Dear Readers, There will be no dispatch this weekend. Carlo is in Glastonbury and I am working on a longer piece for next week. So, instead: what is on your mind? Would you like to ask me something? If so, please comment below and I will endeavour to answer as many of your questions as I can.
Hi Hanif. I've just started to write a memoir and it's the most fun I've had writing for a long time. However, I'm a tiny bit worried about sharing too much and potentially hurting people. Should I just think f*** it and carry on? It's highly unlikely that anyone would ever get to read it anyway, so maybe I'm worrying about nothing. Any thoughts welcome. Den
Hi Hanif I've been a subscriber for over a year but haven't sent anything because of technophobia etc. I'm hoping I'm pressing the right buttons right now. I'm a poet and artist and am struggling to write a (possibly fictionalised) memoir. Do you have anything to say about writing about a) sexual encounters, and b) drug experiences. I'm also, in a separate project, trying to write about serious illness. Any thoughts?
Dearest Hanif, I have been writing on and off for myself, when I feel the urge to take important things down (or perhaps, to let them out) for 25 years. English is not my first language, so I had never dared giving it a try before your Spring writing competition. I had also never tried (not so) pure fiction. I never expected to win, but I did get to understand what it's like to have to deal with sharing a part of oneself with complete strangers a bit, for which I am forever grateful. Which brings me to my question: Would you please be so kind as to give me some feedback? Yours admiringly.
By letting others read your work. Some things the author can never know, such as whether a work is interesting or funny. I had truly no idea if my latest book would inspire anyone read past chapter 2. My cousin couldn't read it. But then a manuscript editor found it "riveting" and read it straight through! I only wish she was an acquiring editor.
I sometimes feel as if there is a writer living inside me, but I've never done more than topic-specific blogs and lots of business writing (which probably ruins one's creativity). Do you have an opinion about using structured writing exercises (kind of like piano etudes, I suppose) as one way for a person to try to get started?
As a visitor to the bedside of the late Stephen Hawking I do have a ‘take’ on your predicament. Stephen wasn't struck down in his prime like you, the onset was insidious. It was will power that kept him at it, but those close to him often found him very selfish. To be so helpless doesn’t leave you much option, nor him, with all the little feedback niceties or nastecies that keep us in our place gone, how awful. Congrats on keeping going. Maybe you will get a little back in time.
I just wanted to say hallo, but I’d like your reaction to this one. I’m 76, I’ve had a recent ‘near death’ experience but am recovering along a somewhat bumpy path. My father was Jewish, which mattered enough for my Mother to insist on a name change so I have a ‘bastard’ name. He was born in 1912, so could see Hitler coming for him which clearly afflicted his whole life. Few protested in Germany about it, now we have a similar situation in Israel but with role reversal. So many kind and decent friends want to continue ordinary conversations, especially Americans, as if this was not happening; about the weather, about the best route from Denver to Salt Lake, about their kids etc etc and every reply could be an opportunity to say stop! Think! Let’s have a plan! It’s all of course deteriorating rapidly in every way. How can it be OK to carry on as if we are not in a disaster zone? I too have the opportunity to write, with a limited audience. ‘Be reasonable, don’t be a bore’ is the chorused response to my wish to be relevant, and take heed, maybe join some kind of movement. The quietest stoic approach is to accept what you cannot change, but I know that is bullshit and the limit to what you can do is highly elastic. You can change things if you try, maybe a lot if we get a sense of a common cause. How pointless it is to have ordinary conversations and pretend enthusiasm for other topics when the house is on fire. Why are we not just as guilty as the man in the street in ‘30s Germany?
THE QUESTION: Why are you not a political activist while you have so many by the ear? What is there to lose for those of us who live on the edge not to try to find common cause while there is still time? We should warn, cajole others, look for a way through…. That will do, Best to you, Mike
What possibilities exist for the older writer? I've had 10 books published, none a bestseller, and to my chagrin, my most successful book was not fiction but Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir. I have just finished a new novel but fear my age and experience (oh to be a debut author!) preclude the possibility of getting an agent or a major book deal. What do you think?
I'd love to know the reason you chose to call a play of yours Birds of Passage. I used that as a title once, too, as a quote from a Canadian writer, and am curious how you came to it.
