Feedback - Graham Jones
When you toil away on your own for long stretches of time and wonder if what you’re doing is any good, it’s an inspiration to meet other people doing the same thing. You realise you’re not peculiar in having this strange urge to turn what you think and feel into words. Nor are you unusual in getting stuck and losing sight of what you do want to express. Others have been there too and have come through.
At the Lakes Course, David Lawrence was excellent in giving shape and structure to the sort of messages I’ve often tried to pin down in words. His analysis of the ‘narrative loop’ in the parables showed not just what a good storyteller Jesus was, but how any story could be constructed to carry the reader with you. It was also illuminating in showing the structural choices you have as you embark on a story. David’s analysis of post-modernism was also the best concise account of this complicated subject I think I’ve ever heard.
Catherine Fox had some great things to say on listening to your sub-conscious – and also listening to your characters to see what direction they might want to go. I valued her advice on finding your unique voice. ‘Do your one thing with your whole heart,’ she said. Which leads to the question: ‘What is my one thing?’ You’re bound to be a better writer when you know the answer. The lesson I took away was not to put on false voices when you write, but to relax into who you are and let it come.
From inside the publishing industry, Charlotte Hubback gave some practical advice on approaching publishers and writing synopses. I’d always assumed that a synopsis was six pages detailing every twist and turn to prove you’d worked it all out. It was refreshing to be told that a synopsis is one side of paper to catch a publisher’s interest.
The story that was forming in my mind as I went on the course has started to flow better since I came back. Maybe it comes from relaxing about it. Or having the confidence to be able to think … ‘This is how I would naturally say it and maybe it does have some merit after all.’
I sent a synopsis and the first 14,000 words to an agent today and she emailed back within the hour to say: ‘Just read the synopsis and it certainly grabbed my attention.’ Thanks, Charlotte!
Plus the whole thing was a lot of fun with some really nice people to meet.
Graham Jones
13 February 2006