Fail better

I'm probably not the only writer to have Samuel Beckett's famous words propped above my desk: 

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." 

February seemed to be a black month of increasing failures. The significant one being a rejection from the BBC for my radio drama. As it was my first attempt, then I must take heed of Beckett and "Try again"! For the record I'm not a fan of the F-word, I prefer to think of 'getting things wrong' rather than failing, as we often learn the most valuable lessons from getting things wrong...

Earlier this week (3 March 2014) I heard a wonderful R4 programme coincidentally called "The value of failure". Here is a link to the episode on writing, where Irish Man-Booker award winning novelist (The Gathering), Anne Enright "considers her experiences of a writer's life - and of having her words judged by the world". I love how she starts by sharing her desire to get a tattoo declaring "200 words a day". Now that would be a goal! Because this would save her answering the most commonly asked question. 

Enright tells a wonderful story of Irish writer, Flann O'Brien (1911 - 1966), whose 2nd book 'The Third Policeman' was rejected by Longman's publishing house during WWII. He was so ashamed by this failure that he told his drinking mates that on driving to Donegal the pages of the book flew out of the car window and were lost forever. (Perhaps he didn't own a dog?) He kept the manuscript hidden in the sideboard for the rest of his life. After his death it was discovered by his wife and finally published. Enright suggested O'Brien was "saving face by getting a laugh out of his failure". We have to remember that this was in the days when one rejection was sufficient to bury a book forever ...

Throughout the programme Enright shares some gems of her own about writing. Here are a few I jotted down:
"The book you're writing is not the final book. The final book's the one you'll re-write many many times. The one you're working on any given day is the inferior version - a failed book. The perfect book, the one you have in your head, can never be approached - you'll never hold it in your hands."

"If you're at your desk then your muse knows where to find you. I don't do inspiration, just work and hope for the best."
[Thankfully, my muse seems to find me even if I'm out swimming, walking or eating teacakes with Wendy]

and finally ... "If it's a book written for the right reasons and with enough skill then it will find its home and its readers and it will be its own kind of success." Though I think her caveat in that comment is "enough skill", say no more...

Don't give up on that writing project. Keep writing what you believe in and if you do fail (get it wrong) then next time try harder and fail better.

And let me know what you would get as a 'writing' tattoo.

Sussex short story competitions

West Sussex is a very creative county, absolutely chock full of writers, and boasts two National Short Story competitions, which are closing at the end of March. You don't have to live in West Sussex to enter either of these, so read on for details ...

West Sussex Writers' 2014 National Short Story Competition:
Click here for full details.

Maximum word count: 3000

Unthemed

Closing Date: 31st March 2014

Fee: £5 per entry

Prizes:  1st prize £200; 2nd prize £75; 3rd prize £50 

The winners will also receive a critique from our final judge, Pam Weaver.

You can read the 2013 winning stories here and comments from Simon Brett (WSW Patron) and Sarah Palmer (WSW Chair) here.

Steyning Festival 2014 Short Story Competition:
Click here for full details.

“A popular part of the annual Steyning Festival is its short story competition, open to anyone who would like to enter a previously unpublished piece of fiction of up to 1500 words. The theme for this

year is “Home Thoughts, from Abroad”.

Photo right is St Andrew's Church, Steyning.

Judging and prize-giving

The competition will be judged by a Festival panel and a senior member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories

• Best story by a young author (aged 16-19), £100

• Best story by an overseas resident visiting Britain £250

• Best story by a British resident, £250

In addition, three submissions will be marked for special commendation in the competition, and will receive £50 each.

The previous winner of the Steyning Festival Short Story prize in 2012 (Festival runs every two years) was The Indoor Writer, you can read about her marvellous day out at the prize giving ceremony here.

Holdfast magazine: Animals, beasts and creatures

Issue2 of Holdfast magazine came out yesterday including the Indoor Writer's short story 'Down came a blackbird', along with a wonderful original illustration by Jessica Carmen Shamley. Read it here. Do check out the whole magazine, some terrific fiction and articles. I love the fact they include a themed playlist to compliment your reading.

A poetry interlude

One of the most stimulating parts of the Indoor Writer's MA course is the poetry drop-in sessions organised by lecturer, Stephanie Norgate, an excellent poet and advocate of embracing the creative life. Sounds like it should be full of poetry drop-outs, but the joy is you don't have to write poetry to drop in.A recent session focused on American poet, Philip Levine, and his poem The Simple Truth. You can read it here - like many of his poems it is written in simple understandable language, but there is a deep poignancy in it that brought tears to my eyes.

Another session looked at opposites in poetry. A wonderful example is Simon Armitage's You're Beautiful. This is one poem that is better heard and here is Armitage reading it himself, click here. Not all poets do their work justice, but Armitage is an excellent reader and brings his words to life.

