ThoughtTree, June 2018
Do Good Readers Make Better Writers?
‘Read, read, read. Read everything‐ trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.’ William Faulkner ,
‘Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.‘ Stephen King ‘
- Writing is good for us‐ and so is reading!
- Two ways to improve‐ write more and read more
- One page of a good novel is worth a whole stack of textbooks
- Read like a writer ~‐unconsciously aware of technique, successful writing ‐ and weaknesses.
- Everything you learn as a reader you can use as a writer
- Change the way you read ‐ break habits, read Widely ‐ it’s possible to learn how it’s done
- Make notes as you read ‐ in margins, in a diary, notebook ‐ helps you remember – your reactions; turns thought into action ‐ first step to writing
- Re-reading is good. You’ll find more in it each time.
- [Write a review] summary ‐ explore your responses, ideas. Highly beneficial.
- ‘Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas, it generates them.‘ Paul Graham
- Join a book club! eg. Brough Library Book Club tel. 01482 393939. If you can’t find one, start one. Or go online: www.goodreads.com; www.fichardandjudy.00.uk; www.my‑ bookciub.com: www.readinggzoupsorg (the Reading Agency); www.thewiiloughbybookclub.co.uk; www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk
- Reading gives us inspiration, knowledge, vocabulary, language skills, best practice expands our ideas of the world But it’s not just about literacy. Science confirms that reading increases blood flow to the brain, reduces the risk of dementia, increases empathy, inspires imagination.
‘ If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.‘ Oscar Wilde
‘There is no friend as loyal as a book.‘ Ernest Hemingway
‘A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.’ George R. R. Martin
Handout One ===>
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
My name is Mike Engleby, and I’m in my second-year at an ancient university. My college was founded in 1662, which means it’s viewed here as modern. Its chapel was designed by Hawksmoor, or possibly Wren; its gardens were laid out by someone else whose name is familiar. The choir stalls were carved by the only woodworker you’ve ever heard of. The captain of the Boat Club won a gold medal at an international game last year. (I think he’s studying physical education.) The captain of cricket has played for Pakistan, though he talks like the Prince of Wales. The teachers, or ‘dons’, include three university professors, one of whom was on the radio recently talking about lizards. He’s known as the Iguanodon.
Tonight I won’t study in my room because there’s the Weekly meeting of the Folk Club. Almost all the boys in my college goto ‘ this, not for the music, though it ’s normally quite good, but because lots of girl students come here for the evening. The only boys who don’t go are those with a wall; compulsion, or the ones who think folk music died when Bob Dylan went electric.
There’s someone I’ve seen a few times, called Jennifer Arkland. I discovered her name because she stood for election to the committee of a society. On the posters, the candidates had small pictures of themselves and, under their names and colleges, a few personal details. Hers said: ‘Second-year History exhibitioner. Previously educated at Lymington High School and Sorbonne. Hobbies: music, dance, film‐making, cooking. Would like to make the society more democratic with more women members and have more outings.”
I’d seen her in the washroom of the University Library, where she was usually with t w o other girls from her college, a fat one called Molly and a severe dark one, whose name I hadn’t caught There was often Steve from Christ’s at Dave from Jesus stifling round them.
I think I’ll join this society of hers. It doesn’t matter what it’s for because they’re all the same. They’re all called something Soc, short for Society. Lab Soc, Lit Soc, Geog Soc. There’s probably a knit‑ ting group called Sock Soc. I’ll find out about Jen Soc, then go along so I can get to know her better.
I won a prize to come to my college and it pays my fees; my family’s poor. I took a train from school one day after I’d sat the exams and had been called for interview. I must have stayed in London on the way, but I have no memory of it. My memory’s odd like that. I’m big on detail, but there are holes in the fabric. I do remember that I took a bus from the station, though I didn’t know then what my college looked like. I went around the whole city and ended up back at the station, having made the round trip. Then I took a taxi and had to borrow some money from the porter to pay for it. I still had a pound note in my wallet for emergencies.
