circulation, or we received one bad one and we're trying to bury it somehow.

With the growth of the internet, reviewing has become an unpaid hobby for many people. There are readers who have posted hundreds of reviews on Amazon, readers who have reviewing blogs, readers who submit reviews on spec to respected magazines, like Good Reading. How much notice do we take of any of them? And what is their agenda? With a review in a magazine or journal or newspaper, the assumption is that this person is reviewing because they are respected for their informed, professional opinion. None of us want to imagine this kind of reviewer throwing our book across the room, yet there are reviews published where this seems to be what happened.

On the other hand, there are one or two famous reviewers who are famous simply for their ability to be totally vitriolic about nearly every book. That just makes me wonder what they eat for breakfast. But at least their agenda is fairly obvious - they're being paid to do a job. Other kinds of reviews can be problematic. One example is the person who writes a critical review, simply in order to promote themselves as an "expert" who could have written that book better. If only they'd been asked. Another example is the person who is trying to make a name for themselves as an amateur reviewer and tries to be deliberately contentious.

Yet another problem arises when the reviewer seems to mis-read the book, and bases their comments on misconceptions. Often I wonder if the reviewer ran out of time and just skimmed the book. Sometimes reviewers have a personal agenda unknown to anyone else but the writer of the book and his/her close friends. I've had the "pleasure" of my book being reviewed by someone who disliked me personally, and wrote a dismissive review. It's so hard not to sling some harsh words back when that happens, but it's usually not worth the trouble. You just make things worse. Far better is to take the best phrase or sentence out of its context and use it in your publicity!

Mostly, I think reviewers try to do a good job. I know of some who refuse to review a book they don't like, which is a positive thing to do. If you receive a bad review, you just have to suck it up and move on. There are many strategies for overcoming any bad publicity that might come out of it - the afore-mentioned social networking, getting your friends on-board to help promote the good reviews, or simply getting out and about and talking to people about your book (school visits, if you write children's books, are a wonderful antidote - thirty excited Grade One kids who want you to sign their book, for example).

The one thing you can't do is brood about it. I know people who have stacks of good reviews, but can quote word-for-word their one bad review. What is the point? Do you really want to constantly remind yourself of it? Why? Instead, think of how many reviews you've read over the years, and ask yourself how many have influenced you NOT to buy a book. I can't think of one, and I do read lots.

Yes, a good review might tempt me to try a new author, but if I analysed my reasons for purchase, they usually come down to "read a book by that person before and liked it" or "my friend recommended it". Or, best of all, I was browsing in a bookshop and found it and read the first few pages and that made me buy it. So instead of reading your reviews, go back and read the first chapter of your current work-in-progress and ask yourself if it would influence your intended readership to buy it.

I do post short commentaries on this blog occasionally, but I don't consider them to be reviews. I always look at books here from the point of view of a writer - what worked, what didn't work (for me) and why. And I also talk about what I might have learned as a writer from this book, e.g. setting from James Lee Burke. If I influence anyone to buy a book, I'm usually not aware of it. It's interesting when readers agree or disagree with me. But it's still just one person's opinion.

A Writer's Rights and Plagiarism Pt 2

When people think of plagiarism, they usually think of essays and papers at uni or school. After all, there is a website called plagiarism.com where you can pay for ready-made essays on all kinds of topics. Yes, if you're there to learn stuff, you really want to buy an assignment, forgetting that the purpose of assignments and essays is to show you understood what you were taught. Not. We do a big talk to our professional writing students about plagiarism, and it's not just about the penalties if you get caught. It's also about being a real writer, about being able to create your own stories and novels and poems. It's about building a reputation as a great writer, not as a word thief.

As I said in the last post, Google may make it easier for you to pinch stuff, but it also makes a heck of a lot easier to be found out. Why do people do it? Lots of reasons. A desperate need to be published and receive accolades and validation. Pressure from others to be published. Money and prestige. The pressure of deadlines that you can't meet. We have very few cases in our course, thank goodness, but we have picked up occasional attempts. One was an essay of bits pinched from all over and cobbled together into one piece. Apart from anything else, it read oddly - the change of tone and language was quite obvious. The teacher tracked down every stolen paragraph using Google.

Some writers argue that copyright is outdated and irrelevant now. I had an exchange of emails a couple of years ago with a journalist who couldn't see the point of protecting copyright. He said he wrote lots of stuff and was happy for it to be used anywhere, once he'd been paid for the first publication. He didn't seem to get my point about: a) without copyright, he couldn't have claimed that first payment - how could he prove it was his? b) as a journalist, he wrote several things a week at least - as a novel writer who might spend two years on a novel, why would I want to give that away for free?

