Image courtesy Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts

 - Jo-Anne Richards

Perhaps that in itself could be the starting point for a story. (Just an idea.) But why is it that so many people start out on their first novel with such enthusiasm, put so much effort and time into it, and then …?

They lose momentum. They lose confidence in their abilities, or in their work. It could be the idea isn’t thought through, so they lose direction. And some people are simply not prepared for the loneliness, the agony and slog.

Gene Fowler, an American journalist and author, once said: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

You’ve probably heard it a million times, but it’s still one of my favourites largely, I suppose, because people who have never tried writing a book do sometimes think there’s no great effort involved. “Easier than a real job, hey, nudge, nudge …?” That’s the attitude.

Some time ago a friend of mine sat next to a doctor on a plane. “What do you do?” he asked.

“I’m a writer,” she said.

“That’s nice. I’m going to do a bit of that when I don’t have to work anymore.”

Only later, she realised she should have added: “Oh yes, It’s nice to have a hobby. I’ve often considered dabbling in brain surgery when I retire.”

Yes it’s true, not everyone can write. But mostly, it’s because they can’t expend the effort. They can’t keep at it,  wrestle their way through what can be months or even years of work. They believe they can “dabble” in it, when there’s nothing more pressing to do.

The most important job of the real writer is … to keep writing. I once heard that Ken Follett likes to declare: “The only difference between me and everyone else out there is discipline.”

I’m told that he sets himself a specific number of words to write every day. He begins at 8.30am and writes consistently till 3.30pm, when he rewards himself with a glass of champagne.

I believe in rewards. Even little rewards. While busy with my first book, I used to fantasise lavish “When my book is published” daydreams. Only, I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge them until I’d finished writing for the day.

There’s nothing more important than just keeping on. It doesn’t have to be perfect first time, so that’s no excuse. All books need good editing and often rewriting.

Make yourself rituals, if that helps. I like to place a certain pen by my computer. And (ridiculous as it sounds) I always wear the same pants when I write. (I become hysterical if they’re in the wash when I want to write.)

I view them quite supersitiously, which helps, I suppose. They can’t be used for doing anything else. That means I can’t “just quickly check my emails”. I’d have to get up, take my pants off, check my emails, get up…

Let me share another tip with you: Don’t talk too much about your book in the making. If you need to work through ideas, choose someone who takes you and your idea seriously.

I know writing is lonely. But talking about it somehow neutralises the desire. It satisfies the story-telling self, and allows you to stop sitting down and doing it.

Also, so many people claim to have a story in them, that few people will take you seriously. They’ll feel that’s the perfect time to barge in and disturb you because … after all, you aren’t really working.

They’ll find it vaguely amusing and ask you, in arch tones, how The Book is going. It’ll begin to seem ridiculous and you’ll feel absurd – an imposter in the literary world. It’s better just to keep quiet, at least until the end is in sight.

So, that’s it really. That’s the secret. People often ask me for one tip for aspiring writers. And I always say just that: Keep writing.

Online Creative Writing Course – On going, start when it suits you and work at your own pace.

Online Business Writing – On going, start when it suits you

Creative Writing Course – Starts 28 September and continues for 10 weeks. Sessions held on Wednesdays from 7 to 9.30pm in Parkview, Johannesburg.

Junior Writers’ Course – 3 to 6 October, 9 to 12.30, Parkview, Johannesburg

Self Publishing Workshop – evening of 6 October, Parkview, Johannesburg

Growing Through Writing – 15 October, 9am to 5pm, Parkview, Johannesburg

Booker Prize evening at Love Books, Melville, Johannesburg

Publishing Workshop – 1 December, Parkview, Johannesburg

Power Of Writing – TBC Newtown, Johannesburg

Creative Writing Weekend, TBC, McGregor, Western Cape

Dynamic Language Skills – COMING SOON!

Please click on the links or email trishurquhart@gmail.com to book your place for further information.

Perhaps that in itself could be the starting point for a story. (Just an idea.) But why is it that so many people start out on their first novel with such enthusiasm, put so much effort and time into it, and then …?

They lose momentum. They lose confidence in their abilities, or in their work. It could be the idea isn’t thought through, so they lose direction. And some people are simply not prepared for the loneliness, the agony and slog.

