Category: Opinion

A Literary Inquisition

radcliffehart4 Comments

As a writer and editor, I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to reach out to fellow writers to further educate myself in the craft of writing and publishing; the want and need for learning and further understanding is infectious. We attend seminars, workshops, read books/blogs/general websites.

As a reader, this education continues whether we wish to learn more by exploring unknown genres or subjects, or the simple act of escapism and exploration into new worlds. We often choose what we read dependent on our peer opinion – be that your best friend raving about a book over coffee or a rating on an Amazon suggestion.

With the internet at our fingertips, there is more and more of a chance to reach out to the authors that inspire or interest us. Which is where I come in with this opportunity for someone to awarded with the prize of a beautiful new paperback in return for your literary inquisition.

Vanessa Gebbie‘s debut novel, The Coward’s Tale is being launched in paperback on the 29th March, and she will be taking this tale on a blog tour which will stop here on the 30th March.

The Coward’s Tale is a powerfully imagined, poetic and haunting novel, spiked with humour. It is a story of kinship and kindness, guilt and atonement, and the ways in which we carve the present out of an unforgiving past

Bloomsbury

I’m inviting you, whether you’re a reader, writer or both, to send me your questions which will be answered by Vanessa on the Q&A blog on the 30th March. The most searching question will be picked out by Vanessa and awarded a paperback copy of The Coward’s Tale*, so please get thinking and ask your most burning questions!

  • Send your questions via email to lexi@servicestoliterature.co.uk
  • Leave your question here using the comments section below
  • Feel free to comment/reply to me where the link is shared on FB or Twitter

Vanessa Gebbie is the author of two collections of stories and contributing editor of a creating writing text book. She has won numerous awards – including prizes at Bridport, Fish and the Willesden Herald (the latter judged by Zadie Smith) – for her short fiction. An extract from The Coward’s Tale won the Daily Telegraph ‘Novel in a Year’ Competition.

*Winner will be announced on 30th March 2012

Beautiful little paper miracles*

radcliffehart2 Comments

With the extra day in February and an attempt to ensure I blog at least once a month, I’m taking the opportunity to add to the discussion on the future of publishing and of the book. This is a really exciting time of exploration, experimentation  and connection, with thousands of voices interacting with this subject. With so many opinions out there and an insane research interest in this quickly evolving subject, I’ve found that I have my feet on either side of the digital vs traditional argument and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Although there are lots of articles out in the internet ether, the stance often plays devil’s advocate by introducing the proposition that the life of the traditionally printed book is at an end. Of course, a lot of media sources are going to speak in absolutes to provoke debate, however some do focus on the positives on the evolution of the e-book. I found the article “Are books and the internet about to merge?” by Damien Walter to be very interesting in the way he brings new light to the argument by focusing on the technological links between books and the internet as the electronic format is growing and the new way of defining books. “E-Books Can’t Burn” by Tim Parks also had an intriguing position, by exploring the nuances of the book experience.
However, it was the comments on both of these articles that interested me the most. With an engaged audience comes intelligent and at times protective response which opens the debate to much wider subjects such as copyright, generational gaps, the position of publishers and agents, the importance of storytelling, and books as objects.

For me, with my feet planted either side of the debate, what I’m most excited about is what is going beyond traditional AND e-books. The experiments into multimedia storytelling like the next digital project from Kate Pullinger, “Dual”, show us how literature is beginning to move beyond the constraints of traditional novels. On the other side, handmade original printed editions direct from authors and “desirable and collectable” editions from literary publishers are popping into the publishing news and circles, and both enthral me. For example, the new imprint at Bloomsbury, Bloomsbury Circus, will be shamelessly literary in unusually sized printed form, whilst Picador celebrates their 40th anniversary this year with beautiful black and white editions of classics new and old with additional resources and material for readers to explore the texts further.

I realise that the debate on traditional vs digital will rage on for some time, and whilst it does I’d love to hear what you think is the future of publishing and how are you engaging with the future possibilities for either and or both formats. Please leave a reply below!

