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This weekend Children´s Books Ireland are holding their 24th annual conference at the Light House Cinema in Dublin with a glittering array of national and international speakers. It will kick off with the inaugural address of the new Irish Children´s Laureate, Laureate na nóg, Eoin Colfer. The conference has always been a stimulating and inspiring and fun highlight of the year for writers, illustrators, booksellers, teachers, librarians and all lovers of children´s literature.
This year the chosen theme, the F word: Failure - is intriguing. The programme says they are inviting writers “to reflect on the times in their careers where things have fallen apart, deadlines went out the window and defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.” What do you do when you are turned down by agent after agent? How do you get past the fear of failure? How do you keep going if your books are no longer finding a publisher (perhaps after years of regular commissions)? And how do you find the true grit and determination to turn the failures into triumphs, to keep going when no one actually has asked you to write in the first place? Will a book award pave the way automatically to a successful and lasting career? No doubt there will be many thoughtful discussions and a lot of laughs too. I am terribly sorry that I am so “scattered” that I will not be there.
At times when my work in progress gets stuck or I am failing to meet a deadline, I sometimes look to the wisdom of other writers and the many lists of tips and advice out there. But the one I find the wisest and the most entertaining is Anne Lamont´s timeless advice in her book “Bird by Bird”:
Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Bird by bird – that´s the way to do it. Just write the next sentence and carry on until you have finished.
0 Comments on The F word: Failure Maeve Friel as of 5/23/2014 3:15:00 AM
Hi folks, sorry about last week, I was little down and didn't mean to spill over. Thanks for putting up with me through the doldrums.
I'm going to shift gears this week with a three-week series on non-fiction. I'm mostly a fiction writer, but a piece of me likes to tell it like it is. Note readers, don't go running into the hills because I'm focusing on non-fiction because let's face it, a novel requires as much research as any popular non-fiction book.
I come from a world were kids don't get exposed to as many ideas a middle class kids do. I'm blue collar all the way, but my parents made it a habit to get me to museums, zoos, and galleries all the time as a child. Most of my friends weren't so lucky. This experience and knowledge of deprivation put a fire under me to provide kids with books that make them think, make them learn, that introduce them to the world of wonder that books bring to us.
I think half the battle of writing non-fiction is finding a topic that is big enough to take on a book and then finding a way to convey that topic to the reader with vim, vigor, and vibe. The topic has to be more expansive than what you would find in a magazine article. A great non-fiction story just screams, "Everybody has got to know this."
The foundation of non-fiction is meticulous research. I love libraries and I love the Internet. We have more information at our finger tips than any other generation. The job of the researcher has gone from being one of just finding the sources to being the one discovering what sources are authoritative and which are so much bunk. Research is all about exploring my favorite technology -- Writng.
Non-fiction must have a compelling story to be successful. I cringe a little every time someone writes another "Why does poop stink?" book. I know. Inquiring minds want to know. Like every genre, "shock value" titles have their place, but personally I gravitate more toward thinker books. I do think non-fiction needs a compelling hook, a big surprise, or a new-fangled twist, so much the same as fiction in that regard.
I've got tons more to say and will get through it slowly. Seize the day, folks.
Instead of doodles this week, we have(YAY!) books in the mail! I got my little brown box of author copies of IF YOU WERE A QUADRILATERAL and IF YOU WERE A CIRCLE from Picture Window Books. I wanted to share the beautiful covers with you. The brilliant illustrator is Francesca Carabelli. Kudos!
Lovc, love, Guys and Dolls. Here's a fav number: Nicely, Nicely singing "Rocking the Boat."
My quote of the week is:
I've written six novels and four pieces of nonfiction, so I don't really have a genre these days. Anne Lamont
1 Comments on I Ain't Lying - a three part series on non-fiction (Part I), last added: 9/7/2009
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Please bring your new books to the meeting tomorrow, Molly. They look great!