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By: Nina @ Death, Books, and Tea,
on 10/22/2016
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First, to anyone at YA Shot in Uxbridge today, have a great day! Second, if anyone here's going to be at the UKYA Blogging Awards at Uxbridge tonight, yay! I'll see you there. On with the post!
It seems to to come round quicker and quicker every year, Yesterday, the nominations for the CILIP Carnegie and the Kate Greenaway medals were released. Due to my being at uni now, I sadly don't have the brilliant booklet my school librarian produced which had all the blurbs of the books recommended, so this post is based upon a)the bits I've heard from social media over the year and b)when I googled the things with interesting titles. But here- a list of the books that I am glad to see on the list, and would totally bump up a reading pile if I ha
d time to do any reading for pleasure right now.
- Crush by Eve Ainsworth. I've heard people say how well written Ainsworth's characters are in both this and 7 Days, so even with the heavy subject, it should be good.
- Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman. Othello in space with a girl as the lead? I've had this on my pile at home for ages, but the concept of this is great and so is Blackman.
- Twenty Questions for Gloria by Martyn Bedford. I like thrillers when I read them, I just haven't really read that many. I should though.
- What's A Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne. I'm sorry, I haven't read any in this feminist trilogy/series (not sure which...) but so many people say good things about it.
- Why I Went Back by James Clammer. Myth and magic and mystery? And maybe a better version of Skellig?
- Monsters by Emerald Fennell. The atmosphere of an Enid Blyton story (which I loved when I was little) plus murder? Yep.
- The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon. From the blurb, the story of a refugee in a detention centre, and a girl with a notebook of family history, it looks beautiful.
- Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin. Alternate history and fantasy and a badass main character. Looking forwards to it.
- Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. So many people have told me to read Oseman's work. Some day, hopefully.
- Unboxed by Non Pratt. Loved Remix and Trouble, hoping for more good things.
- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Again, loved Between Shades of Grey, and hoping for another book of similar quality.
- Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens. Murder Most Unladylike and Arsenic for Tea were just fun reads-mystery, friendship, and a Chinese main character. I should catch up on this series.
And also, the things I have read and think totally deserve to be here!
- All Of The Above by Juno Dawson. About finding your identity, and with some pretty good poetry.
- George by Alex Gino. A middle-grade story about a transgirl, which just left me feeling happy.
- London Belongs to Us by Sarra Manning. I read this book about my favourite city in on sitting and it's full of great characters and adventure.
That's not to say the other books are undeserving! There's
114 of them, as well as
93 nominated for the Kate Greenaway award, and I applaud the judges who will read ALL of them. But even more applause goes to all the creators who made the books. Congratulations on the nomination, and good luck!
By: Marjorie Coughlan,
on 10/2/2015
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Mary Hoffman is the best-selling author of picture book Amazing Grace, which is currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary, as well as its six picture-book and chapter-book sequels and other acclaimed picture books such as The Colour of Home, An Angel … Continue reading ... →
(This is a very topical guest post from Paul May - many thanks to him for producing it with a turn of speed that Mo Farah would envy!)
I have seen various reports recently about the lack of diversity in children’s literature: from
SavitaKalhan on this blog, and elsewhere from Malorie Blackman and Bali Rai. This is about what happened to me.
My grandson is seven months old and the other day my daughter, Emily, asked me if I’d like to buy him his first book. ‘Yes!’ I thought, ‘That will be fun. Maybe I’ll get a board book copy of THE BABY’S CATALOGUE.’ It was my son’s first book too. He’s a few years younger than Emily and it hadn’t been published when she was born. In fact, Emily more or less grew up with the Ahlbergs. EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM was published the year she was born. I even have her original copy of FUNNYBONES, in which, long before there were any sequels, she had penciled her own ideas for future books. For example: GETTING MARRIED AND KISSING and BIIING A HOUSE. You see how children engage with picture books?
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| Emily’s ideas for FUNNYBONES sequels |
So,I took myself off to my local children’s bookshop. I should say at this point that while I am a white, grey-haired man, and my daughter is white with blue eyes and masses of curly blond hair, my son-in-law is black. Fallou, my grandson is a perfect, mid-brown mixture.
On the way to the bookshop I wondered whether maybe THE BABY’S CATALOGUE would be a little old-fashioned. Then I started to remember that it was full of those wonderful pictures of all kinds of babies and all kinds of mums and dads. And I remembered all the fun we used to have looking at it, and how Tommy eventually destroyed it; used it up entirely, what with eating it and dragging it around.