*with thanks to Chris, a.k.a “nattybumpo” commenting on “Are books and the internet about to merge?“, for the inspiration. And to 47giraffes for post photograph!

Facing Constructive Criticism: How do you approach this open door?

radcliffehart1 Comment

Lesson one in any workshop/feedback environment, specifically for me it was first introduced at University, is don’t say the following:
“I like it.” (note full stop)
“It’s nice.” (again with the full stop)
“I wasn’t sure, but I don’t know why.”
We were also advised to avoid aggression. For example, “I hated it” is not a way to start. Criticism and feedback must be constructive although that doesn’t have to be nasty.

As an editor for Dog Horn, there is many a time where I have the realisation of “it’s not working for me” or possibly even a simple “no, not for us” is underlying whilst reviewing a manuscript, however I feel that you should take as much time as you can spare to say why, or suggest other possible routes. This gives the opportunity to not only provide the writer with a new thought process, but also gives yourself the knowledge that the gut felt and often visceral “no” is an action formed on well-rounded thought.

As a writer, I have had the recent experience of opening myself and “my baby” (i.e. the novel) to a situation where a person, who was meant to be enabling my process exploration, was frustrated by my works ideas, characters etc that I was attempting to explain. Instead of providing feedback that was measured or balanced, it was simply started that my ideas would not work, and the group moved onwards. During the conversation I had the mind to understand that they were coming from a different background, and perhaps didn’t understand the complexities I was trying to open, not being a formula-led writer. I also knew that I had to get to know my novel a little better as it was still in a very raw draft stage. This on the spot criticism is also something which many authors endure from peers, critics, publishers etc. I had not realised how thick-skinned I am, which was a comfort, but also that I was able to rationalise the position of both the critique and the work. This isn’t something I’ve generally done before, and I know plenty of writers who don’t either.

Later, I was sought out by fellow writers in the group, who wanted to ensure I was okay. It was endearing and supportive and I found myself almost blasé about the situation, however it was worth knowing that I wasn’t the only one that felt the critique misplaced or abrupt. Following the earlier interaction, I had the opportunity to receive feedback from another writer who in theory was just as honest as the first but gave thought out, structured criticism that enabled me to move forward into a new direction. As far as I can see, honesty of this type is invaluable and it’s something I feel should always be given.

In a recent survey in Mslexia*, although “a sizeable majority (66 per cent) were hungry for feedback, 50 per cent also felt ‘exposed’ when showing their work, because their writing ‘feels like part of myself.'”

However, because of this perhaps,”most women take great pains to be tactful: 61 per cent said they’d try to balance negative with positive comments when giving feedback on a poor piece of writing; one in eight confessed to stretching the truth in an attempt to say something nice – and one in four overlook the problems altogether and focus only on the positive aspects of the work.”

Mslexia asks if this is a good or bad thing, I’d be inclined to say that honesty is the best policy with practise. I’ve always positioned myself as a “blunt” editor, but that straightforward attitude should be seen as a skill rather than brick to hit the piece of work or indeed the writer with! I’d love to know what you think to how criticism should be provided; brick through the window, ring the bell and run away, or perhaps knock on the door for a chat?

*With thanks to Mslexia; survey info taken from Issue 52, page 21.

Digital Stories: an experiment into the unknown

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The title is mostly true. It was an experiment and some of it was unknown. However, the concept was something that as a story teller, I should know very well; taking elements of the world around me, imagined or real, and constructing a story from them.

The course, created by Spread the Word and Kate Pullinger, was described as:

Kate Pullinger, award winning writer for both print and digital platforms, will be running our Digital Stories workshop on Saturday 5 November exploring how digital media can help develop your creativity. Kate has written and spoken about the excitement and challenge of writing on projects that are “born digital”. She has used digital platforms to work collaboratively with other writers, has worked with game developers and even used facial recognition software for one of her projects. In this experimental one-day workshop the focus will be on thinking about new ways to tell stories. It promises to be an opportunity to stretch your imagination, harness your creative skills and explore ways to build future collaborations and open your mind.

