Lynda A. Calder's Blog: Consider This, page 2

Consider This - Research

Those who are looking at my reading list at the moment or the books I have read or want to read will notice there are quite a few that involve Mary, Martha and Lazarus from the Bible.

I have always wondered about this family from Bethany whom Jesus loved from the moment a friend of mine challenged me to wonder why "Jesus wept".

Let me take a step backwards. I was the Sunday School child from hell. I didn't enjoy it and was very argumentative with my Sunday School teachers (which was unusual for me because I was the perfect student at school). On reflection, I can see that I was just trying to work out how faith worked and how the simple stuff we were being told at Sunday School and Scripture converted to a faith in the Creator.

Anyway, in Year 6 I had this Sunday School teacher who made us just LEARN and read the Bible. We weren't allowed to craft (like we had in Year 5) and we weren't allowed to play games. And every week we had to learn a memory verse of our choice from the Bible. The teacher never said it had to be a DIFFERENT verse so every week I "learnt" the same verse - the shortest verse in the Bible - John 11:35 "Jesus wept." (It wasn't until this year that I really knew and could recall the exact chapter and verse without looking it up.)

SO, a friend in my Sunday School class used to get upset with me and then challenged me one day: "But why did Jesus weep?"

And that has been on my mind ever since (37 years). Some years ago I resolved to tell the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and explore WHY Jesus wept. The more I looked into the task, the harder it appeared. The research required. What was life like in Jesus time for Jews, women, Jesus' followers, generally? What about the other passages that include this family? What about popular and historical thought on these passages and these people?

And so I am reading books by others about this - lots of them. The Bible is the primary source but there is so much more in that text that is not obvious on a first reading. And the more I read about the text, the more I see the meaning behind parts of the text.

One day, I hope to come up with the story that will be my imagining of their story that reflects and combines various thoughts on these people. Watch this space.

Consider This - Talk to the Society of Women Writers

Yesterday I was Guest Speaker at the NSW Society of Women Writers' Luncheon at the State Library of NSW. I spoke about my new book and the challenges that a left-brained, visual/spatial person faces when becoming a writer. (The numbers refer to power point slides.)

(1) Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for allowing me to be first cab off the rank in 2017 as Guest speaker.

(2) I am an author, I’ve been saying that since I received my first rejection letter that started “Dear Author”. But here is my second book, “The Enigma Diaries: Forgotten Future”. It’s the third in a time-travel adventure trilogy.

(3) Susanne Gervay kindly launched it for me at a gala evening with my Scout Troop last October. Thanks to those other lovely SWW ladies who attended – Gwen Bitti, Colleen Keating and new member Decima Wraxall.

(4) The main character is Cassandra Jessica Reid who ends up 200 years into the future, in a society that has been destroyed by a race of tanned giants who call themselves the Nephilim. Book 1 introduces Cassandra and the reader to the world in which her new friends Isabella and Oliver live and the rebels who are working against the Ruling Classes. Book 2 reveals the consequences of book 1 – I don’t want to give away any spoilers in case you haven’t read book 1. There is adventure, there are boats, there are horses ever so briefly, there is some science, there is time travel, there is danger and there is a little bit of love.

(5) And for the very clever, imbedded into the chapter and text separators are codes to solve. The two books have different codes and important messages for the next book.

(6) I have to say, I love my photographer, Emily Dimozantos, who did the covers. She has layered so much meaning into these pictures. Emily is a professional sports photographer who was based in Perth but is now in Tasmania. When we get together very infrequently for LOOONG lunches we catch up and work concepts. In fact, we worked a theme of fire into the three covers. She battled a Perth cyclone taking the pictures for book 1 and photographing books 2 & 3 she battled a recalcitrant horse who kept knocking her gear over. That random horse actually features on the cover of book 3 which she is working on right now. I can’t wait to see it.

(7) The illustrations in book 2 are by Johanna Lum , a very talented young lady who was completing her HSC when she did these. I just thought a few pictures scattered through the book would be good but she wanted to do a picture for every chapter and the mock ups she did were amazing. There are a couple we’ve saved for book 3. She decided that pencil sketches reflected the idea of them being used in Cassandra’s diary. I drew the map and the ever so ordinary pictures in book 1.

