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Comment from the book world in November 2005

November 2005

Writers in schools

28 November 2005

'Supporting young people as they find their creative voice is an inspiring business. All of us - writers, teachers, and project co-ordinators - are thrilled by the sheer adventure of it. We listen to the plays, stories and poems young people write, and we are astonished. We value not only the art itself, but also the impact creative writing has on learning across the board. Writing creatively teaches us to think creatively, and the very act of doing, the act of making, changes us profoundly. Teachers understand this very well, and over the years have invited thousands of writers into their schools...

There are as many approaches to the role of 'writers in school' as there are writers who do it, and our profession plays a dynamic role in education precisely because it harnesses such a diversity of expertise. Our research shows that the practice of visiting schools is particularly strong amongst poets; however, this is expanding to include writers in all disciplines. Writers-in-schools projects are happening every week across Britain and, although the traditional one-off author's visit is as popular as ever, new initiatives are more ambitious in scope and vision. The success of all of these ventures - one-offs and residencies - depends on teachers, writers, and project co-ordinators talking and listening to each other, receiving adequate training and understanding good practice.'

Mandy Coe and Jean Sprackland in the foreword to their book Our thoughts are Bees: Writers Working with Schools, which can be purchased at a price of £10 from their website www.wordplaypress.com/bees/index.html

A vocation or a craft?

21 November 2005

'I cannot abide those writers who go out of their way to make what we do sound deeply magical; who, in doing so, mystify the craft of writing, going so far as to suggest that it is a vocation rather than a job. Whether it's talk of muses, or of an almost supernatural possession by one's own character, it always strikes me as bogus and smacks of someone who has ideas above their station. It is also insulting to those writers who work hard to craft their stories, doing detailed planning and research when necessary, and whose 1,000 words a day come from nowhere but their own imagination and natural facility with language.'

Mark Billingham in the Bookseller

Bookselling as part of retail

14 November 2005

'As a retailer you are not just competing against other bookstores, you are competing against everyone else on the high street. It is about how you can convince someone to buy a book rather than a pair of jeans.

We are a bookshop and whatever the most popular books in the country are, we should be stocking them. Of course, I understand that the publishers, literary press and commentators will make comments on it, but the people we have to listen to are our customers.'

Scott Pack, Waterstone's head buyer, in Publishing News

How editors can help

7 November 2005

'Perhaps I've been unusually lucky, but in my experience, editors, far from coercing and squashing writers, do exactly the opposite, elucidating them and drawing them out, or, when they're exhausted and on the point of giving up (like marathon runners hitting the wall), coaxing them to go the extra mile...

When people speak of writer's block, they think of the writer stalled over a blank page, or of throwing scrunched-up bits of paper - false starts - into a waste-bin. But there's another kind of block, which is structural, when you've written tens of thousands of words, but can't figure out which are superfluous and what goes where. Something's wrong, but you don't know what it is, and that can make you desperate...

And that's why editors matter, not as butchers and barbers, but because what's wrong with a book can be something the author has repressed all knowledge of, something glaringly obvious which, the moment an editor or other reader identifies it, you think, yes, of course, Eureka, and then you go back and fix it.'

Blake Morrison in an excellent piece about editors as an endangered species, in the Guardian