Monday 23 November 2015

The Fellowship of Writing

by Addy Farmer

Friends celebrate at the SCBWI conference!
A friend is a comrade, chum, compatriot, crony, advocate, ally, a confrere ( I like that word). The bond of friendship is forged by many and varied things - common opinions and values, humour, food, shared experience, even disagreement can bring us together as friends. Friendship can be lifelong or fleeting. We remember friends from when we were little - when everything was supposed to be a great deal less complicated but often was not. Then there's the primary playground where we fell in and out of love with our friends as quickly as the cloud moves across the sun. Then, in a teenage time of change we longed for or adored or hated our friends and most probably all at once.






And now? Well, I'll return to now at the end of this blog.

friend - noun
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. orig. present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic frijōn to love
See how dark and gloomy the world looks when you're friendless.
Harry - in a place of isolation
The world can seem big and cold ...
Croc is looking for a friend at Christmas
 You might be lost and sad ...



I loved the brother sister friendship in I'll Give you the Sun, how it broke down, how each made new friends, before finding each other again. I also loved, as a child, the sibling friendship in Linnets and Valerians. Perhaps it has something to do with not having silblings that this type of friendship always catches me. Nicky Schmidt

Nobody understands you like a friends does ...
“Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other good.' Aristotle
Wise words, Aristotle. In other words, you don't need stuff to make you happy. One of my favourite picture books about friendship is this one ...

Crispin has everything or does he?
Crispin has every expensive present he could possibly wish for at Christmas but he finds no joy in them until he has friends to play with as well. At the simplest level friendship makes us happy and the lack of it makes us sad. Friendship can be profound and it can be frivolous. It can make us laugh, it can make us cry, it can make us really cross, it can support us in our hour of need, it can save our lives. It is the stuff of stories.
I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you.
(The Tempest 3.1.60-1), Miranda to Ferdinand

For me, friends are the thrumming heart of stories. On her own, our hero is alone in the woods with only the wolves for company. She spends her time scrabbling for berries to eat and scurrying to the makeshift hut to escape being eaten. By the light of the makeshift fire, she knows that this is quite a boring and dodgy way to live. Eventually hunger drives her out of the woods (hers and the wolves) and she meets a small boy who gives her a three course meal. She discovers the joy of having a proper chat with someone who is not a tree and who also has the power to hypnotise wolves. Plus, he tells the best jokes. And we're off.

There are as many different types of friends as there are characters
I love the way Oliver Jeffers explores friendship in his boy and penguin books (Lost and Found, Up and Down etc). The misunderstandings and problem solving are handled beautifully .Katherine Lynas

A short-lived but bright-burning friendship between a pig and a spider

Max is called stupid and Freak is called Dwarf but together they are unstoppable
Pippa Wilson Flora And Ulysses is an absolutely brilliant one to look at.
A friend is somebody to understand you when nobody else seems to

In Juliet Clare Bell and Dave Gray's, 'The Unstoppable Maggie Magee', the friendship between Maggie and Sol is unusual in that Sol cannot speak and has limited communication but Maggie is his friend and they find their own way to communicate because it's important to them. Their friendship takes them to the places that they dream of. 

An important story of an unstoppable friendship
In Jeanne Willis', 'Dumb Creatures', Tom's got plenty to say but it's all caged up inside him. Then he meets Zanzi the gorilla who changes everything. Like Tom, she too can sign and it makes for an unusual and touching friendship.
Not so dumb creatures
In 'Siddharth and Rinki' when Siddharth moves to England he feels that the only friend who understands him is his toy elephant, Rinki. But slowly Siddharth understands that friendship can come through gestures and smiles and adventure.  

You don't have to speak the same language to make friends
School Friends - The first rule of children's books is Kill The Parents/Adults, that leaves your character only one option - make friends. It's a brilliant story arc that works everytime. New school, everyone hates me, make friends. I'm all alone with no one to help me, turn to another child for solidarity. I use this theme again and again. Oh! My secret is out! Jo Franklin 
Friendship can go beyond boundaries.