(8) In these novels I play with time travel and pose the question: does time travel alter the time line (like it does in “Back to the Future”, "Terminator" or "The Butterfly Effect" and most other time travel stories) or does it fulfill the timeline (like in the movie “12 Monkeys” or “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”). The Enigma Diaries are the books I wanted to read when I was done with little kid books and didn’t want to face the angsty inner lives of tortured teens in Young Adult fiction. (Let’s face it, I had enough issues of my own without dealing with Holden Caulfield’s in “The Catcher in the Rye”.)

(9) The Enigma Diaries is Middle Grade fiction – not a fiction type we seem to have in Australia but it fits between gritty teen YA and simple Junior Fiction. The publisher says 9-14 years old, but adults love these, too, and I’m being bugged to hurry up finish book 3 so they can find out how it all ends! Actually there was one, Peta, who is in the book’s dedication, who had been waiting anxiously for Book 2 and everytime she saw me or texted or emailed she ended with “Where’s my book?”. So when book 2 turned up on my doorstep I took one to her immediately. Within two days she texted me that she loved it and “Where was Book 3?”

(10) I write because I love to write – I have since Kindergarten – but I was not always so keen to share my work. I used to write some original stuff but I mostly wrote Fan Fic (especially for that fantastic British Cop drama from the 1970’s and 80’s, “The Professionals”). Only my husband (who is a great editor, by the way even though he works in IT) was privileged enough to be given reader rights. But in 2000, my Dad challenged me “Why don’t you write something you will let other people read? Why don’t you write something that could be published?” I took me 1 month to come up with a concept. 1 month to write the first draft and then 11 years to edit it. That was book 1 in the Enigma Diaries. Book 2 has taken probably just as long because I know I was writing book 2 in 2005 when we lived in the USA for a year, but book 2 took a 2-year hiatus while an editor in the USA sat on it for 2 years (to the date) promising to review it for me! Book 3 has NOT taken as long and should be out some time later this year or early next year!

(11) I may be an author now, but in my first, post-school life I was an Electrical Engineer. I completed an Honours Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and followed it with a Diploma of Languages in German (which I did for fun to get me out of the house when my youngest son was little) and then a Graduate Diploma of Education in Science and Senior Physics. More recently, after inspiration from a SWW talk, I decided to find some legitimacy in the Writing Community and faced up to a Master of Arts in Creative Writing. I had to submit a portfolio and I always feel that the Lecturer in charge, because of my non-artsy background, admitted me to the degree with much reluctance.

Being a Writing Engineer though has posed many challenges. Perhaps these are the challenges that face most new writers but while doing the MA I found that my brain would head in completely different directions from my fellow students.

At school I was the epitome of the Maths/Science nerd. Is there anyone else here who was the Maths Nerd at school [ED: Only one person raised their hand.] So, mostly English heads in this room? [ED: Nods around the room.]

I did 4 Unit Maths, Physics and Chemistry to HSC, but only General English despite the insistence of my teachers that I was an intelligent person and should be doing the more advanced English course. But General English had a creative writing component which the higher course did not (AND there was NO WAY I was going to study Chaucer and Jane Austin – sorry to those who love Austin’s work). AND If I could have ditched English altogether I would have. I was less than average at it and I worked really hard to get the final marks I did. The challenges I faced as a Year 12 English student were the ones that have plagued me as a writer.

(12) As a Mathematician I see the world in black and white, patterns, a series of equations that add together to form an answer or set of consequences. In analytical English essays this made for solid and unsatisfactory 12/20. I had an innate inability to see hidden meanings in novels and poems (sorry, “underlying themes” my English teacher used to call them). Also, words don’t move me. I feel no emotion from them. To me, words paint pictures and tell stories. All those other intentions, especially in poetry are completely lost on me – completely. Sorry to the poets in the room, especially the Haiku and Tanka gurus, the emotions and meaning hidden in your words go straight through to the keeper with me. There are no “Ah” moments at the end of poetry readings. More “What the…?” moments.

