Katherine May's Blog, page 4

The Remarkable Free-e-day

This is an updated version of 'Giving it Away', posted in September.

Next week, Dan Holloway's Free-e-day will take place, a splendid idea if ever there was one.

Many writers I've met are suspicious about posting their work online, and I suppose that this is because writing is so ripoffable (new word! aren't I clever!). Cutting & pasting text is the easiest thing in the world (tell that to iPhone), and copied writing is indistinguishable from the original text. Writers are often nervous that o...

The sad death of ideology

My work-in-progress, Salt, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, is set in the 1930s because I love the sense that the whole world was up for grabs in that decade. Imagine a time when people were willing to act on their beliefs, even if this meant risking their lives - for example, young men travelling off to Spain to take part in the Civil War.

Don't get me wrong - these were extremely dangerous, painful times, and I am in no way trying to glamorise the violence and suffering that destroyed so many live...

What does Google Wave mean for writers?

It's early days yet, and I'm sure I'll have to revise this within the few weeks, but I'm very excited about Google Wave. All told, I'm a pretty late adopter, preferring to wait for Beta versions while everyone struggles through the Alphas. I've embraced social media late, but (characteristically) with a passion that would make Stephen Fry wince.

For those of you who are still mystfied by this thing called 'Wave', here is a very brief summary, lifted from Wikipedia:

Google Wave works like...

Focus!

I learned something about concentration this week.

I think I've pretty much absorbed my script for the Burning Out performances now. If I don't remember a bit, I tend to know where I'm going so I can usually ad-lib (she says, compulsively touching wood).

However, reciting something by heart with so much at stake has made me realise how slippery my concentration has become. Rehearsing, I will lose my place, and suddenly discover that I am thinking of something else entirely. Today, while I was...

Things to Make & Do

Will Twitter save the world?

David Gauntlett thinks so, and I'm inclined to agree. This week, I've been showing his video, Participation & Social Change, to anyone who will sit still long enough.

Gauntlett argues that we're moving from a 'sit-back-and-be-told' culture in which we are a passive audience, to a 'making-and-doing' culture, a world made possible by, among other things, web 2.0.

In this new world order, we grow accustomed to making our own culture through social media like blogs, wik...

Relax, it's only meditation

I was drawn to meditation for all the wrong reasons. Specifically, I'd read somewhere that meditating could replace several hours' sleep each night. Being someone who needs about 9 hours, I figured I could get a lot more writing done if I meditated.

By the time I signed up to a course, though, it was more than that. I'd realised that I had to find some way of handling stress and anxiety, two tides that periodically engulfed me, and for which I had no life raft. Looking back, I almost crawled...

What do you want?

An aggressive title, maybe, but an important question.

Success in writing doesn't happen by accident. At some point in their career, every writer has asked themselves this question. What is it you actually want from this act of writing? What is it that you truly crave from it?

I know that the polite, acceptable answer (particularly, it seems, if you're female) is, 'I want writing to be a fulfilling act in itself. I don't care about success or adulation. I write for its own sake.' But is this t...

On Editing

I finished the first draft of my second novel, Salt, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper about 6 weeks ago, so it's now time to pull it out from under the bed and start editing.

While I'm in the writing phase, all I crave is to edit - that close attention to words and rhythms, safe in the knowledge that the skeleton of the story is already in place. I love the concentration that editing entails, the quiet, thoughtful precision. It is the moment that I feel the most powerful as a writer, as if I've achie...

Notes from devising my Burning Out performance...so far

I thought it would be a good time to check in. I've spent the last month devising a performance of my novel, Burning Out, working with the wonderful Nimble Fish. The aim has been to develop a performance that could fit into a lit fest, but that it much more interesting than the standard author reading.

We've made a performance that features me reading (so far, so normal, huh?), but with added elements of projection (I create live 'still lives' that reflect the mood and palette of the book) an...

Why do writers perform their work?

Most authors will bring their work to a live audience at some point in their careers. Many, of course, write specifically for reading aloud; but what intrigues me is the group that remains, writers who write for the page, but also read their work aloud.

I'm one of them, always have been. I looked for a chance to read my work almost as soon as I began to write. For me, reading to a live audience is an opportunity to make a connection with real human beings rather than an imagined, generic 'read...