© Spread the Word

The promises that Spread the Word gave were not idle and this course did match their description. In a room full of a mixture of creative people, there was a place for all; traditional fiction writers and poets looking for a new device or form for their work, journalists and travel writers looking for an alternative route for their crossover into creative work, even a teacher looking for a new way of getting their students to connect with creative processes to overcome learning disabilities. After discussing ourselves including our current work and aims for this course, Kate introduced us to a range of projects she has worked on, which have been helpfully collated within the Resources section of her site.

Using the techniques she used with five Suffolk schools on the Ebb and Flow project, we looked at ways in which stories can be created by a manipulation of Google Maps. This was also used in Kidmapped where Tim Wight tracked the journey made throughout Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, adding video diary readings of the novel and opening the experience of the novel to new readers who were welcome to join Tim as he continued his journey.

We were invited to take our cameras and notebooks for a wander through the surrounding areas to find the stories of Clerkenwell. This was a daunting if liberating exercise where we wandered until we stumbled into the elements which appealed to us. For some it came quickly, a detail in a building, a face, and even overheard conversations. I overwhelmed myself with choice as I would do when creating stories in a more traditional form, however this time I hoped I would be able to incorporate the inspiration into the story by not only creating fiction from them but allowing the photos and video to become part of the story. The rules were all there, we were just going to be bending the end result and maybe doing some rule-breaking along the way. Which is no bad thing and as many of you may know, it is one of my favourite things to do. By overwhelming my senses with images and video grabbed within the hour we had to find our stories and eat lunch, I quickly constructed a story. Others created their stories which inspired by a single photo, these beautiful and often profound moments that will eventually be shared with a blue pin mark on a map, where anyone can discover it.

I will post up the link to our Google Maps story trail around the area surrounding Free Word where we were based for the day, because there are so many brilliant stories based on moments captured on film; showing all of us that when pushed creatively you can produce anything, even with limited technological skills. The reason for the delay in this link is because we have been given the week to continue the tweaks and uploading of photos. The day was not without its technical difficulties due to Apple vs Windows vs Google which is an argument that we’re all familiar with. Kate was able to provide us with the knowledge we needed on the most part, and where she couldn’t, we worked as a group to solve them.

And that was a major point of this course. With collaboration comes great experimentation but also a share of the load. We less technical creatives love to be creative, but often can get bogged down in unfamiliar ground when it comes to technical issues. Kate gently explained, we do not need to do it all. By working with someone who knows more about delivering beautiful digital stories from a technical point of view, it allows the writer more freedom to create more and bounce ideas off another person without losing your project aims. An example of this would be the Inanimate Alice series which has been created by Kate and Chris Joseph. Providing a novel as a “reading-from-the-screen experience for the “always on” generation”, this has now taken on a life of its own by the readers who have enjoyed it so much that they have created the following episodes to continue the story in weird and wonderful ways and is being used by teachers to provide additional literacy development for their pupils.

Inspired by these more technical projects, and by Kate’s mention of stories via PowerPoint, I wanted to see what I could create with the software which I’m so familiar with using but, as I’ve now learnt, I wasn’t getting enough from. So instead of posting the photos and a short story to go with them, I wanted to start to make them work together. I began by using PowerPoint to create a slideshow to produce the story, however I found this was limited in the ability to upload and embed within my own site let alone Flickr which we were using to produce the html coding or links for the pictures and stories. So, continuing the experiments at home, I tried out Microsoft Photostory 3 which would work perfectly if it would include video files rather than just photo files. Then remembering that Windows Live Essentials had some neat tricks up its sleeve, I tried out Movie Maker for the first time. I quickly recreated the slides I had on Powerpoint and I was able to overlay the story text via the caption facility, and I was able to add in the video clip I had taken to include within the final story.

This is the “final” result, so please, tell me what you think!

