East Midlands Yarns

Intergenerational Readers' Group

2008-02-21T05:40:00.001-08:00

Last night I went to sit in on a readers' group meeting in West Bridgeford, NOTTS.

Wow. What can I say? An extraordinary group of insightful readers. A mixture of teenagers and elderly readers, each bringing their own views and experience to bear on reading and discussion about books.

A fifteen year old told me afterwards: 'If someone tells you they don't like reading, it is because they have not found the right book yet'

Now THAT is insight.

A Thousand Miles

2008-01-28T01:16:00.001-08:00

There have been a number of different beginnings to this journey. The point here I had the idea. Writing a proposal. Getting the proposal accepted. My first steps with a journey to the Readers' Day in Matlock.

But now, after a bit of a lull over the Christmas period, it feels as if things have really started. In the last few days I have been arranging a schedule of visits to readers' groups in Leicester, Leicestershire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire.

I believe the steering group which arranges things for readers' groups around the East Midlands will be meeting today. They have been helping me to make the arrangements.

Confucious is often quoted as saying 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.' By my reconing, this literal joueney will be roughly a thousand miles. Perhaps a shade more.

Where did that come from?

2007-12-23T03:30:00.001-08:00

At the readers' Day in Matlock I had the chance to interview a number of people, asking about their relationship to stories. When I got home I started to digest the things I had learned.

One of the interesting things about being a writer is the way input of various kinds can act as a trigger. Well, it was a few days after listening to all those stories about stories that I found myself writing something new. It is a story about my own life. Specifically about my experience of being dyslexic in a non-dyslexic world. I can tell you three things about this new bit of writing.

1) It came out at an extraordinary rate. In the odd moments when I had the chance to write during a two week period, I typed 25,000 words into the computer. That is very fast for me. I am usually much slower.

2) I am only now starting to be able to guess where this writing will take me.

3) I am convinced this started to flow through my mind because of things I heard at the Matlock Readers' Day.

One of the comments on my last posting suggested that 'Escapism' might be a deeper thing than I had previously suspected. This is a good line for me to investigate. Many thanks.

Back from Matlock

2007-11-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a readers' day at Derbyshire's County Hall. I was there with Alex J from BRAG Films, asking everyone I could corner the same question: why do people like stories?

I don't know what I expected as an answer. Something deep maybe. After all, story telling seems to be fundamental to the human condition. But the answer most people gave was 'escapism'. People love stories because they like to escape from their lives.

I'm not sure what I think about that. Escapism seems too ordinary. Too mundane to be the profound motivation for storytelling. But perhaps I haven't understood what escapism really means.

Perhaps I should be asking a psychologist.

The Journey Begins

2007-11-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I'm heading up to Derbyshire with Alex (from BRAG Films) to attend a readers' day in Matlock. 'What is a readers' day?', I imagine you asking. A good question. I'll report back when I have found out more.

What I know as of now is this: there will be a lot of keen readers gathered together. And that means an opportunity for me to take my camera and get some interviews, to start finding out what drives people to immerse themselves in stories.

Of course, you don't have to be at the readers' day to get involved. I'll be travelling to readers' groups all around the East Midlands over the next few months. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see some of you there.

Or... you could post comments here. What are your favourite stories and why do you like them? Do tell.

The Seven Basic Plots

2007-11-09T01:44:00.000-08:00

I saw it on the shelf of the bookshop this summer and thought, I have got to have that. The Seven Basic Plots, by Christopher Booker. I'm a novelist. I am about to set out on a journey to find out about why people love stories. This book has to be for me, right?

"A profound insight into mankind's psychological needs' says one of the review quotes on the back. I want. I definitely want.

Unfortunately, I am also a very slow reader and this book is blessed with 728 densely-written pages. It isn't a novel, so there aren't chunks of easy-read dialogue to break up the text.

Looking at the chapter headings and dipping in here and there, I have discovered that the seven basic plots are, according to Christopher Booker:

Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

The amazing thing about this work is the number of examples the author cites for each type. No wonder it took him so many years to write. It is an extraordinary achievement. And the quotes he has found to sprinkle through the text - thought provoking. How about this one:

The difference between men and animals is that men tell stories

- source untraced

It is so tantalising. But my frustration at not being able to read faster, not yet being able to extract a picture of the whole subject - this is intense.

I will read it. I will. But I know I won't be able to finish it before my own journey is well underway.

The storyteller in all of us

2007-11-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I conducted a writing workshop in Loughborough. The objective - to go through the process of planning a crime novel with a group of twenty-or-so participants. To do it all in a morning. And to do it led entirely from the input of the group - rather than making up the story myself.

(Perhaps I should explain at this point that this - novel writing and teaching creative writing - is what I do from day to day. This is my ordinary life. In terms of the eight-point-story-arc, this is my own personal 'stasis'. But more of stasis and eight-point-story-arcs in later posts. )

Here is the question that woke me up worrying early yesterday morning - would the group have sufficient story ideas to make the workshop work? Would the participants have that story-telling instinct? If they didn't have it, the workshop would fall flat indeed.

As it turned out, my only problem was keeping a lid on the stories that were pressing to flood out. The workshop zinged.

Yesterday wasn't the first time I've conducted this particular workshop, so I should have known not to worry. People - all people - seem to be story-tellers by instinct.

The Ultimate Journey

2007-10-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

Having a feeling that someone once said that every story is like a journey, I searched on Google for "story like a journey" and was rewarded with 27,500 hits. Turning things around, I then searched for "journey like a story" for which, to my surprise, there was only one hit.

Does this simile work in only one direction?

A friend recently told me of an Arabic saying: "Every journey is a symbol of the real and ultimate journey". It all makes me wonder where this journey of mine is going to lead.

Lights. Camera. Action.

2007-10-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

First assemble your tools, then begin. The tools for this journey include lights, camera and microphone. That's because I'm going to be making a documentary film along the way. A film about stories, as it were.

For the last few weeks I have been researching types of camera and their qualities and costs. At last I have settled on the Sony Z1E, found one for sale second hand, agreed a price and on Sunday I'll be going down to London to pick it up.

With that out of the way I can start to think about the task ahead. What will I find when I visit reading groups around the region? Will the stories people have to tell me offer any answers? Will I find out why people seem to need stories?

A small, anxious voice in the back of my head is saying "What if people just say their favourite story is East Enders, and can't or won't articulate the reason? I won't have much of a documentary." And yet, I don't think that is going to happen. Most people have a story to tell.

We will see...

To Begin at the Beginning

2007-10-09T12:56:00.001-07:00

Every story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. I don't yet know the middle or the end of this one. But I know the beginning - and that is here.

Today is the start of a 9 month journey around the East Midlands. My mission is to learn about the stories people love and to find out why they love them. This blog is going to be the story of my journey. A story about stories.

How and why did this journey come about? That is what is known in the trade as 'exposition' or 'back story'. I'll tell you more about that in the next installment.