They gave me a key to a bedroom; it was in a courtyard that I reached by a tunnel under the road. I imagined what kind of student lived there normally. I pictured someone called Tony with a beard and a duffel coat. I tried really hard to like the room and the college that was going to be mine. I imagined bicycling off to lectures in the early morning with my’books helmet! on a rack over the back wheel. I’d be shouting out to the other guys, ‘See you there!‘ I’d probably smoke a pipe. I’d also probably have a girlfriend – some quite stern grammar school girl with glasses, who wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.
In fact, I didn’t like the room I was in that night. It was damp, it was small and it felt as though too many people had been through it. It didn’t seem old enough; it didn’t seem 17th century, or modern: <===
Handout Two
Eleanor Oliphant is completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
===> WH E N P E O P L E ASK ME what I do ‐ taxi drivers, dental hygienists -‐ I tell them I work in an office. In almost nine- years, no one’s ever asked what kind of ofiice, or what sort of job I do there. I can’t decide whether that’s because I fit exactly with their idea of what an office worker looks like, or whether people hear the phrase ‘work in an office’ and automatically fill in the blanks themselves ‐- lady doing photocopying, man tapping at a keyboard. I’m not complaining. I’m delighted that I don’t have to get into the fascinating intricacies of accounts receivable with them. When I first started working here, whenever anyone asked, I used to tell them that I worked for a graphic design company, but then they assumed I was a creative type. It became a bit boring to see their faces blank over when I explained that it was ‘back office stuff’, that I didn’t get to use the fine-tipped pens and the fancy software.
I’m nearly thirty years old now and I’ve been working here since I was twenty‐one. Bob, the owner, took me on not long after the office opened. I suppose he felt sorry for me. I had a degree in Classics and no work experience to speak of, and I turned up for the interview with a black eye, a couple of missing teeth and a broken arm. Maybe he sensed, back then, that I would never aspire to anything more than a poorly paid office job, that I would be content to stay with the company and save him the bother of ever having to recruit a replacement. Perhaps he could also tell that I’d never need to take time off to go on a honeymoon or request maternity leave. I don’t know.
It’s definitely a two-tier system in the office; the creatives are the film stars, the rest of us merely supporting artists. You can tell by looking at us which category we fall into. To be fair, part of that is salary‐related. The back ofiice stafl get paid a pittance, and some can’t afford much in the way of sharp haircuts and nerdy glasses. Clothes, music, gadgets – although the designers are desperate to be seen as freethinkers with unique ideas, they all adhere to a strict uniform. Graphic design is of no interest to me. I’m a finance clerk I could be issuing invoices for anything, really: armaments, Rohypnol, coconuts.
From Monday to Friday, I come in at 8.30. I take an hour for lunch. I used to bring in my own sandwiches, but the food at home always went off before I could use it up, so now I get something from the high street. I alwayé finish with a trip to Marks and Spencer on a Friday, which rounds off the week nicely. I sit in the stafioom with my sandwich and I read the newspaper from cover to cover, and then I do the crosswords. I take the Daily Telegraph not because I like it particularly, but because it has the best cryptic crossword. I don’t talk to anyone ‐ by the time I’ve bought my Meal Deal, read the paper and finished both crosswords, the hour is almost up. I go back to my desk and work till 5.30. The bus home takes half an hour.
I make supper’and eat it while I listen to The Archers. I usually have pasta with pesto and salad – one pan and one plate. My childhood was full of culinary contradiction, and I’ve dined on both hand-dived scallops and boil-in-the‐bag cod over the years. <===
THE MAIN LESSON
We were asked to think about a piece of music that we had thought about over a long period of time. no special type of music: it could be pop, classical folk – the only thing that had to be special was the fact that you often thought about it.
I chose ‘ The house at four doors’ by the Moody blues
The first thought that I had about this track when I heard it in 1968 was that it was about the senses the ears nose eyes mouth and it was all about what you experienced of the world. There is a poem on the LP (early MB albums all had then until about their 7 or 8 when they ceased and that’s a shame. The second poem on ‘In Search of the Lost Chord’ does say and talk about the house of four doors. the verses reinforced my belief that my chosen track was about your head and it’s doorways that information came in through. I remember my English teacher at school telling me that the Moody blues were rubbish at poetry. Most recently I was on holiday within the grounds of a Buddhist temple and I discovered that every Buddhist temple has four doors. these doors are because of the four seals of the Buddhist tradition and this puts a new slant on things. I have done some study and have only just got to the first seal. This seal is about thinking that everything is an illusion, everything is energy and it depends how we sense and put together (assemble) this energy as quite how we see the world. different people sense the same energy in different ways and so we are all very unique. since I first heard this album (and particularly this track) I have always had a bit of an obsession about the unseen energies that surround us. so my first thoughts and these latest thoughts I have had about the same piece of music are a testimony to the change that has taken place within.
