Once, when I was in my early 20s 3 of us discovered we were all "writing novels" - we agreed to meet and read and discuss our work. Guess what, I was the only person who had work to read and hear critique of. We were meant to meet again but we never did. I can't even remember what I was writing that I read at the time. It might have been an early bit of Berenice, which I was working on a bit then, and since the other 2 were classics grads as well it seemed appropriate.
The reason I put "writing novels" in inverted commas was that in the last few years I've met several people who said they were "writing novels" - but after a bit of comradely discussion, turned out not to be. Or to have had a good idea for one, or to have a killer first line/first paragraph, or something. Most irritating was the woman who said to me (she had asked me what I did, and I said "I'm writing a novel") "Oh yes, a lot of people think they'd like to write a novel - I've often thought I should write one." At that point I was on my 3-4th draft of The Formative Year.
Today - my birthday - my friend John sent me the most perfect birthday card - Rudyard Kipling's illustration of The Cat that Walked by Itself, a story that I've always associated myself with.
Since that first attempt at starting a writer's group I've never wanted to go and do anything en masse with other struggling writers again. Joining Authonomy was different, but in general I've felt that working and writing were the best way of improving one's work - and reading good writers. Reading with a critical eye - and reading one's own work with a critical eye. Recently people have begun to realise that I actually do write, not just witter on about it, and they have begun to ask me to come to groups and go to local seminars on How to Get Published - this is all very agreeable, but the sessions are often run by people whose work I don't really esteem... I can't help feeling this is a bit of a waste of time.
It is selfish I think - because I know if I went to a writers' group I would have to spend 90 mins or so listening to other people's work and trying to think of something constructive to say about it, and that's 90 minutes I could be profitably spending staring into space... of course one could learn stuff from other's experiences and mistakes, but - but -. I found the Authonomy experience similar - I found it hard to like a lot of the work there, but one was meant to say something constructive. Not that people minded if one simply said "I loved your book" and left it that. But one had to give up a lot of time to read chunks of other people's novels, and if one was conscientious, to be constuctive. And then there were the forums - clearly designed to keep writers busy for hours, and to prevent them sending in unwanted manuscripts...
Would I have written better if I'd done a post-grad writing course? If only there'd been such things when I finished my degree... I think I would have written more sooner, with greater confidence. Things would have been different, but no matter. This is how it happened, it couldn't have happened any other way. I would of course know all about stuff like story arcs, and I would probably be writing short stories all the time. But let's face it Dickens, Stendahl, Joyce, Woolf etc. managed without the benefit of UEA or Exeter courses - they were rather closer to genius than me, but quand meme, would any of them have benefitted from a creative writing course?
The reason I put "writing novels" in inverted commas was that in the last few years I've met several people who said they were "writing novels" - but after a bit of comradely discussion, turned out not to be. Or to have had a good idea for one, or to have a killer first line/first paragraph, or something. Most irritating was the woman who said to me (she had asked me what I did, and I said "I'm writing a novel") "Oh yes, a lot of people think they'd like to write a novel - I've often thought I should write one." At that point I was on my 3-4th draft of The Formative Year.
Today - my birthday - my friend John sent me the most perfect birthday card - Rudyard Kipling's illustration of The Cat that Walked by Itself, a story that I've always associated myself with.
Since that first attempt at starting a writer's group I've never wanted to go and do anything en masse with other struggling writers again. Joining Authonomy was different, but in general I've felt that working and writing were the best way of improving one's work - and reading good writers. Reading with a critical eye - and reading one's own work with a critical eye. Recently people have begun to realise that I actually do write, not just witter on about it, and they have begun to ask me to come to groups and go to local seminars on How to Get Published - this is all very agreeable, but the sessions are often run by people whose work I don't really esteem... I can't help feeling this is a bit of a waste of time.
It is selfish I think - because I know if I went to a writers' group I would have to spend 90 mins or so listening to other people's work and trying to think of something constructive to say about it, and that's 90 minutes I could be profitably spending staring into space... of course one could learn stuff from other's experiences and mistakes, but - but -. I found the Authonomy experience similar - I found it hard to like a lot of the work there, but one was meant to say something constructive. Not that people minded if one simply said "I loved your book" and left it that. But one had to give up a lot of time to read chunks of other people's novels, and if one was conscientious, to be constuctive. And then there were the forums - clearly designed to keep writers busy for hours, and to prevent them sending in unwanted manuscripts...
Would I have written better if I'd done a post-grad writing course? If only there'd been such things when I finished my degree... I think I would have written more sooner, with greater confidence. Things would have been different, but no matter. This is how it happened, it couldn't have happened any other way. I would of course know all about stuff like story arcs, and I would probably be writing short stories all the time. But let's face it Dickens, Stendahl, Joyce, Woolf etc. managed without the benefit of UEA or Exeter courses - they were rather closer to genius than me, but quand meme, would any of them have benefitted from a creative writing course?
No comments:
Post a Comment