Gene Fowler, an American journalist and author, once said: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

You’ve probably heard it a million times, but it’s still one of my favourites largely, I suppose, because people who have never tried writing a book do sometimes think there’s no great effort involved. “Easier than a real job, hey, nudge, nudge …?” That’s the attitude.

Some time ago a friend of mine sat next to a doctor on a plane. “What do you do?” he asked.

“I’m a writer,” she said.

“That’s nice. I’m going to do a bit of that when I don’t have to work anymore.”

Only later, she realised she should have added: “Oh yes, It’s nice to have a hobby. I’ve often considered dabbling in brain surgery when I retire.”

Yes it’s true, not everyone can write. But mostly, it’s because they can’t expend the effort. They can’t keep at it, wrestle their way through what can be months or even years of work. They believe they can “dabble” in it, when there’s nothing more pressing to do.

The most important job of the real writer is … to keep writing. I once heard that Ken Follett likes to declare: “The only difference between me and everyone else out there is discipline.”

I’m told that he sets himself a specific number of words to write every day. He begins at 8.30am and writes consistently till 3.30pm, when he rewards himself with a glass of champagne.

I believe in rewards. Even little rewards. While busy with my first book, I used to fantasise lavish “When my book is published” daydreams. Only, I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge them until I’d finished writing for the day.

There’s nothing more important than just keeping on. It doesn’t have to be perfect first time, so that’s no excuse. All books need good editing and often rewriting.

Make yourself rituals, if that helps. I like to place a certain pen by my computer. And (ridiculous as it sounds) I always wear the same pants when I write. (I become hysterical if they’re in the wash when I want to write.)

I view them quite superstitiously, which helps, I suppose. They can’t be used for doing anything else. That means I can’t “just quickly check my emails”. I’d have to get up, take my pants off, check my emails, get up…

Let me share another tip with you: Don’t talk too much about your book in the making. If you need to work through ideas, choose someone who takes you and your idea seriously.

I know writing is lonely. But talking about it somehow neutralises the desire. It satisfies the story-telling self, and allows you to stop sitting down and doing it.

Also, so many people claim to have a story in them, that few people will take you seriously. They’ll feel that’s the perfect time to barge in and disturb you because … after all, you aren’t really working.

They’ll find it vaguely amusing and ask you, in arch tones, how The Book is going. It’ll begin to seem ridiculous and you’ll feel absurd – an imposter in the literary world. It’s better just to keep quiet, at least until the end is in sight.

So, that’s it really. That’s the secret. People often ask me for one tip for aspiring writers. And I always say just that: Keep writing.

Jo-Anne Richards is a South African novelist and journalist, who lectures at Wits University in Johannesburg and teaches writing through Allaboutwriting. Her fourth book, My Brother’s Book, was published in March 2008 by Picador Africa.

Your awful brother probably picked the lock and read steamy passages to his friends. But even so … a journal kept properly can help your writing in many ways.

A journal is a safe place to expose yourself, explore your own responses and to be vulnerable and honest. No-one will see it and no-one can judge you on it.

My mother once told me that I shouldn’t use my diary for teenage venting. “What happens if someone publishes it when you’re dead, like Anne Frank.”

But I believe that’s quite the wrong way of looking at a journal. Don’t imagine an audience – it makes you self-conscious. You can demand that all your journals be burnt upon your death. Or write as illegibly as I do – then no-one will ever decipher a word.

If you don’t learn to be vulnerable on the page, you’ll never be a great writer. Even if you never write about yourself or your life, writing is all about exposing something of your inner self. It’s about growing comfortable with seeing your own flaws and weaknesses printed out in front of you.

Anything can be used as a journal – but it should give you pleasure. Choose the most beautiful notebook you can afford, even if the price is sinful.

A journal is not quite a diary, which describes day to day events. A journal can have descriptions of events, but also reflects on them and your feelings about them.

Naturally, there aren’t any rules about journaling – if there were, I’d recommend breaking them anyway. But try to do what is sustainable for you and your lifestyle. It shouldn’t become a burden.

Some people whip out their notebook while waiting in a queue or in a doctor’s waiting room. Or to record an overheard conversation, or describe a place or an event. Other people find it comforting to have a routine – they write at a certain time, or a certain amount each day.

