Sarah Shaw

Chapter Seventeen

Sarah — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:08:33 +0000

I am in the middle of writing the seventeenth chapter of my novel; I know there are eighteen chapters, so I’m getting near the end of the first draft. It seems as though before I wrote a first draft there was nothing, while what I have now is a big wodge of red claythat could be shaped into almost anything. That’s not quite true: the protagonists are beginning to display their own obsessions and let slip their secrets.

Teaching etc

Sarah — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:53:11 +0000

Blinkin’ Ada, I can’t believe it was March when I last posted. When I went to see/hear Marilynne Robinson at NCLA, somebody asked why she teaches writing (subtext: surely you’re such an eminent writer you don’t need to teach). She didn’t say: it keeps the wolf from the door. What she replied was that she teaches wonderful writers, and she has inspiring discussions with them. I’ve recently taught a 6-week class in Creative Writing at my local community centre that responded to what participants wanted- which turned out to be activities and exercises that generated writing. It was so much fun to share what I love doing, to get to know people and, even in that short time, to begin to see their individual styles and strengths.

Also took part in the launch of the Write Around the Toon project, organised in a marvellously efficient and sweet-natured way by Viccy Adams. Loved some of the Poems, Helen’s story and the facebook story about the ghost at the Theatre Royal. Could only read 10 minutes of my own story. I’ve added the link.

Research at the Tyneside Cinema

Sarah — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:56:19 +0000

The first afternoon of my mini-residency at the Tyneside Cinema I interviewed Jonny Tull, met some other staff, skulked and took photos, followed Adam Sloanes round the projection rooms and generally felt my head exploding with information and stimuli.
Thanks to Jonny and Adam in particular.

Jonny has three main roles, which he explained to me because one of the characters in my novel-in-progress programmes and manages an independent cinema, smaller than the Tyneside. Jonny is Cinema Programme Manager, runs the Marketing Department and heads Sales, which includes box office, the Friends scheme and gift vouchers. He programmes everything we see on screen, mainly co-ordinating with Madeleine Mullett of City Screen but also dealing with more local and specialised screenings. As a writer of fiction, latching onto the human story rather than the business aspects, I found him a bit of an inspiration because he started here as an usher in June ’94: ‘I thought it would be weird and it was. In a good way.’ He fell in love with the movies and the visions of the world they showed, beginning with Three Colours: White, the second of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy about liberty, equality and fraternity in 90s Europe. He worked his way up to become part of the new management that has transformed the Tyneside from un underperforming arts cinema and failing business into an exciting, accessible venue with three screens, four hundred and thirty-three seats, a digital lounge, heritage tours, a bar that hosts quizzes, comedy nights—and more.

Adam started working here last year as Technical Assistant, after studying multimedia computing at Northumbria University where I’m based. He showed me behind the scenes, into projection rooms which are as visually amazing as the wonderful1930s art deco front of house and cinemas: a peg board with about sixteen different sized spanners and four saws; swathes of cable; computer servers in Perspex-fronted cupboards; digital prints on hard drives delivered in black lunch-boxes; massive metal platters for 35mm film; a spiral staircase; metres of air handling gear in shiny square pipes that reminded me of the ducts in Brazil, even though I only saw it once decades ago; film being projected through the glass of the projection booth onto a white screen.

First impressions: all the circles to do with 35mm: reels, platters, cogs, lenses; more rectangles with digital (eg hard drives).

Initial ideas that might contribute to creating an exercise for the scheme I’m taking part in: Jonny told me how one of the house managers, alone in the darkened building while she was closing up for the night, saw a figure she thought must be an elderly regular who wears a mac. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked. She glanced behind to check that she’d shut the door, and the next second the guy had vanished. (!) The site used to be a monastery, as street names—Pilgrim Street, High Friar Lane—indicate. Intriguing. Why would a ghost hang around? What trauma or desire would keep them here? What would they see? Would they watch movies? Can ghosts hear, smell and touch? How could they free themself?

Send your inner critic on holiday

Sarah — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:29:59 +0000

was someone’s suggestion in a workshop when we were talking about strategies to help with writing. Excellent advice. What is my inner critic like? A scary, famous male author with tufty eyebrows and no patience who reviews fiction in a national newspaper? A twice-divorced female author who’s brought up four children on her income from criticism, wears designer clothes and lives in Islington? Now I’m writing another novel, I’ve sent them both on a year’s sabbatical to the Bahamas, where they’ll have a great time. They can argue with each other and they won’t bother me.

Happy days

Sarah — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 14:37:56 +0000

As a postgraduate research student in Creative Writing at Northumbria University, I am getting paid to write my novel together with a reflective commentary. So I’m almost a professional writer…something to aim for. I have also learned how to add links and photos to my blog, and need to practise blogging for a mini writing residency at the Tyneside Cinema as part of the Write Around the Toon project. So here goes. Short but sweet. Looking forward to Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts forthcoming programme, especially Marilynne Robinson, one of those novelists whose books I have to read often in order to find out how they do it.