If it weren’t for crib notes, I would have failed high school English. At least they told me what meaning I was supposed to read into my novels and poems. This is probably why I never warmed to the more literary style of writing. I wanted story with action and adventure. I wanted genre fiction; Sci Fi and Fantasy. Sure, the human condition is explored in these stories, but in these stories everything is driven by action not character.

My favourite maths teacher at High School once sat me down with her sister-in-law, a Primary School teacher. She was like me; good at maths but had had to conquer English in order to teach it. She told me, “sometimes you just have to pretend the world is grey”. I suppose the distinction is a small one but it is artificial for me– I can perhaps see the grey now, but don’t REALLY feel it. But if I am deliberate about it, I can write the emotion and feeling into the words, [ED: I was recommended to seek this out: ] but I have to be conscious of the process. Sometimes I just play with it. By pretending and being artificial and purposeful, I can write poetically, play with form and rhythm and meaning enough to be believable, although I feel like I’m playing a big joke on people because they read it and get all “Ah” about it. Yet, I still don’t FEEL the emotion in the words.

(13) Also, seeing the world in black and white poses the issue of not necessarily appreciating the subtleties or greyness of other people’s emotions and social interaction.

(14) Therefore, writing social interaction, motivation and inner thought; allowing the reader into the minds of the characters is something, then, that I have to be very conscious of when I write. Too often I’ve kept my readers at arm’s length, only describing the action, but the writer MUST bring the reader closer, if not into the mind of the protagonist.

In analysing my work process I’ve realised that I layer story and concept and population as I progress through a work. I am constantly going back over the writing from the beginning to bring in more. (Actually, this made it hard to prepare work for my MA because a piece of writing couldn’t go through enough layering before it needed submitting.)

To write the inner life of a character I really need to know the character first. This was something I learned when writing in an online Roll Play forum. We had to introduce our characters and outline their backstory so other people knew them and could interact appropriately. But writing a novel, this has to be done for EVERY character. A character’s back story provides their motivation and mannerisms and attitudes. And knowing these the characters take on a life of their own and dictate their own reactions to the situations you put them in.

But there is still writing that inner life; verbalising and showing their thoughts and emotions. I find that the very last layer I write. This allows the reader to get into the head of the characters and it doesn’t come naturally as I write. I have to consciously put it there. Oh yes, Cassandra would be thinking and feeling something here and the reader needs to know that.

(15) I am also a Visual/Spatial learner. I am good with puzzles, maps and see thoughts and concepts in pictures. I do not think in words. As I write, I am seeing a movie in my head. As I go to sleep at night I run scenes back and forth in my head to make sure they work and then I put them on paper. The challenge is then taking the pictures and converting them into words.

This poses two problems. Readers can get completely confused by my characters’ movements through a world that I can see so clearly AND, since I don’t think in words I have a limited vocabulary to portray my thoughts.

(16) To overcome the confusion problem, I quickly learned that drawing maps and detailed but rough pictures of my scenery allowed me to manipulate my words around them. I thought this was a normal part of the writing process but when I did my MA, our lecturer posed a mapping exercise. Many of my colleagues found it unusual and new. For me, it was just par for the course.

(17) To help with the limited vocabulary, in high school my Dad made me do the cryptic crosswords but he allowed me to work my way around Roget’s Thesaurus. And now, as I write, I use Microsoft Word’s in app thesaurus to find the right word for the concept I am trying to convey. Actually, as I was preparing for this talk I was going back through some of my old Creative Writing books from Infants and Primary school. My Year 2 teacher had actually written at the bottom of one page “Do not use the words nice or got in your stories.” Well, when they are the only words you’ve got in your head, it’s nice to use them!

(18) And now I am the author of the “The Enigma Diaries”. Book 1 is “Hidden History” and Book 2 is “Forgotten Future”. Susanne Gervay, in her launch speech, wonderfully described my writing as bringing the left and right brain together.

