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Part-Time Writer

E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
216 Seiten
Englisch
The Lilliput Presserschienen am07.06.2024
'I can't imagine a more sensible and useful guide for the would-be writer, part-time or not' - from the Foreword by Diana Athill. Part-time Writer guides the reader through all aspects of writing - from the embryonic stages of researching and planning, to the hard slog of the writing and editing, through to the presentation of the manuscript, and finally, approaching agents and publishers. At each stage, the author explains how she did it - and how the reader can do it too. * How can I write engaging dialogue? * What can I do to make my characters 'live' on the page? * Must I always 'show and not tell'? * How can I transform a hobby into a book? * When is the right time to show my work to others? * How should I present my manuscript? * Do I need an agent? * Should I self-publish? * Where can I find the time to write a novel? In her inimitable style, Marjorie Quarton merges literary memoir, anecdotes and straight talking to provide invaluable insights into the realities of being a writer, while offering indispensable advice on the trade, making this book a must-have for any aspiring author.mehr

Produkt

Klappentext'I can't imagine a more sensible and useful guide for the would-be writer, part-time or not' - from the Foreword by Diana Athill. Part-time Writer guides the reader through all aspects of writing - from the embryonic stages of researching and planning, to the hard slog of the writing and editing, through to the presentation of the manuscript, and finally, approaching agents and publishers. At each stage, the author explains how she did it - and how the reader can do it too. * How can I write engaging dialogue? * What can I do to make my characters 'live' on the page? * Must I always 'show and not tell'? * How can I transform a hobby into a book? * When is the right time to show my work to others? * How should I present my manuscript? * Do I need an agent? * Should I self-publish? * Where can I find the time to write a novel? In her inimitable style, Marjorie Quarton merges literary memoir, anecdotes and straight talking to provide invaluable insights into the realities of being a writer, while offering indispensable advice on the trade, making this book a must-have for any aspiring author.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9781843512332
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format HinweisePub Wasserzeichen
FormatE101
Erscheinungsjahr2024
Erscheinungsdatum07.06.2024
Seiten216 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Dateigrösse840 Kbytes
Artikel-Nr.1277038
Rubriken
Genre9201

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe




1. Starting


Are you a teenager? A busy twenty-something? A harassed housewife - or husband? A pensioner with time to spare? Perhaps you are wondering how you could fit in a serious attempt at writing. Don´t despair. There are many ways of combining a writing career with regular paid work.

I don´t mean to aim at college students in this section, because the best way of getting published for them is by way of a degree in journalism. Young people with a talent for writing fiction generally feel the need to use it. There is little similarity between a young person´s writing and that of an adult who has picked up thousands of ideas and tricks of writing along the way. The work of someone under twenty-five, however, has a freshness that doesn´t last.

There is far more support for young aspiring authors today than there was a decade back, but the chances of getting fiction published are slighter than ever. To offset this, there are opportunities for publishing online, and most of the vanity publishers have disappeared or turned respectable. They have re-emerged among the print-on-demand and subsidy houses.

It is possible to study Creative Writing´ at some universities and accepted summer schools, where much depends on the tutor. Great to be tutored by the likes of David Rice, Frank McCourt or Roddy Doyle, but qualifications for teaching writing as a career are founded on academic success as much as the ability to pass it on. As in almost every branch of tuition, naturally talented teachers often inspire their students to open up and forget their inhibitions, while others, as well, or better qualified, overawe their pupils, making them self-conscious about showing their work to the great man or woman. Or they may play safe by writing exactly as instructed, nervously keeping their gifts out of sight.

All these options are aimed at full-time employment and a career in writing. I mention them so as to give a general idea of what is on offer. Now I want to consider less permanent options.

The other thing to emphasize is the fact that it´s seldom too late to start. There is so much support for young people who want to write, so little for the elderly. I was once interviewed for the post of Writer in Residence in Portlaoise. I didn´t get the job and I was told that the main reason was that I was reluctant to work with the prison inmates, suggesting instead writing sessions for retired people and those living in nursing homes.

In most retirement homes, elderly people would love to be visited by authors and perhaps take classes in short-story writing. I was born in 1930 and have edited for people of my own age group, who have been delighted with their new skill. Then there are the Active Retirement groups. For anyone retired and bored, writing could be something to try out for fun, then taken up seriously if the person developed a latent talent.
The basics

Bernard Shaw, on one of the rare occasions when he was forced to address students, asked what they thought was most essential to become a writer. A brave soul at the back suggested a pencil. Shaw´s reply is not on record. Probably it was scathing. He once stated grandly, I was born a writer´.

The student had a point. A biro will do to start with, or a BlackBerry if you are so inclined. To begin, you need the simplest essentials, just enough to jot down ideas as they occur to you.

