I’ve been away. My first week away was in the company of other writers.. We were at Chateau Ventenac in the south of France – a writers’ retreat for ten writers who had been on dark angels courses. I thought of it as a dark angels public service. Because one of the things that emerged through the week – and previous experiences – was the supportive power of writers for other writers.
First we created pairs so that each writer had a sympathetic sounding board for their writing-in-progress. Then each pair was given an hour before dinner each day to share their writing with the rest of the group. Good, cheap wine went well with readings and conversation. I felt privileged to have heard and shared the writing produced – novels, poems, stories, memoirs – by talented people whom I also like a lot.
Then, after a round-France car tour, it has been back to work with a bump. But it struck me that in working life we need the company of writers too. My colleagues at The Writer have the practice of always getting a second pair of eyes to look at any writing produced for clients.
The model of the solitary writer working in a garret is not the best one to follow. Perhaps it never was.
The stories I completed in Ventenac have a central character who’s a would-be writer. It’s only the contact with others that transforms her from an unhappy, unfulfilled writer into an angel. This collection of stories now moves on to a further stage of creative collaboration with the artist Anita Klein.
I also came back to the looming deadline day for 26 Treasures. This is a project for the London Design Festival. It could turn out to be 26’s finest yet, and certainly the one that has involved the greatest number of writers focused on the same brief. The core group, though, is 26 writers who have been randomly paired with objects from the V&A’s British Galleries. Each writer has been asked to write 62 words, and each has been paired with an editor. It involves writers based in many different parts of the UK, including the poets Andrew Motion and Maura Dooley. The collection of writing gathered is extraordinary. It will be unveiled at the V&A in September.
Add in the international dimension of previous projects with PEN, and you have many different communities of writers formed: personal, business, local, national, international.
For any aspiring writer I now believe this is not simply nice to do but essential if you want to improve your craft. And probably your happiness too.
Here are some links to things mentioned
I don’t believe in garrets. Writing needs an audience, and you don’t find those in garrets.
I always read my stuff out loud before publishing it – usually to our kids’ pet hamster Snuggles.
If it’s any good, she’ll sniff the air tentatively, then try to gnaw her way out of her cage to get closer to me, keen to demonstrate her hammy love.
If it’s bad, she’ll turn her back on me and produce a wee small hamster poo then scuttle on down to her cosy hidey hole. Everyone’s a critic these days…