Phew….Monday, I was in Brighton discussing the ins and outs of teaching creative writing in schools with the terrific people from New Writing South. I’m really looking forward to doing some teaching for them. I haven’t done enough lately. And I loved the way they told us “Remember, you are there as a writer, not as a teacher. You should not be in the room alone with the kids.” Actually, there are all sorts of important insurance and legal reasons why that’s true, but it is also reassuring to know that my job would never be to maintain discipline in a school room of who-knows-how-many kids. I have had to do that before from time to time, and let’s just say that it’s a lot more fun for everyone involved if I don’t have to.
Tuesday was a writing day. Unbelievable. There just haven’t been enough of those lately. I started by looking at the first chapter of the new novel in preparation for writing the last two chapters and thinking –yikes, this is thin. The whole thing felt rushed and superficial, so I sat down and “padded”, adding internal thoughts here, descriptions there. Not what I thought I would be doing on Tuesday, but great progress and much needed. I find editing my own stuff nearly impossible (thank God for my “trusted” readers who can see things much more clearly than I ever can). I just can never tell whether anything works or not. Either it’s amazingly brilliant (what I think within 5 minutes of finishing), or it’s the most abominable shite ever (which is what I think most of the rest of the time). I know in my head the truth lies somewhere in the middle but I find it so hard to see. So Tuesday was a good writing day for me.
Wednesday was all about the London Book Fair, as I described here.
Thursday I spent reading submissions to CurvingRoad’s Call for New Play Submissions. It’s amazing how many submissions we’ve received. The quality is very wide ranging and I’m finding that I can tell within a couple of pages whether the piece, or the writer, is ready to go. But we have some hard decisions looming ahead of us — hard but exciting.
All of which brings us to today. Nearly a year ago I arranged to speak at a meeting of a local women’s group about Tangled Roots. Time passed and I didn’t think much about it. In the meantime I’ve spoken at several book groups and I find that it is something I very much enjoy doing. It’s amazing to sit in a room with interested people and have to describe, and sometimes, defend your work. Then last week it dawned on me that this meeting was approaching and I got back in touch with the coordinator to discuss what they might want from me and what I might expect. Her answer was that I should expect a room full of between
45 and 50 people, most of whom should already have read the book. 45-50 people! Yikes! That’s like the Beatles in Shea Stadium! (apologies to my facebook friends for repeating this joke…). I couldn’t believe it. Suddenly I was going from sitting around a table drinking coffee and chatting, to standing at a lectern and giving “prepared remarks.” So I prepared
and prepared and prepared, and by the time I got there this morning, I was a wee bit nervous.
Silly me. No, there weren’t fifty people there. There were more like fifteen. And no, not everyone had read the book. Actually, none of them had. But you know, it just didn’t matter. I gave my talk about the history of Tangled Roots, the decade it took me to write it, how it’s really two novels woven into one. I read lots of passages. And as I looked around the room, people were smiling, nodding their heads. Some had closed eyes as they listened to me read. Others actually took notes. It was terrific. And then they couldn’t stop asking questions. They asked:
* How much is autobiographical?
* How long did it take to get published and what’s that process like?
* How did you know that John had to be a physicist and how did you do the research?
* Is it easier writing your second novel?
* Do you wait for inspiration or do you sit down to it like a job?
I tell you, there was nothing disappointing about it. Alright, so I came thinking I would be Paul fighting my way through the crowd and ended up being, well, just me shyly smiling
behind a table. But reality isn’t necessarily worse than fantasy, and I had a marvellous time talking about my work to a group of readers,
people I had never known before and who now are eager to go out and buy my book and read my work (or so they say — well, might as well believe them). And when I look back on this week in April, I have to admit, I sure seem to be leading the lit’ry life I had dreamed of. Not bad at all.
Sounds gr8. Wish I could speak about my writing to a group of people.
It sounds like a great week. Very literary. Good for your for going and expecting to talk to 50 people, I would have been pretty terrified. Sounds like it went very well!
Sounds like a busy week and your talk sounds like it was a very special experience – nothing better than smiles and appreciative nodding from your audience!
Scoot and Ab Van: It really is a great feeling, talking about your work and seeing people’s reactions and interest!
Tania: I guess somewhere deep inside I knew it would never be possible that 50 people would really be turning up to listen to me! I actually was embarrassed that I had even imagined it could be true 🙂
Your womens group talk sounds wonderful.
Agree with AV – talking and answering question with engaged and interested people must be very special. I think it won’t be long before your numbers grow though:-)