Inspired by the Guardian’s recent article bringing together “how to write” tips from prominent authors, ReadSA and BOOK SA introduce a similar series a bit closer to home. Watch out for top tips from stars in the SA Lit firmament!
1. The hardest part of writing a novel is finishing it, but once you reach the end there is no greater feeling of accomplishment.
2. That said, put the finished manuscript away and forget about it. Go back with a fresh perspective and begin your second draft.
4. Avoid cliche.
5. Don’t try and re-write a book that’s already been written. It was already perfect the first time. Come up with your own, unique idea.
6. Read as much as you can. Reading increases your vocabulary and is the best source of inspiration, especially the classics.
7. There is no right and wrong way. Practice makes perfect.
8. Don’t write for money. If you don’t write for love, it’s not worth doing. If you want to write for a living, move to America and join James Patterson’s writing staff.
9. Having a cat is a almost definitely a prerequisite.
Inspired by the Guardian’s recent article bringing together “how to write” tips from prominent authors, ReadSA and BOOK SA introduce a similar series a bit closer to home. Watch out for top tips from stars in the SA Lit firmament!
Andrew Brown is the author of Coldsleep Lullaby, which won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, and Street Blues, which was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. His most recent novel is Refuge.
Andrew Brown’s tips:
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1. Write where you know: characters and plot have to play out on a believable stage. In some novels that stage is a bland generic canvas that contributes little to the reader’s experience. But a well-constructed setting can anchor a story and provide the reader with a sense of place; it can also make the writing itself easier, as characters can move around the stage with greater confidence. Set your writing in a place you know – if you don’t know it, go there.
2. Write who you know: You can only write about what you know, and when it comes to characterisation, you only know yourself. You may have to draw deep to find the emotional source for some characters, but no matter how troubling that may be, ultimately you have the comfort of knowing that neither your hero nor your dark and bloody protagonist are in fact you.
3. Don’t get cute: Sometimes a twist in a plot can be too clever for its own good. A good editor will eradicate it (mine did, thank goodness) and spare you the embarrassment, but it’s better not to end up there in the first place.
Being South African isn’t as black and white as it used to be. People from all over the world make South Africa their home, while South Africans have more geographic freedom than ever before. This unique and captivating collection is a snapshot of South African writing today: emigrant and immigrant South Africans, living at home and away.
In Home Away, twenty-four chapters by twenty-four writers, set in cities all around the world, make up one global day, a mosaic reflecting on the nature of home. As the provocative stories in this collaboration suggest, often it’s when we are far away from home that we see it most clearly.
In Home Away, we’ve divvied up the world and a day into 24 hours shared between some of the hottest, most happening South African, immigrant and emigrant writers working today. All the writing in Home Away is orginal and unpublished, and honorary South African Vikas Swarup has written a lyrical foreword. It’s a fabulous range, a real document of South African writing today.
Home Away is published by Zebra Press in April 2010. All author and editor royalties are being donated to the Adonis Musati Project in the Western Cape and Kids’ Haven in Gauteng.
These organisations help address the humanitarian needs of refugee children and families and our donation is a small way for us to say that we too are all unrooted travellers filled with hope and fear, and that we empathise with their plight.
The sun shone. The music played. The wine flowed. Sure, it was to raise money for ReadSA to get the initiative registered as a Section 21, but who says fundraisers should be boring?
ReadSA spotted in the audience – some radio hosts, a deputy editor of a leading women’s publication, some advertising executives, a certain well-known medical doctor, a dancer, some bankers, and lots of writers. But these were just the people who were looking to buy.
