Letters of Ted Hughes selected and edited by Christopher Reid (thoughts while reading)

I have a cold. Poor me. It is just a cold so I am able to struggle on. It's been a busy week, uncommonly sociable actually, which has made me realise how unsociable I usually am. I've been in to Brighton and up to London and have sat on trains for quite a few hours so I had extra time to read "Letters of Ted Hughes", and wow, I am enjoying it so very much, it's a delicious treat.

So much of what he writes in letters to Plath and other writers is incredibly relevant and familiar. He writes about things that affect me, and consequently fills me with a strange confidence. Ah, I can think to myself, it was the same even for Ted. (Yeah, we're *that* familiar I can call him Ted.)

On not being able to write: "At present I am doing nothing - I sit for hours like a statue of a man writing, no different, except during the 3rd or 4th hour a bead of sweat moves on my temple. I have never known it so hard to write."

On discovering he had won a prize to have his first book of poetry published: "My first reaction was a horrible feeling of guilt at what I had committed, and I went to read the poems over to see if they were really as dull as I dreded (sic) they were. I immediately saw fifty things I wanted to change and I'm appalled that I let most of the poems out in such an unfinished state."

On rejections: "Don't be taken back by those rejections, but don't send them straight out...If you can keep up your writing you will see, after a few weeks, where you can improve the rejected ones, or whether they are better let lie."

I am finding it liberating and inspirational and it seems to be feeding me creatively, to the point where I have just finished writing the first draft of one new story, am editing two other stories, and had a great idea of what to do with an old story that I like but which doesn't quite work as is. I'm not sure what the magic of it is, but hey, it's good!

One other thing: I always said that Matt wrote the best emails and letters ever. His were funny, clever, sarcastic, witty, intelligent and thoughtful. He had an authoritative voice which made statements; sometimes hilariously, wicked statements. Ted Hughes writes in the same way, it's really uncanny. It's not Matt's voice, but they definitely shared a similar style. Matt really disliked Hughes, he was a Plath fan who blamed Hughes for her suicide. I am amused to note just how similar TH and MK seem, and would love to be able to tease Matt about it.

Anyway, available at Waterstone's bookshops or online at Waterstone.com at the bargain price of £7.49

HTML Giant, Ted Hughes, permission to write, privilege, education, commas.

I read online publications and submit my own stories. The standard is high (so high that comparing the weaker books for sale at work in the bookshop leaves me baffled at how they are published in print and some of these online authors are not) and sometimes that is an exhilarating thing that inspires and pushes me, and other times it kinda makes me a wee bit anxious - am I good enough, how can I get better?

There are a wealth of do's and don't's scattered thru the lit blogs; advice which can help but also hinder. HTML Giant has a lot of very good writers who say things authoritatively, persuasively and thoughtfully. (And other times they talk a load of bollox, but that's not relevant right now.) I enjoy reading HTML Giant although occasionally I struggle with what I perceive as its American Academia "in club" vibe.

Recently I have been fretting about my lack of a formal writing education. I don't think my A level English Lit counts for much! I have begun doubting my ability to compete with all the MFA/MA students out in the world. I am pretty much self taught, and what I know I have gleaned from reading. It has got me this far, wherever this far is. Now I worry that misplacing a comma and fucking up formatting is working against me when I submit to the same 'zines these HTML people edit and inhabit.

I took Simon to Oxford for a birthday treat last weekend. We did the tourist bus tour and looked at University sites and beautiful old buildings. Part of me felt a familiar twist of resentment - I felt the same when we visited Cambridge - a tug of longing to immerse myself in study, an unpleasant envy of those who do. Anyway, I enjoyed myself in Blackwell's. I bought a copy of Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" which I hope may help me. I also bought a half price copy of "Letters of Ted Hughes". I'm a huge cliche in that I adore the whole Ted and Sylvia *thing* and have for years. I love both of their poetry (and prose) and hold them in the highest literary regard. Their story began in Cambridge, and knowing that Sylvia Plath was a genius student I have always imagined that Ted was too. I began reading "Letters" last night and was delighted to read Christopher Reid (the editor) write in his introduction:

"A more pervasive problem has been what to do with Hughes's spelling mistakes, which occur liberally in both manuscripts and typescripts, and with his idiosyncratic punctuation and sometimes wayward grammar and syntax."