There were exercises set around each topic, but I'm afraid the Indoor Writer is still not up to sharing her poetry. She's waiting on the next Vogon Poetry Festival before taking that particular plunge.

However, after attending Lynn Jennings' excellent workshop at West Sussex Writers meeting last week she now knows all the tricks. Lynn talked about 'Performing your work' or as she put it: doing justice to your gems. With both poetry and prose examples read by well known actors (on CD, not the real thing) she worked us through 'The P's of Performance': here are a smattering of her top tips ...
Prepare - read it aloud at home or to someone first
Posture - try not to cover your face with the book, remember body language speaks volumes!
Pausing - stand and PAUSE before you launch into reading
Pace - take your time! (the audience is unlikely to run away...)
Pitch - think about varying the pitch, breathing properly will help!
Power - for just a few moments the audience is putty in your hands ...
Paint - try to paint the picture you want the listeners to see in their mind's eye
Passion - this is about enthusiasm, but it can also be about confident serenity
Production - when you read your work it's a mini-production, so help the audience to enjoy it to the full
Presence - believe in yourself and the audience will believe in you too
Personality - we each bring different gifts to share and remember 'you can't please all of the people' etc

We listened to the same poem read by different actors and discussed our preferences. This almost ended in a writers' punch-up (poetry fans are an emotive bunch) as the room fell into disagreement over the better reading of Dylan Thomas' Fern Hill: Richard Burton or Michael Williams. Sorry, but I'm a Burton fan through and through. His version was sublime.

Finally, I'd like to share this reading with you. WH Auden's poem Funeral Blues (popularly known as Stop all the Clocks) became immortal after being read by John Hannah during the  film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. I read it recently and hated it - to me it seemed such a flimsy, almost comic poem, not a fitting epitaph to a loved one, nor capturing true grief. And then I heard Lindsay Duncan reading the poem, you can listen here. It was as if I was hearing the poem for the first time. The emotion resonates in her low, barely contained voice, and it seriously got to me.

If like the Indoor Writer you are a little scared by poetry and couldn't tell a villanelle from a pekingese then I recommend the anthologies of modern poetry published by Bloodaxe (edited by Neil Astley, photo top right): Staying Alive, Being Alive and Being Human. You can dip into these at your leisure to discover new poems and revisit old favourites. And if you want to learn more about poetry forms and history then these have just been recommended to me (but not yet read):
The making of a poem - Boland and Strand
Poetry the basics - Jeffrey Wainwright
Poetry Handbook - John Lennard

Are there any poems that have gotten to you? Please share.

Local inspiration

The second semester of my MA in Creative Writing is titled 'Source and Transformation'. We're working through fictional pieces which originated from other, usually factual, sources. An example is Tracy Chevalier's novel 'Girl with a pearl earring' which arose out of Chevalier's fascination for the famous Vermeer painting. She delved into the life and times of Vermeer and out of her research evolved the wonderful novel. (If you haven't read it then do try. Her writing is beautifully subtle and understated -

rather like Vermeer's paintings. Reading the novel is like being immersed into one of his masterpieces. The film with Scarlett Johannson and Colin Firth is worth a look too - sticks mostly to the book and captures the atmosphere of both the novel and the historical period.) We've covered 'Girl with a pearl earring' in the MA along with Michael Cunningham's tribute to Virginia Wool 'The Hours'. We'll also be looking at both historical and art sources for fiction, as well myths and legends.

Now every story I've ever written has been triggered by some fact I've read or discovered on TV/radio/film etc. I'm often stimulated by fairytales, myths, legends and Old Wives' Tales. So this module should be a doddle. You'd think! But I'm struggling to find a topic that I haven't explored before. I want to write a longer short story on a theme I've not used before. And I'm struggling for inspiration ...

I drive past the Steyning Musuem at least once a week but have never ventured inside until today. I had half an hour before my dance class started and took the opportunity to wander around the exhibits. As I scribbled away in my notebook one of the on-hand volunteers enquired about my interests and we had a stimulating chat about some of the things that had caught my eye. I will be returning to explore some ideas further as a number of interesting local stories intrigued me.

During Queen Mary's reign (Bloody Mary) 3 men were burned as Protestant heretics and one man, John Launder, was burned at Steyning (on Chantry Green) - as the town was a spot in mid-Sussex chosen to be used as a warning to others. Hmm, perhaps it still is a hotbed of heretics? I know quite a few writers live there... The town dates to pre-Saxon times and was where St Cutham built his church over 1300 years ago. Apparently he pushed his mother in a cart (or wheel-barrel) over the downs (we don't know why) and finally came to stop in Steyning - well it does have several nice teashops ...