Those who were on sale and left many a woman breathless (was it the heat, the wine, the men, or all three?) included a certain Bradley of KayaFM’s Two Weddings (yes. He still wants to get married if he wins but he was just on auction because he believes in the ReadSA cause); the man with inside info on Judge President John Hlope – yes, he of the Alcock vs Hlope fame, M& G journalist Sello Alcock; Writer extraordinaire and ReadSA marketing guru David Chislett; Another writer extraordinaire and ReadSA graphic designer (guilty for the ReadSA logo as well as that controversial Men Auction invite) Ivor Hartmann; a hot engineer who we still hope to convert to be a reader; a former financial journalist and now hotel-owner; and sizzling KayaFM DJ Mesia Gumede (who all women were eternally grateful did not have a radio face:-) among others.
And then there were designs by Countess K. Yours trully was of course honoured to be given one as part of her emcee duties but damn it, I wished I could have been allowed to take one of each. And I know I was not the only one.
A friend of mine bought four outfits and was just a bit down that her budget did not permit her to buy more, and a male friend of mine who came allegedly ‘to cover’ the story because he is a journo later made a phone call to designer of Countess K designs offering to get some outfits for his girlfriend.
Nothing much more to report, we raised more funds than we expected to raise through the Men Auction and everyone bid in good humour understanding that it was all for a good cause and for no perverse reasons.
Writer Sarah Britten (thanks to her day job) managed to outshine all the executive sorts who were in the audience by being the highest bidder. And then after a few dances, people started departing for their next parties. The hostess does tell me however that she spotted certain writers partying at the venue till the sun came up – wonder who they were?
And so, this week, ReadSA gets registered as a NPO thanks to the generosity of those who attended and bid so generously at the Men Auction. Here is hoping, with the registration done, the real work of writers getting SA to read and ReadSA will start well and trully in the New Year.
So Sarah Britten bought a man at the weekend – and it was for the ReadSA cause! Read on to find out more:
This is not something I’ve done before, mind you. I bought him on Saturday afternoon, for R550, and what an interesting experience it was. I felt like, all empowered and stuff, expressing the power my corporate salary confers upon me and using it to turn stereotypes on their head, yadda yadda, and all in the name of a good cause.
My Wits gender studies lecturer would have been so proud.
The people behind ReadSA, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of reading in South Africa in general, and the reading of South African literature in particular, decided to do something a little different in order to raise funds. The result was a Hot Man Auction, hosted at the Melville abode of a German arts benefactor.
The recent merger of South Africa’s two most prominent book publishers, Random House and Struik Publishers, resulted in the formation of Random House Struik. The newly formed company is the largest general trade publisher in Southern Africa, and is now leading the way with creative writing education.
Random House Struik has partnered with Getsmarter, a specialist internet-based training company, to present the part-time Random House Struik Short Course in Creative writing. As the course is offered via the Internet, both local and international students will be accepted on the course.
The Random House Struik Short Course in Creative writing is a 10-week part-time course presented internationally in an internet-based distance learning format. The course is ideal for anyone who has dreamt of writing a novel or a short story as well as accomplished writers, fiction or non-fiction, who wish to bring more flair and drama to their work. The course is compiled and convened by American professional literary agent, editor and author Ron Irwin.
Getsmarter’s advanced and user-friendly learning model provides students with a personal and professional educational experience. Students work through the course material together mirroring a typical face-to-face classroom environment online and receive continuous academic and administrative assistance throughout the duration of the course.
Each of the 10 modules includes course notes; discussion forums where students interact with one another; an interactive “test your knowledge” quiz as well as video lectures to make the course material engaging. The course module titles include planning the story; the importance of beginnings; characters and characterization; plot vs. story; dialogue; point of view; conflict; and tying it all up.
In addition to the core coursework, students become part of a network of writers. This means that as the course progresses, students not only make friends with fellow writers; share creative writing pieces, contacts and ideas, but are also given the opportunity to review each others work and receive rich personal feedback on their work.
A further benefit of this course is that Random House Struik have committed to read and consider the top manuscripts from the course.
The course is due to start on the 22nd of February 2010 and registrations close on the 12th of February 2010. Please contact Karin on +27 21 683 3633 or karin@getsmarter.biz for further information.
