Shrimpton
March 30th, 2010
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Rewrites - Take Direction, Collaborate or Hit the Vodka?
March 27th, 2010
I’m currently engaged in the rewriting of a manuscript. That sentence sits lightly on the screen, but it’s weighted with a load of emotional and intellectual boulders.
After the initial ‘oh dear’ moment when you’ve been given the feedback and you realise it’s all hopeless and you should never have tried writing and may as well give up now before you become a tragic figure of fun whose attempts at a career become a byword around the publishing houses for acute and pathetic failure – after that moment, is a glorious rebound. Yes! That’s why it wasn’t working! Where’s my manuscript, let me at it!
All sorts of possibilities suddenly become possible and you feel refreshed and can see the way forward. That’s if you can distance yourself from your work. Very important that you do this. You, the writer, are not your book or manuscript and you cannot take sincere, constructive criticism as a personal attack. You want the best for your book, you want it to stand on it’s own two legs and march into that publishers office and have them gasp with delight – and you won’t get that being precious.
In a previous incarnation I taught drawing and painting to first year art students. Invariably a student would get to a point in the painting where they would go no further, because up until then, they had never produced anything as good. My job was to gently encourage them to go further, to take a risk and see if it could get even better. Some students wouldn’t budge. I can understand their point of view, but I’d always come back with ‘You’ve done it once, you can do it again. You didn’t fluke it, you worked for it. You can maybe never reproduce that particular painting again but the ability to get to that standard is there.’
It wasn’t the finished product so much, but the ability to let go and be fearless - to be able to see where it wasn’t working, not collapse in a heap and catastrophise, but to re-think and re-work the weaker areas. It’s not an easy thing to do. Creative work isn’t easy, it’s bloody hard, and it might be easier to take up crochet or canoe building, but would the same challenges be there?
With writing, as with painting, if you trust the individual giving the feedback and you can trust your own ability and instincts then re-working becomes a lot easier. Learning to collaborate is a vital part of creative work, although I must stress pick your collaborators carefully. And few writers are published without being thoroughly edited – structurally as well as line edits, both by professionals and test readers alike. The core of the work is yours, it’s your voice, your skills, your discipline and craft, but the bottom line is a book that is as good as it can be.
I’ve been asked to read and give feedback on people’s writing many times – not that I’m an expert, but it just seems to happen, like if you are a doctor at a party and someone wants to show you the bleeding lesion on their buttock or some other malady - and I’m always cautious about what I say. If I sense the writer is open to feedback then you – as giver of feedback – can both have a very intense and rewarding experience working together to improve the manuscript, always bearing in mind, of course, that it is their book. But if I sense the writer doesn’t want to hear anything but praise, I let it go. There’s no growth in praise alone.
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The Working Relationship
March 27th, 2010
I’m posting these photos of directors working with actors after finding so many of them when looking for pictures to illustrate the next post. Like a lot of people I’m interested in creative processes and how individuals, or collaborators, work or don’t work together and what the outcomes are as opposed to the goals. Some of these pictures are credited others not, but all appear to use their arms during the collaborative process.
Katherine Bigelow and The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood and Invictus
Sydney Pollack and Tootsie
Gavin Hood and Wolverine
New Moon
The Private Life of Pippa Lee
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An Interview with Helene Young
March 21st, 2010
Helene Young has been writing for eleven years and her first novel, the adventure/romance Border Watch, has been published this month by Hachette Australia. I’m lucky to have Helene as a guest on my blog this week where she talks about her book, her writing and her work as a commercial pilot in North Queensland, Australia.
Helene, you work as a Check and Training Captain with a regional Australian airline and have been flying for twenty years. I’m quite awed by this and I’m curious to know what led you commercial flying.
