James McConnachie
Reflections
James McConnachie, the editor of our professional journal, The Author, summed up my feelings exactly in the latest Summer edition:
Many authors I know have been struggling of late with feelings of triviality or even irrelevance. First it was Covid. Then Putin, with his murderous war in Europe. How can authors justify what we do while our colleagues in the east – authors, journalists and artists, alongside a population of 40 million people – are fleeing their homes? When they are starving in basements? When they are being shot and shelled?
But through the articles chosen for this special point in history, he goes on to demonstrate that the work of poets and writers has the capacity to invent a language to express
anger, pain,grief, longing, gratitude and hope; making sense of the broken, mutilated world; affirming life,
and to underline the importance of culture in the lives of individuals and countries, in explaining who we are and where we belong – all beautifully illustrated with contributions from Ukraine’s own poets, illustrators and writers.
The whole ethos of our journal is to be a place where light is brought into deeper places, rather than generating dissension or inflaming tempers by reacting to contentious divisive issues. As the editor says himself:
‘I am determined that every issue of The Author should offer inspiration as well as instruction.’
This edition, more perhaps than most, highlights that lovely approach.
McConnachie also asks the question: How can authors approach topics that invite polarisation? and that is exactly the question I’m asking myself in preparing the ground for my own next novel … on abortion. I think … I hope … Maybe …
Collective nouns and other pithy sayings
One of my favourite moments in the writing process is seeing the finished cover. That’s when all the hard work crystallises into a tangible reality. This week I’ve been poring over possible designs for Listen, and I believe we’re a whisker away from the final choice. Wahey!
Alongside that, lots of reading, plotting and jotting going on, none of which would interest you, so I’m going to share another line of thought with you. The cleverness of words.
Do you, like me, love a pithy saying?
I was in a cavernous building full of antiques just after socialite and model, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson died last week, and her editor/ghostwriter was speaking on the radio. Tara, she said, had ‘a casual relationship with deadlines‘ – so much so that she, the editor, ended up ghost writing much of the material that went out in Tara’s name. ‘A casual relationship with deadlines’ – wish I’d coined that phrase myself! Reminded me of the more famous Douglas Adams quote: ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.’
A few other wise adages or pertinent thoughts that have resonated with me this week:
‘Living with him made his eccentricities curdle into pathologies.‘ Matthew Thomas
‘No-one knows what is going to sell. Not really. So you might as well write the book you want to write, not the book the publishers think the market will want in two years’ time.‘ Francesca Simon
‘The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.’
Robert Benchley
‘The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.‘ Sylvia Plath
‘I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.‘ Harper Lee
‘Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.’ Virginia Woolf
We’ve been hearing a lot this month about flocks of starlings and their spectacular aerial displays – collective noun: a murmuration. Others that resonate with me and seem particularly apt are
a shrewdness of apes
a sleuth of bears
a bask of crocodiles
a flamboyance of flamingoes
an exhaltation of larks
a pandemonium of parrots
an ostentation of peacocks.
The editor of the writerly journal, The Author, obviously enjoys such clever expression:
‘What’s the best collective noun for authors? A diversity? An advance? A recalcitrance?‘ James McConnachie
OK, break over; back to the reading …