Yipee! He goes on:

"Oddities of punctuation are even more abundant, and most of these I have preserved..."

"...Missing commas and full stops, the pairing of single with double inverted commas, lists lacking their expected commas and such like."

Now I am in no way comparing my writing self with that of Hughes, but ooh, how lovely to know that such a hero had fucksy commas too! Plus, he swapped his English course for Anthropology and only achieved a 2nd. Ha!

Onwards!

Five bits of blether

1) I subbed a few bits and bobs last week; the first time I have done so in what seems like an age. I got my first acceptance of the year today. It's for a tiny bit o' word play, nothing big or clever, but I am pleased. It's a start.


2) This week there were less people coming into the bookshop and brandishing out of print books that they claim to have received as unwanted Christmas presents. The whole exchange/refund thing becomes an awkward business in January. Sometimes you get people coming in with a big glossy hardback that they assume was bought at full price. Without a receipt we will offer an exchange for the price we sold the book at during December. Telling someone that their sister or whoever actually only paid £8 not £16 always makes me squirm. And the person trying to exchange an out of print book? Did someone buy them a gift from a bargain bookshop or are they just trying their luck with an unwanted book they had on their own shelves? Either way it makes me feel a little uncomfortable.


3) I apologise to the man who asked for the erotica section. I really didn't hear you. I didn't mean to make you shout "I want erotica" that loudly.


4) I apologise to the man buying the butt fucking anthology. The price on the back was in dollars and I had to type the isbn into my computer to get the price in sterling.


5) Radio 3's The Verb is running a short story competition judged by Janice Galloway. The winning entry will be read out on a future show. No bucks, no trophy, but plenty of kudos, no?

This month is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Anton Chekhov, doctor, playwright - and master of the short story. He wrote hundreds of them, often very quickly, and many have become enduring and influential classics: The Lady with the Dog, Kashtanka, and The Kiss to name but a few.

As part of Radio 3's Chekhov season, The Verb would like you to send us an original short story of 1000 words, using one of the following Chekhov titles:

1. The Lady with the Dog
2. Difficult People
3. The Lottery Ticket

Please don’t call your story Difficult Dogs, or The Lady with the Ticket! These will not be considered. You don’t have to use the same characters, or setting – you don’t even have to have read the original story - but we will be awarding points for a certain Chekhovian spirit. Please check our terms and conditions, below, before sending your entry to:

theverb@bbc.co.uk

or:

The Verb,
Room 7045,
Broadcasting House,
Portland Place,
London W1A 1AA

The closing date of the competition is 5th February.

"Short Circuit - A Guide to the Art of the Short Story" Blog tour here NOW!

Ok, it's the 4th of January, the day the majority of us return to work or school after the holidays, and it's time to get back at "it" (whatever your "it" may be!) Reading around the blogs lots of writers are resolving to be better, work harder, hone craft, shine prose etc. Well read on...

I get asked to review a lot of stuff these days and to be honest I turn most requests down. Whilst I like to imagine myself some queen bitch who will tell it like it is, the truth is that I actually hate to upset anyone if I dislike their work. On the other hand I have no desire to turn my blog into some kind of puff factory where I churn out positive reviews for fellow authors in the hope that one day they will reciprocate should I have something of my own to sell either, so I tend to say no to requests unless I think I'm going to be genuinely enthusiastic about the book.

Hurray for Short Circuit!

It's a guide to writing short stories written by experienced authors and teachers and is packed with essays, advice and exercises. It's a text book that will keep on giving, and one can dip in and out. Having trouble with your ending? Check out the relevant chapters here. Stuck for inspiration? Try one of the exercises. (And so on...)

This ace book was edited by Vanessa Gebbie who answered some of my rubbish questions! (One question is inaccurate but I left it in because Vanessa's answer is so good and if I reworded it I'd make her look a bit nuts!)