The idea of something so heavy getting airborn fascinates me, and that fascination started when I was young. My dad had a brochure from the late 1920s for a Flying Flea, an aircraft he’d dreamed of building. From time to time he’d pull the pictures of this boxy little craft out and I’d pour over it with him, wide-eyed and awestruck. (One of these aircraft still hangs in the Brisbane Museum.)
We also spent a lot of time at Currumbin Beach and our house was under the flight path for Coolangatta airport. You could just about count the rivets in the wings as the aircraft roared in to land. A nightmare for residents now, but from a child’s perspective it was magical! The desire to fly simmered away until I was twenty-four. I still can’t quite believe I’m paid to have fun every day.
How have you found working in a male dominated industry?
Like most industries that have been the traditional preserve of men, the last few years has seen a major influx of women. In our Queensland operation, 9% of the pilot group are women. The vast majority of Cabin Crew are women, so on a fun day, there are four feisty females running the show! (Love the look on a tough mine worker’s face when he realises his life is safely in the hands of a couple of chicks.)
I’ve been privileged to have some wonderful mentors who tucked me under their wings and shared their knowledge - Gordo and Tubby get special mentions. I’m now heavily involved in Checking and Training and, while it is rarer to see another female in that role, I get to work with a fantastic team of men.
Why did you start to write, and for how long have you been writing?
I started writing with intent when we moved to Cairns for my airline job. We didn’t know anyone and I had more spare time than I knew what to do with, so I started tapping away at the keyboard. ‘This’ll be easy and a bit of fun,’ I thought. ‘I’ve always loved reading.’ As it turns out it was fun, but 11 years later it’s not been easy!
Your book, Border Watch, released by Hachette Australia in March, focuses on the flight surveillance operations on the endless Australian coastline, and features a feisty heroine, terrorists and a scene of Circular Quay being blown up, (a scene I can’t wait to read). Tell me how the idea for Border Watch developed.
I only threaten to blow up Circular Quay, Phillipa, LOL! Though every time I go through the train station I look up and wonder…
Three key events came together to create Border Watch. In 2000 a boat full of asylum seekers made its way from Indonesia, around Cape York, inside the Great Barrier Reef, past Port Douglas, and came ashore at Holloways Beach, about 5 kms from Cairns CBD. They tried to phone a taxi, but the driver became suspicious and called the police. That’s when the authorities noticed the rusting red boat resting on the sand. The next event was finding a body washed up on my local beach. That tragedy took a while to distil into something I could write about. The final thing was an influx into the airline of pilots who had flown for Coast Watch, the real surveillance operation that protects our coastline. Their stories were fascinating. They’d witnessed all manner of border incursions during their time with the operation, from asylum seekers, to pirates and drug smugglers. All good fodder for an overactive imagination!
You live in Cairns near the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, a very beautiful part of the world. Is developing a sense of place an important part of your writing?
Place is so important to me. I hope I’ve made the Australian landscape another character in Border Watch. The moods, the colours, the drama, make for a wonderful vibrant canvas. Most people won’t have the opportunity to see northern Australia from my perspective. I hope I can transport them there without them having to leave the comfort of their hammock or fireside armchair.
How do you find writing and piloting aircraft fitting in together? Obviously you’re not preoccupied with character dialogue while you’re bringing a plane into land, but you must meet many people who spark your imagination.
I won’t admit to having internal dialogues coming into land, Phillipa –might be too disconcerting for the travelling public! A girlfriend insists it’s fortunate I’m a Gemini… split personalities come in handy… There are days when I wonder myself how it fits together. In aviation, I’m checklist driven, numbers focused, analytical left-brain oriented. When I write I’m anything but analytical! The two roles need to stay very separate and perhaps the act of putting on a uniform helps to keep that distance.
I meet people who inspire me in the strangest places. Just last night a group of us were having dinner at a Thai restaurant close to the Sydney hotel. One of the pilot’s mother and new partner joined us. The gentleman was a fireman – my next story involves fires, so it was serendipitous!
What book are you currently reading and where is your favoured reading spot?