In the 5 short hours we spent with Kate, we all learnt how we could start pushing our creative projects into the rapidly evolving digital formats, without having the “traditional paper under glass” effect. Kate said to us all towards the end of the day “collaboration is a lot of fun” which is certainly was proved to be, allowing us to escape the necessary solitude which can be found within traditional novel or poetry creation. In this course, Kate equips writers with a new form to not only explore and experiment within but also with the skills to make real inroads into a new form that is developing at an incredible rate.

If you would like more information, Kate has also kindly provided more resources for digital storytelling on her site, so please explore them now!

Swimming Home – an inspiring exploration of human journeys

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I don’t normally write reviews, and I’m not sure that this is one, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to dedicate some space to a novel, Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, which got under my skin and is still turning over in my mind.

Levy takes an intelligent and bold look at the way depression can have many forms and how it can affect those who seem “mad” and/or seem “sane” from the outside. The portrayal of the flighty, slightly obsessive and strangely grounded Kitty Finch seems like she has the basis to be the archetypal depressed person; the stereotypes are thrown from her in all directions.  Yet she is held in comparison to the normal, yet not so normal, Jacobs family who are placed in the middle of so many conflicts: Isobel, the mother, works as a war correspondent; Joe, the father, works as a poet reporting on the times in a totally different way; Nina, the daughter, is forming within her teenage years with internal and external conflict with herself and those around her, particularly affected by how her parents’ relationship ebbs and flows.

Levy explores how the three of them have to feel their way through their shared time: it’s infrequency allows for a summer a year where they can play at being a family. They are disrupted firstly by Isobel’s need to invite a friend along to cope with the time with her family, yet Laura and Mitchell also have their hidden conflicts and everyone’s surfaces are hiding their depths, waters as cloudy as the over chlorinated pool. How they are all disrupted by the uninvited visitor, Kitty Finch, goes on to unravel and also concrete their relationships with each other. This subject or theme of the disruption by the Other has been an interest of mine for some time, both in reading and writing; I think Kitty has just replaced Ali Smith’s Amber (The Accidental) as my all time favourite disrupter. Or maybe a joint first place…

Levy’s portrayal of depression felt so true to life, the way it is known and not discussed or dealt with; through institutions as it is with Madeline’s reaction to her understanding of Kitty, or within the Jacob’s family, or indeed with Laura and Mitchell off page relationship. There is very rarely an open middle ground and it quite easily can become a monster in the dark that claims the strongest. This is open exploration where what is not written is just as important as what has been written.

I came across this novel in the London Review Bookshop when on an Indie hunt. The Guardian started up their Love your Indie campaign for Independent Bookshops, and although I wanted to find some new independent stops to find new inspiration within, the London Review Bookshop is one of my favourites with fantastic staff and a brilliant layout. It isn’t huge, but there is now a cake shop next door and of course the much needed sofas and chairs placed so that you can get to grips with your purchases before even leaving. My needs are simple, what can I say. Deborah Levy is reading from Swimming Home at the end of the month which I would recommend!

With the right book we can all travel far.

© And Other Stories

The reason why I picked up this book was because of the cover. I know, don’t judge and all that, but I will always be more likely to pick up a book with a striking cover and clearly those behind And Other Stories have put their minds to how the book design should work. That’s not all they have been thinking on either; And Other Stories publications are based on a subscription from readers, thus creating the audience before the novels are available. They are exciting and unusual stories that other publishers may not take a risk on, they are not cheap but then most paperbacks are £7-£9 so why not spend £10 on a beautiful book inside and out.

shamelessly literary

© Stuart Evers, Guardian

All subscribers are thanked in the books, receive a numbered first edition (300 limit) and they really do want to hear from you as readers. I think, in my very humble opinion, it’s a fantastic model for publishing, and if it gets the novels across to readers who are connecting with the stories then all the better. Levy’s Swimming Home is the third in the series of four novels for 2011 from And Other Stories. I will be subscribing – will you?