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Literary Consultancy and Coaching for Writers from Jacqui Lofthouse

Routes to Publication – our Google Academy event

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Community, Motivation, Networking, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

We were recently lucky enough to host our Routes to Publication event at Google Academy in central London. On the evening, our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse chaired a discussion with special guests Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Clare Morgan and Stephanie Zia. It was a fascinating opportunity to meet many of our clients and community at the Writing Coach and what a wonderful discussion it was, offering a fresh and positive perspective on the publishing industry.

Our chair, Jacqui Lofthouse (centre) with guests (from left to right) Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Stephanie Zia and Clare Morgan

Our aim was to enable our audience to discover more about routes to publication – from the traditional route to working with smaller innovative publishers to self-publishing. We wanted to explore how one might maintain one’s integrity and individuality as a writer, whilst also having one eye on the marketplace. In addition, guests also had an opportunity to network over drinks and nibbles, courtesy of Google Academy.

A wonderful opportunity for our Writing Coach community to come together

We were delighted to have such a distinguished panel of guests: Louise Doughty the bestselling author of eight novels,  including the number one bestseller Apple Tree Yard; John Mitchinson, the co-founder of Unbound, the award-winning crowdfunding platform for books; Clare Morgan, novelist and founder and director of Oxford University’s Creative Writing programme and Stephanie Zia, novelist and Founder of Blackbird Digital Books. The evening was chaired by the Founder of The Writing Coach, novelist, and coach Jacqui Lofthouse.

Our panel at the Google Academy event

 

Jacqui Lofthouse introduces the evening

 

The panel, together with special guests novelist Roopa Farooki and Alice Jolly

It was a privilege to be able to host such a special event for our clients and subscribers. If you’d like to keep up to date with our events, do sign up to our newsletter. All of our clients at The Writing Coach get direct access to Jacqui for general advice and we also host quarterly London based meet-ups which are open to all of our clients and past clients. Do take a look at this post about our community outings to find out more. We look forward to meeting you!

Our Writers’ Community: Group outings

by Filed Under: Authors, Community, Events, Inspiration, Networking, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers 1 Comment

One of the most unique aspects of The Writing Coach is the strong sense of a writers’ community that we foster amongst all of our clients. We really pride ourselves on this and our community events are open to all our clients from those who enrol in our online course Get Black on White to those who enrol in one of our literary consultancy or coaching and mentoring programmes.

We’re also excited to announce an event which is open to all – our Routes to Publication event at Google Academy on 16th August – a panel event with novelist Louise Doughty, founder of Unbound Books John Mitchinson, Director of the Creative Writing MSt at Oxford University Clare Morgan and founder of Blackbird Digital Books Stephanie Zia. To find out more, click here.

Outing to The Charles Dickens Museum – May 2018

Dickens Museum

This year we had a truly wonderful day at The Dickens Museum. We also had a lovely Carluccio’s lunch prior to our visit where we shared many stories about our writing lives and our writing goals.

Our writers’ community is also really deepened by our fantastic Facebook group – open to clients only – so that when we do meet our clients often feel as if they know each other already. The Facebook community is a fantastic place for asking questions of others and Jacqui – and also a place where we keep each other accountable to our writing goals.

Outing to The Tate Britain – January 2018

Members of The Writing Coach community at the Tate Britain

Outing to Kew Gardens – Summer 2017

A writers’ summer picnic at Kew Gardens

If you’d like to be a part of our community, you can sign up for our online course Get Black on White which gives you permanent instant access or enrol in any of our writing programmes. To find out more do contact us.

Or come along to our Routes to Publication event at Google Academy on 16th August – a panel event where Jacqui Lofthouse will interview novelist Louise Doughty, founder of Unbound Books John Mitchinson, Director of the Creative Writing MSt at Oxford University Clare Morgan and founder of Blackbird Digital Books Stephanie Zia. To find out more, click here. All attendees will also gain access to our community.

Jacqui says,

What I love about our community is how incredibly supportive the members are to each other. Many of our clients are published writers and our outings are attended by our consultants too, so you get to meet and network with experienced writers and to share your thoughts and discuss your ideas about writing with so many like-minded people. One of my aims here at The Writing Coach is to truly support our members in the deepest possible way and I hope these images give a real sense of how we do this. I attend all of the events personally and get to know everyone. There’s no charge for the events beyond your own expenses for the day – so this really is an invaluable resource for everyone who works with us. I’d love to meet you at a future event!

Routes to Publication: our Event at Google Academy

by Filed Under: Authors, Bookselling, Community, Corporate, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, Publishing, Self-publishing, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

A Panel Event at Google Academy exploring routes to publication and writerly integrity in the process

Thursday August 16th at 6.30pm- 9.30pm

Jacqui Lofthouse interviews special guests Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Clare Morgan and Stephanie Zia

Would you love to find out more about routes to publication – from the traditional route to working with smaller innovative publishers to self-publishing? Are you keen to discuss how to maintain your integrity and individuality as a writer, whilst also having one eye on the marketplace?