It dawned on me rather late in the year that 2009 marks the end of the oughties – the first tender years of this young century which have “0″ as their penultimate number (some call them the noughties). By now, however, enough “best of the decade” lists are marching through the media to make for an almost daily reminder of 2010′s imminence.
Two such lists, both formulated in the UK, caught BOOK SA’s attention last week: the Times‘ and Telegraph‘s top 100 books of the past ten years.
Only two books from African pens featured: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Youth by JM Coetzee.
That these two novels, by dint of their election in two major newspapers, should come to represent Africa’s literary odyssey in the oughties struck me as unjust – though both works are, of course, marvelously crafted and highly significant. There are so many others, though, that this decade in African publishing should be remembered for.
Then I received a note from Isobel Dixon to the effect that The Asian Word was spearheading a campaign to name Asia’s top books of the decade. Dixon suggested that a similar initiative be undertaken on African literature’s behalf.
I wholeheartedly concurred, and hereby put a challenge to ReadSA members: starting today, let’s give ourselves three weeks to name the top 50 African books of the oughties – as well as the SA top ten.
It will be difficult, of course, to do this fairly – the first list, for instance, will likely be biased toward English-language and southern African books – but the exercise will be worthwhile if it produces a solid signpost for all the directions that literature from the continent took us in the past ten years.
I propose that we set some basic rules:
Authors may be living in the diaspora, but must be or have been citizens of an African state
We don’t need to come up with a ranking system – just filling fifty Africa and ten South Africa slots will suffice, and we can list the “winners” alphabetically by title (unless someone is willing to take responsibility for overseeing a ranking system)
Books that feature on the South Africa list can, of course, also feature on the Africa list
Books of all types may be considered
The cutoff date for nominating books will be Friday 11 December
ReadSA will announce the final lists during the week of Monday 14 December
I further propose that we leave the rest to crowdsourcing at the ReadSA Facebook page. A ReadSA admin member can create a “Discussion Topic” on the page, and book titles suggested there will be entered for final consideration.
The more a book appears or is seconded in the Facebook forum, the greater its weight will be come the final reckoning. Said reckoning should probably be managed by a committee of ReadSA’s most active members. I’d suggest that Damaria Senne, Zukiswa Wanner, Louis Greenberg and Thando Mgqolozana be included in this committee; I’d further suggest that we get the likes of Percy Zvomuya, Tymon Smith, Victor Dlamini and Veronique Tadjo involved.
The list-making will likely be rather messy, but also quite illuminating, I’m hoping. What do you think? Constructive comments welcome below – and don’t forget to post your nominations at the ReadSA Facebook page once the topic is live!
MY BOOK: Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot (Jacana)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Two accident-prone brothers leave a trail a carnage scattered across two continents in their vain attempt to stay out of trouble.
WHO’LL LOVE IT: It’s Jackass for intellectuals, so almost anyone with a brain cell to spare will probably enjoy the brothers’ antics and perceive the underlying tragedy.
WHERE TO GET IT: It used to rub shoulders with J.M. Coetzee on African Fiction shelves in most book shops, but JMC apparently needed more space. Stray copies have been spotted here and there, but it’s definitely an endangered species in the wild. It’s available online at Kalahari and Amazon almost everywhere.
ABOUT AUTHOR: Born in Holland in 1965, grew up in South Africa, but re-emigrated to Holland in 1986 when offered the dubious honour of full SA citizenship, which then included two years of fun in the sun with heavy artillery.
Studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam to confirm that I wasn’t afflicted with anything serious, only to contradict this vehemently by opting to become a translator as a means of funding my writing. Still suffering the consequences of that misguided decision.
CURRENTLY LIVING IN: Amsterdam, Netherlands, which sadly offers a lot less sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll than initially anticipated. Rain, on the other hand, is in no short supply.
AUTHOR’ S CLAIM TO FAME: Winner of the University of Johannesburg Prize for Best First Book in 2007. Honourable mention for the M-Net Literary Award 2007. Longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2007. Recipient of a grant from the Dutch Foundation for Literature to write my new novel in Dutch.