If I don't own copyright on my own work in perpetuity, and am free to sell it and re-sell it, how can I ever make a living as a writer? My copyright is my life work, my salary, my bill payer! I certainly don't want to be reliant on the government for grants, nor do I want to have to write things I'm not interested in, simply to get a one-off payment. And if it is a one-off, and then anyone can do with the work what they like, logically the work would then be de-valued and taken less seriously, surely. Strangely enough, in the middle of all the current furore about copyright, artists (as in paintings, drawings, etc) are negotiating payment for resale of their work. Imagine that. You sell a painting for $2000, and ten years later, it re-sells for $40,000 and you get a share of the new, much higher, price.

Writers' rights are also coming up in relation to the digital age. We have Google Book Search, and the decision of whether to opt in for payments or not. We have publishers pushing contracts with digital rights that include every kind of format/version/application not even conceived of yet, for minimal payment. We don't know where digital formats will go, but hey, let's make sure authors, yet again, receive the absolute minimum. When are we going to see publishers' bean counters (because that's who pushes this stuff, not editors) realise that looking after your authors and paying them what they're worth in the marketplace is going to be a bonus? So many authors are way ahead of publishers and publicity departments in terms of reaching their audiences via the internet, blogs, podcasts, e-books, etc. Give us a bit more support and who knows what we can create together?

A Writer's Rights and Plagiarism - Part 1

It's been one of those weeks for losing things - some of which I found in the place my husband moved them to! But what has worried me the most was losing a USB drive (some call it a thumb drive or memory stick) that was the back-up to all my files on my laptop. I have bought a new one, and created a new back-up, but what really bothers me is where the USB might have gone. Did I leave it at that Sydney conference after finishing my Powerpoint? Have I left it at work somewhere? Have I dropped it somewhere? Do I still have it (somewhere safe but un-findable) or does someone else now have it?

On that USB are at least two unpublished novels, in various drafts, plus a number of unpublished and published poems and short stories. I still remember, years ago before laptops and USB drives were so common, a poet friend of mine who lost a whole folder full of poems and drafts of poems. 'What if someone finds them?' she said, 'and sends them out to magazines and journals under their own name? How can I prove they're mine?' In fact, she couldn't, whereas at least now they're dated on my computer to show the earliest version belongs to me.

The question is: who would take a bunch of 'found' manuscripts and try to publish them as their own? How could they think they might get away with it? This is where the internet is both a hindrance and a help. Yes, the scurrilous wanna-be could take my manuscripts and submit them under his/her own name, and they may even get them published. Possibly they'd be published on some site I'd never know about, unless I decided to do a Google search using some of the key phrases. It may well pop up! If they submitted a manuscript to a reputable publisher, however, and managed to get the book published (this is all assuming that manuscript was one I wasn't currently working on and submitting myself), it's quite likely I'd find out, sooner or later. What then?

The first thing I would do is approach the publisher and explain the situation. There's no doubt that the publisher, presented with clear evidence, would have to withdraw the book from sale and tell the wanna-be never to darken their doors again. Word would get around. Wanna-be's name would be mud. I'd probably use the internet to alert everyone to the situation, and warn them. The fact that there is usually a clause in a book contract where you have to specify the work is your own is guaranteed to get you into major legal trouble if you lie about this!

There are situations where an idea just seems to 'out there' in the ether - recently we accepted a poem for Poetrix magazine, and I realised that someone in our group had just workshopped a poem on the same topic. But she had written the poem while away on holiday, long before we'd had our editorial readings and discussion. It was a coincidence. On the other hand, a writer might see a new book recently published, read it and say, 'I can do better than that', and write their own version of the plot or subject. No harm in that either, especially if you do bring something new and completely different to the topic. (The problem is if you don't, you'll be accused of 'jumping on the bandwagon'!)

There's plenty more to talk about here - my mind is buzzing - but I'll add more shortly.

Tracey Binns Rides Again!

Tracey Binns is lost in the bush and the last people she wants to be stuck with are Justin Zit-face and her annoying teacher, Mr Gunning.

Tracey's school has started a new healthy-eating and exercise program and the kids are not happy. They're even less happy when Mr Gunning, their dreaded PE teacher, announces that he is taking the Grade Six students on a bush survival and fitness camp.Facing the pitch dark and the strange calls of the wild is not Tracey's idea of fun. But all this looks like a walk in the park when they become lost on a long day's march ...Tracey Binns is in trouble again!

This week I'm celebrating the release of my new Tracey Binns novel (for 9-13 year olds). Tracey is one of those characters who won't go away. She leapt into life one day - I'm still not sure where she came from, but she was noisy and determined, and she got my attention fast! She's the kind of character you can't help asking that vital question about - why? Why does Tracey behave the way she does? What motivates her? I have a lot of fun getting behind Tracey's facade and ferreting out what's really going on with her.

And sometimes not only do the other characters surprise her, she surprises herself. I've also had fun "helping her" to create her own website. This is not the week for camping - way too cold - but when I went up to Benalla to research locations for Tracey's school camp, it was pretty cold then, too. Every bit helps, when it comes to imagining Tracey in her world.
Link to fishpond.com.au:
Tracey Binns is Lost

But He Said Write Like This...