We are delighted to announce this one-off special event at Google Digital Academy where you will have an opportunity to network with writers and industry specialists whilst also considering your own best route to market.

Price: £20    Limited to an audience of 60

 

Our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse is thrilled to chair this special panel discussion on 16th August, featuring guests who, between them, know the publishing industry inside-out. Our aim is to help you to unravel the possibilities for your writing – and also to inspire you with a real vision that will enable you to write your very best work – and also to find an audience for it. Our discussion will be full of information and advice to help you make the right choices for your writing – with advice on how to stay true to yourself as a writer and how to choose the ideal route to publication.

Whatever genre you work in, our panel discussion aims to give you the tools to write with confidence and to clarify your vision for publication.

Schedule:

18.30-19.15: Reception drinks, nibbles and Google Virtual Reality Hub

19.15-20.45: Routes to Publication Panel with Jacqui Lofthouse (chair), Louise Doughty, John Mitchinson, Clare Morgan and Stephanie Zia. To be followed by Q & A

20.45-21.30: Networking drinks

Location:

Google Digital Academy, 123 Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, London, SW1W 9SH

Doors open at 18.30pm, with drinks and nibbles kindly provided by Google

Booking & Payment

The price for this event is £20.

This is not a ticketed event – once you have booked, you don’t need to bring a ticket on the day as your name will be on our guestlist.

 

Our Speakers:

Our speakers have been chosen to give you the broadest view of routes to publication.

Louise Doughty

Louise Doughty is the bestselling author of eight novels, one work of non-fiction and five plays for radio. Her latest book, Black Water was nominated as one of the New York Times Book Review Top 100 Notable Books of 2016. Her previous book was the number one bestseller Apple Tree Yard, shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award and the National Book Award Thriller of the Year and has sold in thirty territories worldwide. A four-part TV adaptation with Emily Watson in the lead role was broadcast on on BBC1. She is a critic and cultural commentator, broadcasts regularly for the BBC and has been the judge for many prizes and awards including the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. See: www.louisedoughty.com

 

John Mitchinson

 

John Mitchinson is a writer and publisher and the co-founder of Unbound, the award-winning crowdfunding platform for books. He helped to create the award-winning BBCTV show QI and co-wrote the best-selling series of QI books. As a publisher   he worked in senior positions at Harvill, Orion and Cassell. Before that he was Waterstone’s first marketing director. He is co-host of Unbound’s books podcast Backlisted (@BacklistedPod) and a Vice-President of the Hay Festival of Arts & Literature. See www.unbound.com

 

Clare Morgan

Clare Morgan is founder and director of Oxford University’s Creative Writing programme. Her most recent novel A Book for All and None (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best Novel award, and was described as ‘a spell-binding, effortlessly propulsive unity’ by the Independent; ‘written with eloquence and artistry’ by the Mail on Sunday; and ‘too tantalizing to resist’ by Time Out. She has published a collection of stories, An Affair of the Heart, and her short fiction been widely anthologized, and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. Clare gained her D.Phil. from Oxford University, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from U.E.A. She has chaired the Literature Bursaries Panel of the Arts Council of Wales, been Literary Mentor for Southern Arts and Literature Wales, and a literary assessor for publications funded by the Welsh Books Council. She is now an Academician for the Folio Academy. See www.claremorgan.co.uk

 

Stephanie Zia

Stephanie Zia has worked in the arts all her life: at the BBC, the Guardian and as a published novelist. She is the Founder of Blackbird Digital Books which publishes rights-reverted titles by established authors alongside exciting new talent and has sold over 100,000 books,  sharing over £100,000 in royalties 50/50 with her authors. She strongly believes in the on-going promotion of titles rather than the traditional 3-month window, nurturing the creativity of her #authorpower authors and promoting them with the latest, ever-changing, digital marketing techniques. See www.blackbird-books.com

 

Jacqui Lofthouse

Our chair, Jacqui Lofthouse is a novelist and founder of The Writing Coach. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is the author of four novels, The Temple of Hymen, Bluethroat Morning, Een Stille Verdwijning and The Modigliani Girl. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe. She is currently working on her first YA novel. Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings from City University to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She is also an actor, training at Identity School of Acting (IDSA). She continues to mentor writers at The Writing Coach where her mission is to help writers to be confident and productive, producing their best work and getting it into print.

 


We can’t wait to meet you at this very special evening for The Writing Coach!