As editor of Short Circuit - A Guide to the Art of the Short Story, how did you select the contributing authors?

Easy. I’d either met (thanks to the comp circuit) or otherwise been in touch with (blogosphere etc)  so many fantastic writers – I drew up a wish list. I was keen to have only half Salt authors in the main part of the book, for a start. Then I looked at how ‘open’ the people were, whether they were easy to talk to/unstuffy – those I’d met and those I hadn’t. You can tell a lot from blogs etc. I didn’t want any stuffy old academic up one’s self dahling text. Writing is NOT the province of academia, or any ‘set’.  I wanted a predominance of top prizewinners AND the majority had to be great writing teachers. I wasn't tough on myself or anything...

Do you think it's possible for anyone to become a good short story writer or does there have to be natural talent?

I think you can learn to be a good writer.  Craft skills can be learned – and writing is a craft, just like making furniture. But we can’t all be Chippendales (and I don’t mean the strippers…).

On top of learning craft, there has to be something – a way of seeing the world, a need to express something, an original mind. You can teach someone to open their eyes a bit more, to see through a writer’s eyes… I believe that.  But beyond that…what is genius? Where does it come from? No idea! (If you find the answer, can we go halves?)

Can people starting their writing journey learn practical tips for writing short stories by reading Short Circuit?

Absolutely. When I was planning the book, I decided all I could do was create the book I would have loved when I started out. So that if someone picks it up they are instantly in the company of a group of fabulous writers, who are all generous with their time, advice and care. Care? What am I blathering about? Yes – CARE. Because if you  (not you – know what I mean…?) just go round telling a new writer that there is only ONE way to do things, YOUR way - you really don’t care or understand at all.

I wanted to send people off on trails of questions, try this, try that, consider this, consider that. And find out what works for them. Not for me. I am irrelevant as far as their writing journey goes, see? But I can put a range of ideas in front of them, let them discover, stretch. Get it wrong! Then gradually, get it right. But avoid some elephant traps along the way.

And people further into their own writing journey?

I also wanted a book that I could turn to when I’m more experienced, but jaded. When I find the strategies I employ let me down and I want to try something else.  Or when I am down, and want to remind myself that others get down too, and find this thing hard. Everyone’s honest, in the book. No one ‘flannels’, I don’t think…

I love the exercises at the end of each chapter. Sometimes a writer becomes stuck for inspiration and these are perfect springboards into creativity. Do you have a personal favourite exercise?

No, not really, apart from the exercise that might work today as opposed to yesterday.  The one that usually works is flash writing… just spilling it out, not censoring yourself.

And the other is, cutting out the feedback loop by switching off the screen. Or sticking an old teeshirt over it. And typing like the devil…(on a laptop, turn the font colour to white… but try not to hit caps lock.)

What is the worst piece of writing advice you have been given?

Can I have three??

1)      “Women writers over fifty might as well recognise that they are not going to get published, so just have a bit of fun.” (Visiting editor of now defunct lit mag (ha ha), Sussex University, 2003).

2)      “Learn to write fiction by writing a novel.”

3)      “The short story is just a stepping stone to the real thing – the novel.” (The short story is NOTHING like a novel. I know this, and challenge anyone to a duel if they say it is.)

And the best?

1) “Read read read write write write submit submit submit. Seek out rejections. Knock your ego sideways.”  

I found myself "Yes, yes-ing..." some of the chapters as I recognised my own writing self, and other times delighting in the clarity of someone expressing something I had previously felt intuitively (Elaine Chiew's marvellous chapter on endings will feed into my own work I think, and Alison MacLeod's chapter on risk taking felt very true. I loved Paul Magrs chapter and will reread his list until it all sticks in my head.)

Did you disagree with anything said?

Not really, because it is not didactic. I tend to automatically disagree if anyone is didactic! If anyone had said THIS is how it MUST be done, then I’d disagree on principle. But even when (for example) Tobias Hill took me to task for making an assumption about something, in our interview  - voice/vocabulary use/charactersisation – I thought hey, this is great, because it challenged my preconceptions, made me think. And that’s exactly what I wanted it to do for others.