Sadly, when I went into the shop they didn’t have a copy, which was a shame. On the other hand I would enjoy looking through all those picture books for the first time in years, wouldn’t I? I was sure to find something good. I must have looked through twenty or thirty board books before it dawned on me - I hadn’t seen a single picture of a child who wasn’t white.
At first I thought this must have been bad luck, so I kept looking. It wasn’t bad luck. The board books in this (very well-stocked) bookshop were almost all about white children or animals. I moved on from board books to picture books. It was the same thing. Sure, there were some books with black, brown, yellow children, but the others vastly outnumbered them. I found to my astonishment that I was starting to feel upset. I guess I’d assumed that in the fifteen years or so since I last looked seriously through the picture book shelves of a bookshop there would have been many more books like THE BABY’S CATALOGUE that depict children of every shape and colour routinely. I’d seen what Malorie Blackman had said, but there is no substitute for personal experience. I also know that for many of you reading this it’s already personal, and has been for far too long. And I feel embarrassed that it’s had to become personal for me to feel angry about it.
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It can be done – spreads from CLAP HANDS and TICKLE TICKLE by Helen Oxenbury.)
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I asked a member of staff about the situation. She very helpfully found me some books, among them THIS IS OUR HOUSE by Michael Rosen and Bob Graham and the CLAP HANDS series of board books by Helen Oxenbury, but the Michael Rosen was published in 2007 and the Helen Oxenbury in 1987. Other books I was shown included SO MUCH by Trish Cooke (1994) and books by Ezra Jack Keats, who died in 1983. They’re all terrific books, but we should be able to go to this year’s crop of picture books and find images in them that ALL our children and grandchildren can recognize and identify with. There are some, sure, but nowhere near enough.
The world that is represented in a lot of picture booksdoesn’t seem to have changed much since the world of Judith Kerr’s THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, whose café and Dad and street scenes come straight out of the 1950s England I grew up in. It looks absolutely nothing like Wood Green, where I live, or like Peckham, where my daughter lives, or Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle or Liverpool. It doesn’t even look like provincial market towns and villages in the countryside. Not any more.
I’m not sure where it is, this picture book world, but I can tell you that in most primary schools and nurseries in this country there are children who won’t find anyonewho looks like them in most of the books that they are given.
Recently I wrote a blog here about diversity in children’s literature Black and White and Everything in Between. I'm returning to the discussion again today.
Malorie Blackman has talked and written and discussed the lack of diversity in children’s literature. Recently she was interviewed about the issue and egregiously misquoted, which led to a lot of racist comments on her Twitter feed. On the Edge Writers blog, Paula Rawsthorne discussed this and the issue of diversity. You can read it here..
Bali Rai has talked about the lack of diversity in children’s literature, as have many other writers, librarians, readers and reviewers.
In the States a huge campaign was launched after it was revealed that all the ‘luminaries from the world of children’s, teen and YA writers invited to the panel discussions at the BookExpo America were all white and all male’. After the campaign, a much more diverse group of children’s authors were invited to sit on a panel to discuss the issue.
The American Association for Library Service to children also initiated a programme to address the lack of diversity in children’s literature available in libraries.
I blogged about the whole US #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on the Edge Writers blog, which you can read here.
When I talked about the issue on Twitter I was told by an editor at a very big publishing house that it wholeheartedly promoted diverse writers, and already had two on their lists, (the inference drawn was that obviously that was quite sufficient). But, she said, the problem really was that British writers from ethnically diverse backgrounds were not submitting manuscripts to publishers, and she could not understand why...
I know the truth to be a little different.
I also know she did not grasp this concept at all: that if children from ethnically diverse backgrounds rarely see any version of themselves, other than occasionally as stereotypes or as bit parts, then they are in danger of believing that books are the preserve of the white middle classes, and also that the children’s publishing industry might not be a place for them when they grow up. Perhaps I’m painting it too black and white, but I’m sure you know what I’m saying.
Children’s fiction, teen fiction and YA fiction is a tougher market than it ever was before, it’s also become far narrower than ever before, both in terms of the books commissioned and published, and the apparent ‘market trends’ as dictated by the publicity and marketing departments. This is reinforced by the lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity, age, background, and sex of most of the editors at most of the publishing houses in the UK. You only have to go to a book publishing event or conference to see that for yourselves. There are few people of colour.
Everything has been squeezed. The market-driven publishing houses are all on the look-out for the Next Big Thing, mid-range writers are often fighting a losing battle, teen/YA shelves are now full of very, very similar books on very, very similar themes, and you’ll be very lucky if you find much diversity in theme never mind anything else.