Words Away Salon: ‘Be Your Own Writing Coach’

by Filed Under: Authors, Community, Confidence, Events, Interviews, Motivation, Networking, Productivity, The writing coach, The writing life, Writers Leave a Comment

The Words Away salon is on Monday, July 3, 2017
7:30pm – 9:30pm at The Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Do you need some inspiration and motivation tips to get going and keep going this summer? What’s stopping you from finishing that book? Do you start but never quite finish? Would you like to be more confident in your approach to writing?

The Words Away Salon

This month, our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse is delighted to be the July guest at the Words Away Salon – the topic for July is ‘Be Your Own Writing Coach’.

Words Away Salon

The Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Words Away creative writing salons concentrate on the writing process. Run by writers Kellie Jackson and Emma Darwin, who every month invite a guest author to join you, the audience, in discussing a particular topic in writing, a genre, or a question of craft.

Emma and Kellie say:

Over tea, cake and a glass of wine, we’ll explore the challenges and opportunities, the difficulties and joys of writing, and the reality of being a writer. We hope you’ll come and join us. The Salons are held once a month on a Monday evening, 7.30pm at the Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London, SE11 5HL.

The Be your Own Writing Coach event is on Monday July 3rd and the guest is Jacqui Lofthouse, our Founder, a novelist, writing coach and literary consultant who has a wealth of experience and ideas for making the most of your writing time. The July literary salon is the last before the summer break and should equip you with some new ways to a more productive writing life.

Find out more here

on the ‘Words Away’ website

Click here

Tickets only £10

What is Words Away?

Words Away aims to bring writers together in a creative environment to explore the writing process. They hold monthly salons at the Tea House Theatre Cafe, in London and host creative writing retreats at Rathfinny Wine Estate, East Sussex. Through their Salons they offer a focused exploration on a particular topic with a chance to exchange ideas and ask questions in a friendly setting.

Jacqui Lofthouse

Jacqui Lofthouse, this month’s guest at Words Away

Be inspired. Develop and nurture your craft. Meet other writers. Please join us, all welcome.

Book for the July Salon here

on the ‘Words Away’ website

Click here

Tickets only £10

If you’re looking for other literary events in London, do take a look at our event at Waterstones, Gower Street on Wednesday 12th July: Literary Fiction, a panel discussion where Jacqui Lofthouse will be interviewing authors Roopa Farooki, Miranda Gold, Alice Jolly, Clare Morgan and Charles Palliser.

Literary Fiction – a panel discussion at Waterstones

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Community, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, Networking, Reading, The writing coach, Writers Leave a Comment

Join us on Wednesday 12th July 2017

A panel discussion chaired by Writing Coach founder Jacqui Lofthouse on the subject of Literary Fiction at Waterstones Gower Street

Is literary fiction the antidote we need in the modern world? Redundant or more vital than ever?

We’d love to see you at this panel event, where Writing Coach founder, novelist Jacqui Lofthouse will be interviewing a number of prominent literary authors about the role of literary fiction in the contemporary publishing world.

Our panel features Charles Palliser  whose novel The Quincunx sold over a million copies worldwide, Clare Morgan, author of A Book for All and None, who is director of the MSt Creative Writing at Oxford University, Alice Jolly whose memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns won the PEN Ackerley Prize for memoir in 2016, Roopa Farooki, listed three times for the Orange/Baileys prize, her latest novel is The Good Children and Miranda Gold, debut literary author of Starlings – whose essay Reading as Alchemy – first published on this site – gives the event its name.

Alice Jolly and Roopa Farooki both also teach on the MSt Creative Writing at Oxford University and we’re delighted to have this link with the MSt.

Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Join Writing Coach Founder Jacqui Lofthouse this evening, chairing a discussion with novelists Roopa Farooki, Miranda Gold, Alice Jolly, Clare Morgan and Charles Palliser  – to explore ideas about literary fiction. How important is literary fiction today? What is its role? Is it valued? What does the term mean to each individual writer?

Literary fiction, at its best, taps in to poetry’s magic to release significance that goes beyond dictionary definitions. As Virginia Woolf said, “Words don’t live in dictionaries, they live in the mind.” They live in the body too and literary fiction can unlock some of their visceral qualities through rhythm and internal resonances.

Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Our venue:

literary fiction

On 12th July, our venue is one of London’s most iconic and best-known bookshops, known for its immense academic range alongside a wealth of new and used books on every imaginable subject.

Waterstones Gower Street is Europe’s largest academic/specialist range bookshop. Located in the heart of Bloomsbury, the Grade II listed building was designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll in 1908. The first bookshop on the site was the original Dillon’s, opened by Una Dillon herself in a small area of the ground floor in 1956.

About the panel:

 

literary fiction

Jacqui Lofthouse, chairing the discussion, is Founder of The Writing Coach. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is the author of four novels, The Temple of Hymen, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin 1995/1996, Bluethroat Morning, Bloomsbury 2000, Een Stille Verdwijning, De Bezige Bij 2005 and The Modigliani Girl. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe. She has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including at City University, the Cheltenham Festival, for Artemisia holidays in Tuscany, at Richmond Adult and Community College, and at Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She is also the Founder of the small publishing imprint Nightingale Editions.