I can see places where the other writers are saying they work in a different way to me – but you can’t disagree with that, can you?! It just opens my eyes to the range of things we do as writers.

Did you learn anything new?

Yes!! It’s so easy to get into a rut, isn’t it? A mindset that says ‘this is how Vanessa Gebbie works best and I can’t possibly try anything else…’. I know I can get like that easily – and I know it’s out of fear. Fear that I won’t be able to recreate the success I had last year/week/month again. Fear that it’s finished.

But ruts are only made in mud, when mud is soft. I learned from all the amazing writers, their openness, willingness to share - that it is possible to be successful in many many different ways, that it is important to try new things. That mud can be reshaped. (How’s that for a muddled metaphor?!)

As far as I can tell (from my not at all scientific method of quickly scan reading) the single most recommended writer of short stories is Raymond Carver. What do you think makes him so special?

I just know my reaction to a story like A Small Good Thing is visceral, and that this is what I want to achieve in my reader,  in however small a way. That he really does write stories that make you forget you are reading (Viz Jon Wyatt of Bridport) and does it so seemingly effortlessly. No poncy writerliness. I think a lot of writers appreciate the technical superiority of his work.

You asked each of the 24 contributors to name their favourite short stories. There are fewer female writers on these lists than males, and six writers, including yourself, only mentioned male authors. Why do you think this may be? 

Oy. Petina Gappah is a lady. (Oh gosh, of course I know Ms Gappah is a woman but in my rubbish scanning I didn't see her name in Vanessa's list. My bad!)

But I take your point. Hand on heart – I have no idea. I also know that if I was asked the same question on any day of the week, the answer to ‘give me your six fave short stories’ would change. I’d only just read the Yann Martel story for example, was blown away by it, so put it there because I want everyone to read it.  The same with the Gappah – I loved her collection for many many reasons, not the least that quite apart from being bloody good stories, it also taught me something – mostly about my own ignorance. And hey, what vindication of my taste, that she goes and wins Guardian First Book Award months later…!

Maybe it’s a sex thing. Maybe I generally respond better to writing that happens to come from a male brain/heart rather than a female one? Maybe I find writing by blokes who can express themselves beautifully, rawly, with meaning, somewhat ‘sexy’ (The Ledge, Ballistics) Maybe I don’t read enough female writers? Maybe I enjoy work by female writers, but generally, I don’t REMEMBER the work as vividly. Why is that? You tell me.

Or maybe (most likely) I just picked my fave stories, not worrying whether the writer of the stories happened to be the owner of a dick.

Do you have a favourite female short story writer? 

No. I enjoy Annie Proulx, Ali Smith, Anne Enright, A L Kennedy, Alice Munro , and thats just some of the 'A's... I greatly enjoy the work of all the female writers in Short Circuit, Salt and Non-Salt  and people keep telling me I ought to read this and this and that… aaagh. I am trying!

If so, why did she not make your favourite short stories list? 

Cos I enjoy hundreds of short story writers, and it doesn’t cross my mind to consider what physical characteristics the writer has. I’m not sure it’s relevant. The words are what matters, innit?! and Sara, thank you for having me and Short Circuit on your blog. I appreciate it hugely, and its been fun. Thanks for such wonderful and searching questions!!

Thank you so much Vanessa!

Short Circuit is available directly from Salt and of course from Waterstones!

New year resolution thingybobs

I like New Year the same way I like a new diary or notebook. It's the promise of a fresh start. I make resolutions all year round, I strive to be better always, but it's like New Year is an especially potent time to make those wishes (that's what they are right - wishes?)

I will try to stay alive in 2010 if at all possible.
I will try to love and cherish, nurture and support my family and friends.
I will try to be a brilliant writer.
I will try not to be ill.
I will try to be a good person.
Oh yeah, and lose weight, get fit, be BETTER.