Something has to change surely. So I wholeheartedly support Malorie Blackman in her endeavour to promote diversity in children’s literature. I know lots of children’s writers who feel the same way and are blogging to raise awareness.
Here’s a hashtag we can all use to help promote diversity in children’s literature, and I use the term diversity in its widest possible sense - #WeNeedDiverseBooksUK
And I very much hope that the publishing industry pays more than lip service too.
Savita's website
Last Saturday I found myself in the company of Wookies, Jedi, sundry Game of Thrones characters, Spidermen, ogres (male and female) and a raft of other bedecked and be-axed cosplayers. I also had the pleasure of meeting some of the many wonderful YA bloggers I chat to and follow online. Yes, this was the mad and crazy glory that was the UK's first ever Young Adult Literature Convention (mixed with lashings of ComicCon).
The Daily Telegraph deemed it a hit - and barring a few gripes about the nightmare queues, the heat, the lack of seating, the audio-fails and the heaving walls of bodies blocking the way to the book lecture stage (all dying to have their photo taken with Marvelmeister Stan Lee), I loved every minute. The whole thing was dreamed up by Booktrust and our very own Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman, and I think we should all stand up and cheer her to the steel rafters that only just kept the roof on Earls Court (the noise was ear-tingling). Much has been written about the brilliant panels and workshops elsewhere, but I want to focus on something else. Yes, those book bloggers.
With much of the newspaper industry (the Guardian being an honourable exception) giving less and less review coverage to children's and YA books, the book bloggers are our enthusiastic champions, and we need to recognise the HUGE amounts of unpaid time and energy they put into reading and then writing about our neck of the literary woods. They tweet, they discuss, they get the word out there, and I think we owe them all a great debt of gratitude - including our very own Awfully Big Review team, of course!
The post-conference 'For the Fringe' party (organised by the indomitable Sophia Bennett) was a marvellous mix of authors and bloggers -
@YaYeahYeah, @Serendipity_Viv, @JessHeartsBooks, @Splendibird, @RachReviewsAll, @carlybennett, @lynseynewton...er, in fact far too many to name-check them all here - and the level of knowledgeable bookish chat was off the scale. To meet so many enthusiastic readers was a shot in the arm for all the authors who were there, I think - and I was kept busy scribbling down new blogsites and book recommendations as well as chatting till I thought my tongue would drop off.
Another thing I discovered at YALC was
The Siobhan Dowd Trust in action. Actually, I discovered it before I even got there, while I was still on the tube. Overhearing a group of teenagers enthusing excitedly about their favourite authors (quite a lot of screaming) was another shot in the arm - and I later discovered from their librarian that they were from a Manchester school, and that their trip had been funded by the SDT. They weren't the only ones either. I found more while listening to one of the panels. They were the ones at the front, grabbing the microphone to ask intelligent and insightful questions of the panel members. This is the wonderful thing about the SDT - they give bookish kids opportunities they might not otherwise have had.
Altogether, YALC was a real eye-opener. The power of books and reading to inspire was demonstrated on a grand scale there - and while some may have felt that ComicCon was not quite the right place to have it, personally, I thought it gave the whole thing added 'buzz'. I really do hope it happens again in 2015 - I'm already planning an Egyptian costume. Be very afraid!
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| Image © LostMedia |
Ever since the beginning of my involvement with the publishing industry, I’ve had the suspicion that its thinking is full of ‘accepted truths’ that are, in fact, not true. My suspicions are growing.
One of these so-called accepted truths - shall we call them SCATs for short? - is the idea that “boys won’t read books with a girl as the central character”. I was involved in a conversation recently where this was asserted as fact.
- Hmmm, I said; but is that true? After all, boys read Mr Gum, and the hero of those books is a girl.
- Yes, came the reply, but it’s sold on Mr Gum himself.
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe? It’s Lucy’s story, really. If there’s a central character, it’s her.
- Yes, but there’s Peter and Edmund and Susan, too, so it’s a gender-balanced story.
- Northern Lights?
- Yes, but Pullman’s exceptional, isn’t he?
- The Hunger Games?
- Well, sometimes a book comes along that just breaks all the rules.
…and so on.
Interestingly, the person who most strongly made such statements also quite blithely said that their company does no marketplace research; they just trust in instinct & experience.