If you ask me in a couple of weeks it will be ‘The Book of Love’!
Meanwhile, I’m reading Undercover by Damian Marrett. I read anywhere I can. For now the seat on a jet heading home (as a passenger) is the most likely place I have time to read. It’s so important to keep reading, but when time’s tight that’s one of the luxuries I lose…
Thanks for having me on your blog, Phillipa.
Thanks for being my guest, Helene. I loved Border Watch even though you didn’t blow up Circular Quay. Perhaps just a small explosion in the next one - confine it to Fort Denison? I look forward to Beyond Borders, published by Hachette Australia in 2011.
To celebrate the arrival of The Book of Love and Border Watch Helene and I are asking my blog readers to tell us where they like to curl up with a book. The most interesting will win a copy of The Book of Love and the runner up will receive a copy Border Watch
See links page for link to Helene’s website
Helene signing a copy of Border Watch
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Good Clean Fun
March 17th, 2010
movie stills from Muscle Beach Party, Fireball 500, Pajama Party, Bikini World, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
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Un Vestito Nero
March 16th, 2010
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So Much More Complex
March 14th, 2010
When I tell people my first novel is being published next month they quite often say, ‘You must be so excited.’ Depending on how well I know the person I say either, ‘Oh, yes, so excited,’ or ‘Not really, the excitement part of it happened over a year ago.’ I’m not jaded but the emotions accompanying publication are complex and almost akin to having a baby.
It’s not really socially acceptable for women to admit to any feelings other than instant maternal love, just as it isn’t quite the thing to admit to mixed emotions at the publishing of one’s book. After all, this is what all writers want, isn’t it? Yes, it is, but it is so connected to one’s inner life, one’s private core, that as an experience it can never be confined to the one word, ‘exciting.’
I received a copy of my book in the mail – the first time I’d seen the finished product. I smiled to myself as I examined it, flicked through the pages and briefly fondled the embossing on the cover. Then I put it to one side of my desk and went back to what I was doing. Occasionally my gaze would slide over toward this new object in my life and I’d stare for a moment and then return to the task at hand. I was reminded of a moment after the birth of one of my children. I lay in the hospital bed, drained of energy and looked over at this baby lying quietly in its little plastic box and thought, ‘Only hours ago you were inside me and now you’re over there.’ It was a strange feeling. I now had to share what had been the ultimate in private relationships. I looked at my book at the edge of the desk in a similar manner, ‘Only eighteen months ago you were in my head and now you‘re a book.’ The externalisation of my imagination made public. Weird feeling.
Satisfying? Very. A sense of accomplishment? Definitely. Wonder? Yes. Excitement? No.
But it wouldn’t be correct to say there has been no excitement along the way. There was excitement while on the creative journey of actually writing the book – the intense involvement that elevates solving a plot knot or getting the dialog just right to an ecstatic moment. I was excited when told of being selected for the Hachette Australia/Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program, which led to my publication. I wanted to scream and run up and down the aisles of the supermarket I was in at the time. I couldn’t believe the people around me continued to fill their trolleys with cornflakes oblivious to my incredible good fortune.
Months later, being offered a two-book contract astonished me. It was a surreal moment, and it’s taken months for me to assimilate the reality and the implications associated with this new world. The editing of the book, seeing the cover for the first time, hearing of its sale to Random House in Germany have all provided moments of intensity - from fear, to pride, to glum disbelief, awe and onto a sense of achievement heavily flavoured with bewilderment. Like I said, it’s a complex occasion. I’ve been very lucky to work with a talented and committed team at Hachette, and knowing my book was in good hands has made the process a hell of a lot easier for me.
Which leads me to say it’s not really my book. Yes, it’s my story, my characters, my ideas, but a large team of people have made it into a book and I see their efforts when I look at the finished volume. These are people behind the scenes whose names never get mentioned but who are vital to the process. So it is ‘our’ book, and I guess all of us feel a sense of accomplishment at producing this book and now hope for its success. When I see it on the shelves, I know I’ll have a sense of a job well done, but I’ll be ready to get back to the excitement of creating another story.
