Bloodied and Bandaged: My Arvon Experience

by Jo Wyton

Last week I attended an Arvon Foundation course in the rainy depths of Shropshire, and I will just say up front that it was fantastic!

My course ran at the John Osborne centre at the Hurst

For those unfamiliar with Arvon, it’s a charitable foundation set up in 1968 by John Fairfax and John Moat, both close friends of Ted Hughes. They have a number of houses dotted around the UK, all in the middle of nowhere in the beautiful and mercifully remote countryside. Their courses cover everything from Writing for Beginners to Writing for Games and Writing Poetry. Each course is led by two or three (if you’re very lucky) published authors, with the occasional visiting author popping up during the week.

See - middle of nowhere!

In this case, Linda Newbery and Celia Rees were our Writers in Residence, and Gillian Cross was the visiting author. (Excuse me whilst I steady myself.) Each morning consisted of workshops, with one-to-one tutorials in the afternoon and various discussions (and sing-a-longs, for that matter) in the evening. Our group ranged from 17 to, well, that would just be rude, wouldn’t it?

The lovely Celia Rees (left) and Gillian Cross (right)

Now it’s a strange kind of place, an Arvon centre, where everyone takes it in turns to cook and wash-up, you find yourself sitting next to Linda Newbery at dinner, and the toilets are sponsored by Dame Maggie Smith. (No, really.)

Arvon Centre folk get imaginative as often as possible!

On the inside of the downstairs toilet...

(thanks to Becca Beddow for the above photos!)

Most people arrive at an Arvon course a little bit bloodied in some sense of the word – it might be that they’ve had writers block for a year, or that their lives have drastically changed and they’ve decided to pick up a pen (or a laptop) for the first time. It might simply be that their plot or first chapter isn’t working.

Whatever ailment people arrived with on day one, I am certain that by the time we all left, they were a bit closer to fixing it. My own particular ailment is confidence in my writing, but to be honest I mostly just wanted to learn some new tricks and meet some new people.

The bloomin' brilliant Sheena Wilkinson (whose debut novel Taking Flight is scooping up the awards!) and Philippa Francis (writing as KM Lockwood)

Becca Beddow trying to concentrate despite me taking photos of her!

It’s safe to say that new tricks a plenty were offered up and gratefully received, and I did indeed meet plenty of new people, many of whom I will definitely stay in touch with. But mainly I just came back feeling ready to tackle anything!

Arvon provides the chance to surround yourself with writers, every one at a different stage in their quest to transform into the Lesser Spotted Author, and maybe to rediscover what it is that makes them love what they do. It also, coincidentally, gives you a peaceful week away from your emails, telephone and the general rigmarole of daily life.

No e-mails here, thank you very much!

I picked up some great tips and advice during my Arvon week – from everybody, I think. Gillian Cross spoke of the serendipity of writing a novel on Wednesday night, and then the following evening another guest provided me with my own serendipitous moment. Linda Newbery listened with patience whilst, with great ineptitude, I tried to explain my plot, and somehow she even managed to follow what I was saying enough to help. Celia Rees welcomed me to my tutorial with the words, “Well this is all good, but THIS is a prologue. You don’t need it.” So at least one darling was murdered this week.

Celia said something else that I’m certain is going to stick with me. She said, “Don’t just write a novel. Write your break-through novel.” (Or something to that effect. I was generally thinking ‘Oh my god, I’m sitting next to Celia Rees’ and trying not to hyperventilate at the time.)

Celia Rees (left) and Linda Newbery (right) planning our next punishment. I mean, workshop.

The tutors were all more than generous with their time and experience, as were the other people on the course. Everyone was so supportive, which isn’t unusual for children’s writers, but it is unusual to experience it for almost a week!

By the end, the atmosphere in the house had descended into friendship, and our last night was full of people reading their work and singing folk songs over a glass of wine. For me personally, it was also full of a trip up the stairs, a couple of bags of frozen peas (one of which ruptured on the stairs – apologies lovely Arvon people), and the wonderful Gita, who bandaged me up.

Just in case you needed to see evidence...

Arvon courses mean different things to different people. But everyone went away with something new, something to work on, and I reckon everyone’s writing will be all the better for it.

Sign me up for next year.

