If you've ever tried to get a book published, you'll know that it's a path strewn with rejection and snotty letters from literary agents ('We read your manuscript and simply didn't find it interesting enough. However, we wish you the best of luck in finding a place for it.') When this goes on for ten years, you can start to feel like you're either going crazy, have zero writing talent, or are wasting your time. Which is exactly how most best-selling authors felt too, until the 456th publisher they approached decided to take them on. Ask Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian, and Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help. It it can pay to persist, even when nothing's going your way.
As a writer awaiting a lucky break, I find US financial guru Jim Rohn's advice helpful. Discipline your disappointment, he tells his aspirant billionaires. When things don't work out, don't persist in asking 'why'. Stay focused on what you're doing. Don't get distracted.
Sure, Jim. I took your advice - only I took it one step further. I decided to turn my years of trying to get published into something fabulous. From the depths of my literary disappointment arose The Peacock Book Project: creative, hilarious, meaningful, fun.
This, in fact, has become my standard response to trying times. I ask, 'What would make me happy right now? What would feel better?' and then I try to do it. We're each responsible for our own happiness, after all. When there's a war, paint a glorious picture. When politicians are letting the country down, create something innovative for people to share. When your venture has failed, turn it into something fun. When you're having a bad day, take a walk and turn your mood around. When agents and publishers don't want you, fall in love with yourself. Keep writing. Keep the faith.
Monday 28 May 2012
Monday 21 May 2012
How to write a book: Don't think about it (too much)
It's very easy to freak yourself out when attempting to write a book. (In fact, this is probably the easiest part, writers having such fecund imaginations.) Scarily, it can happen within a matter of minutes: you go inward, mentally fretting, and start turning your anxiety settings up. It's too big a job. I can't do this. I'm not a writer. What will I do about the sagging middle bit? Suddenly, The Book has grown into an insurmountable, fruitless goal. The result? You procrastinate, draw the process out over painful decades, or even give up on your book completely.
'It sounds like crossing an ocean,' an old friend once said after listening to me whine about the enormity of the task I had set myself. A yacht skipper, he collected brand-new boats in Cape Town and sailed them across seas to their owners in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, sometimes spending weeks without seeing another boat in the distance.
'You can't think about that whole ocean ahead of you,' he said, shaking his head. 'If you do that, you'll never grasp how you'll actual make it across. You'll think it's impossible. The journey seems too long, the sea too big, your boat too slow. I mean, a yacht is just this piece of stuck-together wood with a few ropes and stuff... How on earth will you and your crew of two make it to the other side of the world?'
I asked, So what do you do?
'You play a mental trick on yourself,' he revealed, taking a sip of his beer and smiling like a Zen master. 'You settle back, relax, and just focus on what you have to do that day: say, travel a short stretch, from this marker to that next one. You make lunch. Have a sleep. Steer the boat. Keep watch. Chat to the others. You tick off your task for the day. Repeat every day, and after a few months you're amazed to see that you've actually arrived at a foreign shore. Your tiny daily achievements have added up to something major.'
Similarly, as a novelist it helps to stop focusing on the end point. Instead, ask yourself, 'What small piece of my manuscript can I work on today?' Maybe relook that section of dialogue that doesn't feel quite right, or tinker with your opening paragraph, or write the beginning of that key scene you've been picturing in your mind for a few weeks. Action beats inaction hands down. Do something, anything, and you'll probably feel freer and lighter. Plus, with each passing day, you'll have come closer to a new destination.
Monday 14 May 2012
How will you help educate our nation?
The Franschhoek Literary Festival is the best book fest by far, if you ask me. It's small and intimate; the participating authors and experts chat freely to passers-by; the trees and vineyards are fetching shades of red and gold; plus, you can always find something fabulous to eat between events, this being the gourmet capital of the Cape. What's not to love?
Yesterday I sat in the Franschhoek High School hall and listened to three wise men discuss the education crisis in SA: Prof Jonathan Jansen, vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, UCT economist Prof Francis Wilson, and CapeTalk's John Maytham. Make no mistake, Jansen warned, 'the situation is extremely bad.' Wilson was more upbeat, regarding the crisis as an opportunity for each of us to get involved in educating our coutry's youth. What they agreed on was the following:
1. We need to focus on quality. Passing kids at 30% or 40% is absurd. 50% should be the pass rate, finished and klaar. Once you set the bar higher, learners tend to rise to the challenge. Expect people to perform, and they will. Expect them to scrape by at 30% and they will... Currently, performance is sinking to such dismal levels because the bar has been set so shamefully low. We should start expecting - and pushing - students to aim for 70% and 80%.
