Professional Writing students talk ...

This year, our Diploma nonfiction students were set a task - write about five things you've learned about writing. In other words, a listicle. I think they make interesting reading! So I'm posting a few (with their permission). The answers are not always what you expect ... :-)

FROM PETER DEWAR

Five things I've learnt about writing. Funny, could say the same about meditation
Recently, I wrote about meditation - have been thinking about it ever since. And now, as I open my
eyes, groan and untangle my creaking legs, it strikes me: meditation and writing share much in
common.

Skip the light fandango
Before formal study, I imagined writing simply a matter of tapping into a well of creativity. In no
time, I'd, 'skip the light fandango, doing cartwheels across the floor'. Meditation, or so I mistakenly
once thought, involved endless encounters with the numinous. In reality, meditation and writing are
mundane, hard-work. Think sitting down and laying bricks. Don't say you weren't warned: a sore
back and frustration are more likely than finding God or muse.

Practice
Thankfully, both activities improve with practice. Words, sentences and ideas begin to flow if
writing is routine. Practise meditation daily, and body and mind become softer.

Yes, there are moments ... ignore them
It does happen. There are pieces of my writing, possibly just a sentence, that still move me. And
there have been occasions when I've ended meditation feeling renewed as the world seemed to pulse
with wonder. Life-long meditators call this an obstacle. The writer's reminder to avoid attachmentgoes something like this: 'round the corner from feeling puffed-up with pride about an article, or the number of Facebook Likes, is the next piece. And as I've discovered, there's an even-money chance, it'll be shit.

Going La-La
Agonising over every word - or, for the zillionth time - returning to the sensation of breathing takes
its toll. Both meditation and writing fail if they're reduced to a military-style exercise. Going La-
La helps. Tackling a short story - even better, a poem - enlivens my professional writing. When
meditation grows mundane, I listen to a podcast. 'Meditation for loneliness'. 'Chakra meditation'.
Don't you just love hippies; even the titles have me laughing.

Then why do it?
There's a reason why I meditate - and write. My life is better off for it. Both attend to my thoughts
and emotions. And, believe it or not, both boost confidence. Cliched, I know: introspection and
quietness build self-trust. And a deep appreciation of life.
I'll continue to complain about sore knees and embarrassing writing that doesn't work. Stop
meditation or writing? I couldn't, even if I tried.

SANDRA SAAD

Five things I’ve learnt from my writing course:

1. Grammar and punctuation is way harder than you’re led to believe in your early education life. I bet you think you know exactly how to use commas and semicolons right? How hard could it be? Very hard is the answer. There is a proper place to put everything and just because you think it fits there best is not a good enough reason.

2. You can’t write a chapter the day before it’s due and feel good about yourself. The work will be bad and you’ll have stressed yourself out to the point of contemplating dropping out. Do yourself a favour and plan out your work.

3. The first story you write is not as good as you think it is. In fact, it’s pretty terrible. But keep it anyway, the idea and premise of it could help you out later with other stories.

4. Teachers will tell you every writer has a way of doing things and they go at their own pace. That’s all well and good but unfortunately it does not apply to you, yet. You have assignments to do and requirements to meet. They education system does not cater to your own writing habits. Even though you are in a writing course.

5. Having your worked critiqued will eventually become easier. You’ll learn not to take things personally and take on the suggestions. This will take time and practise so try not to stress too much.

More coming soon!

IBBY Congress report 2016

This was my first time at an IBBY Congress (IBBY stands for International Board on Books for Young people) so I wasn't sure what to expect, other than a lot of people passionate about children's and YA bools from all over the world. It certainly was that - more than 500 of us. We gathered in Auckland, NZ this year, the first time the Congress has been held down this way for 20 years.

The program was huge, with dozens of speakers, poster presentations and events such as the Literature Quiz and the Hans Christian Andersen awards dinner. I was lucky to be one of those presenting (on my PhD topic of fairy tales) - each part of the program with presentations like mine was in streams of six, with four people in each, so at any time you had 24 topics to choose from! It was a bit hard skipping between streams but you could do it if you tried as people mostly kept to their time slots.