Moody Blues Lyrics
“Departure”
Be it sight, sound, the smell, the touch.
There’s something,
Inside that we need so much,
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
The wonder of flowers, to be covered, and then to burst up,
Thru tarmack, to the sun again,
Or to fly to the sun without burning a wing,
To lie in the meadow and hear the grass sing,
To have all these things in our memories hoard,
And to use them,
To help us,
To find…
God…
The Word BY Graeme Edge
This garden universe vibrates complete
Some, we get a sound so sweet
Vibrations reach on up to become light
And then through gamma, out of sight
Between the eyes and ears there lie
The sounds of colour and the light of a sigh
And to hear the sun, what a thing to believe
But it’s all around if we could but perceive
To know ultraviolet, infrared and X-rays
Beauty to find in so many ways
Two notes of the chord, that’s our poor scope
But to reach the chord is our life’s hope
And to name the chord is important to some
So they give it a word, and the word is…
OM
READ BY Mike Pinder
I didn’t really know or appreciate the word Om when I was 15 years old, it meant nothing until about two years ago, my perception of how things are has now changed forever.
Discussion everyone’s different songs had very different meanings to the people concerned. mine was ‘a bit deep’ but nice, what was common was that all our songs appealed to the senses and the senses such as smell associates with other things, flowers, a women’s perfume, etc. for one example of what we thought,
Some points that arose from our discussion were
- writers both read and write
- Skimming is definitely okay it is not a crime to dip in and out of books and just read the bits that you find interesting at that time
- We were asked if we ever stepped outside of our usual books. This often happens on holidays where you looked in your room and there is a shelf of books that you have not chosen. Often you will find one that you find interesting that would’ve not picked up otherwise
- Some development work.
- Re-reading a book is often quite enjoyable as you are now aware of how the plot develops. You can see what decisions they also took in able to develop his plot
- when we are reading time is not really a constraint, events can happen at different times and that is not a problem as the reader will make it his business to try to connect events together. If we are considering how things happen though it’s important the order in which things happen, your writing should always be quite logical otherwise the reader is puzzled and wonders why something happened that couldn’t possibly have happened without something else having occurred first
- Some readers are what is known as magpie readers they go through books looking for bright shiny things that draw their attention. And for them, the book is more a collection of ideas rather than a story, which is whole
- sometimes reading to the writer can seem very tedious because we always think that we have better ideas and could come up with better plots than the ones the author has used. This can cause us to just abandon a book halfway through and never finish it. I discovered that I am very like this as I have a whole shelf of books that I have started to read but never actually finished
- in order to get around item 4, a good idea is to treat reading a book as if you were a reviewer writing a review for a critique. You will find that if you approach any book from this angle, you will find the experience of reading becomes a lot more interesting as you will spend less time trying to re-write the book in a fashion that pleases you
- we were then asked to think about a very famous events and where we were at the time that the event was taking place.
Some associations are never forgotten and summer I chose the two towers. 911. I was in the Demon Internet support office. . we had a two major link this was when the rest of the world was on a 30 3K or 50 6K modem I was watching a starter free moving picture of events happening 7000 miles via the wonders of telephone house on the south of the river Thames. That is exactly how it felt. all the members of staff were watching a monitor someone in our office and there was absolutely dead silence. This was a technical support CallCenter and normally it sounded like the dancing floor of the stock exchange with everyone excitedly all speaking at once. It was very strange and quite a nerving they silence that profound profound pre-filed that’s right thank you. The second plane hit there was a united gasp that broke the previous uncanny silence. That gasp turned to wails of despair and a return to the buzz of two hundred people all talking at once. there were not many people listening. the realisation that this was not a movie but we were looking at actual events was beginning just to sink in. This was not a Hollywood special effects. After a while, I presume that our American friends either cut the link orThere were so many people in the world trying to watch what was happening that even with our high-tech link our picture froze and that was all we were going to say until the events appeared on the news at 10. After the pictures had gone people just need to talk to one another to get over the shock of what I have just witnessed even bosses are usually went on interminably about: call rights and allsorts of things didn’t really have the nerve to bother us and left us to have a general discussion to get it out of our systems I suppose. That day the ‘call waiting’ red light never went out for the rest of the day and the evening as well there was a permanent care of people waiting to get through to the helpdesk. The helpdesk needed help itself but not with technical matters.