(19) I was also fortunate to have John Stephens as a lecturer who introduced us to the concept of Cognitive Narratology: in short, the way the reader contributes to storytelling through the making of meaning from the narrative. This is possibly an area of study that may throw extra light on whether left-brained Maths/Science heads think differently and interpret differently from their right-brained English headed peers. If so, should we be teaching English and, for that matter, Maths & Science differently to different types of students? Should there be specialist Maths teachers trained to teach English and vice versa? Maybe a topic for my future PhD.

(20) Despite my left-brained thinking I completed that Master of Arts in Creative Writing in 2015 and, probably much to the surprise of the lecturer who reluctantly entered me into the course, I received a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence (something I’d also love to show my Year 12 English Teacher).

So, here I am, the enigmatic writing Engineer.

Consider This - Questions taken from a Kids Book Review interview

So, I'm trawling the interweb and find this interesting little interview on Kids Book Review with Australian Author Elizabeth Kasmer. So I thought I might use them.

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

I'm actually a really shy person, but I come across as all Extroverted in a crowd.

2. What is your nickname?

I've never had one! A friend tried to call me Wivawhy for a bit (Lynda wivawhy) but it never stuck. Even when nicknames were being handed out at my Church Youth Camp, I told the Director who was the main culprit for giving nicknames that had never had one before. And he said that would never change. LOL. But I did have some students I taught who called me HP (Harry Potter) so they could distinguish me from their other teacher. I used that as my Scout Leader name.

3. What is your greatest fear?

Leeches. Hate them. They freak me out.

4. Describe your writing style in ten words.

Layering story, characters, meaning and hidden meaning in multiple edits.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.

Adventuresome, courageous, frustrated, optimistic and thoughtful.

6. What book character would you be, and why?

Hermione Granger - because she is a diligent student, obeys the rules but is not against breaking one or two to make things happen (or if the rules are stupid). And she's smart and courageous and does WAY too much stuff in her life. I need that Time Turner!

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?

The time of Jesus. To meet the man, see the times, and better understand what things were like back then.

8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now?

Here, read this adventure story or Sci/Fi. You might actually enjoy reading. And don't worry if you can't do or understand English. You will. The world may appear black and white. For English, you only need to PRETEND ;) that's grey. The teacher's won't know the difference ;)

9. Who is your greatest influence?

My Dad. He always had time for me, despite being an academic and always busy. He taught me lots of stuff, he is still teaching me and my boys stuff AND he is the one who challenged me to become an author and not just a writer. (And my Mum, who showed me how to make a busy life work.)

10. What/who inspired you to start writing?

I ALWAYS loved writing. From the moment I could write. Stories with my dolls turned into stories on the page, turned into creative writing pieces that earned me a school Scholarship and a couple of Highly Commended awards in high school. But it was my Dad (see question above) who took me from writer to author. In 2000 he challenged me to write something that was publishable. So, no more FanFic. I had to come up with my own world!

11. What is your favourite word and why?

Cushion. I just love the way it sounds like a cushion.

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

It would have to be "Dune" by Frank Herbert. I love the way he can take very disparate elements and bring them all together in the end. And I don't want to smack any sense into any of his characters (Katniss Everdeen! Oh my! But I did love "The Hunger Games".)

There we go. 12 question. If you have any more for me, just ask :D

Consider This: What does a Writer read?

I recently found myself at a loss for something to read in my house. I have MILLIONS of books (maybe not millions, but I do have LOTS). But I have read most of them and the rest... meh (at the moment, anyway).

The Book Depository! What could I find to interest me? What has been intriguing me lately?

I am currently writing a YA and felt I wanted to read some more of that. Not the angsty YA (not really in to that stuff, never was) but the dystopian, "Hunger Games" sort. I did enjoy the "Hunger Games" (but, really, I wanted to slap Katniss and tell her to snap out of it). In my MA (Creative Writing) I studied YA and writing YA, and had read the first in the "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfeld. Well, why not read the rest of that series? So I bought that series. Then, well, why not READ "The Maze Runner" series and the "Divergent" series? I enjoyed the movies alright and the books are usually better than the movies and it would be interesting to see the writing style. So, I bought those series, too.

