The public face of writing
July 13th, 2014
An early start this morning, as I’m off to teach a workshop on ‘The public face of writing’. There was a time when authors sat at home and wrote, and when they finished their manuscript they sent it off to the publisher, and some time later the publisher sent them a royalty cheque. Oh, maybe they did an occasional reading, but nothing like what is expected these days.
And that’s a problem for many authors, because we tend to be a quiet breed. Not all of us, of course, but I’d guess that there are more introverts among the writer population than in the general population. A lot of us actually like sitting at home alone, with our stories running through our heads.
For me, it’s a bit of a mix. I love the solitude – just me, Harry and the chooks for days at a time – and find it hard to write without it. But at the same time it’s fun to do the occasional concert or school visit, just to remind myself that there are other humans in the world. 🙂 And when it comes to public speaking, I have the perfect background – as a teacher and an actor. I remember when I was at uni, I was absolutely terrified of speaking in public – even in something not terribly public like a tutorial, my hands and my voice would tremble.
Ha! Three years of teaching knocked that out of me very effectively. And later, drama school and acting taught me all sorts of interesting skills that have come in handy. Hence today’s workshop. It’s the first time I’ve taught this topic, so have no idea how it will go.
The chooks have had an exciting week. Up until three days ago, they’ve been using two different nests, mainly because Floss is a contrary sort of bird and doesn’t like laying in the nest I provided. And Clara is heavily under Floss’s influence, so she followed along to the new nest which was in the middle of a bush (to make it harder for me to pinch their eggs). Dolly – loyal sensible Dolly – continues to lay in the original nest. Anyway, a few days ago, something attacked Clara and ate her egg. A cat? A rat? She was in an awful bother, and no wonder. The next night, the fake plastic egg disappeared too. Hopefully whoever pinched it will conclude that all future eggs will also be plastic and it’s not worth going after them. Meanwhile Clara has returned to the original nest.
Now off to make my porridge!
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About Lian
Lian Tanner has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania.
More about Lian
I have really bad stage fright. If it has anything to do with an audience or standing at the front: I’m out of here!
Good luck with your workshop!
Io 🙂
Thanks Io. It went pretty well – but you are not alone in the stage fright! It was one of the things we talked about at great length yesterday.
Hi Lian,
I cannot believe that over here in NSW we have to start school tomorrow! I am really annoyed because we are also moving houses and I do not have any time to finish my entry for the competittion!
Good luck with the workshop it sounds very interesting1
From Lilli <3 ( does the heart work ? )
xx
Lilli, I’m so sorry you won’t have time to finish your entry. Would another week help? These cut off times are always completely arbitrary, so I can always extend them if necessary.
Could you? I haven’t started on mine as we’re still selling our house because it’s too small to fit all six of us anymore and [dreadful but fun] school has started and our teacher doesn’t except any excuses on why our homework isn’t done! (We have daily homework)
I’ll have to skip this competition because I have just too much work to get done! Sorry!
Io 🙁
So would an extension help, Io? It sounds as if the same issues might still apply even if you have an extra week or two. I’ll be dreadfully sorry if you don’t enter, because I always enjoy your entries, but perhaps it is not to be, this time. I’ll probably extend the deadline by a week, anyway.
Thanks Lian! That would really help. Fortunately, we’ll be finished moving by this Saturday so I’ll have some time to do my entry over the next weekend! *fingers crossed* Thanks again!
Io 🙂
Okay, the closing date has been moved to Sunday August 3rd. I’ll put up a blog to this effect next weekend. 🙂
Thanks so much Lian!