This is not to denigrate anyone involved in the conversation; they’re all good people who have achieved much in the world of publishing, and it was a privilege to talk to them. But it did get me wondering - is there in fact any real evidence to support the idea that boys won’t read books about girls? Or is it simply an unfounded myth that has gained traction and now won’t let go?
On the same day, I responded to a tweet from the inestimable Let Toys Be Toys campaign about their Let Books Be Books initiative. They’re building a gallery - which is here and growing; do take a look - to challenge this idea. Examples there, and others I’ve spotted or thought of since, include:
- Alice in Wonderland
- The Silver Chair
- Matilda
- the Sophie stories
- Pippi Longstocking
- A Face Like Glass
- Peter Pan & Wendy (interesting, isn’t it, that since Disney the title has been shortened to Peter Pan, when really it’s Wendy’s story?)
- The BFG
- Mr Stink
- the Tiffany Aching books
- The Story of Tracy Beaker
- Sabriel
- Fever Crumb
And there are more. Does anyone honestly think boys won’t read Geraldine McCaughrean’s wonderful The White Darkness or Not The End of the World? Is Tony Ross’s Little Princess really rejected by half the toddler population? Does the possession of external genitalia truly impede enjoyment of The Secret Garden?
Then I started thinking about my own childhood reading. I was a very insecure boy, bullied by my classmates, and gender-shaming was one of their weapons. I learned early on that anything that marked me out as insufficiently masculine was to be avoided. So did that mean I didn’t read “girls’ books?” Nope. I just read them in secret. I rather enjoyed Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl and St Clare’s series, for instance, and Pollyanna; and truth to tell if gender wasn’t signified on the cover in some way then it didn’t even occur to me to ask if the central character was a boy. The two things that sometimes stopped me from reading books about girls - or being seen to read them - were:
- the fear of being shamed
- being given the message in some way that these books were not for me
In other words, there was nothing about either me or the book that made us a poor match. It was external pressure that got between me and those stories. And despite what my classmates would have had you believe, I don’t think I was a weirdo.
This isn’t the only SCAT that restricts young readers and the adults who write for them. Malorie Blackman recently challenged the idea that white children won’t read books starring characters from minority backgrounds. And where did we get the idea that children won’t read about adult characters? Have we forgotten how successful Professor Branestawn was in his day - or that children are happy to read about King Arthur’s knights, or Heracles, or Superman?
Do we really believe that children are so closed-minded as to only want to read about characters like themselves? Do we honestly think so little of them? And if we think it true that children need characters to be like them even in age, colour and gender before they can identify with them, why are we happy to give them stories about rabbits and hedgehogs and guinea-pigs, about water-rats and moles and toads and badgers? Is there any sense at all in the assertion that a boy will identify with a different species more readily than with the opposite sex? That a white child will happily imagine himself to be a dog or a pig, but balk at imagining himself as black?
We need to challenge these SCATs. They’re bad for books; they’re bad for readers; they’re bad for our society. So thank goodness for Let Books Be Books. Thank goodness for Malorie Blackman. Thank goodness for those people who are prepared to say, “Is there any actual evidence for that?” - and let’s agree to be those people ourselves.
And if we ever feel unsure of our ground, and wonder if maybe the SCATs are right, let’s remember a film industry SCAT recently reported by Lauren Child. Let’s remember that she was told a Ruby Redfort film was out of the question, because a female lead in a kids’ film is box-office poison.
And let’s remember that the highest-grossing animation of all time is now Disney’s female-led Frozen.
_____________________________________________________________
John's latest book is Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers (OUP)
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By:
Savita Kalhan,
on 4/4/2014
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According to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, of the 3,200 children’s books published in 2013 in the US, just 93 were about black people. The UK fares little better by all accounts.
Leila Rasheed has blogged about the importance of non-issue based children’s books featuring children from ethnic backgrounds, and why she finds it hard to write about non-white characters. http://leilarasheeddotcom.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/permission-to-write-my-experience-of-being-a-british-asian-reader-and-writer-of-childrens-books/
Tanya Byrne has written about this on the Guardian books blog where she calls for more books featuring children of colour. https://href.li/?http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/mar/20/tanya-byrne-top-10-black-characters-in-childrens-books?CMP=twt_gu
The dearth of non-white characters was raised by Dean Myers, in his article: Where are the People of Colour in Children’s Books. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/where-are-the-people-of-color-in-childrens-books.html?_r=1
And then again by his son Christopher Myers in The Apartheid of Children. https://href.li/?http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html
There is now an increasing debate and demand for more diversity in children’s literature to reflect our increasingly multi-ethnic and multi cultural society.