I want to be a better wifemotherfriendrelativepersonwoman.

I feel cuspy. Maybe I am about to become the writer I want to be, the writer I feel deep down I am. Or maybe I'll turn my back on the whole stupid dream of it. Or, more likely, I'll stop being so drama queeny. You know, I'm going to write sometimes, and other times I'm not, and I have to make peace with that.

I am going to try to stop bitching at myself.

I will carry on bitching at others!

I would like to wish you all your perfect 2010.

Best of the year with salt 2009

I used to do this best of the year thing and then Matt died and nothing felt best. I suppose it's a good sign that I feel a little like doing a sort of a best of the year thingybob. My main problem is that I can barely remember what happened this morning let alone twelve months ago, so it's more a snapshot of things I think are rather splendid on the 30th December 2009.

Arms of the year award.

MELT!


Novel of the year

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout was my most enjoyable read of the year. I loved the writing, the stories and the character of Olive. Such a beautiful book.

However my novel of the year is Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs. It was an exciting event to have a new Moore book to read, and she did not disappoint with her hugely ambitious novel.

My WBQ review:

Tassie Keltjin leaves her rural home to study in liberal, artsy Troy. She takes a job as a part-time nanny for a white couple and their adopted ‘biracial’ daughter, then she falls in love and becomes increasingly distant from her own family.

Fans of Lorrie Moore should rest assured that this long-awaited novel is chock-full of her customary word play, the sugar with which she coats her biting social commentary. Her appraisal of post-9/11 America is engaging, witty and quietly devastating; this story follows characters who are distorted, as though in a house of mirrors, by the trials of life and time.

Short Story Collection of the year


My runner up is A.L Kennedy's What Becomes which is an impeccable collection from one of the most talented writers around. These are stories that ache and resonate as Kennedy’s stylistic scalpel reveals the pain and truth inside each of her characters. Highly recommended. But not my winner.

You all can guess my winner right?

Janice Galloway's Collected Stories brings together stories from "Blood" and "Where You Find It" and is a masterclass on writing. In my opinion there is no finer writer around. All this judgement, all these "best of's" are nonsensical, it's all subjective. And yet, for me, Galloway picks the perfect words each time. Bloody marvellous!

Album of the year

Jay-Z Blueprint 3

What a record! Empire State of Mind and Run This Town are both so, so, so fabulous.

Lesson of the year

You know that sometimes people say that writing is all about who you know. Cliques and in peeps, blah bah blah. I have observed some of that myself actually, occasionally. But sometimes you can write something and it will be good, and that's all that is needed. Funny that, eh? All you actually need do is write good words!


So - here's to good words.

Illness is sooooooo boring.

I am still ill. It is so tedious and makes me a bore. Someone asked how my leg was yesterday and I began trying to race through my reply, aware of how dreary and dull my answer was. For those of you who care to know, my Pyoderma Gangrenosum is healing but very, very slowly. I saw the consultant last week and the PG has shrunk by 1 c.m. I have a deep ache in my leg which is because I have accompanying inflammation of the fatty tissue. Nice. I have been prescribed another couple of months worth of antibiotics. On top of that I have endometriosis and am always at the mercy of my cycle. Things have got increasingly weird in my body, and now when I have a period my eyesight gets fucksy and bloodshot, my back and hips ache, my feet hurt, my body bloats and swells, I get a headache that lasts for several days. The exhaustion I feel is of the put-my-face-down-on-the-floor-and-sleep-wherever-the-hell-I-am variety.

I am embarrassed and ashamed of being ill. Like I am failing in my duties as a human somehow. I vow to eat well, exercise, be a better person, as if that will become a useful bargaining tool. Actually the Pyoderma began when I was exercising daily, cycling for the first time in years, walking a lot, watching what I ate.

I haven't been writing. It becomes impossible to as my brain becomes fudgy. I am trying very hard to shut up my customary inner voice, the one that berates me for being a lazy, fat fuck. I am telling it to sod off because actually, this isn't procrastination, this is disease.

So. A catch up of tedium. It's all I've got right now.