Hello Hanif, I hope you're having a good day / good week. I'd like to know if there has been a book, film, artwork in general that was so disappointing that it inspired you to write a story
Hi Hanif, I subscribed today, and though I was your free subscriber a few months ago, I need your advice regarding my first prose manuscript, which is literary fiction written in a bit realistic, surreal and magical realism. My two poetry books have been published. I got it beta reading, and feedback was nice, I am sincerly seeking a traditional publisher, I would like your guidance
I found your piece on collaborative writing very interesting. Do you think it is easier for an established writer than for someone new in the trade? I could imagine that the rivalry and resentment you mention might be more of an issue in a writer's formative years, when they are still trying to make a name for themselves. But I might be mistaken. Creative writing is just a leisure activity for me, and I have only once written something collaboratively with a close friend of mine – just for the fun of it.
I remember you mentioning Mary Shelley the other day, wondering what her working relationship with Percy might have been like. As far as I know they wrote prefaces together and that he, of course, edited her first draft of Frankenstein. Some misogynous critics in the past even claimed that the novel was Percy’s work – since a 19-year-old woman could never have written it. But manuscript evidence has ruled this out and more recent research shows that their working relationship was a mutual intellectual exchange from which both Mary and Percy benefited.
But of course, it would be interesting to know what their daily writing routines were like, apart from sharing and discussing their latest readings on scientific experiments or J.J. Rousseau, e.g., in the context of the creation of Frankenstein.
What impact do you think writing your memoir Shattered at the same time as the events happened had on the book that emerged? Would it have been a different book if you had begun writing it, say a month ago? In particular do you find it hard now to fully remember the states of mind you were in the months after the accident and if so is this an advantage of the contemporaneously written memoir? Are there other pros and cons of this approach?
Thanks Tom. Good suggestion for me.. a topic I’ve avoided for long long time because it brings up deep anger and overall helplessness. The CORPORATE & GOV’T entities that may engage full throttle internationally may still make a positive DENT in the overheating, etc.
When I was studying literature at university, I sneered at ecocriticism and the idea that climate change should be used as a lens for understanding and judging works of art. I was the opposite of a climate denier, butI saw it as a category error. Now, a little older, I think differently and I'm reconsidering. I feel disoriented by how much of a threat climate change represents to everything I value, including literature, and I'd be curious to know what thoughts come to you on this. Thank you.
Hi Hanif. I've just started to write a memoir and it's the most fun I've had writing for a long time. However, I'm a tiny bit worried about sharing too much and potentially hurting people. Should I just think f*** it and carry on? It's highly unlikely that anyone would ever get to read it anyway, so maybe I'm worrying about nothing. Any thoughts welcome. Den
Ask you something? Do you feel as better as you sound? I hope so. We care about you.
Hi Hanif I've been a subscriber for over a year but haven't sent anything because of technophobia etc. I'm hoping I'm pressing the right buttons right now. I'm a poet and artist and am struggling to write a (possibly fictionalised) memoir. Do you have anything to say about writing about a) sexual encounters, and b) drug experiences. I'm also, in a separate project, trying to write about serious illness. Any thoughts?
Dearest Hanif, I have been writing on and off for myself, when I feel the urge to take important things down (or perhaps, to let them out) for 25 years. English is not my first language, so I had never dared giving it a try before your Spring writing competition. I had also never tried (not so) pure fiction. I never expected to win, but I did get to understand what it's like to have to deal with sharing a part of oneself with complete strangers a bit, for which I am forever grateful. Which brings me to my question: Would you please be so kind as to give me some feedback? Yours admiringly.
As a writer , you never know if what you write is good , or if others will find it good . How do you manage this not knowing ?
By letting others read your work. Some things the author can never know, such as whether a work is interesting or funny. I had truly no idea if my latest book would inspire anyone read past chapter 2. My cousin couldn't read it. But then a manuscript editor found it "riveting" and read it straight through! I only wish she was an acquiring editor.
I sometimes feel as if there is a writer living inside me, but I've never done more than topic-specific blogs and lots of business writing (which probably ruins one's creativity). Do you have an opinion about using structured writing exercises (kind of like piano etudes, I suppose) as one way for a person to try to get started?
What have you learned about yourself and what has surprised you most?
Hi Hanif,
As a visitor to the bedside of the late Stephen Hawking I do have a ‘take’ on your predicament. Stephen wasn't struck down in his prime like you, the onset was insidious. It was will power that kept him at it, but those close to him often found him very selfish. To be so helpless doesn’t leave you much option, nor him, with all the little feedback niceties or nastecies that keep us in our place gone, how awful. Congrats on keeping going. Maybe you will get a little back in time.
