PO Box 3413
Wellington 6015
New Zealand
April 2010
Dear Friends,
First up, I'd like to draw attention to an extraordinary book about writing, FISHING FROM THE BOAT RAMP written by Jillian Sullivan, a well-published author and teacher of creative writing. I have not read any other book that deals so effectively with the real issues of the creative process. Most of us just skate around the surface with technical stuff: plot, dialogue, character, voice, editing and presentation. All of that is important but it doesn't take us down to the deeper layers of writing from the heart. I've always taken the view that the mysterious spring of creativity bubbling up in us all, is beyond description, and certainly beyond analysis. But Jillian Sullivan has written this clever, entertaining book as Socratic dialogue between an author and a down-to-earth wisdom guide called Godfrey who has the habit of turning up when help is needed. I would call FISHING FROM THE BOAT RAMP a must for all writers, whatever their status. I've been writing professionally for nearly 50 years and was once Jillian's mentor. With this book she had become my teacher.
The publisher is Roger Steele of Steele Roberts, Wellington, and the link is www.fishingfromtheboatramp.com
I've recently had an email from a new writer in Italy who has huge energy and enthusiasm coupled with a delightful imagination. All of these are wonderful gifts for anyone who wants to write, but every gift carries with it, a weakness. The above three bear the weakness of impatience. This writer wants to get the ideas on paper as soon as they come to her, and because the work is not carefully planned, the result tends to be rambling and riddled with logic holes. She is learning to sit with her ideas and develop them so that they form a well-constructed plot.
If you are a writer with the same gifts, do not underestimate the importance of planning a work. How you do that is up to you. I spend weeks, maybe months, developing the idea for a picture book, and more than a year incubating a novel. The result is worth it.
We all have a variety of strengths. When we can identify the strength, then we can focus on the weakness. Are you a visual writer? When you write, do you see events as though they are being acted out on a stage? If so, you might get carried away with description and neglect dialogue.
Perhaps you are an auditory writer. You feel there is someone sitting on your shoulder giving you dictation. Chances are you write brilliant dialogue but your story lacks a sense of place.
Some lucky people are both auditory and visual but usually one is stronger than the other.
What about plot and character? I am a plot-driven person and if I did not carefully plan my novels they would read like the novels I call "airport books", fast plots with characters that are only furniture for them. You would not care if my people lived or died. Much of my planning, is in creating credible characters with individual uniqueness.
I have friends who are the opposite. They are character driven. They can create wonderful characters but unless they carefully plan what will happen in a book, the novel is likely to be shapeless. It is very hard to build in plot once a story has been written.
The other hint I would offer is: Respect the editing process. Cutting and polishing your diamond takes time and you will do your best editing when you are disconnected from the creative act, and can see the work objectively. When I have my first draft established, I can do most of the major reshaping, and will do more over the next two weeks. I call that the cutting stage. But then I must close the document and get on with another project before going back to it. Over a two or three months period, I'll revisit it at regular intervals, to do the fine tuning, a word here, a word there. That is the polishing stage. When I can open work, read it, and find that I can't add or extract a word, then it is time to send it off.
That's where I am at the moment, wearing my editor's hat. Nine years ago, Penguin asked me for an autobiography. That word autobiography made me claustrophobic and my answer was no. Then the Penguin editor came back with the suggestion of a memoir which seemed possible because it was in a much wider space, however, since I'm a writer who likes to use fiction as a vehicle for truth, the prospect appeared somewhat boring. Then, about three years ago, I reread one of my favourite books, Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" and was inspired. I knew how to shape the memoir. It would be anecdotal, slices of experience arranged like a progressive buffet meal, with an underlying theme of the sea. Most of it was written back in Fish Bay, and it will be called "Navigation" which is a reasonable description of life journey.
The first few drafts of the book were done by early February, and now I am at that long fine-tuning stage that I call the polishing. It may be two or three months yet before I am satisfied with it, and ready to send it in final form to Penguin.
For those of you who want to write for children, another hint: do know exactly the age for which your story is intended. People assume that writing for adults is more challenging than writing for children. It's actually the other way around. If I write for adults, I write for myself. When I write for children I need to be aware of the age and stage of development of my reader. Many of the manuscripts I see are from new writers who do not have this awareness, but have written from some vague idea of childhood. You need to be specific. A way to do this is to write for one child, someone you know well. That can be a useful guide.
All of this sounds a bit didactic; but if you are writing for children, you already know the great pleasure it brings. The rewards are not only for the young readers out there: your own inner child, long asleep under layers of adult conditioning, will wake up and dance to the music of your words.
So write, dear friend, and may Life pour its creative energy through you.
With much love
Joy Cowley