I believe that all writing should be a seeking to understand. As writers, we’re not trying to grab our audience by the throat and force them to understand what we think we already know. Most good writing is an exploration, an attempt to understand both the little things that make up our daily lives, and a way of tackling the great universal unanswered questions.

A journal can be used in this way too – to explore our own and the possible motivations of others. This is the basis of character formation and makes it easier for us to build believable, complex characters. Describing scenes gets us into the habit of bringing all the senses to bear, and finding words to describe them. If you’re in unfamiliar surroundings, try consciously to find the right language to bring them vividly to life.

Recording conversations begins the habit of listening – to the way people speak, to their colloquialisms and the little idiosyncracies that reflect their characters.

Anecdotes and narrative scenes recorded from your everyday life provide the detail that makes writing work. Many of our human issues – personal, national, and universal – are reflected in the little scenes and stories that you witness or that you are told. These are what make up the fabric of the way we live.

A novel doesn’t merely consist of characters doing things. Stories are made up of the detail, the telling aspects that describe the way we live more eloquently than we could ever explain it.

For example, you witness a fight between your neighbours. Don’t just explain it. You want to see and hear it, you want to smell their sweat. Record it as accurately as you can. Place us inside it. Record the dialogue, describe the scene – the smell and sound of the street – as the woman drags her husband’s suitcase outside her front gate.

Record his furious response and the way she flinches as he leans over her and yells. Only when you have recorded it as accurately as you can, should you look inside yourself and record your own response: perhaps the way your heart beat faster when you thought he might hit her

That’s the time to look at your fear when you thought you might be forced to intervene, and wondered whether you would have the courage to do so.

The act of writing down scenes like this will make it easier to imagine similar scenes and details to suit the story you choose to tell. And it helps you express the emotions and motivations of your characters.

Anais Nin wrote in her diary: “Every moment you can choose what you wish to see, observe, or record. It is your choice. So you create the total aspect according to your vision. We have a right to select our vision of the world.”

What she meant is that as soon as you record a perception, you start giving it a structure and organising its details. When you become aware of how you apprehend the world, you can start choosing the kinds of perceptions you wish to cultivate.

Nin also said that writing, like practising the piano each day, kept one nimble so that “when the great moments of inspiration come, one is in good form, supple and smooth”.

Jo-Anne Richards is a South African novelist and journalist, who lectures at Wits University in Johannesburg and teaches writing through Allaboutwriting. Her fourth book, My Brother’s Book, was published in March 2008 by Picador Africa. 

Not every book becomes a publishing sensation like Spud, the novel by John van der Ruit that has sold 200 000 and rising.

“About 1% of the people who talk of writing a book will ever put pen to paper,” says David Chislett, writer and expert on publishing matters. “Half, or even fewer, might finish it, and about 1% of those will actually get published.”

Chislett will be presenting a workshop, Getting Published, as part of Allaboutwriting’s Publishing Day, at the Rand Club, Johannesburg on June 24. The workshop, which runs from 2 to 6pm, will show participants how to take their manuscripts from their bottom drawers to the shelves of bookstores – real and virtual.

From 6.30pm, Allaboutwriting will host some of South Africa’s leading publishers in a discussion of what publishers look for, and the kind of manuscripts that interest them.

“Through our writing workshops, we teach aspirant writers the skills they need to turn their ideas into manuscripts,” says Jo-Anne Richards, author and co-founder of Allaboutwriting. “But every writer longs to be read, so we have arranged this event to help them realise that dream.”

Writers are invited to sign up for the workshop, at a cost of R500 – and can stay on to meet the publishers, and share a glass of sherry, a bowl of soup and a sandwich, at no extra cost. Should they only be interested in meeting the publishers, they can book for the evening event at a nominal cost of R75 all in.

The afternoon workshop explores what it takes to get from idea to manuscript to print. It does not attempt to teach participants what or how to write. But what it will do is help them to position themselves to publish their book successfully.

The ideas shared will help, inspire and expand new, aspiring, and even experienced authors.

The workshop draws on Chislett’s knowledge and experience from marketing in the publishing industry, compiling and editing short fiction, being a published author and self-publishing a music industry text book.

For more information please contact trishurquhart@gmail.com

Davis Chislett is the originator of the Urban series of short fiction and author of “A Body Remembered” and “1,2,1,2”. He is an experienced workshop facilitator and speaker and well-known entertainment journalist and publicist.