Which to start first? "The Maze Runner" arrived on my door step first, so I began that and devoured the first book. The short chapters, the cliff hangers, the fact I had the visuals mostly in my head (sometimes an essential for me - I just couldn't read the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert until I had seen the original movie, the concepts were far too foreign), the book just seem to slip by. Now I'm onto the "Scorch Trials" and the other two series are dutifully sitting beside by bed waiting their turn!

But I ask myself, where was this awesome stuff when I was a teen? And this is the sort of fiction I write.

Consider This - Time for a Book Launch

And "The Enigma Diaries: Forgotten Future" has been out for a few months now, but it time for a book launch.

Friday, 14th October 2016, 6pm at Brush Park Scout Hall in Lawson Street Eastwood, NSW, Australia.

Come along, buy a book. Have it signed.

Meet the author and celebrate the release of Book 2 in "The Enigma Diaries" trilogy.

Launch will be by Susanne Gervay ("I am Jack", "Butterflies", "Ships in the Field").

Consider This - The Mistakes we all Made at the Beginning

Reading over the manuscripts of new writers I see in them all the mistakes I used to make (and probably some I still make). So here are a few to ponder:

- Adverbs are bad: The English language is a descriptive and beautiful language and actually possesses many verbs for the same action but with varying degrees of subtle meaning. Instead of using a standard verb and modify with an adverb (those -ly words) pick a better verb. Stephen King had a lot to say about adverbs in his book "On Writing". I highly recommend it.

- The story doesn't start with the back story - it starts with the action: Many new writers have about 2-10 chapters of back story before the action actually starts. This is important information for the writer and some of it can make it into the main story, but on the whole yawn worthy.

- "I saw a giraffe riding on the bus." Watch the order of your sentences: Clarity is important. Did this person see a giraffe that was sitting on a bus and heading into town, or were they sitting on the bus and while looking out the window they saw a giraffe munching on a tree by the side of the road?

- Word repetition: Watch out for the same word appearing over and over and over.

- Those little words that we use all the time: "Well..." "So..." We say them all the time but don't write them. If you do want to use them, don't write them for everyone. Attribute different people with different speech tics. Not everyone is going to say "gonna". Kill your darlings, they say.

- Speech tags: Speech tags are important so we know who is talking, but don't use them ALL the time and don't use them when it is obvious who is speaking. "He said" is fine, as long as we know who "he" is and the speech tells us how he said it.

- Pronouns: While pronouns are great and very useful so we don't use a name over and over, you need to be sure the reader knows which "he" or "she" you are talking about.

- Focalisation: Who is talking? Who are they talking to? When are they talking? There are different points of view you can use to write a story, the most popular is third person with a narrator or third person but from one character's perspective (think of Harry Potter). Another popular form is first person which is more prevalent in Young Adult writing (eg Hunger Games). And think about when the story is being written - as it goes or some time in the future. This will influence whether you can make references to future events eg "She didn't realise what was to come."

Some people like to write from many people's points of view, changing from chapter to chapter (Game of Thrones) or mid paragrapgh (Virginia Woolf!). If you change focaliser/POV, it has to be obvious or the reader gets confused.

- Trust your reader: The reader doesn't need to read EVERY motion the character makes. If the reader can see the scene, they will understand that if the character was previously sitting and he wanted a coffee, he may need to walk across the room to get it. Reading what every character does every second gets tedious.

- Show don't tell: This is the big one. So often a new writer is almost writing a summary of the action. They tell the reader everything that happens and how people are feeling rather than let the action play out in a dramatised fashion and allow the characters to emote in their actions and speech. Let a scene run like it would in a movie. Play it in your head then write it down.

- Contractions or no contractions?: It's OK to use contractions in speech or when inside the head of a character, but usually when a narrator is speaking or it is just action, NO contractions. AND, a corollary, write out numbers in full.

- Different story telling methods: Not every story lends itself to the traditional paragraph and speech. Sometimes it can be more interesting to intersperse diary entries or lists or something unusual to break up a page.

- LARGE slabs of text: Talking of breaking up a page, ever noticed how hard it is to read a page just filled with text (those textbooks you hated from school?). Then don't do it when writing. Break up long speeches with movement and interjections and such. Make the page's white space enticiing.