The best way to sum up the Congress is to give you some of the quotes and things people talked about. NZ author Kate De Goldi was outspoken as always about important issues. In the opening session she talked about how series are dominating the market these days, crowding out the rest, "the fictions that shape a moral compass". There was mention of this many times over the four days - the ways in which fiction impacts young readers and how important it is to give them quality books, but not "worthy" books. If you're not sure about the moral compass bit, think about the books that impacted you as a child - how did they change the way you thought about the world? How did they change the way you thought about people "other" than you? More than ever, I think we need books that show kids "the other" in ways that promote understanding and compassion instead of fear and prejudice.

Witi Ihimaera said clearly, "Children are not the problem - adults are." If we think technology is taking our kids away from us, then chase them, catch them up and tell them stories. Trish Brooking talked about the UN Rights of the Child and said "children's literature operates as both a window and a mirror". I loved the exhibition of what were called "silent books" - these are books with no words. They tell the story with pictures and thus are able to be read by anyone, no matter what language they speak or read.

A very good session was the one moderated by Kate De Goldi with Leonard Marcus and Julia Eccleshare, both of whom are well known in the children's literature world. Leonard for his work in the USA (books, criticism etc) and Julia for being the Guardian children's book editor (although she does lots of other stuff, too). In the end most of the quotes I wrote down were from Julia! They talked about the different histories of children's and YA books in the US and UK. Julia said she thought adult commentary freights children's books with messages they don't read for - "children read for the interior life of the characters".

She railed against the lack of good editing these days (a familiar theme) and said writers are not being given enough time to write and develop better books. She said the marketplace doesn't allow you to rest or be silent for a while - if you stop, the market (sales) algorithm goes against you. That's a scary thing for a writer to hear! There were discussions about what Kate called the "tsunami" of YA fiction, a lot of which is not very good (her words, and someone near me muttered, "Who's she saying is not good?"). Julia replied that it's feeding off itself and she wasn't sure who the readers are. (Note from me - other speakers later talked about the readership of YA being 16-35).

Finally they talked about Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak's picture book), and Julia said that it's from the child's point of view, which is why children feel safe about it and adults don't. I thought it was strange that adults still feel ambivalent, so she says, about this book when it's been a classic for so long. Adults decide what makes a classic. So ...

In another session there was a great discussion about culture. One speaker was Nahoko Uehashi a Japanese fantasy writer, who said "culture is something we acquire after we are born and as we grow up". She talked about how those who belong to the majority never have the experience of being judged for their authenticity, and that "culture does a fine job of showing how you and we are different ... but stories bring us together, transcend the bounds of different cultures". She said some great things, including, "I want my readers to soar above their own self".

Katherine Paterson was also there as a guest, although she was only in one panel session, sadly. She talked about being astounded at the echoes in her books of favourite stories from her childhood, such as The Secret Garden and The Yearling. She said, "The spaces [in the story] are so important - the reader gets to write the book" and that Terabithia is a country created in the reader's imagination. Other guests included Markus Zusak, who has a new book coming out soon (Bridge of Clay), and Sir Richard Taylor. Taylor gave two presentations with Martin Baynton about Weta Workshops, and their work is amazing - evrything from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to The Wot Wots!

Another highlight was the play of The Whale Rider, done with puppets. This isn't a blow-by-blow summary of the Congress - apart from anything else it was too big to cover even half of it. I tend to write down things that strike me as insightful rather than take copious notes these days!

Finding time to blog

I was astonished to find I had not posted here since February! But my writing and studying life, along with work of various kinds, has squeezed up every hour of my day for months, and although I've had quite a few ideas of things I wanted to blog about, I just have never found the time or headspace.

But here I am at last. Determined to get back to posting more regularly, because I have always enjoyed it. I also think the little time I spend on FB has been taken up with negativity (shared, I might add) about the Australian elections and our pathetic politicians, our shameful treatment of refugees, and a number of other issues. I do love FB for the funny pics and cartoons that give me a laugh, though, just when I need it.

What have I been doing? Mostly working on my PhD, which is on fairy tales. It includes several picture book length original tales and a middle grade novel, as well as a 30,000 word exegesis. I've found the academic writing to be a huge challenge, and it's only with the feedback from my supervisors (no, that's too chatty/conversational/casual) that I've been able to finally get a grip on it.

Along with that, I'm still working part-time (as little as I can) in TAFE, which often breaks my heart as the paperwork and compliance requirements from the government become more and more onerous for very little good reason or useful results. And as well as my creative work for the PhD, I've been writing a four-book children's series. Luckily that's been spread over 8 months so has been manageable. More on that in another post.