I just wanted to say hallo, but I’d like your reaction to this one. I’m 76, I’ve had a recent ‘near death’ experience but am recovering along a somewhat bumpy path. My father was Jewish, which mattered enough for my Mother to insist on a name change so I have a ‘bastard’ name. He was born in 1912, so could see Hitler coming for him which clearly afflicted his whole life. Few protested in Germany about it, now we have a similar situation in Israel but with role reversal. So many kind and decent friends want to continue ordinary conversations, especially Americans, as if this was not happening; about the weather, about the best route from Denver to Salt Lake, about their kids etc etc and every reply could be an opportunity to say stop! Think! Let’s have a plan! It’s all of course deteriorating rapidly in every way. How can it be OK to carry on as if we are not in a disaster zone? I too have the opportunity to write, with a limited audience. ‘Be reasonable, don’t be a bore’ is the chorused response to my wish to be relevant, and take heed, maybe join some kind of movement. The quietest stoic approach is to accept what you cannot change, but I know that is bullshit and the limit to what you can do is highly elastic. You can change things if you try, maybe a lot if we get a sense of a common cause. How pointless it is to have ordinary conversations and pretend enthusiasm for other topics when the house is on fire. Why are we not just as guilty as the man in the street in ‘30s Germany?
THE QUESTION: Why are you not a political activist while you have so many by the ear? What is there to lose for those of us who live on the edge not to try to find common cause while there is still time? We should warn, cajole others, look for a way through…. That will do, Best to you, Mike
What possibilities exist for the older writer? I've had 10 books published, none a bestseller, and to my chagrin, my most successful book was not fiction but Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir. I have just finished a new novel but fear my age and experience (oh to be a debut author!) preclude the possibility of getting an agent or a major book deal. What do you think?
I'd love to know the reason you chose to call a play of yours Birds of Passage. I used that as a title once, too, as a quote from a Canadian writer, and am curious how you came to it.
Hello Hanif, I hope you're having a good day / good week. I'd like to know if there has been a book, film, artwork in general that was so disappointing that it inspired you to write a story
Hi Hanif, I subscribed today, and though I was your free subscriber a few months ago, I need your advice regarding my first prose manuscript, which is literary fiction written in a bit realistic, surreal and magical realism. My two poetry books have been published. I got it beta reading, and feedback was nice, I am sincerly seeking a traditional publisher, I would like your guidance
Hi Hanif,
I found your piece on collaborative writing very interesting. Do you think it is easier for an established writer than for someone new in the trade? I could imagine that the rivalry and resentment you mention might be more of an issue in a writer's formative years, when they are still trying to make a name for themselves. But I might be mistaken. Creative writing is just a leisure activity for me, and I have only once written something collaboratively with a close friend of mine – just for the fun of it.
I remember you mentioning Mary Shelley the other day, wondering what her working relationship with Percy might have been like. As far as I know they wrote prefaces together and that he, of course, edited her first draft of Frankenstein. Some misogynous critics in the past even claimed that the novel was Percy’s work – since a 19-year-old woman could never have written it. But manuscript evidence has ruled this out and more recent research shows that their working relationship was a mutual intellectual exchange from which both Mary and Percy benefited.
But of course, it would be interesting to know what their daily writing routines were like, apart from sharing and discussing their latest readings on scientific experiments or J.J. Rousseau, e.g., in the context of the creation of Frankenstein.
Kirsten
Hi Hanif,
What impact do you think writing your memoir Shattered at the same time as the events happened had on the book that emerged? Would it have been a different book if you had begun writing it, say a month ago? In particular do you find it hard now to fully remember the states of mind you were in the months after the accident and if so is this an advantage of the contemporaneously written memoir? Are there other pros and cons of this approach?
Warm wishes
Sarah
Thanks Tom. Good suggestion for me.. a topic I’ve avoided for long long time because it brings up deep anger and overall helplessness. The CORPORATE & GOV’T entities that may engage full throttle internationally may still make a positive DENT in the overheating, etc.
When I was studying literature at university, I sneered at ecocriticism and the idea that climate change should be used as a lens for understanding and judging works of art. I was the opposite of a climate denier, butI saw it as a category error. Now, a little older, I think differently and I'm reconsidering. I feel disoriented by how much of a threat climate change represents to everything I value, including literature, and I'd be curious to know what thoughts come to you on this. Thank you.