Almost thirty years ago Verna Wilkins set up Tamarind Press in an attempt to redress the lack of books with children from non-white backgrounds being published in the children’s market. But ‘mainstream’ publishers have yet to catch up, and there is clearly still a huge lack of such books.
As a British Asian, who is 100% Indian in terms of heritage, but who is essentially more British than Indian, and as a big reader during my childhood, it was always a surprise when I found a book about a child who shared my skin colour. A nice surprise. Yes, often those kids were beset by problems such as racial abuse and stereotyping, but that wasn’t a problem for me because growing up in the UK at the time did in fact necessarily involve having to face those issues to a greater or lesser degree.
What bothers me now is the fact that, as all of the above authors have pointed out, there are still very few books that feature children of colour, whether or not they are issue-based or are 'normal' non-issue based stories .
Children are growing up in a society which is far more culturally mixed and diverse. But, for today's children, not much has changed from when I grew up, in terms of seeing and reading about a diverse range of children like themselves and their friends in literature.
That’s a problem.
I completely agree with Malorie when she talks about diversity of multi-cultural voices in children’s literature being of paramount importance, not least because it would promote awareness and understanding, and tolerance.
On a personal level, as a writer, I have written books featuring all white characters. People have often said that The Long Weekend could have been written by a white Anglo-Saxon. That’s fine. I find it quite amusing. It’s my fully Indian name on the spine. In another novel, Amnesia, the main character is an English boy, but his best friend is Indian and his girlfriend is half Italian. The book I have just completed is about an Asian girl and features predominately Asian characters of different backgrounds. I don’t feel that because I’m Asian I have to write about Asian characters all the time, or that I should feel obliged to.
What’s important in children’s literature is that a diversity of characters in terms of ethnicity and culture is depicted, and that their voices are heard, and that a child is no longer surprised when they find more than one book featuring someone of their ethnicity, culture or colour. Sadly, that’s not happening yet.
Birthday-present burglars, a Tooth Fairy mystery, and an abandoned puppy – no adventure is too great for Maxine, also known as Girl Wonder!This collection of seven funny short stories is perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading aloud or reading alone.
From scaring Mum at Halloween to building the biggest snowball the world’s ever seen – Maxine always has a super plan and needs the help of her twin brothers, Anthony and Edward. Together the super siblings make all sorts of mischief . . . Can they fix it before Mum finds out?These seven funny short stories are perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading alone or reading aloud.
When Maxine has a plan, you can be sure it involves her twin brothers Anthony and Edward. You can also be sure it involves BIG TROUBLE!Nine fantastically funny short stories, perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading aloud or reading alone.
The Storytelling Museum, an institution based in the U.K., will host an exhibit called “26 Characters: celebrating childhood story heroes.” This art show features photographs of writers dressed as their favorite childhood literary character.
This exhibition will be on view from April 5th to November 2nd. Photogapher Cambridge Jones captured the pictures of these authors. Some of the authors who took part include Malorie Blackman, Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman.
According to the museum’s official website, Blackman transformed herself into the Wicked Witch of the West and Pratchett sat for his portrait as William Brown from Just William. Gaiman (pictured, via) revealed in a blog post that he drew inspiration from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows and chose to wear a Badger costume. Will you be seeing this installation?
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
When Mike finds out that his best friend is a Gris-Kwok and can turn into any animal he chooses, it’s the start of some crazy adventures!
Alex’s naughty little sister Polly is a Gris-Kwok too and she won’t do as she’s told. Mike and Alex are in for the worst babysitting job in the world as they try to keep up with her!
Laugh-out-loud fun from an award-winning and bestselling author.
‘IT’S GOING TO BE WOOF-ONDERFUL!’
There is nothing Nicky wants more in the world than a dog to play with. But Mum and Dad don’t want a dog. Then Granddad has an idea – he and Nicky can make a dog: a snow-dome dog. Even better, he has some special clay, found at the end of a rainbow, so that the dog will be extra-special. Maybe even magic . . .
Colour First Readers are perfect for new readers and include notes be reading specialist Prue Goodwin, honorary fellow of the University of Reading.
Five…four…three…two…one. Lift-off!
What can Lizzie do when big-headed Jake challenges her to a race in space? She’s GOT to beat him. But Jake has a super-duper, deluxe new spaceship that runs on special fuel…
Zoom to Pluto and back with this super space story from award-winning author, Malorie Blackman.
Colour First Readers are perfect for new readers and include notes by reading specialist Prue Goodwin, honorary fellow of the University of Reading.
