Kingston Readers' Festival 2008
At Christmas I received a copy of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2008, and a couple of months ago I was browsing the online site's list of literary festivals, trying to find one reasonably close enough to me that I could actually attend. I had missed the Sunday Times-Oxford Literary Festival but really wanted to go to one. Preferably local, since I can't spare the holiday this year!
So I found the Kingston Readers' Festival 2008. Perhaps next year I'll even attend the Hay Festival.
Last Monday I attended a talk by writer and publisher Alison Baverstock called How to Manage Your Time as a Writer. More on that in a second...
If anyone is attending the festival, or is in Kingston and would like to come and say hello, then I'll be attending the following talks:
Tuesday 6 May @ 19:30, Borders Bookstore, Kingston - Writing From Home
Monday 12 May @ 19:30, Hillcroft College, Kingston - What Took You So Long?
Tuesday 20 May @ 19:30, Borders Bookstore, Kingston - How To Market Yourself as a Writer
Now, back to Alison's talk. This was quite a valuable discussion, not so much about time management, but more about creating and defending both space and time as a writer. Creating the space and time are something I knew about, but I had never considered the need to defend both, and a few handy tips were given. In terms of time, Alison made an excellent point that if we want to find the time to write, then firstly you have to find when is your best writing time. Then you need to actually schedule in that time for writing. If you have a calendar, a diary, block out that space as your writing time. Don't fool yourself into believing that you'll write around your commitments. If you leave writing for "the spaces", then you'll find that those spaces get filled up with other commitments. You have to be ruthless, or else why are you bothering?
In discussing time management, she moved on to displacement activities, things that you do instead of writing, thinking that you need to just deal with them first. Quickly checking your e-mail is a good example of a displacement activity, or as we used to call it, procrastination (thanks to Jodi for pointing this out in her blog entry today on this theme).
Alison held up blogging as a displacement activity. I can agree with her to a point. If you blog to the extent that you have no time left for writing, then you are using it as displacement. However, the writer needs to read, and the writer needs to write. Reading and writing blogs must, by definition, fall within this mantra.
How many times when reading tips on beating writer's block have you come across the advice to "write anything"? View blogging as your notepad, and see where your ideas take you, especially in this day and age of technology and new media. The literary blogosphere is the new frontier of publishing. This is where new writers are being discovered, this is how people promote their work.
I have found inspiration for my Write Anything articles through reading blogs. I have been engaged this past week in an engaging discussion on the distinction between literary and popular merit through blog post, which inspired another article. This blog often features excerpts of my writing. This blog keeps me writing even when I don't feel like it.
Rather than a displacement activity, I view blogging as another tool in the writer's toolkit, a creative outlet, a means of inspiration, a place to doodle if you will. Alison herself mentioned a friend of hers who, when confronted with a difficulty in a story, blogs about it. She finds that by the end of the entry, she has worked through the problem and knows where the story will go.
And to give an example of a writer with a high blog output, consider Neil Gaiman, and the popularity of his blog with his fans.
As with all things in life, balance is the key. Yes, if you sit down during your scheduled writing time, and elect to "just get a quick blog entry done", then that is displacement. But it is also lack of discipline. Blogging is writing. In moderation, and in its time, it is a valuable tool, and I think more writers would benefit from doing it.
So I found the Kingston Readers' Festival 2008. Perhaps next year I'll even attend the Hay Festival.
Last Monday I attended a talk by writer and publisher Alison Baverstock called How to Manage Your Time as a Writer. More on that in a second...
If anyone is attending the festival, or is in Kingston and would like to come and say hello, then I'll be attending the following talks:
Tuesday 6 May @ 19:30, Borders Bookstore, Kingston - Writing From Home
Monday 12 May @ 19:30, Hillcroft College, Kingston - What Took You So Long?
Tuesday 20 May @ 19:30, Borders Bookstore, Kingston - How To Market Yourself as a Writer
Now, back to Alison's talk. This was quite a valuable discussion, not so much about time management, but more about creating and defending both space and time as a writer. Creating the space and time are something I knew about, but I had never considered the need to defend both, and a few handy tips were given. In terms of time, Alison made an excellent point that if we want to find the time to write, then firstly you have to find when is your best writing time. Then you need to actually schedule in that time for writing. If you have a calendar, a diary, block out that space as your writing time. Don't fool yourself into believing that you'll write around your commitments. If you leave writing for "the spaces", then you'll find that those spaces get filled up with other commitments. You have to be ruthless, or else why are you bothering?
In discussing time management, she moved on to displacement activities, things that you do instead of writing, thinking that you need to just deal with them first. Quickly checking your e-mail is a good example of a displacement activity, or as we used to call it, procrastination (thanks to Jodi for pointing this out in her blog entry today on this theme).
Alison held up blogging as a displacement activity. I can agree with her to a point. If you blog to the extent that you have no time left for writing, then you are using it as displacement. However, the writer needs to read, and the writer needs to write. Reading and writing blogs must, by definition, fall within this mantra.
How many times when reading tips on beating writer's block have you come across the advice to "write anything"? View blogging as your notepad, and see where your ideas take you, especially in this day and age of technology and new media. The literary blogosphere is the new frontier of publishing. This is where new writers are being discovered, this is how people promote their work.
I have found inspiration for my Write Anything articles through reading blogs. I have been engaged this past week in an engaging discussion on the distinction between literary and popular merit through blog post, which inspired another article. This blog often features excerpts of my writing. This blog keeps me writing even when I don't feel like it.
Rather than a displacement activity, I view blogging as another tool in the writer's toolkit, a creative outlet, a means of inspiration, a place to doodle if you will. Alison herself mentioned a friend of hers who, when confronted with a difficulty in a story, blogs about it. She finds that by the end of the entry, she has worked through the problem and knows where the story will go.
And to give an example of a writer with a high blog output, consider Neil Gaiman, and the popularity of his blog with his fans.
As with all things in life, balance is the key. Yes, if you sit down during your scheduled writing time, and elect to "just get a quick blog entry done", then that is displacement. But it is also lack of discipline. Blogging is writing. In moderation, and in its time, it is a valuable tool, and I think more writers would benefit from doing it.
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