Hello Zalons! While we’re not allowed to gather as a group under the same roof, Words Away has made the move to hosting literary salons online. Transitioning from the twinkling lights of the lovely Tea House Theatre to the laptop required a little bit of thought. I raided my husband’s home office for some lighting and sorted out a passable bookish background. My husband Mark pitched in to help with the tech-wrangling and once we’d all figured out how to raise digital hands and use the chat we were off and running. Andrew Wille was our inaugural guest in 2016 and so it was a real buzz to have him back as our first Zalon guest along with an audience of over eighty writers from the UK and abroad! We followed a shortened version of our usual format and the topic for the evening was Revising and Editing. I started the ball rolling with a few questions for Andrew and then the audience joined in for a hearty Q&A session.

Much of Andrew’s work as a book doctor and development editor is to help writers work out the best way to tell the story. I suggested that it’s not always an easy transition for writers to move from the creative to the editorial self, but Andrew said he doesn’t see these two parts of the process as two separate things and enjoys helping writers bring them together. “Publishing is somewhat of a lottery and being focused on this outcome can sometimes cloud our thinking about our writing.” It can help during the revision and editing process to pause and think about our “intentions” by asking what do you want from the book. Also consider what you’re giving the reader: what’s the “pay-off,” not just at the end of the book but on every page.

If you get stuck in a manuscript Andrew offered a different way into the editing process with this exercise: go back and read a favourite childhood book, be it a fairytale, a classic or any beloved story that was primal to your reading experience as a child. Be alert to what it raises in you. Does it unlock something in your manuscript? For more on this and other resources for writers see Andrew’s blog, link below.

Throughout the zalon we shared resources including Anne Lamott’s wonderful “restorative book” for writers, Bird by Bird and her idea of embracing “shitty first drafts”. We discussed ways to structure a memoir or novel by looking for forms in our own work,(e.g. Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat Pray Love is structured conceptually and told in 108 sections divided into three groups of 36, inspired by the prayer beads used in Eastern meditation). Andrew also recommended reading Ursula Le Guin’s extraordinary essay, The Carrier Bag of Fiction, which unpacks the reductive nature of the Hero’s journey and challenges the notion that conflict is the primary driver of narrative.

We discussed the value of beta readers and writing groups and heard about ways to get feedback on your writing. It can be hard if you’re new to the writing community to make those first steps toward finding a supportive network. Friendships can be made through attending writing events (online or in real life when next we can) and getting comfortable with twitter and Facebook. Look for fellow writers who gel with your voice and appreciate your vision of the world.

As a parting thought Andrew left us with a couple of questions fundamental to the art of revising and editing: what is the the story and what’s at stake? Also ask what is the emotional content of your story and are you conveying that to the reader?

Thank you very much to Andrew for his wisdom and generosity! Thanks also to our audience for joining in. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to our next zalon on 1st June at 6pm: How Screenwriting Made Me a Better Novelist with guest, author, screenwriter and Grazia columnist, Emma Jane Unsworth. Please book your place via the website. And while you are there look out for a special morning zalon with the award winning Australian novelist Charlotte Wood talking Writing Relationships: exploring character and place, on Saturday July 4th at 10am BST ( which will be 7pm Sat evening in Sydney, Australia being 9 hours ahead!). Her new novel, The Weekend, is to be published in the UK this June (it’s brilliant by the way). Following that I’m planning more zalons with super guests to be held monthly on a Monday night over the summer. More information coming soon.

Best wishes,

Kellie

References & Resources:

• Andrew Wille & his recent blog posts on Revising and Editing Zalon & Childhood Revisitations – a writing experiment.

• For writing resources galore: Emma Darwin - This Itch of Writing Blog

• I also heartily recommend Charlotte Wood: A Mind of One's Own in conversation with Alison Manning podcast as well as her current The Writer's Room series.

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual, and Sexual Awakening by Kim Hudson, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin - this essay is also included in her collection: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places, Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne including The Pomegranate Seeds, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition by Rikki Ducornet, Margaret Atwood, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, On Chapel Sands by Laura Cummings, I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell, Scrivener,

RNA: Romantic Novelist Association, Collier Street Fiction Group, New Writing South, Virtual Writing Groups on Twitter: #VWG,