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Sa ka fèt?

13/5/2013

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What do you do when you feel you’re just not getting it right with the writing?  When you’re not getting any movement on the major writing project you know you’re supposed to be progressing with?                                                  

Those were the questions I was asking myself last week, whilst staring at the blank screen after having taken two of the ‘precious’ annual leave days from my full-time job to get stuck into the writing. Fortunately for me, a little voice suggested I work on another writing project which was keenly motivating me at the time. So I did. And not only did I complete that second writing project, but I also managed to move the heroine in my novel from the two brick walls she seemed to be stuck between. Hallelujah! I shouted. Then, once more motivated, I had to return to work (the bread an’ butter type, you know).

It ain’t easy working full-time whilst trying to become a ‘writer’. (Oops, here comes that question again. What is a writer?) I wonder if one day I’ll actually be able to answer that. 

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Anyone got any thoughts?

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May 01st, 2013

1/5/2013

3 Comments

 
Sa ka fèt Everyone.

Well since launching my writing website (as humble as it may be) with links to my completed short stories, I’ve been feeling quite elated. This and all the congratulatory messages from friends and relatives has started to make me feel like I’m on my way to being a ‘proper’ writer. What’s that? (A subject for another blog entry, I think.)

Feedback on my latest published story, ‘An Okay Day’, although full of positive comments, has surprised me. The whole time I spent writing this story, there was no doubt in my mind that it was a story about a rape. But it would appear that this is not the way most readers have interpreted it.

Considering this, immediately took me back to some of my English Literature classes (a million years ago!).  One of the common questions we students were always asked when analysing poems by one of those famous old English poets such as John Betjaman, Ted Hughes or William Blake, was:

“What do you think the author meant by the line …?”

When I was new to this, my immediate thoughts (never voiced, of course) were simply, “Who knows?” followed by, “…and he’s dead, so we can’t even ask him.”

I never imagined that anyone would come away after reading ‘An Okay Day’, thinking it was a story of seduction and, to be quite honest, I find this curiously disturbing, just as I find rape.

One of the key lessons here for me as a writer, is that you can never be sure that the message you are trying to convey in your writing will be interpreted or understood as you intended it to be. Clearly we all have our own psychological make up and ways of seeing the world and this is what we use to interpret information we are confronted with ‒ even if it is fiction.  

This is one of the reasons why I find getting feedback from readers so interesting and enlightening.

For now, I’ll comfort myself with the knowledge that my story, ‘An Okay Day’, would make a very good contribution as a piece of introductory reading to initiate debates on issues around rape.

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    Andrea `Levy
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    Beauty
    Beverley East
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    Blossoms
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    Calabash Literary Festival
    Caribbean
    Cats
    Chimamanda Adichie
    Chris Abani
    Cocks Crowing
    Commonwealth Short Story Competition Winner 2016
    Creatures
    Crime
    Crowning Glory
    Cuts
    Darker Times Publishing
    Debbie Flint
    Debut Novel
    Dub Poet
    Editing
    Emma Darwin
    Exhibit B
    Features
    Flooded
    Freedom
    Gatekeepers
    Goldsmith's University
    Hair
    Heat Wave
    Hedgehog
    Historical Fiction
    Holding On
    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Jacob Ross
    Jamaica
    Joy Francis
    Kadija (George) Sesay
    Kendal Train Crash
    Kindle
    Lifestyle
    Linton Kewesi `Johnson
    Literary Editor
    London
    Lovers
    MA Black British Writing
    Maya Angelou
    MIR Online
    Mother
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    Nella Larsen
    Parashar Kulkarni
    Passion
    Patsy Antoine
    Peepal Tree Press
    Poet
    Political
    Politics
    Prejudices
    Protoje
    Psychological
    Publishers
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    QVC
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    Reviews
    SABLE LitMag
    Saturday's Soup
    Short-story.me
    Sister
    Social Media
    Somalia Seaton
    Steve Pope
    Still I Rise
    Sunrise Pic
    The Bump
    The Long Song
    The Mathematics Of Love
    The New Black Magazine
    The Voice Newspaper
    Transatlantic Slave Trade
    Treasure Beach
    Vegetables
    Vladimir Lucien
    War
    Well-being
    Whistling Frogs
    Women
    Words Of Colour
    Writing
    Writing Projects
    Yvette Edwards

    Categories

    All
    A Cupboard Full Of Coats
    African Writer
    Americanah
    Andrea `Levy
    Arts
    Beauty
    Beverley East
    Black Women
    Blossoms
    Business
    Calabash Literary Festival
    Caribbean
    Cats
    Chimamanda Adichie
    Chris Abani
    Cocks Crowing
    Commonwealth Short Story Competition Winner 2016
    Creatures
    Crime
    Crowning Glory
    Cuts
    Darker Times Publishing
    Debbie Flint
    Debut Novel
    Dub Poet
    Editing
    Emma Darwin
    Exhibit B
    Features
    Flooded
    Freedom
    Gatekeepers
    Goldsmith's University
    Hair
    Heat Wave
    Hedgehog
    Historical Fiction
    Holding On
    I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Jacob Ross
    Jamaica
    Joy Francis
    Kadija (George) Sesay
    Kendal Train Crash
    Kindle
    Lifestyle
    Linton Kewesi `Johnson
    Literary Editor
    London
    Lovers
    MA Black British Writing
    Maya Angelou
    MIR Online
    Mother
    Motivation
    Nella Larsen
    Parashar Kulkarni
    Passion
    Patsy Antoine
    Peepal Tree Press
    Poet
    Political
    Politics
    Prejudices
    Protoje
    Psychological
    Publishers
    Publishing
    Quicksand & Passing
    QVC
    Rape
    Readers
    Reaper Of Souls
    Relationships
    Reviews
    SABLE LitMag
    Saturday's Soup
    Short-story.me
    Sister
    Social Media
    Somalia Seaton
    Steve Pope
    Still I Rise
    Sunrise Pic
    The Bump
    The Long Song
    The Mathematics Of Love
    The New Black Magazine
    The Voice Newspaper
    Transatlantic Slave Trade
    Treasure Beach
    Vegetables
    Vladimir Lucien
    War
    Well-being
    Whistling Frogs
    Women
    Words Of Colour
    Writing
    Writing Projects
    Yvette Edwards

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