Conversations with Dragons

Day Two sees the start of the specialist courses that run all week. This year's subjects were creative non-fiction, journalism, short stories, character psychology, and poetry. I toyed with the idea of creative non-fiction, but opted for poetry as I've been doing more of that lately while creative non-fiction is completely new to me.

In the session we discussed ways of working on poems that aren't working (edit them shorter, and then longer again), and the tutor Alison Chisholm requested that for the last session we think of ways to come up with original poems. She also gave us homework - poems from the past, and five ways to look at them to start something new.

The short courses on offer were self publishing, a grammar refresher, picture books, and connecting with an audience. I took the latter, even though I was in two minds about signing up for the poetry open mic that evening. Tutor Joy France was a little frazzled, having arrived from a festival minutes before, but was an engaging and lively tutor. She discussed audience reaction, memorising works, and how you won't always know something works for performance until you try it. It made my mind up about the open mic, but when I went to sign up all the slots were taken. Maybe next year.

The workshops were on flash fiction or a briefing for Page to Stage, a theatrical event that takes place later in the week. Since I was planning on taking a specialist and short course every day I'd planned to take the workshop time to rest and/or nap since it's a busy week.

The evening speaker was James Runcie, author of the Grantchester Mysteries. He told anecdotes from his varied career, and gave writing advice, including: "Don't be cautious: write what you want." I should really listen to that.

It's a week until this year's Swanwick Writers' Summer School, so I thought I'd post up a beginner's guide for those attending for the first time. My first year I went in blind - they didn't have much of a web presence back then, and I didn't know anyone else going, so I probably made most of the mistakes on this list!

1. Pack light - This probably applies more if you're travelling by train than car, although space may be limited if you're car sharing. There is a book room at Swanwick, filled with books by the other attendees. There's also the information room that sometimes has freebies: I've picked up copies of Writers' Forum and Mslexia in past years, and there's often a pile of Writing Magazine issues, bookmarks, postcards, and small zines. I assume you'll want to take these home with you, so leave room in your luggage.
2. Take a sturdy Bag for Life - In case you fail at 1.
3. Take plenty of cash, and your chequebook - There aren't any card facilities at The Hayes, so if you're buying drinks or from the gift shop, you'll need to pay by cash. There is a card machine in the book room (it belongs to the school rather than the conference centre) but in case of failure it's best to have your chequebook along for when you've spent all your cash. Unless you're on a budget, in which case it's probably best if you don't bring your chequebook.
4. You don't have to go to all the classes - This is a difficult one, because having paid to Do All The Things if you're anything like me you'll probably try to. None of the classes require signing up in advance, so you're not robbing anyone of a place. If there's nothing on you fancy, go and write. Read some of those free magazines you picked up. Take a walk around the lake. No one will mind.
5. You don't have to complete the class if you don't want to - The specialist courses run for an hour a day over four days, and the short course over two one hour sessions in a single day. If you don't get on with the start of the course you don't have to finish it. While it's frowned upon to leave partway through a session (although people will walk out if it overruns and they have places to be), there's nothing to stop you bailing in the break. You can even turn up for the next session of a completely different class. I've done both of these.
6. Don't try to do everything - This is a separate issue to 4 as it takes in the whole programme. At Swanwick it's understood that some people are larks and some people are night owls, and the programme caters to both. The morning Lift Up You Hearts, Lift Up Your Pens, and lakeside meditation sessions all start at 8am. The various evening entertainments finish at around 11pm. If you try to do all of these, plus all the courses, you'll probably by exhausted by Tuesday. Pace yourself, and don't be afraid to take yourself off for a nap if there's nothing on you want to do.
7. When they say Tuesday's a day off, they're lying - Although there aren't any classes on the Tuesday, there will still be panels, rehearsals for the evening's theatrical productions, the procrastination-free day, and the full roster of evening events. Don't bank on taking it easy.
8. Don't feel you have to eat everything - The meals at Swanwick can best be described as hearty. Breakfast is a choice of cereal, fruit, pastries, a cooked breakfast combo, or all of the above. Lunch is usually a cooked main and a pudding, as is dinner. Sometimes there's also soup. There are also tea breaks with biscuits (am) or cake (pm). You will not go hungry, unless you're particularly fussy. In fact, some people I know manage the week on one meal a day.
9. Don't panic about not writing - This may sound counter-intuitive since it's a writing school, but between the classes, catching up with people between classes, lengthy meals, evening events, homework, and emergency napping, there may not be much time for writing. That's okay, as long as you haven't brought a deadline along. You'll still be thinking, talking, and breathing writing all week.
10. Pack early on Thursday - This is another that mostly applies if you're travelling by train, as the coach to the station leaves early. Unless you're a really early riser, you'll want to be packed before breakfast as there isn't time to do it between breakfast and departure. If you're travelling under your own power you have to be off site for 10am, so have a little more time. I tend to pack on Thursday afternoon, after the AGM and before the evening programme starts, partly because I'm feeling glum about it all being over, and partly because I don't want to be packing after the last night disco finishes at 11pm. It's not unheard off for people to stay up after this finishes too, to delay the inevitable.

