This year as one of the ASA Mentorship program's recipients I have a fantastic opportunity to work on my current work-in-progress, McAlpine & Macbeth.....
'The ASA has announced the twenty successful applicants for its mentorship program in 2009-10. The mentorship program is funded through a grant from the Cultural Fund of Copyright Agency Limited. The program’s judges, Delia Falconer, Kate Forsyth, Libby Gleeson, Martin Langford, Craig Smith and ASA executive director Dr Jeremy Fisher were impressed with the overall quality as well as the quantity of the entries.
Speaking on behalf the judges, Dr Fisher said: “With such an expert selection panel, it should be an easy process to select the best entries, but it was arduous because so much of what was offered was so good. In the end, though, this meant all the pieces fell together and we found we had selected an eclectic and refreshing mix.”
Selected from 268 entries, the 20 successful applicants will have the opportunity to work closely with a mentor of their choice for 30 hours over up to 12 months. At the completion of the mentorship, a number of participants will be invited to read their work, appear ‘in conversation with’ or participate in panel discussions at state and/or regional writers’ festivals.'
This novel has been a six years project for me. Like another of my stories, Mountain, it has a special place in my creative energy. The complete manuscript is 57,000 words.
I began working with my mentor, Australian author, illustrator and creative writing teacher, Sally Rippin in August this year.
Some of the things I had to sort out include rushing through action scenes without drawing out the suspense; or sometimes a character's distinctive voice dropped out.
The major flaw was ignoring my initial instincts that this was a junior fiction story - I'd changed it to Young Adult, and it wasn't working. Sally pointed that out to me and the mist of confusion lifted.
This major re-write pulled together some plot inconsistencies. I also used the opportunity to use the FIND 'button' to delete masses of 'saugage-words' (i.e. those clutter words that fill out the skin of writing ... like somehow, got, then, felt, seemed, somewhat etc)
The next task will be to recognise 'CLUNKS' and the 'ZINGS' - where words weigh down the story or where they ... well, zing! And that's the best part of editing. It won't be long before this story is ready for submission.
The ASA provided thirty hours of work with my experienced mentor - an amazing, valuable experience for me as a writer and for the novel. Thank you to that little band of excellent manuscript judges at the Australian Society of Authors. :)
A writing friend of mine, Kathleen Noud was awarded an ASA mentorship last year. If you'd like to read her article on the experience, click on this link to her blog.