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literary fiction

Roopa Farooki has published six novels with Headline and Macmillan, which have been listed for the Orange/Baileys Prize three times and translated into 13 languages. Her last novel, The Good Children, was named “outstanding novel of the year” by the Daily Mail. She teaches on the Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University and lives with her husband and four young children. She was awarded the John C Laurence from the Authors’ Foundation for writing which improves understanding between races. She is currently studying Medicine at St George’s University of London.

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Clare Morgan is an author, academic and literary critic, and founder and director of Oxford University’s M.St. in Creative Writing. Her most recent novel A Book for All and None (Weidenfeld and Nicholson), was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best Novel award, and was described as ‘a spell-binding, effortlessly propulsive unity’ by the Independent; ‘written with eloquence and artistry’ by the Mail on Sunday; and ‘too tantalizing to resist’ by Time Out. She has published a collection of stories, An Affair of the Heart, and her short fiction been widely anthologized, and commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Clare gained her M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from University of East Anglia, where she worked with Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is former Chair of the Literature Bursaries Panel of the Arts Council of Wales, and Literary Mentor for Southern Arts and Literature Wales.   She has been engaged as a literary assessor for publications funded by the Welsh Books Council and is now an Academician for the Folio Academy.

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Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright. She has published two novels with Simon and Schuster and has been commissioned four times by the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. She has also written for Paines Plough and her work has been performed at The Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden and The Space, East London. Her memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns was published by Unbound in July 2015 and won the Pen/Ackerley Prize. In 2014 one of her short stories won The Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize. She teaches creative writing on the Mst at Oxford University.

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Miranda Gold

Miranda Gold is a writer currently based in London. Before turning her focus to fiction, Miranda took the Soho Theatre Course for young writers, where her play, Lucky Deck, was selected for development and performance. Her first novel Starlings was published by Karnac this year. She is now working on her second novel, A Small Dark Quiet.

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Charles Palliser‘s work has been hailed as “so compulsively absorbing that reality disappears” (New York Times). Since his extraordinary debut, The Quincunx, his works have sold over one million copies worldwide. With his new novel, Rustication, he returns to the town of Thurchester, which he evoked so hauntingly in The Unburied.

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Book here

via the Waterstones website for ‘Reading as Alchemy’

Literary Fiction Panel Event

Tickets only £6

Branding Workshop for Content Creation at The Shard, London

by Filed Under: Character, Community, Confidence, Corporate, Events, Inspiration, Markets for your work, Networking, Teaching, Writing Exercises Leave a Comment

I had the great pleasure recently to lead a branding workshop for content creation at The Shard, London. What a wonderful venue for a workshop this was, with a glorious panoramic view of London. This short video put together by Tom Hewitson gives a flavour of the event.

The workshop for Tom’s Content Lab was entitled ‘Bringing Brands and Bots to life’.

Content Lab is a monthly get together for writers, designers, product managers and anyone else interested in making products and problems easier to understand.

Workshop Participants at Content Lab

Using creative writing techniques to lend character to brands

The workshop I led used creative writing techniques to lend character to brands. The aim was to enable participants to find new ways of creating characters which might then be used to encourage readers and consumers to better identify with brands. I began the content creation workshop using the same creative writing exercises that I’d use with writers of fiction. We studied paintings to inspire us and worked with props and cue cards with suggested sensory details, such as particular smells or locations. We worked using free writing techniques, and those attending were able to enjoy creating in such an open-ended way. Later, we applied these techniques more specifically to characters that related to products, working in teams.

Tom is particularly interested in ‘bots’ – the user-friendly robots such as Apple’s Siri – and how these bots can encourage consumer loyalty. Each of the teams came up with characters that might help a reader/user identify with a brand. For example, one of the teams came up with a ‘Farmer Bot’ with a very particular voice and character to engage potential customers of an organic fruit and veg. delivery service. The participants seemed to really enjoy this exercise. There was a lot of laughter and it was fabulous to witness how quickly they were able to use the techniques to invent really unique characters that helped us to understand the nature of the relevant product.

We had a hugely enjoyable evening and I was delighted at the feedback after the content creation event. Content Strategist Stephen Wilson-Beales, Head of Editorial at Global Radio, London, also wrote a lovely blog post about the event here: Using Creative Writing Techniques to shape Content Design.

A big thank you to Tom Hewitson for hosting the workshop. I definitely aim to lead more workshops of this nature and would welcome enquiries from organisations looking to encourage a different approach to creativity in their teams.

If you are a content creator, I’d love to hear whether you use fiction-related techniques in your work and how you might develop such ideas.