In fact, I have several things I plan to write about for this blog. I'm becoming more and more interested in memoir pieces (not my own life story - I wouldn't want to inflict that on anyone) but short essays and stories that dig deep into single events, or people. I was so pleased to have a poem and personal piece included in the second edition of Meg Files' book, Writing What You Know (first edition was called Write Your Life). In this edition she provides many examples of people's life writing, and my poem and piece are compared. They are about the same thing - my mother and her death - but they were written more than twenty years apart, and with quite different purposes. I can recommend this book - in fact both editions - and my students agree.

This is the book on GoodReads - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898530-writing-what-you-know and you can buy it online, no doubt.

I've also had poems accepted here and there, and am waiting to see illustrations for a new picture book, but mostly I've been writing and revising and revising and revising. My TV viewing is minimal and impatient - show me something good or I go to bed with a book. I've had to learn to become even more disciplined with my time, but at the same time, give myself breaks, and make sure I sleep well. I'm starting to see clear air ahead...

Keeping a stone face

I've just been watching the first Super Rugby game of the year, and what always gets me is the coaches. Inevitably, they sit in the coach's box and show absolutely no emotion whatsoever, no matter what happens on the field. (And show no sign of what they're thinking.) Mind you, the South African rugby coaches are not like this - they jump up and down and get mad and happy for all to see.

How does apply to writing? It seems to me that writers are continually pressured to show "the stone face". No matter what happens, whether your publisher dumps you, or rejects Book 6 after five reasonable sellers, or even if you're a new writer and nobody will give you that much-wanted contract for your book. No, you have to maintain silence, show no emotion, be professional and move on. To somewhere...

The rule is: no whining on social media or your website or blog. No whining in public, or you'll undoubtedly be blacklisted somehow. In fact, the stone face is required everywhere. Bad review? Stone face. Some lunatic on Amazon gives you a one star review and says crazy things? Stone face. Believe your editor secretly hates your book and is wrecking it? Stone face.

Well, not completely. If you have an agent, that will help immensely. You can whine to them, and they will say good things and calm you down. But no, you can't say it in public.

What does this really mean? In the past month or so, a number of very well-known writers have come out in protest against the practice of expecting writers to appear at festivals for NOTHING. Because your reward is the "free promotion you get". It's great that they have, because they are the only ones who are able to speak out and be heard. Nevertheless, they've been criticised for whining. Imagine, however, if a mid-list or new author or two had been the ones to protest.

I think they would have been crucified.

This is what kills us as authors (writers). Along with "professionalism" comes the stone face. Don't protest, don't whine - no matter how real and solid the justification - because you'll be lambasted for it. And it's not just festival appearances. It comes with crap advances or no advances (because publishers are not doing so well). It comes with educational publishers who insist on flat fee and taking your copyright and threaten authors who let others know and warn them.

You're supposed to feel grateful they want your stories at all. Stone face.

And then over there in Indie-publishing land, there's a whole pile of authors working damned hard and knowing that if they're going to whine, hell, they're whining to themselves and then getting on with it and that's OK. And then they celebrate their successes and keep working. No, it's not magic but it does seem to be where individual power and self-belief and autonomy goes a long way towards authors feeling less powerless and I don't think I've seen many stone faces over there at all! (Except those bizarre one-star reviews - yes, stone face.)

Writing in the middle of high emotion

One of the things that makes poetry readers shudder is the poem written from inside ecstatic love, full of gushing and cliches. Coming a close second is the raw grief poem. We are told, "Don't write while you're in a state of high emotion because you're too close to it."

As if that somehow blights the poem, or the true story (because we are told this about personal writing of any kind). It's true that writing in these states does often make for awful writing, but it's likely that the writer simply isn't skilled enough yet to be able to use the language well enough to convey what they feel. They would probably write poor landscape poems, or sonnets, or ... We all know that feeling of This is too hard for me. I need to get better at writing before I tackle it.

Yet that doesn't mean you shouldn't write at all. Just that you probably shouldn't consider your heart poured out on the page as ready to share yet. It's a first draft, that's all, like any first draft. Hold on to it, give it time, rework it until it really does say what you want, in a way that evokes your idea for the reader. Often that's through the "less is more" guideline.