Book groups and writing

Sarah — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:27:49 +0000

I have joined my local library-run book group, which meets once a month to read a book that’s chosen by somebody called Claire or Clare somewhere undefined. Twenty or so copies are handed out, which is useful now I’m living in relative poverty, and then returned the following month after our debate. So far we’ve read: the biography of the Brontes by Jude Morgan, who I assumed to be a woman even though it says ‘he’ in the blurb; Them, by Nathan McCall, which resulted in an interesting discussion of racism and relationships between people from different cultural backgrounds; and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows, which some readers found disjointed because of the skipped decades and others found aweesome. The group is very friendly and welcoming. The readers are avid and intelligent. Many of our discussions concern the actions of characters; we all like characters who are convincing and flawed. I keep chipping in going, ‘What do the pigeons mean?’
I can’t believe I’m a full-time writer, with the luxury of plunging every morning from sleep into writing my new novel. I’ll stop myself from raving on about how wonderful the experience is, and limit myself to saying Hi to Kay who reminded me to post another entry on this blog.

Reading and writing

Sarah — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:37:13 +0000

The most thought-provoking novel I’ve read recently, the one that sticks in my mind despite my having to return it to the library because I’m too skint to buy books, must be Lorrie Moore’s A Gate in the Stairs. Questions I could think about: who is the novel’s protagonist? At first it seems to be more about the family for whom the narrator babysits, the mother, or the child, rather than the narrator herself. But by the end it’s taken a different direction. Also a lot of questions about racism, not necessarily those made explicit in summary and dialogue. I’ve lived in mixed-heritage families since I was five years old; the implications of division of people into separate ‘races’ is something I want to think about in the novel I’m starting to work on.

As a writer I feel like a failure at the moment, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I completed a volume of short stories, about half of which have been published or won prizes, but everyone tells me it’s incredibly difficult to find a publisher for story collections (unless you’re an acclaimed author). So I have to admit I’ve hardly been trying. I’ve got a break coming up…maybe then… But I have been enjoying writing, especially in a spontaneous way (as opposed to the focus and structure of a novel). My New Year’s resolutions this year were ‘have a laugh’ and ‘be a writer’; I’ve been trying to write funny stories; and from October I’ve got a studentship to write full time at Northumbria University (where I studied Fine Art for my first degree). What I find keeps coming up for me this year is ‘life is too short’…to do housework when you want to write…to worry about what people think…not to say what’s on your mind…to miss the spring, or the summer…not to love and care.

Hexham Book Festival

Sarah — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:37:32 +0000

I enjoyed a workshop with AL Kennedy, who told participants not to waste our time paying for workshops or courses but rather get on and write whatever we would most want to write were we about to get run down and killed by a truck next time we leave the house.

Writing a novel in the snow

Sarah — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:06:55 +0000

Not outside in the snow, obviously. But the snow makes it harder to get around and easier to stay indoors and write. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to remember I’m a writer rather than getting caught up in obligations to the day job, friends, stuff that needs doing round the house and garden etc.

While I’m on unpaid leave from the work that pays my bills, I’ve got into a routine. I drink tea in bed and edit the section of novel I’m going to be working on. After breakfast, I write at the computer. I keep jumping up to check a definition in the dictionary, carry out an internet search on my laptop or research a question in a reference book. I find it hard to sit still for long periods. When I’m on my own in the house, it’s easy to continue to live in the novel and the thoughts of my characters while I do the washing up or make the bed. I wish I could earn my living doing this. Maybe some day. Or maybe it would put more pressure on writing and I’d get stressed about it, rather than experiencing it as a pleasure.

Durham Book Festival

Sarah — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:47:55 +0000

It seems ages ago now but I haven’t had time to write about it. First I went to hear Kate Mosse speak, and read from her new novel, because I enjoyed Labyrinth, which is an adventure story that slips between two different protagonists in different eras. She comes across as warm and professional, reads a lot, does meticulous, time-consuming research, and is supportive of other women writers.
The following evening at the Town Hall I heard Linda France, Ellen Phethean, Pippa Little, Maureen Almond and Cynthia Fuller read their poems before the new Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, came on stage. It was great to hear all the contrasting voices and styles. Carol Ann Duffy read quite a few poems from The World’s Wife, which I know because I bought it for my daughter; her timing and presentation made them extra funny.
On the Saturday I heard some more novelists: Tommy Wieringa and Richard Milward talked to Sam Garrett about writing and about bildungsroman; they read short extracts. Richard Milward was hilarious. Sean O’Brien and Jacob Polley read from their novels and talked about the differences between writing and publishing poetry and novels.
At film festivals when I was younger I used to watch about five movies a day. I don’t know if it’s age or a different approach, but at the moment I prefer to go to one event and have plenty of time to reflect.