Topic: Writing Outings
Saturday 27Oct06 9:19pm
My final notes for the International Festival of Author's ...
Round Table Discussion with:
Giles Blunt, Gianrico Carifiglio, Robert Drewe, Louise Welsh
moderated by Martin Levin
Giles wrote for both Street Legal and Law & Order.
Louise Welsh said that Glasgow is the murder capital of Europe.
One worries about misrepresenting ones city in fiction.
Interest in ordinary places transformed in a new way.
You see first and tell later.
The right time to write is when you see the ordinary place as new or with new eyes.
Some recommend creating an amalgam of a place.
Mixing real places with fictional places.
Robert Drewe talked about doing something different as a writer every time. Which reminded me of Douglas Coupland a couple years ago saying that he tries to write like an artist having an exhibit. You would never have the same showing each time so why would you write the same kind of novel each time.
In response to genres and genre crossing or blending genres... The difference between books is just one - a well written book or a poorly written book.
Robert Drewe talked about the serial murder that ultimately got him to write the Shark net. The Serial killer worked for his father and killed a boy he knew and also stalked Robert's mother. Robert was a boy when all this happened and it took six years before the murderer was caught.
Gianrico who is a mafia prosecutor by day in Italy said that he is not interested in writing a diary. His character is a defense lawyer so he has to look at everything with new eyes.
Horrible crimes are committed for stupid reasons by ordinary people.
The interest in looking at people under extreme conditions and watching how they react.
The question posed, What is the decent interval to write about a true crime such as Bernardo and Holmoka?
People like to think that the bad guys are somewhere else. Killers are human beings - interest in figuring out how they work.
Margaret Atwood
Margaret was in fine form. She was really funny and really chatty.
She read from her book of short stories, Moral Disorder.
When the enchantment is broken and the character realizes that she doesn't have to do this anymore yet she still has to do it.
Everything in young society has rituals - the young don't realize that they are rituals.
We're always writing and rewriting our own stories.
Our parents are the ultimate mystery.
When asked about possible autobiographical writing she said, "I prefer lying." Of course writing fiction is considered lying.
She also made mention about the perversity of the reader that believes all fiction is autobiographical and all autobiography is made up.
Margaret asked, "Are we really that different from other people (as Canadians) and should that difference be preserved? How do we want to represent ourselves to the world?"
Ryan Knighton
He gradually went blind in adult life. He talked about how he has slowly changed his language. He's gone from asking "Who are you?" which could be considered rude to asking "Who is there?" Like answering a knock at the door and when the person responds he opens the door.
Blindness undermines any you have. Embarrassment doesn't mean as much to him anymore.
References to sight are unavoidable and they are metaphoric. When you say see you later etc...
Writing is trying to see, a way of seeing.
Ralph Steadman
Before becoming a cartoonist, "I tried everything else first."
Took a drawing course on how to draw and how to be a cartoonist by correspondence.
He hasn't worked a regular job since 1953
He of course worked with Hunter S Thompson and half created the Gonzo journalism that Hunter is famous for.
A drawing is a set of emotions set loose by the use of a line.
Of course his latest book, "The Joke is over", is at the top of my wish list.
Clifford Chase
The author of Winkie which I must have!
Jian Ghomeshi interviewed him and I've decided that I have a big thing for Jian! ha ha!
Jian started the interview with questions about Winkie the teddy bear. One of the funniest interviews I've ever attended.
Winkie, the teddy bear was Marie when Cliff's mother had it and became Winkie when Cliff had him. Hence the teddy is transgendered in the novel.
He said the novel was almost like a creative writing course assignment to write a short story from the point of view of your bear.
Question - Should we give up our bears? (Considering I recently lost my childhood bear that was a strong question to me.)
Keeping our bears is like recapturing from childhood what gets left behind.
He likes walking the line between autobiography and fiction.
Round Table Discussion with:
Nell Freudenberger, Jane Hamilton, Asa Larsson and Louise Penny
moderated by Nathalie Atkinson
Original reason for writing a book
- writing a book for myself.. what I'd like to read.
- write the best book I can write for myself
Being published and the shock of having readers.
Letter writing was the perfect way to learn how to write to entertain.
Seasons/climates as character
- everybody looks alike in Winter
- you know people by their dogs or their toques
- happy snow - that soft snow falls - the first snow, the white snow
- unhappy snow - packed snow, slushy snow, dirty snow
- pristine white carpet and we know what's underneath - something is buried.
What happens when there is a thaw when things that are buried come to the surface to quickly?
A place from one person's point of view never existed because no one significant came out of there artistically but to the artists it existed (East Village in Beijing) and what does that mean to a story?
Secrets in history. Secrets are at the heart of mysteries.
You start from scratch every time when writing.
What happens when you're stuck in a marriage?
What do you believe? We become what we believe.
Asa Larsson said that she got her idea for her novel when she was at a friend's house and saw a picture of the friend's son that she hadn't seen in years. While studying the picture she thought, "He would make a beautiful corpse." The friend has since said that she will never leave Asa alone with her children. ha ha!
People you've never met claim they are characters in your book!
As long as you're talking you're not learning.
Both Nell and Jane have a dreadful novel in their drawer.
Louise Penny's advice to me - Persevere. Believe you can finish it and publish it and you will.