- Em dash and ellipsis: Speech interruptions are indicated with an Em dash (that long dash immediately after-). Trailing off speech is indicated with the ellipsis when someone just trails away and...
("Eats Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss has stuff to say on this and colons, semi-colons and other punctuation. Great read and funny!)

- Writer's ideology: As a writer you will have a view of the world and this will come through your writing, but not all your characters will hold to this ideology. Watch out for that and motherhood statements.

- Captain Obvious: Try to avoid the obvious explanations and exposition. Trust that the reader may just work it out. Half the fun of reading is making meaning from the text.

That's enough for now. I'm sure more will come to mind.

Consider This - Literary Essays

Doing a Masters in Creative Writing and needing to analyse and write essays on literary techniques and meaning in texts, I was reflecting on my own experiences at school. Compound that with my teenage son's school English report that says he needs to relate narrative techniques to his analysis of texts, it made me consider whether we actually teach and scaffold this process for students enough. AND do teachers allow students to make their own meaning from texts or do they dictate their own or that of the crib notes?

I had no idea how to even write an essay at school, so that was failure: part 1 on the part of my high school (and perhaps even Primary school) teachers. Being a mathematics/science person, I was very much into method and needing to be shown how to do things that were a little bit esoteric. A strict scaffold and method on how to write and essay would have been invaluable to me.

THEN, I struggled with reading (funny to say that now) but, not with the mechanics of it, but the making of deeper meaning from a text. I could enjoy the adventures and story, the characters and their dialogue, but if there was deeper meaning, it was lost to me. I used to call it "hidden meaning" the teacher called it "underlying themes". Poetry was(and still is, really) a complete mystery and felt like an excuse for poor grammar and expression (particularly poetry that did not rhyme - and, seriously, what is a good poem without rhyme? I used to think).

Anyhow, now that I have done courses on Narrative Technique and how it can affect meaning it all feels like it was obvious and why on earth didn't someone say that was how simple it could be. Still being of a maths/science brain, I have had to teach myself a LOT of stuff (using my author knowledge) but have managed to navigate the maze of esoteric and high fallutin' lit language. And it made me wonder, could this process be better presented to students, like myself, who have trouble seeing anything other than black and white?

Seeing grey in a text (or that hidden meaning) is hard when you are only looking at the superficial story. It is also impossible to see anything deeper when others are imposing their own meaning of a text on you. You tend not to look deeper if others are telling you what is supposed to be deeper.

So, how to help the maths/science student see the grey?
1. Pretend to see the grey and just talk nonsense. Do that enough and the nonsense actually starts to be sense.
2. Explicitly teach the narrative techniques - dialogue, focalisation, metaphor/metonym, analepsis/prolepsis/timing, etc etc etc. Teach how they work in a narrative and how they can affect meaning.
3. Scaffold the analysis of a simple, known text. Work with them.
4. Give then the task to analyse something that is very familiar to them - a book they love, a picture book, even. I found it very helpful to be given the task of analysing "The Hunger Games", which I was very familiar with. I was completely amazed at what I ended up seeing (without help). It's OK to give students clues but not impose meaning.
5. Make sure they know how to write an essay - framing argument, format of essay, linking paragraphs, conclusion.
6. Allow them to make their own meaning BUT tell them they have to back it up with examples from the text (any meaning, at this point, is GREAT! In fact, they may surprise themselves and you.)
7. When you mark the essay, make sure there are two marks - one for essay technique and another for their arguments on meaning.

I am sure there is more to consider, but these were things that just occurred to this humble maths/science teacher.
Lynda

Consider This - Interacting with Readers

Last year I did a talk for the Society of Women Writers based upon a quote from Joanne Rowling during an interview she did with Jennifer Byrne (September, 2012) for the launch of her new adult fiction book, “The Casual Vacancy”.

Jennifer remarked that when people heard she was going to interview Jo they were asking. “Why is she writing? She doesn’t need to write.”

To which Jo responded: “I need to write.”

Then Jo Rowling went on to point out that the more important question is: “Why is she publishing?”

