The Burying Party

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The Kite and the String

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The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control by Alice Mattison (Penguin, 2016). *** Not a how-to book; more a reflection on how to be happy and productive as a writer. Full of gems like this passage which is so exactly my problem! *** “When the writer hasn’t entered into the character enough, lent the character enough of her own substance and feeling… [This can be] a problem of anxiety – maybe it happens because the writer has trouble letting herself feel what’s going on in real life, or maybe it’s just happening in writing, and because she’s somehow shy with her characters. At first glance a story like this may seem elegantly understated, pared down to the essence. Just make sure there’s an essence before you start paring.” *** And to close: *** “Let come what may, however crazy and embarrassing and unformed and intense and unsettling the writing is […] Take outrageous risks, and then have the patience and humility to fix your work. With a long, sturdy string tied to your kite, go out on the windiest day of the year, toss it into the sky, and see what happens.” #amwriting #writing #novelist

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Vote Labour 1918

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We Are Making A New World

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The Sound of Peace

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Disarmament 1919

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Nurses returning from France, 1919

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War Artist

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In Oxford…

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#Oxford #GreatWar #WW1 #warpoets #serendipity

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House of Glass

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I requested this book from my local library within minutes of reading the Guardian review because I have a Pavlovian response to any book set in the early 20th century, coupled with jealousy that I didn’t write it myself (or, more accurately, didn’t get it published because House of Glass shares many memes with my first book, including gardening porn, Indian childhood, and difficult heroines). _____ 3 Gifts for the writer-reader: (1) Lovely, lyrical, often intensely poetic prose. Nice use of poetic fallacy; a heatwave of tension and climactic thunderstorm; corny – but worked. (2) A well developed heroine: feisty and questioning – so we, too, get lots of answers. Interesting and relevant back story and a consistent voice. (3) Tension and shock: I was genuinely jumpy reading the 1-2 pages when things going bump in the night; an effect achieved by short sentences, repetition, and lots of detail. _____ 3 things for the reader-writer to consider: (1) Take care to weave dates, ages and other specifics into the narrative. I got confused. I thought A was shagging B until I realised there was a 30 year age gap. (2) Avoid the long good bye. The 50 page slog post-denouement explaining life, the universe and everything (including the usual emotional tics of the Great War; Somme, mud, shell-shock) was pleasant but ultimately unsatisfying, like lingering in a cooling bath. (3) The Guardian review describes House of Glass as “part cheerful romp”. I didn’t get that but I was unsure what this book was… A Gothic drama? A historical romance? A country house mystery? A social commentary on debauched landed gentry and salt-of-the-earth farmers and gardeners (roll over DHL) and/or the fate of women 100 years ago (pregnant and shamed, young and abused, widowed and mad). And that I asked myself: did it matter so long as the reader is swept along by the story and feels herself part of that world? #amwriting #amreading #gothicnovel #historicalnovel #romance

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