Allaboutwriting is a partnership between Richard Beynon and Jo-Anne Richards who are passionate about good writing, and have devised their courses to help communicate that passion – plus the skills that make it much more than an academic exercise.

The Benefits of our Course:

• Start when it suits you, work at your own pace.

• Learn the skills to write both fiction and non-fiction.

• Writing practice in every module.

• Full one-on-one feedback on assignments in every module.

• We promise to be honest, but kind.

• Enjoy on-going support in our online writers’ group.

• We have an association with three publishers: Pan Macmillan, Penguin and Jacana, who will give particular consideration to manuscripts we recommend.

Who we are:

Allaboutwriting is a partnership between novelist Jo-Anne Richards and screen-writer, Richard Beynon. Jo-Anne is the author of four novels, including the best-selling The Innocence of Roast Chicken (Headline UK) and, most recently, My Brother’s Book (Picador Africa). Richard is an award-winning screen and television writer, responsible for hundreds of scripts in the genres of drama, soap and comedy.

What our students say:

I found Allaboutwriting’s writing course expansive in style, educative in content and entertaining in delivery. Jo-Anne and Richard present a full gamut of learning and insight on creative writing seemingly effortlessly,
with the welcome addition of real verve and wit. It was pure pleasure to participate. Tim Cohen, journalist.

I could feel my confidence blooming and it showed in the writing, so I’m hoping that I’ll take that with me into my next novel. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the whole course – wish I’d discovered it years ago!! The feedback has been so practical, constructive and helpful that I’ve seen immediately where I was losing my way. Judy Croome, novelist.

For more information about the Allaboutwriting Creative Writing Course please click here or for details on how to sign up please contact Trish at trishurquhart@gmail.com

First up are the dates of the courses we’ve scheduled for the first couple of months of the year. We’ll bring you more details of additional courses as the world turns.

Creative Writing – Wednesday, January 26

Our flagship 10-week Creative Writing programme begins on Wednesday, January 26 with Jo-Anne Richards and Richard Beynon (that’s me). This covers the whole gamut of writing skills, and serves as well as an inspirational kick in the pants for writers who’ve deferred that all-important project just once too often. Course participants meet in Parkview from 07:00 pm to 09:30 pm. The course, according to past participants, is, depending on who you speak to, “life-changing,” “practical and always constructive” and “positive and invigorating”.

Character Course

Our one-day The Character Course, facilitated by psychologist Pierre Brouard and Richard Beynon takes place on February 5. It blends psychology and writing to create a one-day plunge into the process of creating characters.

Growing through writing

Then our spanking new Growing through writing one-day course, designed and facilitated by psychologists Pierre Brouard and Judith Ancer, hits the street running on 19 February. Pierre and Judith assure us that, while it’s not a psychotherapy workshop per se, they’ll work with what you bring to move towards greater personal discovery and wellness. Should be fun (not to say, life-enhancing!)

Winner of the Bookex Creative Writing Special Draw (assuring her a free place on the ten-week Creative Writing Course) is Bulewa Mtati. Congratulations! – and we look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 26.

Please note, that we run courses with a minimum of six participants – and a maximum of 12. This gives us the chance for more intensive work with individual writers – but also guarantees that each course has that “critical mass” you need to promote useful and productive interaction.

Allaboutwriting/cont.

Anyone who’s been on any of our courses qualifies to join us at our monthly writers’ fest, where we do an imaginative writing exercise, and share our recent writing for comment by our peers. It’s fun, there’s wine to drink, and it can be the joggle every writer needs from time to time. Here are the dates for the next few months:

Monday, January 24

Monday February 28

Monday, March 28

Monday, May 30

Monday,June 27

If you’re interested in attending these – or any other course described in this newsletter, email Trish at trishurquhart@gmail.com or you can call her on 082 652 4643. More details of our courses are, of course, available on the website

Tip of the month: the devil’s in the detail

Here’s something we came across written by the always fascinating James Wood (you should see his reviews from time to time in the New Yorker!):

“Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, whereas literature teaches us to note – to notice the way my mother, say, often wipes her lips just before kissing me; the drilling sound of a London cab when its diesel engine is flabbily idling; the way old leather jackets have white lines in them like the striations of fat in pieces of meat; the way fresh snow ‘creaks’ underfoot; the way a baby’s arms are so fat that they seem tied with string…”

Win a book voucher while you sharpen your writing skills

And finally here’s our monthly exercise, with a prize of a book voucher worth a couple of hundred bucks, from Boekhuis in Jo’burg, or the Book Lounge in Cape Town. We’ve taken this from the endlessly intriguing John Gardener’s book The Art of Fiction:
Write honest and sensitive descriptions (or sketches) of (a) one of your parents, (b) a mythological beast, and (c) a ghost.

