Gok Wan was right - it's all about the confidence!

Virago Press Editor (publishers of, amongst others, Margaret Attwood, Angela Carter, Sarah Waters and Linda Grant) and co-counder of the Orange Prize for Fiction Lennie Goodings visited the University as part of the Winchester Reading Series (expertly organised by MA Programme Leader Carole Burns) last night to talk and answer questions about publishing, writing and everything in between - or, perhaps more appropriately, before and after...


I could rattle off a list of adjectives to describe how engaging, enlightening and just plain helpful it was to hear what she had to say (in fact, I just have) but I think the third year student sitting next to me summed it up best when she said, 'I can't believe I've only just started to come to these events. They're SO useful.' Take heed first and second years and make the most of hearing those working in the 'industry' talk about their experiences and give advice whilst you still can - for free at least!

Credit too, to the (impressively large) audience who asked some really good questions that elicited equally interesting responses. I give credit in this way because it has taken me years to pluck up the courage to ask questions at these types of things for fear of a) asking the dumbest question of the evening or b) repeatedly putting my hand in the air to ask a question only for it not to be seen by the person answering the questions whilst being highly visible to the rest of the room. After all these years, I STILL find that ridiculously cringeworthy... And, yes, it happened to me again last night... :0)

I got to ask my question in the end, however, which leads me to some of the more salient points about fiction publishing to come from Ms Gooding's Q & A:

1) Publishers are looking for fiction written with obvious confidence - mainly because the writer clearly knows what they are writing and where it is all heading.
2) There is no substitute for a really strong sense of 'voice' from the characters. Do you know the characters well enough to write them with vivid authenticity?
3) Avoid the obvious. If a publisher has already has a back catalogue of teen vampire fiction then they are unlikely to be blown away by yet another version of the same thing UNLESS there is something different about it.
4) If you are serious about getting published, get an agent; it is very rare for unsolicited manuscripts to get the attention of a publisher.
5) There is not the expectation that your manuscript will be perfect; that's what the editor is there for, to advise on rewrites etc. But, it should be targeted. That is, know who your audience is and write for them. A publisher needs to feel that there is a market for what you have written. The same goes for agents - do your research before sending your work out to make sure it is within their area of interest/expertise.
6) Get into the habit of being able to express your idea/plot in one sentence ready for pitching it.
7) Don't give up; Goodings responded to a question about the dearth of young novelists in the current market by suggesting that, as writing is a craft that can take years to get right, it is more usual for writers to find success some time after they begin writing seriously.

Phew, no need to fear the literary equivalent of the biological clock just yet then...!

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story...

... It's an adage we've all heard many times, particularly with regard to the world of journalism. It was, therefore, no surprise to see it referenced in print again yesterday. Ben Macintyre, writing in The Times, has had just about enough of film makers taking artistic licence with the 'based on a true story' oeuvre to the point of seriously endangering credibility. As he says of the recent crop of biopics, they have one thing in common; 'the demands of the 'pic' supersede the basic reality of the 'bio'. The search for drama, romance and tragedy, he states, is allowing the facts of these stories to be distorted; Madonna is 'blithely unconcerned' with the reality of the past in WE, Clint Eastwood has produced a film about J Edgar Hoover 'founded on something that probably never happened' and David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method is based upon an 'educated guess' about Carl Jung's personal life.


But, while any discussion about the role of truth in storytelling must acknowledge the danger of stretching the facts to meet the demands of the audience (fiction can, after all, become fact forever that way) the horrible 'truth' is that those demands are just that; demands. Demands upon the storyteller to produce a narrative that engages by hitting the right marks throughout the arc of, as Macintyre puts it, 'rise, fall and redemption'. 


Macintyre further acknowledges that, when fiction is inspired by fact, the storytellers 'inevitably compress, elide, make up scenes, dialogue and characters' in order to make the story more interesting, more engaging - in much the same way as the author John Cheever admits to exaggerating the facts of his own life to do the same. 