Wonderful, quirky friendships in a wonderful quirky world suggested by Pippa Wilson
Friendship does not recognise fences
Huckleberry Finn chose to be with friends with Tom Sawyer, "the best fighter and the smartest kid in town".He thought himself lucky to have such a friend and in 1884 America, such a friendship was also brave.

Stephanie Cuthbertson pointed out the friendship in Huck Finn as unconditional with no agenda and no prejudice.
Friendship can be stronger than death
Keith Gray has written a brilliantly unsentimental odyssey, Ostrich Boys. Three friends steal the ashes of their dead friend and set out to give him one last adventure.

"You know, yesterday and today have been amazing. All the stuff we've been through? And it's all been because of him. I'm telling you: we've got the best story ever. But he missed out. He's never gonna be able to tell it." His shoulders shook as he wept.

But they did it - Kenny, Sim and Blake. They braved authority and defied common sense for the sake of friendship. 

It's as good as picking up a sword. Remember Neville in Harry Potter?


Friends will go to the ends of the world to save you

Someone can overcome incredible odds to rescue their friend. In The Snow Queen, small, young, Gerda risks her life and soul to recover her friend, Kay from the Snow Queen.

A wonderful illustration by the illustrator Amy Chipping
"I can give her no greater power than she has already, said the woman; don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has ... If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kay, we can do nothing to help her.”
Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen

In the end, friends will not give up on you

"To find out where Jonah had gone, he would have to go there too. One day it would come. He would hear something or see something, and he would know that this was the day. It might be only hours from now, it might be years. But he would know it when it came ... And then, he knew, he would find him."

When everyone else despairs of finding him, Joe never gives up on his best friend, Jonah

Story or real-life
A friend will fight for us
Rescue us
Stick up for us
Find us when we are lost
Support us when we are unsure
Tell us the truth
Or close their eyes to our faults ...
Pooh will keep you safe, Piglet!


Thanks to all our SCBWI friends who contributed to this blog. Catherine Friess also wrote a lovely post in Story Snug about fictional best friends - take a look for more ideas!

So back to the beginning and friend now; here are a few photos of friends or confrere at the conference!


Pirate Pals

Ah-ha!

Ahhhhhhh!

Aye, aye, Cap'n!

Pirates have seldom looked better

Pirate lovelies

Pals

26 comments :

  1. Impressive feat, m'heartie... You must be exhausted! Thanks for a happy post -and a list of new books that I must try and get hold of, especially Dumb Creatures, and The Ostrich Boys. Fantastic to see you over the weekend. x

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    1. Thanks, Clare! It was a glorious time wasn't it? Very very best to you and Dave with Maggie!

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  2. Lovely. And so well timed. Thank you.

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  3. Lovely post Addy! Have you been up all night writing?!

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    1. Yeees... no. I wrote most of it before hand and added last night! Thanks!

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  4. Argh! You made me cry - TRUE TRUE ALL TRUE

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  5. Pals get lost together and found together and giggle a lot - at least we did. Thank you for adding all these wonderful examples.

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    1. Could you be talking about a particular journey, I wonder? I loved your company! Thanks, Gill.

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  6. What a lovely hymn to friends. Really got me thinking about all the variety and delicacy of relationships.

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    1. Thanks, Ana! It's a theme I return to again and again.

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  7. I love that. A friend is a person attached to another. So much attachment at the SCBWIcon, it's no wonder it hurts a bit to leave. Lovely post Addy.

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  8. Thanks, Sheila! Yes but it's worth the pain!

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  10. Brilliant and well-timed post, Addy. Really lovely. Here's to friendship, of all sorts, but particularly the writerly variety!

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    1. Thanks, Nicky. And yes, here's to friendship!

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  11. Having scoobie friends is hugely important to me. You lot keep me going x

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    1. Too true, Maureen. Couldn't wish for a more supportive bunch of friends

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  12. I'm not sure how I would have made it through the past few years without my SCBWI friends!

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  13. What a lovely post. *Wipes tear*

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  14. Love this! Have to say I have been in the doldrums recently--major writing mojo issues, and other things. The conference (and all of you!) made me feel not so alone and, most of all, made me laugh. Thanks!

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  15. Your friends are with you, Jane! So good to see you at the conference and actually quite hilarious (and I forgive you for disliking Stirctly).

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