Limit yourself to two hundred words per description. Remember: concentrate on the specific details that’ll make each character spring to life (even the ghost!) Send in your entry to trishurquhart@gmail.com by midnight on 31 January.

Good luck. We’ll announce the winner in our February newsletter.

Run by acclaimed novelist Jo-Anne Richards, and journalist and writer Fred de Vries, the course prepares aspirant memoirists and biographers for the challenges that await them.

Not only will you learn the essential skills required to do the job effectively and memorably, but you’ll also have the chance to submit a long piece of work to Jo-Anne and Fred for detailed assessment and feedback. That’s why the course is run in two bits: Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 November, and a final day on December 4.

You might have your own compelling tale to tell – or, no less nobly, you might simply want to put down the singular stories you grew up with of your own family for consumption by your children and grandchildren.

Whatever your particular appetites, you’ll find them more than satisfied over the three days of Allaboutwriting’s Biography and Memoir Course.

And don’t forget, anyone who’s already done an Allaboutwriting course, qualifies for a ten per cent discount on all further courses. That’s R480 off our normal fee of R4800.

To register please email Trish at trishurquhart@gmail.com

A Writers’ Guide to Reading

Richard and Jo-Anne will be giving their talk, A Writers’ Guide to Reading, on Saturday 7 August at 1.00pm. For those of you who missed our mid-winter soup and sherry evening in the library at the Rand Cub, this is a chance to hear what by all accounts is a stimulating and provocative presentation.

Launch of three new courses

We’ll be launching three new courses at the Fair –

The Power of Writing course, a one-day introduction to creative writing

The Key to Creative Writing, a two-day, stripped down, lean and mean course, low on theory and high on the practical challenges of writing effectively, and

The Travel Writing Course, by Fred de Vries, renowned both for his travel journalism, and his interviews with both celebrities and the not-so-celebrated.

Not one, not two, not three – but five prizes!

Visit us at our stand (with or without the proverbial friend) and you could win one of five free passes to our new, dynamic Power of Writing Course.

Discounts
And if all that’s not enough to tempt you to the Fair, then how about this: anyone booking a place on a course at the Fair, will qualify for a twenty per cent discount.

So, come one, come all. This is the Jozi Book Fair’s second year, and already there are some fifty exhibitors – including an anthology of small publishers for those of you eager to explore both conventional and on-line publishing opportunities – so there’s likely to be lots to interest you beyond the goodies at Allaboutwriting.

Where: Museum Africa, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newton. When: August 7, 8 and 9, from 09.00am to 6.00pm daily. How much: R10 entrance fee.

The face-to-face course is run by scriptwriter Richard Beynon and novelist Jo-Anne Richards. Participants meet once a week in Parkview, Johannesburg, for ten sessions.

The course is designed to help participants explore their creativity – and equip them with a range of essential writing skills. It suits all working, and aspirant, writers – or even those with no specific project in mind, but who long to unlock their creative selves.

The course is equally suitable for those wanting to start a novel, a screenplay, or a work of creative non-fiction.

Learn to tell a story in the most dramatic way possible… to create characters that leap to life from the page or the screen… to write dialogue that positively crackles with life and energy…

Learn to choose the most appropriate point of view for your particular story… to structure scenes that advance the story and expand our understanding of your characters… to structure your story vividly enough to avoid the pitfalls of a sagging middle – and keep readers glued to the last, climactic page.

Even if your immediate objective is not a novel or screenplay, the course will help unlock your creativity and enable the real you to emerge.

Join Jo-Anne Richards and Richard Beynon on Wednesday July 14, for the first of ten weekly sessions that will unleash your creative potential and, most important, get you writing.

For more information please go to www.allaboutwritingcourses.com – or phone Trish Urquhart now at 082 652 4643.