Live Writing

More or less writing

In my early twenties after reading the first two of Simone de Beauvoir’s autobiographies, I knew I wanted the life of a writer. I have managed very well. I think the two salient points I picked up from that early reading was  how worldly it seemed to write in cafés and to have relationships with wonderfully unsuitable men. The other aspect was to be part of some kind of literary scene, to know writers, to be a writer, to know publishers, to be one. For a long time I thought I wanted to marry a poet. Now I know I want to be one, well a writer. For a long time, I only thought of ‘being a poet.’ As though it was something you could do and be apart from just writing poems. At times some of these desires have led me in conflicting directions, but nevertheless I have persevered with my writing and with the other imperatives.

For me being a writer is writing, it is showing up on the page, it is working (more…)

It feels as if I have been wandering in the desert for a good long while, and making my way back to BOOK SA is like arriving at a cool and  palm-fringed oasis.  Too many reasons to list for an extended absence, suffice to say it’s good to touch base properly. I have piles of updating to do on the Live Writing site, but that doesn’t mean that the blog should remain bare – so watch this space!

Fiction writing evokes an unconscious terror in many people. It is not a terror that iseasy  to recognise. It doesn’t bring sweaty palms and a thumping heart. It brings unnecessary trips to the vet and time consuming charity work. It brings devoted support for other writers, often to the point of hero worship. Sometimes it brings leg movement; kilometres of running on the treadmill or the tar. Often it brings a shattering of intimate relationships, when some poor special person is seen as ‘not good enough.’ With the crazy making propulsion of this fear, it is a marvellous thing that fiction even exists!

Fiction happens when the compulsion to write is more powerful than the fear. Either way, we are talking about an internal war. During the writing my first novel, I became (more…)

What happens next?

A few weeks ago I read John Irving’s The World According to Garp. It’s odd I took so  long to get to it considering that I am a huge John Irving fan, but it was an early book and I found the title unappealing; still perhaps there’s some truth to the adage that the teacher appears when the student is ready. An overseas publisher at the 2007 Franschoek Literary Festival mentioned the delight of completing a trans-Atlantic flight with the manuscript of The World According to Garp as reading material. In spite of the story’s unusual nature she pushed for it to be published and the rest is history. The World According to Garp became John Irving’s breakout novel.

Irving’s Garp writes a novel in which the central character knifes her rapist to death in a graphic first chapter. Garp’s publisher considers the book to be x-rated soap-opera, nevertheless the visceral language and controversial subject matter have potential market appeal so he does what he’s done before with books he’s not certain about: he asks the woman who cleans his office to read it, not expecting her to read past the first few pages. We learn that his reputation as a publisher of surprising books destined to be popular is in fact based on the opinions of this unlikely reader who doesn’t even like books. When he realizes that she has actually read the whole book he asks her why. This is the exchange between them:

“Same reason I read anythin’ for,” Jillsy said. “To find out what happens.”

“So you read it to find out?” John Wolf said.

“There surely ain’t no other reason to read a book, is there?” Jilly Sloper said.

When she asks him for a copy he interrogates her as to why she would want to read it again, and she finally responds as follows: (more…)

When asked how he went about creating a sculpture, Auguste Rodin replied: “I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.”  I wish writing was that simple. Before most authors get to do any chopping, they first have to write a bloody great block of marble. And believe me, it takes a lot of guts to hack and chop and chip away at something you have lovingly created.

But it gets worse: I once spent ages sculpting a spectacular horse, only to discover that a horseshoe was all I needed. I still have the horse, stained with blood, sweat and tears where I beat my head against it until I saw the light.

I now work with the 3S system – structure, structure, structure. Needless to say, this process takes place before the real writing begins. Very few people set off on a journey without knowing where they are headed. Those that do, often end up wandering aimlessly, gibbering to themselves, with a bottle of cheap booze in hand. Those are hard luck stories no one really ever wants to hear.

If you want to learn about structure, (more…)

South African writers on writing is a great place to visit on the Live Writing website. So far, nine writers are featured there, and I hope to see this list grow. If you’d like to send me your take on writing please let me know via email (I think the best would be to use my home email: mairefisher@telkom.sa.net).

I’ve purposely kept the topic broad – don’t want to tie people down to a description of writing routines and rituals (if you’re anything like me those don’t exist in your life). So – the joys, the highs, the lows, the advantages of being a writer in south Africa, the disadvantages, what it’s like to write for a living, some good how-to-write tips, your writing space, something funny, something poignant – whatever you feel moved to write!

I’ll be posting these regularly on BOOK SA – over the next weeks, months and years I hope!

The first writer featured is BOOK SA’s very own and very dear Richard de Nooy.

PS If you know of anyone who’d like to be featured please do let me know.

When Colleen Higgs and I sat down one morning and mulled over the question ‘What do writers need?’ I had no clue of the enormity of the job that would follow; nor that what was to follow would take so long! It all sounded so good – to set up a website that would cater to the needs of writers – and South African writers in particular. (The decision to call the site livewriting.co.za was a very meaningful one).

We talked about looking beyond tips, resources and exercises and the like and offering freelance opportunities to writers. And over and above all of that we wanted to see if there was some way in which a community of writers could offer financial and material support to writers of exceptional talent but limited resources. Although this was to be my project, Colleen, in typically generous fashion, gave hours of her time to helping to formulate exactly what it is that writers need.

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