And indeed, why do we, as authors, seek publication? If we need to write, what’s the compulsion to publish? Surely, writing should be enough. Jo summed it up very well when she answered her own question:

Jo Rowling said: “I am in the glorious position that I don’t need to publish… Ultimately as a writer, I think, what you really want is to have a conversation with readers. So you can kid yourself that you are writing entirely for yourself. Most writers write to be read… Part of the pleasure of writing is talking to readers about it.”

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of having that conversation with readers as an author Role Model in the fantastic Books in Homes programme. And what a privilege to be there to see the joy in the faces of those Primary School Students as they clutched their three chosen books provided to them for free due to a generous corporate sponsor. A very small school with 70% non-English speaking background (and some recent arrivals) and teachers and a Principal who have a passion for reading and English - how refreshing. Here they are studying "The Hobbit"! (Not easy English for many let alone new speakers of English.)

The greatest buzz is walking into a room and hearing the whispers as they recognise me from my blog and website ("That's her."). That is special. And their genuine interest in the writing process.

Makes me want to get back to writing more!

Consider This - Reviewing a story/manuscript

I find that sometimes I hand a story to someone to read and give me some honest feedback and I get "Gee that was a really great story. Thanks." But nothing that is going to help me make it better.

Yes, all people LOVE praise and the more the better (yes please). BUT, in terms of helping a writer make their story the best it can be, a short "That was great." isn't that helpful.

Some people see some things that can be fixed. Others see other things: big picture, small picture, details, technical etc. So a variety of reviewers can be a good thing - hence a writers' group can be very helpful if everyone in the group knows how to critique.

I have found a useful formula for giving critique goes something like this:
1. Give a run down of what you think the story was about. This goes to theme. Maybe you thought it was about something other than what the author intended or thought.
2. Outline some things that you felt worked well. Like I said, every author likes praise, but also it helps the author know where their strengths lie and what they probably don't need to change. (And lessens the blow of number 3.)
3. Outline some of the things you felt didn't work: be specific. Was it theme, big things, little things, technical things? Maybe there was something you felt was missing or could have been expanded or was too much of a digression. These are the things the author will want to fix and giving some ideas of what was wrong will help them fix it.
4. Find one more positive thing to say about the piece. It's always good to end on a positive note AND there will always been something good you forgot to say at 2. Maybe it is a big picture thing you could include at this point.

Like or dislike the genre or the story, you can still be an effective reader and critiquer if you read it critically (not for enjoyment but to work out what worked and what didn't).

Keep writing.

Consider This - Editing

Editing is an art and I have been told over and over that writing is re-writing.

When I first started to write my first book, I read an article in the University of Sydney Alumni magazine. A recently published author talked about how she came to love the editing process and had probably edited her book about 50 times! I had just written my first draft and done a couple of extensive edits. Was I going to have to do that 48 more times? I felt like crying.

That was 10 years before I finally published the book!

Also, during that time I read another book "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell". It had taken her 14 years to publish that book. At the time I thought "How could anyone persist on one project for 14 years?" Well, after 11 years, I could answer that.

So, editing. There are many phases to editing. Here are a few:
- Making sure the story works and everything makes sense.
- Checking for phrasing and that everything flows. That all the speech is real to life.
- Correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar.

The problem is, after writing and editing, the writer can get so close to the manuscript that they can't see the flaws. It is so good to have readers who are critical and pull your work apart and point out all the major and minor flaws. Don't use readers who just want to praise you - it doesn't help make it better!

But the best tool for good editing is time! Put that manuscript away for some time (be disciplined and don't look at it) - a few weeks or months, whatever it takes to feel like the next time you pick it up, it is fresh and you can view it critically.

And, when you think you've exhausted all your editing possibilities, use a professional to have a fresh look. Not every editor will work for you, but when you find one that can tell you one simple thing to help you edit a whole manuscript perfectly, stick with them.

I think I might have edited my first book almost a 100 times, but, I did enjoy it, in the end. I could go back to the Sydney Uni article and understand what that new author was talking about.

Happy writing (and editing).