Networking for writers and why it matters

by Filed Under: Authors, Community, Events, Inspiration, Memoir, Motivation, Networking, The writing life, Writers 4 Comments

There’s no doubt about it, networking for writers matters. Luckily, for most of us, meeting other writers is also a hugely enjoyable pastime. But even if you’re an introvert who would prefer to spend his/her life in a library or at the writing desk, I’d suggest that you do carefully consider the benefits of meeting your peers and forming a writers’ community – the rewards are, without doubt, massive. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (described in a review by the Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II – Taleb predicted the 2008 financial crisis) wrote: “Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.”

Networking for writers

Writers networking event at the Charroux Literary Festival 2015

Parties are unpredictable events – for Taleb, the very act of putting oneself in a random situation is a positive act in that you are allowing for unpredictable things to unfold. Literary Festivals are grand parties of a kind and this year at the Charroux Literary Festival I hope I opened up all kinds of good serendipity by running a Networking for Writers event.

What was intriguing for me about the conversation that ensued was how many common threads unravelled during the course of our session – and how much easier it becomes to solve a writing problem or find a new approach to a challenge when one brings several interesting writerly minds together. When writers have networks and communities where they can share their common experiences and ask questions, there is huge room for cross-fertilisation of ideas and plenty of powerful inspiration.

Let’s take a look, for example, at some of the rich connections in this group. The writers attending included:

Sue Crampton, founder of the Limousin Writer’s Group

Stephanie Zia, founder of Blackbird Digital Books

Harriet Springbett whose novel Tree Magic has been accepted for publication.

Alison Donaldson, author of Communities of Influence whose subject is writing and conversation and especially how we combine them at work.

Diana Morgan-Hill, author of Love & Justice, a memoir which has received wide coverage, including being recently featured here on the This Morning programme

and Kathy Jones, one of the Directors at Lightning Books

Just look at the diversity of literary experience in that one room in Charroux! It’s not surprising that wonderful things happen when such interesting individuals come together. As I write this, I’m preparing to go to a literary launch party, and it makes me all the more excited about the synchronicities that might unfold.

What were the common threads at this Networking for Writers event?

It’s fascinating, I always find, when writers come together, how we find areas that many of us struggle with and how together we find solutions that we would never have been able to find alone. Here are just a few areas that sprang up in our conversation. I wonder how many of them are familiar questions for you?

  1. How do I organise my writing work?
  2. How do I develop the persistence I need in order to finish a whole novel?
  3. Where is the overlap between fiction and memoir?
  4. How do I write a good synopsis that is attractive in the marketplace?
  5. In memoir-writing, how do I deal with the legalities of working with true facts and writing about real people?
  6. What do I do when I feel that I lack inspiration on a particular day?
  7. I struggle with focus – how to I develop the ‘focus’ muscle?

Together we talked through individual questions and shared our experiences and in an intense hour or so, we found ways through our blocks and uncertainties and found a greater clarity via our discussion.

So often, we try to make sense of our writing issues alone, but how much better is it when we’re not working alone? Over the years I know that I have learned so much from my writer friends and gained enormously from their wisdom. The writing groups that I have belonged to have enriched my writing hugely and I do encourage you, in the months ahead, to think carefully about how you might meet other writers and share with them, whether online or in person.

loft-cabaretThere’s also a lovely opportunity to meet me and join one of my groups for a full day in London in January. At the time of writing, there are still five places remaining on my Developing Your Novel course on 22nd January 2016, an exclusive one day fiction writing course for those who wish to improve their writing skills and take their manuscript to the next level, taking place in the beautiful Wallacespace in Covent Garden. The participants who have already signed up have a wonderful range of experience and I know it’s going to be a fascinating day where we develop yet another new community of writers.

Whether or not you can join my next event, do take some time today to ask yourself the following three questions:

  1. How can I develop my community as a writer?
  2. How can I nurture the writing colleagues and connections I already have?
  3. What can I do today to create serendipity in my writing life? (Where’s the party? Who can I submit to? Who can I connect with today?)

I wish you much luck with your writerly connections and do let me know how you get on…

 

 

Inspiration from the Charroux Literary Festival

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Community, Events, Inspiration, Motivation, The writing life 8 Comments

What was it about the Charroux Literary Festival that made it special? Why do we go to any Literary Festival and what can we learn from these occasions? Held in the Medieval town of Charroux, this was the first Charroux Litfest: a memorable occasion, where I not only met a number of other wonderful authors, but I also gained a lot of valuable inspiration, which I’m looking forward to sharing here.

Literary Festival

Relaxing with other authors at the Charroux Lit Fest. From left to right: organiser Kate Britten, Kate Mosse, Alison Morton, Jacqui Lofthouse, organiser Chris Collette, Elizabeth Haynes and Isabel Ashdown.

Why go to a Literary Festival?