Slushpilers go to Arvon:

Maureen's Arvon experience with Malachy Doyle and Julia Goulding

Candy's Arvon with Melvin Burgess and Malorie Blackman

Surviving the Slushpile ...as a dyslexic

by Sally Poyton
Guest Blogger

Notes from the Slushpile attempts to make some sense out of the mad scramble for a publishing deal. As the newest slushpile guinea pig, I'm going to attempt to take you all with me... This is the second in new series Surviving the Slushpile, where we'll highlight some of the highs and lows of the slushpile journey.

Sally Poyton is knee-deep in the slushpile just like the rest of us - and you think you've got it hard!

I’m dyslexic, and just like Winnie-the-Pooh, my spelling wobbles, unfortunately sometimes with embarrassing results. This can be problematic, especially as I’m trying to write a novel. As if breaking in to the world of literature isn’t difficult enough with dropping book sales, slushpiles and all manner of other obstacles to avoid. How about adding this to your list: having to translate your manuscript from your own version of English, to one that other people can read.

So here are a few words about my daily battles with, well, words.

Case One: Napoleons Ice Cream

It’s an easy mistake to make, and I made it. As a kid, I read the top of the ice-cream pot as ‘Napoleons Ice Cream’ as opposed to ‘Neapolitan Ice Cream’. So, yes, I really thought it was named after the little French man with the big chip on his shoulder. I thought he couldn’t decide which flavour of ice cream was his favourite, and therefore got them all put together in one pot (dictators can do this can’t they?).

Advice : Don’t trust anyone! Because until recently, nobody corrected me…

Napoleon and his favourite ice-cream

Case Two: Fooling the spell checker

This must be the bane of any dyslexic writer’s life – spelling one word wrong, but inadvertently spelling another word correctly in its place. This is BAD! Spell checker doesn’t pick it up, and as it has no red squiggly line underneath it, neither do I.

If you thought Napoleons ice cream was bad, think again. Imagine working for an educational computer company, and selling, say, Brothel printers instead of Brother Printers. Thankfully, I had a boss with a sense of humour. That’s not my only work place mistake, but I’ll spare you the details of the castrated chips.

Advice: Ignore the advice in Case One. Always get someone you trust to proofread your work.

Case Three: Google is for life, not just for searching for websites

Spell checker, that’ll fix everything, right? Well let me tell you – this is a myth. Spell checker most of the time has no idea what word I’m trying to write. Usually I end up spending precious minutes retyping the word in as many different ways as I can think of to try and get it to recognise my intended word, and advise me of the correct spelling, but with no luck.

Should've gone to Google...!

In fact my spell checker seems to have developed an attitude recently. If it was actor, it would have stormed off to its trailer long ago. Yesterday, it point blank refused to check my spelling saying that there were too many mistakes in the manuscript.

Oh dear. Word rebels at last.

Advice: When Word spell checker fails, copy your misspelt word and paste it into the search bar in Google. This will then bring up websites featuring the word you meant, just like magic. How can this be possible? Information. Google saves and remembers all of the searches done worldwide. This includes all of the people who search for something but spelt it incorrectly. It also then remembers what sites they went to. So far has it has never got it wrong for me. It’s a great tool, and it’s also reassuring to know there are other people who are not only really bad at spelling, but spell the same way as you.

Case 4: The Unreadable Manuscript

After ten months of researching, plotting and writing, I completed my first ever manuscript. Feeling an enormous sense of achievement, I printed it off and asked a friend, who happens to be an editor of children’s books, to read it. After two weeks came an awkward conversation. It turned out that my draft novel was unreadable. Why? Well it was one paragraph with a mere 115000 word count. Plus the only grammar used was full stops and the occasional comma.

Advice: Don’t let this deter you. Grammar can be learnt. Writing is a craft, and grammar is one of the tools which you will learn on the journey. (Unlike spelling, which eludes me completely). Get some kids workbooks on grammar, and learn. It’ll take a while, but it can be done.

Alternatively, get help. If you’re serious about writing, budget in some money to get your work proofread, or copyedited, to pick up any errors that you miss. But most important of all: don’t give up.

Case 5: An Ode to Dyslexics Everywhere

Some of the all-time greatest author were dyslexic – Roald Dahl, A.A. Milne , William Butler Yeats and Hans Christian Anderson to name a few. Having dyslexia can be an obstacle, but it is also a gift. Being dyslexic, your head is wired differently, using more of the right side of the brain, the creative half.