Too often, hopeful writers are over-faced by a mass of information, when what they need to know is the answer to the simplest questions. Is it in me to be a good writer? Have I got what it takes? Am I wasting my time?

The answers are as simple as the questions, but note that I said a good writer.

You need talent, imagination, an inquiring mind, above-average powers of observation, a will to succeed, and confidence.
Talent

Talent may be anything from a timid aptitude to a towering God-given gift. If you had none at all, you would be unlikely to want to study the art of writing. You might like to learn about the craft of writing, which is different, or even the trade, but without talent, you would never be any better than average.

All talents have this in common: like neglected houseplants, without nourishment, they wither and die. You have a talent for self-expression that you feel might be developed? I have news for you - the simplest way to develop talent is to use it. Use it or lose it. If you don´t use the gifts you were born with, they will atrophy and waste away. This is a particularly harmful wastage and it happens all the time.

Teaching an untalented person to write is like teaching a tone-deaf student to play the piano. It´s possible, but the resulting performance has no soul, however correct it may be. I have spent many days and weeks trying to train untalented horses to jump and untalented dogs to round up sheep. Sometimes the results were passable, but I had spent too much time and, once I stopped actively training the animals, they stopped improving and lost interest.

Before you accuse me of likening you to an untalented sheepdog, look back. You must have some aptitude or you wouldn´t be bothering to read this, so let´s assume you have it and intend to use it. If you want to train your body for athletics or muscle tone, you exercise it regularly in whatever way is appropriate. The more you carry out these exercises, the easier they become, until they are part of your life. If for any reason you stop training, your muscles will go flabby after a while. If you don´t use your talent, the neglected part of your mind will grow flabby and you won´t be able to use it to advantage. How could anybody construct a plot or create a convincing character with a flabby brain? You must practise.
Imagination

Imagination is the thing that brings your gifts to life. Like talent, you were born with it. Like talent, it can be smothered and die of neglect. Almost all children have vivid imaginations. I think this is part of our Stone-Age history. A caveman´s automatic reflexes were born of imagination. Today, if you are startled, your reflexes make you stand still, so that the sabre-toothed tiger may not notice you. The blood drains from your face, so that it can be concentrated in heart and muscles, enabling you to fight harder or run faster. Your sweating palms and soles cling to the bark, as your terror propels you up the nearest tree, with, if you are male, your genitals neatly drawn up into your body, out of reach of teeth and claws.

Children are simpler than adults. They may have real awareness of the wild animal sharpening its claws. In night-mares, they see things they have never seen when awake and, given the chance, they tell highly coloured stories. My daughter, aged about eight, was given a subject for an essay, What I did in the holidays´. She thought the reality far too tame and wrote about an imaginary safari, climbing trees to escape from wild beasts. She ended up by frightening herself and I don´t think her teacher was impressed. Schoolwork is less inhibited today, but children who make up stories are still scolded for lying, which is another thing altogether.

Probably it is this early repression that makes many adults afraid to imagine. Or perhaps it´s a lack of confidence and the fear of being laughed at - I don´t know. When judging short-story competitions, I have read entries by adult beginners that didn´t live on the page´, because their writers had straight-jacketed their imaginations.

Some writers are sustained by the power of their imagination. They gallop from one unlikely scene to another and their readers follow, convinced. Luckily for those writers, fantasy, science fiction and grown-up fairy tales have made a comeback. They can thank Tolkien, Pratchett and Stephen King. Consider the Booker-winning Life of Pi. I don´t know how the author got his book accepted, but I´ll bet it wasn´t on the strength of a synopsis. But, as one impossible scene follows another, the reader is caught up in the narrative. Yes, it´s crazy, but what happens next? You need to know. This is the power of the writer´s imagination carrying readers along with him.

Training your imagination is an essential part of using your talent. Observe people at work, on trains or buses, sitting on park benches. Using only what you can see and hear, build likely personalities for them and invent stories about them. There are no limits at all to what you can imagine. That big woman is a man in drag (look at her hands!). That little man scuttling by with a briefcase is an axe murderer when the moon is full. I do this in waiting rooms and airports as an antidote to boredom. I have sometimes found usable material like this - and occasionally become so absorbed in my fantasies that I´ve failed to hear my name being called.
An enquiring mind

This is a useful asset, often overlooked. If you weren´t born with one, try to acquire it. Interest in other people and a willingness to learn are vital for a journalist, but make the fiction-writer´s task much easier too. These qualities keep your mind and outlook young and your writing fresh.

You feed your inquiring mind by finding out the answers to the questions you ask yourself. If you can´t discover what you want to know, ask. Or search the Internet. I shall have more to say about the Internet later on. If you don´t use a computer, go the library,...


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