For authors and for readers, Literary Festivals are an opportunity to meet other like-minded people and what was wonderful about Charroux was the incredible sense of community. A spirit of generosity permeated the occasion. This wasn’t one of those festivals where authors swish in and swish out, only briefly leaving their ivory towers to touch base with their public, but rather an environment where authors and readers hung out together: new friendships and bonds were made quickly in the gardens of La Maison du Pays.

At Charroux, I had an opportunity to connect more closely with my colleagues including Stephanie Zia, Diana Morgan-Hill and Barry Walsh, as well as forging new friendships with fellow authors and poets Alison Morton, Kate Mosse, Elizabeth Haynes, Isabel Ashdown, and Katherine Gallagher, as well as the amazing organisers, also writers, Kate Britten and Chris Collette. There were many others, too many to name – but I will be writing a separate special post about the women who attended my writers’ networking lunch. It’s always such a pleasure to bring serious writers together, one of the most satisfying aspects of my work.

My own workshop focused on visual and historical inspiration:

literary festival, historical inspiration

Giving my talk: Image and Impulse: on visual and historical inspiration

The essence of my talk related to organic growth, something I often discuss with students and clients and refer to in more depth in my ebook about productivity and confidence for writers, Get Black on White. I considered how particular images have inspired my work: many of my books came from tiny fragments of ideas and my aim was to encourage others to trust their hunches about the fragments of information – visual and verbal – that fascinate them.

The inspiration for my novel Bluethroat Morning for example was an image that I’d written about in a discarded draft of an earlier work: I imagined a woman walking along the beach in Cley, Norfolk, during the Victorian era, wearing a bustle dress, accompanied by her wheezing father. I couldn’t get that image out of my mind, yet I was now writing a contemporary novel – how might this matter to that book? I wanted to explore how we honour these impulses and make sense of them during the process of the work. Afterwards, it was a pleasure to work with some of the attendees in a post-talk workshop where we developed character portraits inspired by paintings.

What did I learn at the Charroux Festival?

Most importantly, I was reminded of the incredible community that can exist amongst writers at every stage of their careers. There were so many wonderful aspects of the programme. One highlight was the talk given by bestselling author Kate Mosse, author of the Labyrinth trilogy and most recently The Taxidermist’s Daughter. Kate gave many insights into her writing processes.
07d968b9792bc93152085046782dcf3e_400x400
She used the metaphor of the stage to describe her methods:

I build my stage sets first… I stand on the empty set and I’m aware of the characters in the wings… I start writing and little by little, they come out of the room. But they mustn’t come out too soon… and then there’s a joyous moment and then they step forward and I know who they are.

Kate is an inspirational powerhouse. She clearly works long hours to get her novels just right. She spends three-quarters of her time researching the novel, then a quarter of the time writing it – which given the length of her novels, suggests an idea of the hours that she puts in. Kate’s passion for France and Carcassone in particular shone through. She is without doubt the author to read if you want to see how a writer uses a fascination with sense of place in her stories.

DSC_0481

Charroux at night: perhaps the perfect spot for a crime story?

One session which I found extremely interesting was the Crime Panel. However I was hugely frustrated to be slightly unwell during the festival: those who saw me in tears on the streets of Charroux (thank you Stephanie Zia for buying me tea when I most needed it!) will know it was down to the sheer irritation that I had to leave the Crime Panel early and to miss Isabel Ashdown’s session due to illness. I took a walk to the hilltop, hoping that the air would help me to prepare for my own session, but eventually only a quiet meditation helped me to carry on, despite splitting  headache and nausea – what bad timing!

Luckily I did eventually rally! Here I am the following day with the wonderful Alison Morton, author of the Roma Nova thrillers. Harriet Springbett took this lovely shot – her post on the festival is here.

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I learned so much from Alison and the other authors who took part in the Crime Panel, Elizabeth Haynes and Christine Collette. In particular I was inspired by the feminist thread of the conversation. Alison talked about the need for us to have more stories with strong women leaders and how few authors passed the ‘Bechdel test’, whereby women lead the plot, and in the context of crime fiction discuss procedure and run the investigations. There was also an interesting conversation about the difference between satisfactory conclusions in real life versus fiction: in real life, Elizabeth said, successful prosecution is the ‘successful outcome’ whereas in fiction it might be more akin to ‘poetic justice’.

Alison and I had some great conversations about the life of the independent author and the business of being a novelist. As she says in her own blog post on the festival, we spent a fabulous afternoon relaxing in the gardens of La Maison du Pays together with author Barry Walsh, talking about the writer’s life with a bit of politics thrown in. One example of Alison’s wisdom is the way that she treats reader reviews. “Every review is like a gift” she says – she uses the feedback to consider her work through fresh eyes.