At least there's one word you always know how to spell in Scrabble! It's worth 21 points, too.

This means that you think differently, which can be very useful for a writer. Being dyslexic you see and experience the world differently, and then process that information through the creative part of your brain, meaning one thing – ideas. What’s a story without ideas? A story with the absence of creative ideas would be a barren narrative.

So, yes, we may have trouble with words, but that can be fixed. What’s important is having the ideas, and being able to tell a story.

So if you’re dyslexic and you want to write, then write. It won’t be easy, but that not why we do it. There is one thing that unites all writers, dyslexic, and non-dyslexic: we all write because we love to write.

Sally Poyton has done everything from admin to hand-rearing parrots. She studied Art at university and produced works based on fairy tales. With a desire to write, Sally eventually overcame her fear that her dyslexia would prohibit her, and started writing. Now, many hours and manuscript re-writes later, she thinks of herself as a writer. An unpublished and un-agented writer, but still a writer! She enjoys all forms of narrative, from graphic novels to films, but her passion is fairy tales, and the darkness within them.

http://sallypoyton.blogspot.com/

Oxfordshire Book Awards - or 300: The Remake

by Jo Wyton

Last Thursday was the day of the Oxfordshire Book Awards, held at Abingdon School. I attended as part of a team of volunteers/well-bribed peoples (Sally Poyton and Gabby Aquilina) to help the brilliant Mostly Books independent bookshop sell books to the children / teachers / librarians in attendance.

The Oxfordshire Book Awards have been running for a few years now - the books are voted for by the students of local schools - both primary and secondary - in three categories:

Primary picture book

Primary book

Secondary book

Check it out - a cake of Axel Sheffler's winning book, Zog!

The day started off well - I arrived in time for lunch, which is always good, then helped load the books into a car to go to the school. I won't try to estimate how many boxes of how many books we carried, but I can tell you that my spine changed trajectory between starting and finishing. We also had a fun game of Dodge the Car Whilst Not Dropping Box or Being Able to See Your Feet.

Whilst the ceremony was going on in the Amey Theatre, we set about constructing our makeshift bookshop. Cue lifting of tables that realistically women of 5 foot 2 shouldn't have been lifting and then the shuffling of those tables into something resembling practical. It turns out that this is an effective way to realign your spine after all that box carrying.

There were several authors in attendance, including two of the winners - Malorie Blackman (Boys Don't Cry - secondary book, which incidentally I've just read and it's flipping brilliant) and Axel Scheffler (Zog, with Julia Donaldson - primary picture book). Sally Nicholls, Jo Cotterill and S.L. Powell were also there. (Michael Morpurgo was the other winner for his book Shadow, but was unfortunately unable to attend, although he was there last year.) All were doing book signings after the ceremony.

So, picture this, if you will...

A school canteen. (Still smelling suspiciously like canteens did in the 1980s. You know - bleach and custard.) Four long (and heavy) tables lined up, and covered with cloths (because nobody likes a dirty book) (jokes on a postcard). Three tables set at jaunty angles for author signings. Books set out on various stands, in order of target age range, separate stands for the winners and authors in attendance, series fiction in order (harder than you'd think).

Finished.

Peace and quiet reigns. Just calm old us and the books.

Wait a minute... Oh my God, they're all heading straight for us! Man your stations!

300 children, all with pocket money stashed away in folded-up envelopes and stuffed in their pockets. All wanting the same books. Mayhem! Soon there were pound coins flying everywhere, kids whose pocket money fell fifty pence short of the book they really wanted, a plastic bag shortage and a penny piece catastrophe.

And SO much fun.

It's so great as a (wannabe) writer to see 300 children running at you, looking for nothing more than the latest, bestest book. How on earth those lovely authors coped with sitting there with mere canteen tables standing between them and so many excited kids, I will never know, but they all looked incredibly relaxed and calm!

Malorie Blackman hard at work!

Axel Scheffler equally hard at work!

The calm after the (signing) storm.

I love getting involved in stuff like this - it's great for reaffirming your belief in kids' love of books (if you're not left hiding under the tables first). There will be more on volunteering at events like this on Notes from the Slushpile in a couple of weeks, from Mostly Books' Nicki Thornton, but until then I'll just say that it's a great thing to do for anyone, but especially if you're trying to become a writer.