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| Photo by Alex Carter |
A perk of
doing my MA at the University of Winchester is that I had the opportunity to be
a student host at this year’s Winchester Writers' Festival. My duties were to
look after two session leaders and in return I got to see the keynote and sit
in on my speakers’ sessions, not to mention lunch, with tangerine and coffee
pudding. Well, I did mention it, I had to; it was so good!
Beforehand
I was terrified. Stupidly so. I thought I ought to prepare an elevator pitch to
market myself effectively, even though my novel is less than half written. I
forgot that people are human beings. I also forgot that these days I am barely
ever intimidated.
The start
of the day was wonderful, Sebastian Faulks was everything you want from a
keynote. He was very warm, had fascinating anecdotes and said exciting things,
like allowing your characters to contradict themselves. Check out @JennySavill1 's #sebastianfaulks tweets for a great summary of his gems.
Jenny
Savill from Andrew Nurnberg was my first speaker. She was, of course, lovely
and encouraging, talking about there being a potential market for my clumsily
explained story (I still haven’t nailed my elevator chatter). My second speaker
was Paul Bryers, who had been one of my lecturers so I knew he wouldn’t be
scary and it was brilliant to catch up with him. He was in high spirits, having
just finished writing a novel the day before!
I don’t
want to give away my speaker’s intellectual property because that would be
unethical and if you get the chance to hear either of them talk, please do!
So just
tiny tasters:
Jenny’s
session was ‘Think you’re Ready to Submit to an Agent’. She gave lots of
excellent tips on what to do before sending your manuscript off. I’ve made a
checklist from what she said. A jewel for me was about starting action as late
as possible. Very resonant!
Then
lunch. And. That. Pudding.
Paul’s
session was ‘Making a Drama Out of a Crisis’, looking at ways in to
factually-based historical fiction. It was great to hear his film maker and
novelist perspectives and I love that he says the story must come first; truth
is flexible.
Both
speakers answered all sorts of questions from attendees, honestly and expertly.
In
between, I bumped into MA friends at various stages of their dissertations,
some more frantic than me and others I’m incredibly jealous of (already
editing!). I also saw other friends, some that I hadn’t seen for years, some
that are becoming new writing buddies. And met new people. I love new people;
they’re so unexplored. All of them with that shared passion; that drive
to write.
Thanks to
Judith Heneghan for this fantastic opportunity. Next year I’ve promised myself
a fully paid-up ticket and I’ll be touting my completed novel. Dear readers,
book yourselves on and I’ll see you there!
