My Book Month 2011
On Monday 21 I put up my NZ Book Month, Here I Come post, letting you all know that I was off to Queenstown and Southland, as a guest of the Dan Davin Literary Foundation, to do my bit for NZ Book Month.
I decided to pre-schedule posts for the week I was away, partly because I already knew that my schedule was very heavy and I might be too tired to do daily posts, but also because I suspected that internet coverage might be intermittent in some areas—and in fact both scenarios turned out to be correct, so hurrah for the ability to pre-schedule. (After all, I would not like to fail in my commitment to posting every day … )
I have been a little dilatory in writing up my Book Month week away though, for some of the reasons canvassed in yesterday’s post, i.e. arriving back to find out that we were next up on the EQC list to have our chimney removed etc—not a zero sum game in terms of either physical or emotional energy. And the Book Month tour was a heavy schedule, so I didn’t have a great deal of gas left in the tank when I did get back.
So just what did the heavy schedule involve? Basically I did four x 6-hour workshops for high school students over five days, flying to Queenstown on the Monday and taking the first workshop at Wakatipu High School on Tuesday 22. When that was over, I had to pack up and drive to Gore (fortunately the map lied: it said the drive took 2.5 hours but even for me, the world’s slowest driver, it was only 2) for the second workshop on the 23rd. Following that it was straight on to Invercargill, a much shorter, 3/4 hour drive and with no workshop following on the Thursday, although I did do an evening presentation for the general public at the Invercargill Public Library. And then another two workshops on Friday and Saturday respectively, before returning home on Sunday.
I really enjoyed meeting the workshop participants and listening to their writing. (Yes, we did several exercises and I did ask participants to share what they wrote.) In general, I would say that everyone did well at the exercises, although there were always participants who stood out with each one (although not always the same students for each exercise, interestingly.) And the groups were all fun and everyone was friendly and welcoming, which was great. I enjoyed meeting Rebecca, the Dan Davin organiser in Invercargill, in person at last, as well as having the opportunity to meet members of some of the adult writing groups there—one of which is specifically focused on speculative fiction ( 🙂 )
I kept the focus of the workshops on the elements of effective (fiction) writing generally, as I believe these are the same no matter what ‘flavour’ of fiction one writes and I guessed (rightly again) that the writing interests of the students would be varied. At the request of the Dan Davin Literary Foundation though, I did include a component on “world building”, which I feel is probably the main point-of-difference between science fiction-fantasy and all other types of fiction, as the latter always take place in some version of our “real” world. And although some participants were not familiar with the world building concept, I think I encouraged most of them to have some fun with it.
My “world building” component was only a brief ‘taste’ however—I think the main course will be provided through Tim Jones’ half day workshop on the same (or very similar) topic on 30 April.
Overall, I was impressed by the enthusiasm and talent of the participants—and very impressed by the literary programmes that the Dan Davin Literary Foundation is pulling together. Not just the Student Writing Workshops, although I think these are a fabulous initiative, but also the Readers and Writers Alive! events. I have already mentioned Tim Jones’s workshop, but my friend and fellow poet, Joanna Preston, will also be running her excellent “Reading for Writing” workshop as part of the same series. Two great writers and I’m sure, two equally great workshops—and then there’s “Story Time with Joy Cowley” and a dinner with historical novelist Jenny Pattrick. In fact, looking at the programme, I feel that NZ-ers with literary aspirations and/or enthusiasm might have to seriously consider moving to Southland!
(And may I mention, my fellow Christchurch residents—no earthquakes while I was there … )
So—lots of positives. In terms of negatives, there was really only one, which was that this tour came only one month after the major Christchurch earthquake on February 22nd and I had already dug deep to keep myself going through that. So although I set out for Wakatipu-Southland and NZ Book Month with enthusiasm, I didn’t have quite as much gas in the tank as I had hoped and the schedule was heavy, so I did find that to get through it I had to dig even deeper. Basically, it wasn’t until I left Christchurch that I realised how very tired I was (and am)—but I hope that neither the workshop participants nor the people who attended the Invercargill Public Library on the Thursday evening rumbled me on that one. I did my best to deliver a quality experience and hope that I succeeded.
Because as I said on the 21st—or if I didn’t, I should have—writing and NZ Book Month matter to me and ‘quaked or not, I welcome the opportunity to make a positive contribution.
The new ‘Under the Red Verandah’ is open apparently. Can you go there with friends for rest and refueling?
Oh, is it open already (squee!) –I will definitely check it out! Gotta support those who’re able to be “up and doing” as much as possible.
Sounds like it was truly a blast for those attending, if tiring for you. I bet you rocked their world…building. 😉
I do “think” I might have given some a whole new perspective on what “world building” means [:grins:]—and also how difficult it can be to do really well. Not that you need to worry, ‘tree-the-size-of-the-Himalayas’ lady!:)
LOL… I just tried my hand at a historical short (with sff twist) and found it had just as much world building as straight epic fantasy… except that this time, it had to do with the nitty gritty of finding out peoples’ travel, hygiene and clothing habits at a certain time and in a certain place. Just as fiddly!
…But actually loads of fun. Because when people go ‘whaaaa?’ to historical fiction, you can point to a book or website and say, ‘see, see, it’s true, promise.’
Hmmm … I would (will/am) still argue that historical is still not the same as SFF because all the resource material is actually there and can be researched, i.e. it is still our real world, albeit as it was, whereas with SFF we have to step beyond what is “known” and “real” and create something that is be definition both “fantastic” and “out of this world.” I guess I’m saying that historical is not world “building” as such but more archaeological re-creation/reconstruction …
I am quite prepared to believe that it’s tough though; also fun.:)