So, is Macintyre right when he says that 'a history story is only truly good when it is also true'? Maybe. However, as fiction writers, we perhaps have more right to that artistic licence than he allows those writing the biopic. It could be that no writing, fictional or not, is ever entirely without elements of biography and, should this be the case, the choice is surely that of the individual writer; tell the story in spite of the truth or let the truth become the story? 


Link to the full article: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/benmacintyre/article3295738.ece

'Who loves ya baby?' - Why the artist is a special thing...

At the moment I am researching the life and music of the Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti for a narrative I am developing that is partly set in 1970s Lagos. The narrative has underlying themes relating to political and social emancipation and Kuti, the creator of Afrobeat, used his music as a platform from which to protest against the endemic corruption that was serving to oppress the people of Nigeria and Africa as a whole. 

Fela was well educated and articulate, particularly on the relationship between art and politics:

‘...As an artist, politically, artistically, the whole idea about your environment must be represented in the  music... Art is about what is a happening at a particular time... So, I think, as far as Africa is concerned, music cannot be for enjoyment. It has to be for revolution.’

He wrote music and lyrics that challenged conventional wisdom, corruption and state sponsored brutality; the writer, as an artist, is indeed special.

The song posted here is Zombie (1976) and an example of Fela's passion, talent and credentials as a politically active and revolutionary artist. The 'Zombies' referred to in the lyrics are the Nigerian army - blindly following orders to brutalise and intimidate their own people. It is also just an incredible piece of musicianship.

                                   

'How is it that I became a writer?'

In Negotiating with the Dead,  Margaret Atwood describes the writer inside us by way of a metaphor; the motivation to write is an 'insistent camel' that propels a writer's 'writing life' forward - stubbornly, in search of water or, better still, an oasis of sympathetic editors and enthusiastic publishers... 


Is that how I became a writer? By virtue of a dogged determination to reach the end of a predestined journey towards creative fulfilment? 


Erm, no. 


The truth, as is usually the case, is more prosaic than that. At school I was quiet and studious. I did well in all subjects until (shock horror!) a certain amount of dedication, effort and hard work was required. At this point, and pretty much overnight, I became useless at almost everything: PE - all the gear and no idea; Science - couldn't make head nor tail of the gear and, consequently, even less idea; Languages - resolutely unable to get beyond telling someone my age and asking how to get to the train station; Maths - ???????? 


And so it was that I discovered that entertaining people and telling stories was SO much easier than figuring out the solution to a quadratic equation... And it was that, coupled with the fact that I could be good at English without having to try too hard (well, there was that blip at A Level when I had to explain to my mum that the A I got was for 'Absent' but we won't dwell on that...) that led me to writing. 


Yes - it was being a lazy show off with a short attention span and a predilection for a finely honed sentence that ensured I would fail to excel in anything until fate led me to writing where I could use those traits to their best effect. Not, perhaps, the stuff that inspiring biographies are made of but, nevertheless, the truth. 


So, mes etudiants, this is my truth, tell me yours.*


*To paraphrase the Manic Street Preachers and throw in a bit of French. Proof, were it needed, that I am, indeed, a lazy show off...

A New Year, A New Blog...

Welcome to a new blog for the start of a new year!


Having ridden off into the sunset at the end of the last academic year, the Insistent Camel has returned to ride again (eat your heart out Destry...). Mind you, after such a long hiatus, 'ride' may be the wrong choice of verb. As a metaphor for this particular writer's creative journey, it may be wise to begin this new blog at a slower pace; a virtual 'plod' perhaps?  Just to warm up, you understand... By April I fully expect the camel and, ergo, my writing, to be involved in a full blown canter. 


If all goes to plan, you will all be racing ahead of me, buoyed by our journey into the deep recesses of the author's mind into creating exciting new fictional worlds of your own.


Should be fun!