Teenage Kicks at Random House by Teri Terry "A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." - Thomas Mann This is so true. Every word must be the right word, the only one that in combination with all the other right words, sentences and paragraphs creates a chain that leads all the way from page one to ‘the end’ in an inevitable, flawless
I have just finished reading 'Boys Don't Cry' by Malorie Blackman and as I read through the book I automatically decided on Malorie's main theme - Taking Responsibility for your Actions. Why did I do this?
Because in the summer of 2009 I did an Arvon course with Malorie Blackman and Melvyn Burgess. One of the most significant statements Malorie made - for me anyway - was to make sure you are clear about the themes of your novels. This will help both to focus your writing and tighten the focused pitch to agents/editors/ other gatekeepers once your opus magnus is ready to fly.
I hadn't really thought about my novels in terms of central themes before and so I spent some time that week thinking about the three novels in my Hayling Cycle and crystallising the themes. It was a very worthwhile experience. I had always known these themes but they had remained in the background, not clearly articulated. I had come up with clear and crisp one-line pitches for each book but these were not the same as themes. Once I had decided on the themes I then put them at the top of each synopsis or outline for the third as yet unwritten novel.
It was just in time really because the Summer of 2009 was when all the editors suddenly sat up and decided they loved the first novel, HIDDEN, that my agent had been submitting. The year before it was all rejection including two on a single Friday afternoon - that made for a great weekend as you can imagine!
Here are the themes to each of my three novels in the cycle, followed by a bit of plot summary to show the role of the theme in the book. My publishers are Meadowside Books.
HIDDEN, March 2011The theme of this novel is the courage to stand up for what you believe in, against the crowd.
The main character, Alix, sticks up for Samir, the foreign boy in her class, who is the victim of racist bullying.
Her courage is tested when they find an illegal immigrant washed up on a beach and Samir pleads with her to help hide him, to save him from being deported.
ILLEGAL, February 2012The themes of this novel are identity and independence. Lindy is looking after Cousin Colin's cannabis farm which is fine. But then he forces her into pushing cocaine which terrifies
I wish I knew why writing was so hard. But it just is. But why do I love it? I just do.
Teri you lucky thing - 3 fabulous fabulous writers to spend the evening with - wow!<br />Writing is hard for writers because it matters so much. I've found the more I learn about the craft of writing, the more I read good writing, the harder it is to write my own.<br />Much to think about...
I SO relate to where Marjorie's coming from. So much so I want to scream <i>gaaaaaaargh</i>! and ask why we do this to ourselves, and then I remember those days of pure unadulterated bliss and joy when the words just flow and it's like you're in your own personal and somewhat divine parallel dimension.<br />Great post, Teri and lucky you being able to attend the event!
'They all had the joy' - says it all really. When Alexander McCall Smith was being interviewed at the Hay Festival his face lit up when he was talking about his characters. He was giggling and could barely get his words out when he was talking about Bertie from 44 Scotland Street. Maybe this is what keeps us going. Because when we get it right, it's magic. Although, I'm not sure
Writing is hard because it's easy - i.e. anyone can do it. Because of that, a "real" writer has to be turning out work that is a quantum leap ahead of what a non-writer can produce. And BOY do we agonise about that!
This sounds like a great evening! And to read what Bali Rai said about keeping other ideas out of his head. It's not just me!! I was worried I just wasn't focussed enough but maybe it's a good thing?!<br />Thanks for the write up Teri :)
Great post, Teri! And here you were saying you didn't take notes! I can't believe Malorie doesn't enjoy reworking. I find getting the first draft out a most horrific experience once the first false dawn of excitement that you're writing a new novel is over.
Thanks for the comments, everyone! It was a great evening - also fantastic to see so many teenagers interested and on the edge of their seats.<br />Candy, I wasn't taking notes, but when I'm REALLY listening... you know those moments... it stays with me.
I wrote a post about this a while back, trying to come up with the one big 'con' to writing and the one big 'pro' for me. Of course there are tons of both, and I identify most with Malorie's dread of the revision. Ugh. it makes me think of having teeth pulled. I'm going to tackle revisions in May for a book I finished in November. I left it 'cooling' because I was
Having spent the past two and a half hours typing and deleting and scratching my head and making more tea and typing and swearing and typing and printing and reading and tutting and screwing up paper, reading this post made me smile Teri, so thank you for that! Having been forced to accept that tonight was just one of those nights when the words won't flow and every sentence is hard, it was