2. We need to harness the energy of ordinary people to turn the education situation around, and not rely on government. What can you do to help stimulate reading, writing and learning among youth? If you're a chartered accountant, for instance, consider mentoring an accounting teacher at a local school for an hour a week. Or volunteer as a primary teacher's assistant. Or start a reading club, or help set up a library: only 8% of SA schools have libraries!
3. SA needs a value system overhaul. Our teachers and learners need to start showing up at school on time, doing their work, and being accountable and responsible. And parents need to show their commitment too. We've lost track of what's right and wrong.
4. Cellphones are what young people are using to chat, connect and obtain information, and that's where we should be developing educational tools.
Re that last point: Open The Peacock Book Project on your cellphone, and let me know how far you get...
Yesterday I sat in the Franschhoek High School hall and listened to three wise men discuss the education crisis in SA: Prof Jonathan Jansen, vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, UCT economist Prof Francis Wilson, and CapeTalk's John Maytham. Make no mistake, Jansen warned, 'the situation is extremely bad.' Wilson was more upbeat, regarding the crisis as an opportunity for each of us to get involved in educating our coutry's youth. What they agreed on was the following:
1. We need to focus on quality. Passing kids at 30% or 40% is absurd. 50% should be the pass rate, finished and klaar. Once you set the bar higher, learners tend to rise to the challenge. Expect people to perform, and they will. Expect them to scrape by at 30% and they will... Currently, performance is sinking to such dismal levels because the bar has been set so shamefully low. We should start expecting - and pushing - students to aim for 70% and 80%.
2. We need to harness the energy of ordinary people to turn the education situation around, and not rely on government. What can you do to help stimulate reading, writing and learning among youth? If you're a chartered accountant, for instance, consider mentoring an accounting teacher at a local school for an hour a week. Or volunteer as a primary teacher's assistant. Or start a reading club, or help set up a library: only 8% of SA schools have libraries!
3. SA needs a value system overhaul. Our teachers and learners need to start showing up at school on time, doing their work, and being accountable and responsible. And parents need to show their commitment too. We've lost track of what's right and wrong.
4. Cellphones are what young people are using to chat, connect and obtain information, and that's where we should be developing educational tools.
Re that last point: Open The Peacock Book Project on your cellphone, and let me know how far you get...
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Slowly does it
When the world's fastest violinist - the long-haired, chiselled cheekboned ex-model David Garrett - was asked by a Top Billing interviewer how he developed his musical speed, he answered simply, 'Slowly. I played scales very, very slowly. Up and down, over and over, for hours and hours, slowing them down as much as I could. My poor neighbours...' Paradoxically, starting slowly and cementing every nuance of his bowing and finger action allowed him the freedom to speed up, and up and up, to the point where he could play Flight of The Bumble Bee in a record-breaking 1 minute 6.56 seconds (see David Garrett plays on YouTube)
Slowing down makes almost everything more enjoyable. For the writer, artist or other creative, slowness is essential, for it's in the gaps that great ideas grow. In the list-making spirit of The Peacock Book Project, here are 5 things that, according to me, are best done in an unhurried manner. Feel free to add your own.
1. A good book. I tend to rush to the end, greedily devouring it, and regret my haste on the last page.
2. Driving. As my father advises, take the scenic route whenever possible in life. Just because a route is shorter doesn't mean it's better.
3. Eating Lindor balls. The worst mistake is to eat something delicious in front of your computer. You look down while FaceBooking and it's gone. Did you really eat it? Surely not! That last dark chocolate Lindor ball must have been abducted by aliens...
4. Breastfeeding (which I'm doing a lot of these days. A baby cannot be rushed. It's best to take your time, open a book, and give in to the leisurely pace.)
5. Attempting to get a novel published.
Slowing down makes almost everything more enjoyable. For the writer, artist or other creative, slowness is essential, for it's in the gaps that great ideas grow. In the list-making spirit of The Peacock Book Project, here are 5 things that, according to me, are best done in an unhurried manner. Feel free to add your own.
1. A good book. I tend to rush to the end, greedily devouring it, and regret my haste on the last page.
2. Driving. As my father advises, take the scenic route whenever possible in life. Just because a route is shorter doesn't mean it's better.
3. Eating Lindor balls. The worst mistake is to eat something delicious in front of your computer. You look down while FaceBooking and it's gone. Did you really eat it? Surely not! That last dark chocolate Lindor ball must have been abducted by aliens...
4. Breastfeeding (which I'm doing a lot of these days. A baby cannot be rushed. It's best to take your time, open a book, and give in to the leisurely pace.)
5. Attempting to get a novel published.
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