If you bear these in mind, you might even get to Friday morning without feeling like you haven't slept for a week. I can't guarantee it, though.

To me, Thursday feels subdued even at breakfast. It's the last day, and as courses finish up time to leave gets closer.

We started with the final session of the specialist courses. In Novel Writing, Simon Hall went over the importance of using all the senses, and also touched a little on subplots - something raised by Erin Kelly in the Psychological Thrillers course the day before.

The short course I chose was Plotting for Historical Fiction, with Michael Jecks. I didn't realise he writes historical crime fiction - I seemed to have accidentally ended up with a very crimey week. Although he was a good speaker, the course was marred by a rude audience member who felt the need to argue with him. Since I was already feeling short-tempered I decided not to ruin my mood - and the rest of the day - by going back to the second half. Instead I retired to my room to finish my Alex Gray novel and a bag of caramels. Time well spent, so I didn't feel I'd missed out.

There were no more courses, so I surfaced for afternoon tea and the AGM. It was a short affair this year, since the committee was standing unopposed and only one person was standing for the position that was becoming vacant. There were a few other bits and pieces to deal with, including setting up Friends of Swanwick which is an initiative to try and support the school the rest of the year, as well as support the Topwrite scheme and start a hardship fund. It's very much in its infancy, so there will be more information to come on how it will all work.

Everything has a deflated feel after the AGM, which is perhaps why it's traditional to party after. There's a short break before the Dregs Party, which is usually held on the lawn but was indoors this year due to the weather. A lot of delegates "dress for dinner" in suits and dresses, but since I had limited luggage space I was in my usual jeans and t-shirt.

After dinner we had a pantomime instead of a speaker - a performance of the "first draft" of Romeo and Juliet which was very funny and had the audience divided into Montagues and Capulets. Finally there was the last night disco, and as usual I stayed up later than I meant and went to bed knackered and sad it was all over.

Tuesday is always the quiet day at Swanwick - no classes, although there are panels and an evening speaker. For once I took the whole day off. Other than a chat with a couple of people about poetry, and socialising, I didn't do much.

On offer to those feeling less lazy was an Interview with an Agent - although this had to be cancelled because the agent, Meg Davies, broke her wrist. In true Swanwick style they found a last minute replacement, although I doubt it was as strange as the year Katie Fforde got stuck in traffic and was replaced with a variety show.

There was also a Publishing Panel, for Q&A with a handful of small publishers, self-publishers, and hybrid authors. For the theatrically inclined we had the new tradition of the Page to Stage rehearsals, and for the masochists there was the Procrastination Free Day in which they were locked in a room with a notebook or laptop and made to write all day. It's amazing how stickers can motivate people.

I skipped the evening speaker as it seemed to be heavily marketing-skewed and very much not for me. After that was a quiz and the buskers evening, but I somehow managed to get to bed having not done anything on the programme - a true day off, for once!

On Sunday I was awake early and not happy about it. There is no good reason to be awake at quarter to six in the morning, especially at the weekend.

The courses kicked off with the first part of the four-part specialist courses. The choices this year were Novel Writing, Scriptwriting, Writing for Children, Poetry, and Succeeding on Purpose. I did a lot of motivational courses last year, so decided to focus on writing this year. It was a choice between the novel and poetry courses, and I went for the novel as I'd done a lot of poetry courses in recent years.

The tutor was Simon Hall, author of the TV Detective novels who also works for the BBC. He started with the importance of voice, and then of an opening line that grabs. Ideally these two are linked and the opening line will also give an idea of the attitude and character as well as what the book's about.

For the short course I picked CSI: Investigative Techniques for Writers, a course about crime scene investigation by Kate Bendelow, a writer who's also a SOCO. It was a fascinating course, and she clearly loves her job. I don't write crime fiction, but was aiming to take a course to learn and this didn't disappoint.

As I did last year, I skipped the workshop session to catch up on sleep. It's very hard-going if you try to do everything.

The evening speaker was Mario Reading, author of historical fiction and metaphysical non-fiction. I'd been interested to see him since I have an interest in all things metaphysical, and afterwards picked up a book of his translations and interpretation of some of Nostradamus' prophecies. He discussed why he feels agents are a must, the disadvantages of being a bestseller, and why it's sometimes better to accept a smaller advance rather than fail to earn out a larger one.

After the speaker I gathered with some friends and we spent the rest of the evening playing Exploding Kittens.