Author: James Burt

My new post for the Literature Network went live yesterday: 7 Tips for being a Great Writer.

Nobody has written the how-to-write guide I want to see (although one friend used Ted Morgan’s Literary Outlaw as a template, with disastrous but compelling results). Life is too short for me to write my ideal writing guide, but here are the top seven tips I’d like aspiring writers to follow.

The piece was driven by an irritation with the tone taken by much writing advice. Too many recommendations suggest that they are universal, and rules like ‘show, don’t tell’ are repeated without full critical consideration. In addition, there is a warm, encouraging tone to much of the advice given, something I’ve questioned previously.

(The popularity of writing advice makes me wonder if more writers are reading discussions of how-to-write than are reading literary magazines?)

One article that inspired my tips on Great Writing was Sara Crowley’s Why you can take your “You must write every day” advice and shove it… I chose not to link to the piece as the section of my article attacking the write-every-day rule had very different aims in mind; but I recommend read Sara’s piece, which also questions the idea that writing advice is universal.

I enjoyed writing my 7 tips, and reading the responses (I’m in the middle of replying to the comments). One thing that has been interesting is that people have attacked particular points while ignoring some of the more irresponsible ones.

Following all the tips in my article would be foolish for most people but I hope the point is obvious: that for others this might be better advice than the more conservative suggestions available.

Last night I read at Short Fuse, as part of their Tainted Love night. I read 'LIBRARYS', a piece originally published in Penumbra a few years back. It was a very busy night, which made me a little more nervous than usual, but I seemed to do OK – and, being on first, I was able to relax the rest of the night. Tara and co. had picked a great mix of stories. My favourite was the second, a piece called 'Chasing Murakami'. There was also a brilliant open-mike story about living statues that rounded off the evening. Short Fuse is a very sociable night, and it was lovely to catch up with some old friends.

One of the most interesting things about reading out loud is how some stories work and others done. One of my favourite stories to read aloud is 'A Bad Place to Stick Your Hand', which always seems to get a good response. I've tried a few times to prepare it for print submission but it doesn't work so well on the page. Equally, I've got a few pieces that have been published which I don't think would be effective for a listening audience.

LIBRARYS was originally written as a series of bullet points, so I'd not considered reading it aloud. When I was invited to read it at Ride the Word in London, I had to think how best to perform it. In the end I settled for putting each point on a separate index card, which worked well; so much so that I've used index cards for other stories since. For some stories it's much freer than reading from A4 paper.

Among the other highlights of the weekend were Friday night's Jam at the skiff, which included guitar, cello, drum machine and the Alphasphere, a musical device made from espresso cups and wires (pictures of both are below).

I'd been planning to see the film Morris: A life with Bells on, but tickets sold out some time before. I did end up going (sadly, due to a friend's misfortune) and found myself at a spectacular screening. I'd expected a relaxed Sunday afternoon audience, but instead there were dozens of morris dancers, some of them performing outside.

These days you don't need to remind people to turn off their phones; but before this screening started with an announcement asking the morris dancers to remove their bells. Morris was the sort of film I love, like Spellbound or, um, Shakes the Clown, which transform a small subject into a life-or-death matter. Watching the film with an audience who knew the subject well was particularly interesting, since you could tell the in-jokes that would otherwise go unnoticed by civilians.

All-in-all, despite sleeping through Saturday afternoon and a vicious headache before Short Fuse, a pretty good weekend.

Last night I took the bus home and it was full of people dressed up to go clubbing, shouting and drinking cider. This morning I woke to grey skies and rain. I walked to work along the promenade and found a lonely remnant of someone's Sunday night.

Today I am on the wordia site, defining the word of the day, wound: ‘the past tense and past participle of wind’.

The wordia project is a ‘visual dictionary’ which features short films defining particular words. Last week I went to the Jubilee Library with Rosy Carrick and Kay Sexton to be recorded for the site. Being filmed was a strange experience. I was very conscious of the stumbles and pauses in my speech, but Rob seems to have produced an edit which makes me sound more fluent than I did at the time. Watching myself on video is a strange experience and I’m more comfortable with it than I expected (although I definitely need a haircut!)

Kay blogs about the afternoon here. Kay defined row (to propel a boat by using oars) and Rosy defined note (a brief summary or record in writing, esp a jotting for future reference). Thanks to Rob Harper for filming and editing, and to Kay for inviting me to take part.

Rosy will be giving a talk on Thursday October 8th on ‘Cannibalism and Love Poetry in Performance’ at David Bramwell’s Catalyst Club.

I've got three readings coming up in the next two months:

23rd September: Glue Velvet I'm reading at Glue Gun 91's David Lynch-themed special. My story (which doesn't have a name) is inspired by Twin Peaks and features a musical soundtrack. I'm very excited about this piece and can't wait to see how it works live. The event starts at 8:30pm in the Victory and is absolutely free.

6th October: Sparks V I'll be reading my short story about vegetarian bondage, 'Meat' at the next Sparks event. I'll publish full details of the night nearer the time.

29th October: Telling Lies – Fear of the Dark. I'm helping organise a Halloween spoken word night at the Marlborough next month. There are some exciting acts lined up, and the night be far more than just another spoken word night. I'll do a full post on this once I have the flyer but, meanwhile, put a note in your diary.

On Sunday, following in the footsteps of the Lost promenade, Joh, Sophy and I made an epic journey to Dungeness. The drive there was fantastic, through some beautiful villages, and Dungeness itself was as flat, desolate, beautiful and as windswept as I'd hoped.

The scenery reminded me a little of a western in places, and the atmosphere was heightened by the people dressed up for a wedding at the lighthouse. Our group might have been a little over-dressed for Dungeness – Joh was asked if she was attending the wedding since she was "all dressed up", and my black jacket apparently made me look like some rock-star.

Here are some photos:

 

 

As the Sparks Blog has just announced, I will be reading at the next Sparks night on October 6th. I assume this will be happening at the 3-and-10 again, but I'll post again when I know all the details. Sparks is a night of flash fiction, with each story illustrated by a specially commissioned photograph. It's a lovely night and well worth a visit. Also reading on October 6th are Tim Wells, Wendy Greenhalgh, Sarah Charsley, Nik Perring and Jon Heath.