Two other highlights for me were Barry Walsh‘s talk about memory and fiction based on real life and  ‘An Evening with Diana Morgan-Hill’. Barry was once a student on my fiction-writing course at Richmond Adult College and I’m so proud that he began his novel The Pimlico Kid in that class. He talked about the relationship between fiction and memory and it was a pleasure to listen to his accomplished readings from the novel.

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Alison Morton, Barry Walsh and organiser John Britten celebrate a successful festival

Diana Morgan-Hill‘s story is a remarkable one. I first worked with Diana around 10 years ago when she was writing a novel, but she has recently published her memoir Love & Justice: A Compelling True Story Of Triumph Over Tragedy. At the Charroux Literary Festival Diana spoke with huge courage and insight about her story. Aged 29, she fell under a London train and within 7 seconds she was transformed from busy woman of the world with everything to live for to a double-leg-amputee, her life in ruins. Her memoir is a compelling tale not only of the effects of this accident but of her 5 year battle with British Rail who astonishingly threatened to prosecute her for trespassing on the tracks. Diana is a remarkable performer and she had the audience hanging on her every word and laughing at her wonderful humour.

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Diana Morgan-Hill drew the audience into her story

What next?

Whenever I attend a literary event, I always come away hugely inspired and ready to try new approaches to my writing and business routines. Here are my key thoughts post-Charroux:

1. Early to bed, early to rise: Kate Mosse begins at 4am (I’m not planning to be quite that disciplined but a girl can dream.)

2. Play around with the idea of less-focused writing – just drifting back to the writing desk to write the odd paragraph over the course of the day. This isn’t really ‘me’ – I prefer more focused stints, but I thought it would be useful to try… I took this one from Alison Morton’s booklet about the writing life.

3. Make this the year I truly focus on my Young Adult novel. I’ll continue to rewrite my play but the novel will be first priority.

4. Make sure I get my early novels in-print again!

5. Consider having a separate site about my work as a writer versus my work as a coach – I’m still uncertain about that one and would be interested in your views.

A lot of these insights emerged from my conversation with Alison – we had several long conversations over the four days!

And finally…

A huge thank you to organisers Kate Britten and Chris Collette and all those who helped set up the festival and volunteered to help run it. I so enjoyed meeting everyone and am looking forward to sharing more about my writer’s workshop and the fantastic writers I met there in the next post. Thank you also to Susie Kelly, patron of the Festival who first suggested me as a guest!

If you came to the Charroux Festival, I’d love to hear your thoughts on your experience of the event. And if you didn’t – what do you most get from your visits to literary festivals? Any particularly memorable insights?

Join me at the Charroux Festival this summer

by Filed Under: Authors, Books, Community, Confidence, Events, Goal setting, Inspiration, Motivation, The writing coach, The writing life Leave a Comment

This summer, I’m delighted to have been invited to appear at the first Charroux Literary Festival in France – and I’d love to see you there! The Festival, a bilingual literary festival,will take place in the medieval town of Charroux in the Poitou-Charentes region of South West France from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th August – the August Bank Holiday weekend.

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This is a beautiful, tranquil area of south west France between Poitiers and Bordeaux. The area attracts many artists and writers and is renowned for the physical beauty of the valley of the Charente river as well as the splendid Romanesque architecture. As you’ll see from the image above, many wonderful novelists and poets will be taking part in the festival, including Kate Mosse, Sarah Harrison and the poet Katherine Gallagher, as well as my friends Barry Walsh and Diana Morgan. I feel sure that this will be a memorable and very special few days and as I know many of those involved personally, I also know that there will be a real warmth about the atmosphere and you will be made very welcome.

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I’ll be running two sessions. On the Thursday morning, opening the festival, I’ll be giving a talk with readings: “Imagery and Impulse – on visual and historical inspiration”, followed by a workshop. Then on the Friday, I’ll be hosting a writer’s networking lunch and coaching session. The lunch/coaching session has only twelve slots and eight of them have been taken, so do book quickly if you want a spot. I’ll be sharing many insights on the writing life and how you can attain maximum focus and inspiration in your work.

You can find information about booking here. There’s so much on offer at Charroux, it’s going to be difficult to choose which sessions to attend: there will be talks, workshops and readings, as well as script-writing and theatre skills sessions. There are also events relating to biography, history, adventure and crime fiction. There will be a festival bookshop open throughout and opportunities for book signings too. A number of fringe activities will also compliment the main programme.

The Festival Patron, Susie Kelly, is a fellow Blackbird Books author (whose heart-rending memoir, the Amazon US bestseller ‘I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry’ I’ve recently read and highly recommend). I’m so glad that she recommended me for this special event. The festival is being organized by Verteuil Verse, a not-for profit association. It will be staffed entirely by volunteers and supported by an able team of advisers and helpers.

I would love to have the opportunity of meeting you in Charroux. Do let me know if you are coming and be sure to get in touch.  You can find the full programme for the Festival here.