In fact, I'd say that writing how you feel, however clumsily or gushingly or with tears dripping onto the page, is a great way to deal with your emotions. For too long, "writing as therapy" has been scorned, or derided as only for hobbyists. I've been studying fairy tales now for 18 months, and part of my research is about the ways in which fairy tales help traumatised children. I'm also writing my own tales - new ones - and trusting my unconscious to take a spark of an idea and run with it, writing whatever comes out. As I have been doing so much reading of the tales (Grimms in particular, but others, too), the structure falls into place without me thinking too much about it. The fascinating part is looking at the story later and trying to figure out what came out of my unconscious and, more importantly, why. It's called practice-led research.

But in the past few weeks, my writing has taken a different path. Where I go on weekends to write - a wonderful bush property with trees, wildlife, native plants and birds - was totally burned in recent bushfires. It's been so hard to keep going there, to face each time the devastation all over again. Blackened trees, scorched earth, ash, everything gone but (miraculously) our tiny house.

At first I thought I could never write about it. I couldn't get past the shock and grief I felt every time I looked around. I kept seeing what was missing - the wrens and wagtails that used to frolic in the birdbath outside my writing room window was just one of many things that may take years to come back. Even being inside the house and almost forgetting - looking out the window was like a slap.

But then I decided I wanted to write about what it used to be like, and remember all the things I loved about the place. The day I came face to face with a wombat. The native flowers in spring. The silvery glitter of sunlight on the gum leaves. And as well I began to write about the aftermath of the fire. How I felt about it, how I feel now. I'm using language the best way I know how, trying to capture these emotions but also capture precious memories. It's doing me good. It'd probably be labelled "therapy writing" but I hardly care. This is about me, this is for me. That's what matters right now.

More than six years ago, I started a photo blog of this place. It was a hobby (I like taking photos) and it was a discovery record - every season I found new things growing. Now I am rapt that I did this, and kept at it. I'll keep updating it now, I hope as a record of recovery. It's here.

The reading thing

I'm about to start school visits in earnest (August being the month when children's and YA authors are asked to do lots of them because Children's Book Week happens now). I was thinking about the questions I get asked the most, and one is definitely, "What made you start writing?" (This is usually how it's phrased, maybe reflecting their classroom experience of being made to write!)

My answer is always, "Because I love reading, and I just got to the point where I really wanted to write, too." Mind you, wanting to write and achieving something I thought was OK were not the same thing, but I remember in those early days how just writing anything was exciting and fun and felt like a big achievement. It's that feeling I try to keep in mind with students. It's all new to many of them. For kids at school, writing can seem like the most boring, tedious thing to do. A trial. A curse. A punishment.

Even for those who want to write, the act itself can be frightening and overwhelming. Where to start? What to write? How to escape self-criticism? How to avoid family questions and criticism?

I always point people back to reading. Despite a few writers who insist they don't read, and thus convince other aspiring writers they don't need to either, I believe reading, and then reading critically and consciously, is vital to becoming a writer, let alone a better writer. I have always loved reading, even before my big sister gave me C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew and I discovered Arthur Ransome and T.H. White.

If you want to write picture books, you should be reading at least 50 picture books published in the past 10 years. Same with chapter books, children's and YA novels. Yes, read the classics, but if you don't read what is out there at the moment, you will have no idea how much these books have changed. It's an area where there have been massive shifts in illustration, styles, and marketing, at the very least. (I confess to being quite appalled at the current gender marketing in books for kids 6-12 years old. But if I wasn't reading and keeping up, how would I know? Doesn't mean I agree, though.)

When it comes to adult fiction, you have to read even more widely, because the changes I see are so intriguing. Self publishing is just the pointy end of platforms like Wattpad and Figment (see here for what is out there). These are writing communities where people post their works in progress and get votes and comments. There have been significant instances of writers being picked up by publishers through these platforms - especially when writers have more than a million readers!

What I am most interested in is why people read on these platforms. Is it simply because it's free and they can read to their heart's content without paying a cent? I'd love some comments on this.
Because to me reading feeds my writing, and the better the books I read, the more I get for myself. Ideas, language, examples of style and experimentation, great examples of characters.

Mostly, reading takes me away from myself and from my life. Not many TV shows do this (although I do admit that I have just finished watching series 1 of Mad Men, and the themes and subtext are brilliant - yes, I'm way behind but think how much enjoyment lies ahead for me!).
If you write, isn't that what you want your novel to do? Take the reader away so they are in your fictional world?