If you're in need of inspiration for your fiction then why not visit your local museum. They often mount exhibitions with a local slant and many are focusing on the Great War this year. There are kept alive by volunteers who are always keen to talk with anyone who shows an interest. I quickly confessed to being a writer, but you don't have to - unless like me you express an interest in the more macabre exhibits ...

Keep Writing. And please share where or how you get inspired ...

A fairytale ending

The Indoor Writer is enjoying a double celebration this week:
Handing in semester 1 module for the MA in Creative Writing
Taking 2nd prize in the HE Bates short story competition

You can read her story 'Ancient Wing' here and the winning story by Anne Corlet - a wonderful piece which resonates with the truth of what makes a long-term relationship work (even in space!). Della Galton was the Head Judge for the competition and you can read her write-up of the winning stories here. Della also has an interesting post from HE Bates competition chair, Morgen Bailey, with some sensible advice on entering writing competitions, click here to read.

If you want to know the inspiration behind the story, then read on:

Ancient Wing is a modern re-telling of an Anglo Saxon myth, the story of the swan maiden, Olrun, and Aegl the archer. The swan maidens appear in other European legends, including the Norse Valkyries, so the story seems to resonate across many cultures. As a child one of my most beloved books was a beautifully illustrated fairytale telling once again the legend of the swan maidens.

For some time I had the title 'Ancient Wing' whirling round my head, but without a story to hang it on. On a seafront run I felt the urge to hold out my arms, as if I were launching myself over the sea. This prompted a thought about the Worthing Birdman competition, which runs every August off the end of the pier and suddenly I had a story about Irena leaping off the pier to re-join her swan sisters.

In chatting with my writing buddy, Wendy Clarke, it turned out her daughter had actually taken part in the annual Birdman competition and jumped off the pier dressed as a phoenix. I can't remember if she'd told me this before I wrote Ancient Wing or not, whatever the timeline it's evidence of synchronicity in action. The photographs on this post are provided by kind permission of Wendy. Above right is her daughter, the Phoenix, about to fly off the pier. The other two photos are the Phoenix before (right) and then after the event (below left) - doesn't she look happy? Makes you wonder if we should all have a go ...

Everybody's at it!

Everybody's at it, including my writing chum, Wendy. Goal setting! After starting the new diet we're all ready to set down what we want to achieve for the year. Last week I met up with Wendy for teacakes, writerly chat and to test out my writing plans for 2014. The incredibly disciplined Wendy has already posted her goals here and now it's my turn. But first I wanted to analyse what went well in 2013 and more importantly what didn't ...

Publications:  20 (includes fiction & articles/fillers/letters)
Competitions:
Won - 4
Runner-up - 4
Shortlist/Longlist - 21
Total entered = 87
Overall hit rate = 33 %
The wins have covered the competition entry costs but I'm not impressed with the success rate.

On closer analysis I found drama was proving far more successful than fiction. I entered one radio play competition and won, so 100% hit rate! And with stage plays the hit rate was 40%, with one win and a longlisting. Hmm, this could mean something ... though of course I entered only a small number of drama competitions.
Womens magazines:
13 rejections
1 awaiting feedback
1 awaiting feedback post some re-writes - still hopeful of a sale.

Clearly I am NOT a successful writer of womag stories. This is one area of writing I may just give up on. But the payment from some mags is sooo tempting ...

After the analysis and the teacakes here's what I've agreed with Wendy (and we plan a monthly review of our progress, which of course is NOT an opportunity to gas about writing and chomp even more cakes). To help the process I've bought a pack of coloured stars to stick above my desk displaying the goals and I also plan to stick up any successes on the whiteboard too - well it all helps!

2014 WRITING GOALS:

1. Progress the novel and have first draft completed by end of the year. (10,000 words written to date)
Monthly target: 5,000 words or one chapter

2. Significantly reduce number of competitions. Focus on the larger competitions with new stories - aiming to build a portfolio of longer stories. Enter more FREE competitions wherever possible.

3. Write more drama. Both for stage and radio. Enter the West Sussex Writers' Screenplay competition to learn more about writing screenplays (sorry - you have to be a member of WSW to enter this!)

If the above are going well ...
4. Publish prize-winning short and flash fiction stories in a collection.

Of course I'm still focused on the MA and have to build in my submissions for each semester. I'm planning a long short story for Semester 2 (starting next week), so that contributes to goal number 2.

In summary I want to continue to explore dramatic writing and try new genres. I would like to experiment more with flash fiction and push my writing boundaries as far I can and just keep improving the quality of what I submit.

Now where did LitPig stash my pile of coloured stars?

Have you set any writing goals for 2014? What do you hope to achieve?