 

The beautiful coincidence of Paradise Road Project

by Filed Under: Community, Inspiration, Motivation, The writing life Leave a Comment

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Clare Barry and I (Paradise Road Project) at the London Book Fair.

Many freelancers, like myself, are used to working individually: making all the decisions and relying entirely on self-motivation to keep going. But what happens when you collaborate and build a project with another entrepreneur (or another writer, another artist)? Is there power in teamwork or is it difficult to relinquish control?

Yesterday, fellow writer and entrepreneur Clare Barry and I launched Paradise Road Project. Together, we will be running the Urban Creativity Workshop at the gorgeous East End venue The Proud Archivist on May 23rd. The workshop is aimed at anyone who yearns to get their creative project off the ground and to see it through to completion. It’s for people who want to have more time to write, draw, design, perform or – indeed – collaborate; we are looking forward to working with both creative professionals and those who are longing to begin or return to a creative life.

But why ‘Paradise Road Project‘ and how did the collaboration begin?

Essentially, Clare and I were friends who met and drank tea in Richmond in a cafe on Paradise Road. It seemed a fittingly suitable place for two writers to meet, as we were aware of the literary connotations of the road: it was where Virginia and Leonard Woolf set up The Hogarth Press.

However, as we began to talk about a creative collaboration – about forming a community of creative people and working with them to help them become inspired, motivated and productive – we played with names for our project. ‘What about Paradise Road Project?’ Clare said, ‘as that’s where we spend so much of our time.’ It sounded perfect. But what we didn’t then realise, was the beautiful coincidence of our timing.

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One day, after tea, standing in front of the blue plaque on Hogarth House, it struck me: ‘look, 1915!’There it was. Exactly 100 years ago. Then, when we looked further into the story, it turned out the Woolfs moved into Hogarth House in March 1915. The coincidence seemed perfectly auspicious.

Why collaborate?

cb-smFor us, it was a no-brainer. As we got to know each other better, it was clear that we had to work together. When you meet the right collaborator, everything falls into place. What was really interesting in our conversations was how much common ground there was in terms of our interests – but also how our skillsets were so complimentary. So we bonded over talking about Jeannette Winterson (both big fans) and writing, but also over some of the blogs we followed online. This was the funniest part for me. I kept saying, ‘but I don’t know anyone who reads that blog!’ and ‘no way, you like Paul Jarvis too?’ It was a language that no-one else I knew understood. We had both looked for inspiration and found it in the same places.

However, we had different backgrounds in terms of our experience. I’d spent years as a writer and a coach/literary consultant, running my own business, whereas Clare, in addition to her writing, had been involved in much bigger organisations. She worked in executive education at London Business School and raised £1m in philanthropic partnerships for the London School of Economics. Clare was also part of the team that secured the custodianship of The Women’s Library. These days she writes about London, digital mindfulness and creative work/life slide. She is a creative writing mentor at the Ministry of Stories, press liaison for Postcard Productions’ The Stranger on the Bridge #findmike and adviser on media and partnerships to The Listeners Project, Hackney.

So what has it been like to collaborate?

For me, it’s been fascinating. I’ve learned so much about myself and poured a huge amount of passion into Paradise Road Project because working with such a good friend has been enormously energising. Clare is such a creative dynamo. From the beginning, she took control: she brought along agendas when I just had an old notepad and she sent me endless brilliant ideas by email. It has also been interesting working on our website together. What, so you mean everything I do isn’t perfect? Clare has taught me to let go of my own control-freakery. Sometimes it takes me a while to admit that she is right (but she usually is).

If you’re thinking about collaboration, I’d say if you find the right person, go for it. It is hugely rewarding and a fascinating process.

How can Paradise Road Project help other collaborators?

Our Urban Creativity Workshop is going to be a fabulous day, but we also see it as the first step to building an ongoing community of creative individuals who want to achieve great things. Our role will be to provide the support to help them do just that. We want to engage others in creative collaboration by providing opportunities to meet, to explore their own creative projects, and to form new ideas as a result of these meetings
Our workshop will provide a day of inspiration, imagination and motivation in London’s East End at The Proud Archivist. This restaurant, bar, gallery and library space on the Regent’s Canal is an inspiring venue in which to indulge in delicious food, conversation and boost your creative confidence. We designed the workshop to help others reclaim their time, pursue their passion and get focused on how to achieve it.

Clare and I would love to meet you at the workshop on Saturday 23rd May. There is a 20% (time limited) discount on the workshop for my newsletter subscribers, so do subscribe and contact me for the code if you would like to take advantage of that. You can also follow us on Twitter @paradiseroaders

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about the event. It’s going to be a special day.

And if you’re looking to begin your own creative collaboration it might be the place to find a perfect partner…

 

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