One of the things I like about teaching is the opportunity to read lots of writing books and distill what each one is saying, and choose what is useful to use in class. Sometimes I'll have one book that I use as a base text, or that we need to use as a base text - like a starting point. In first year fiction writing, we use Garry Disher's book Writing Fiction. It's a great starting point. This year I'm teaching Myths & Symbols and although I have four or five huge texts on world mythology, I choose one as my base text for "lectures" (because I don't lecture like professors do, I talk a lot about stuff that interests and excites me). It's a good text - out of all the ones I own, it covers the subject with the best information in the clearest form.

One of the traps you can fall into, as a teacher, is sticking to one text too closely, as if it's a bible of some kind. Of course there are authors out there, like John Truby and Robert McKee, who teach absolutely from their text - usually the writing course comes before the text anyway. There are so many ways to teach writing! There are books that focus on character, on setting, on dialogue, on plot and conflict. There are books about picture book writing, and about writing for young adults. How does the beginner writer ever know which one is "correct"?

Well, they all are. And they all aren't. Some books will speak to you, will tell you exactly what you need to know at the moment you need to know it. I read Elizabeth Lyon's book, Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore, a couple of years ago, just when I needed a new perspective on self-editing. I read Eric Maisel's book, A Writer's Paris, because I was going to Paris and wanted a writer's perspective on where to go for the best inspiration (Eric obviously had never had hot chocolate at the Place de Bastille though). That's the benefit of building a library of these books.

However, they're not cheap. A friend and I share our library and try to make sure we don't duplicate purchases. That way we can borrow and lend, and know we've got a huge range of knowledge available at a lesser cost. I advise students to read some of the books first before buying. You'll soon know if the book "speaks" to you, if it's going to provide what you need. Some you will come back to, time and again, some you will read maybe once and then move on. A book can be a great teacher - and not just a writing book. A great novel can also be an excellent teacher, if you take the time to read it like a writer.

Getting back to the "He said..." of the title, I have seen examples of teachers who I think are problematic. These are the teachers who are only interested in teaching what they know and do themselves. That's it. Nobody else's theories and practices are relevant to them. It's a case of DO AS I DO. I think that's dangerous. All you turn out is clones. Publishers don't want clones. They want writers with fresh new voices who will take risks. How do you take risks? You learn the rules first, you read widely and critically (of novels and how-to writing books), you take what is useful for you, you bend it into what you need, you think laterally, you experiment and explore, and you write the story that's in your heart.
And then, hopefully, when you're published, you can thank your teacher. Because there's nothing a teacher loves more than celebrating their students' successes. Trust me, a jealous teacher won't teach you much at all. They can't afford to...

Who's On Your Team?

A while ago, I completed a series of teleseminars with Randy Ingermanson and Alison Bottke. I've mentioned these before, because the first one was about getting rid of all the mess and clutter in your office. It's an ongoing project. I'm not finished yet. That's all I'll say about that (but I do have bags of stuff for the charity shop, and more for the rubbish truck every week). But one of the things I had to do in a later seminar was think about who is on my team. My writing team.

First of all, I thought - that's obvious. Me. No one else can write for me. If I wanted to stretch it a bit, I could say my laptop or computer was on my team, too. But that wasn't what they meant. So when I got right down to it, the people on my team were:
* my agent (that became obvious, too)
* my writers' group
* my two fellow writers with whom I swap critiques
* my accountant
Then I stuck on the next one - my publishers/editors. Were they really on my team? Wasn't it more likely that I was on their team? (Insert picture here of me and the people from UQP or Penguin all wearing matching hats and scarves.) But the definition of team is anyone who is working or helping me to reach my writing goals. So yes, I added them.

And then I added my husband, who I have assiduously trained to be on my team, and my family. I knew my family were definitely on my team when they flew all the way from New Zealand to be with me for last year's CBCA awards.
So who is on your team? Think about it for a few moments, or longer if you want to, and make a list. Then answer this question: Who is NOT on your team?

If team means helpers and supporters, then the NOT team means those who hold you back or de-stabilise you in some way. This doesn't mean those publishers and editors who reject your manuscripts. That's just part of the industry you're in. To me, the NOT team consists of:
* family members who actively or sneakily undermine your confidence and belief in yourself and your writing - the evidence is in statements as blatant as "When are you going to get a real job?" or as cunning as "You're going to write? Wouldn't you rather watch TV with me and the kids? We haven't seen you all day..."
* writers' group members who don't want to work, just socialise, or who show their jealousy at your successes, or who make it their job to harshly criticise every piece of your writing (to help you develop a thicker skin, of course)
* scam agents and vanity publishers who just want your money
* you!

Surprised by that last one? Well, think about the things you do that undermine your writing. Procrastination via housework or socialising or simply putting other things ahead of the blank page. Giving into fear. Getting angry over rejections instead of trying to understand what they mean. Not bothering to read in your genre, or to learn about the industry so that you don't look unprofessional. Not looking after your health, so you are either too hung-over, too ill or too tired to write well.

So, tell me - who's on your team? And who's NOT?