WHEN WRITING: I am as irritable as a warthog sharing a burrow with a porcupine. My family hates me, my friends don’t call, and I constantly have to suppress the urge to insult people online. There are those who claim that the above also applies when I’m not writing.
Who won’t like it, and who might: Some negative feedback came from people with an innate aversion to whining artists, directionless characters and overlapping plotlines. Other readers enjoyed it for the very same reasons or for others. So if you like whining, libidinous artists, are perhaps directionless, and want the overlapping stories of your sex life and love life and creative life and immigration life slowed down for just a few hours, give it a go.
Where to get it: It’s soon to be an out-of-print collector’s item but it’s still going cheap online. You’ll also get it at the Read SA book sale at Arts on Main in December. Your next chance will probably be on the sale tables.
What’s next?: I’m glad you asked. I’ve edited a compilation of fabulous and fresh South African writing called Home Away. In it, South African immigrants and emigrants consider South Africa from non-South-African cities all over the world. It’s made up of 24 stories over 24 hours, and is called Home Away. It will be published by Zebra Press in April 2010.
I’m also co-writing a horror novel with Sarah Lotz, the zombie queen of the South, and a PhD, and I plan to finish my next novel about whining artists at the end of 2010. This time I don’t take it for granted that anyone will publish it. Watch this space, and hold thumbs.
Five now-public secrets about my writing persona
1. I am trying to end a work-time addiction to Oreos which is senseless because they’re not even that nice as biscuits go.
2. My therapist lives in my office; it is a pewter sparrow called Birdie and I turn to it in times of crisis.
3. I juggle my writing, editing and website jobs on a R39 whiteboard from Mr Price Home. Fully a quarter of the whiteboard is taken up by the words “WHITE BOARD”
4. I act my age; I am a facebook person rather than a twitterer.
5. I am sometimes ashamed by how slowly I read.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A middle-aged woman who was attacked, raped and murdered in her home by armed robbers. I keep her alive so that her story continues. I invite her family members, those who are alive and dead, to tell their stories through her.
WHO’LL LOVE IT: People with strong constitutions. People who at best, find life all folly, and at worst, intolerable. People who have experienced crime, and have lost through crime, maybe love is a strong word, maybe people would feel touched, or held in some way. It seems too, to be popular in certain academic circles.
WHERE TO GET IT: Most book shops in South Africa. Online you will find it at Amazon.de Amazon.ca, Amazon.com Amazon.uk and Kalahari.net
ABOUT AUTHOR: I grew up in Krugersdorp (shhh don’t tell anyone!). Aged 33. Greying like an old woman, even my father is beginning to laugh.
CURRENTLY LIVING IN: Berlin, Germany. There is a lot of Wurst here and electric blue eye-shadow.
AUTHOR’ S CLAIM TO FAME: Winner of the European Union literary award 2007/2008. Shortlisted for the Commonwealth writers prize for Best first Book Africa region 2009. Longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2009.
WHEN WRITING: I am attached to a pair of headphones, and I wear a beanie, well and clothes too. I know writing is an intimate thing but…
The beanie keeps the thoughts together and allows me to experiment with hair styles at the same time. I have heard, that wearing a hat, woolly or otherwise can lead to premature balding. I have noticed this and it scares me, or is it the writing that causes it?
The words don’t happen without music. It is the rhythm and the emotions they evoke that I am after, like a desperado- even if this rhythm happens to arrive in the form of Theuns Jordaan’s “Beaufort Wes” repeated a few hundred times.
I write sadness without the option of taking a “mother’s little helper” or a shot of Novocaine(though I am trying to work something out with my dentist) and I thank my readers for taking the harrowing journey with me.
Sally-Ann Partridge is the author of The Goblet Club, which won the MER Youth Prize in 2008, and Fuse. Her third novel is forthcoming from Human & Rousseau, an imprint of the NB group.