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Self Portraits 1 - ‘I am the person I know best’
March 10th, 2010
Arnold Bocklin, 1872
Aleksi Gallen Kallela, 1894
Vallotton, 1897
Gustave Caillebote, 1892
James Ensor, 1889
Edvard Munch, 1903
Luigi Russolo, 1909
Ferdinand Hodler, 1912
Otto Dix, 1914
Marc Chagall, 1914
Ernst Kirchner, 1915
Title quote - Frida Kahlo
Images via Gunther Stephan
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From Rome to Lucca
March 9th, 2010
“William grabbed the bottle from her hands, put it on the ground where it rolled away, gin splashing out onto the asphalt. He pushed her back up, saying nothing, got back in the drivers seat, pulled out onto the autostrada, gunning the engine, his knuckles clenched white on the steering wheel. The headlights switched on automatically as they raced north, Lily lapsed into a stupor, eyes shut, breathing out pure alcohol. William’s eyes were wide open. They passed the exit to Florence turned west and sped past Pistoia and on to Montecatini, where he turned off the autostrada and onto a back road.”
The Book of Love, Hachette Australia, April 2010
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No Shame In Being A Wannabe
March 6th, 2010
It’s not easy to take up writing and be taken seriously. Many, many people write - seven per cent of Australians according to one source - and so few are published. It’s the cruel fact that underlies the writing life. Those who know the industry understand this, they also know that what is published is largely dictated by the market and that many incredibly talented writers are passed over and never get their chance.
But it’s not really common knowledge in the non-writing world that this is the case. Unpublished writers are plagued with questions like, ‘And how’s that little book you were writing coming along?’ and ‘Got a publisher yet?’ People politely taking an interest? Yes, sometimes - but also a faint undercurrent of scorn, with the unspoken label ‘wannabee’ hanging in the air. Adding this inevitable response to the traditional self-doubt of a writer, accentuates the secrecy and isolation of the writing life. Nobody wants to be seen as a ‘wannabee’.
If you were spending your free time building a canoe or learning a language you would not receive that look, the one that says, ‘you ego driven wanker.’ One occupation is deemed a hobby, the other tainted with serious unmet ego needs pointing to a quite possibly unstable headcase who was denied the breast during a crucial window of their infantile development.
While that may indeed be the case, there is no shame in it, however, to my way of thinking. Aspirations to become an author, or an artist or an actor are nothing to hide away or apologise for. The work required to get even close to success in these areas is substantial - and anyone who works that hard for a dream has to be due some respect.
Adopting what one believes to be the ’style’ of one of these occupations, without putting in the necessary hard work, without doing the research but with an over inflated sense of self importance because you do aspire to these occupations, is possibly something of a shameful act. The writer is no different, in most respects, to the non writers in society, no better, no worse and not distinguished by the mystical hand of genius tapping on their shoulder each morning. There is one small detail that does distinguish the writer from the general population - the willingness to put in hours of toil for little financial gain, but that’s about it.
I kept my shameful, dirty writing secret hidden until very recently. I couldn’t bear the patronising curl of the lip, the snigger, the ‘oh yeah.’ So it’s a huge thrill to come out and say ‘My name is Phillipa Fioretti and I am a writer.’ I’ve met people, many people, who write and who look down and confess to me that they are unpublished. I want to say don’t apologise and don’t lose heart - what you are doing by writing stories and imagining worlds and people and places is a very human thing to do. It transcends the daily scrabble and gives you a place to dwell in, a place not confined by status, occupation, income, looks or any other social ranking. The Urban Dictionary describes a ‘wannabe’ as ‘wanting to be something you are not’. But if you ARE writing hard and in a disciplined way, you can’t technically be a ‘wannabe’, now can you …
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