we then read through the examples of characterisations (Handout one and two given above) that had been given to us by Deb. And were asked our opinions of the characters that had been portrayed. This discussion was many and varied as each person saw something slightly different in what they had read. But I will report what I discovered for myself in order to keep things shorter and more manageable.
The character Ingleby was a character I did not like. He had very poor opinions of everyone that was around him and only seems interested in himself. Worse than that he does not seem to like himself very much either. I could not be doing with him I just wanted him to go away and annoy somebody else. We also had very cleverly constructive I thoroughly and likeable person no one would want to help because just being near was very wearing and tiresome.
The other character had just as many flaws BUT was likeable and I was able to be empathetic with her and want to help her. She was just as annoying but she did show that she saw good qualities in other people that she met and did have some measure of what was nice and comfortable and what was fairly horrid and just plain the bad behaviour. Not a person you would have as a best friend as you would always be assisting them in their daily journey through life. this might appeal to some people initially and this person would be somebody that they liked and over a period of time grew to hate. I have to say that it is conceivable that although I hated Ingleby initially it is possible that after a while I might grow to like him, but this is questionable.
Final thoughts about this session. We were going to be given some homework and also a question. The question was about future workshops that we would be interested in participating in. Also, it would be helpful if we would indicate areas where we thought we was sadly lacking. This could be for instance areas of vocabulary, grammar, layout… Deb. indicated that this would be of great assistance to her.
Any work was not compulsory but Deb would be interested in biography where some ‘secrets or hidden facts’ were made known about yourself. I decided to write about the little eye club on the Romford Road where the small faces and several later stars of pop started out in the business.
Some other ideas about reading and how it is beneficial to not just a writer but everybody.
- Science has now proved that reading is very good for developing good brain processes. They have measured brain activity and also body reactions to reading and it is a fact that blood flow rate increases and there is definitely more oxygen supply to the brain when a person is reading
- Reading is now recommended for people that require assistance with their mental health. it is very beneficial to people that suffer with extreme anxiety.
- Reading improves our understanding of our world in so many ways, if people do not read they often develop a very distorted view of what reality actually is
- Reading is very good for helping people develop imagination. Imagination is a very powerful motivator and is often the start of very many great things. One does not have to invent some marvellous gadget. People have problems with dealing with new technology and the spin-off problems it creates. People with increased imagination can often foresee the things that affect us all greatly and can propose possible solutions.
Some Famous Quotes.
- Nothing is as loyal a friend as a book
- You don’t have to burn books to make them extinct all you have to do is stop people reading them.
Some writers have a great talent for portraying a moment in time purely by the scenes that they describe in their books. For example, if an author was talking about a queue at a public phone box then we would know we were in a period before the existence of mobile phones. Mobile phones were the preserve of the professionals or very wealthy people in the middle 80s and they were not commonly owned until the mid to late 90s. So if we are looking for clues then the phone box tells us that the period we are thinking off is the 70s or perhaps a decade or so before that.
I spoke about something that I could write about that would give the period of time away to the reader. I have a memory of three lights playing skiffle in the front garden. One play guitar another played a wash board and the other chap had a base made from a T chest a broomhandle and a length of rope. People that had seen this would know straight away I was talking of a period in the late 50s.
To add further clues I decided I would talk about bomb sites, derelict houses and the prefabs that were put up to get over as a temporary shortage of housing.
I could also mention the fact that friends and myself found a box containing tell me that would’ve been dropped during practice by acro these were possibly 50s I have a sneaking suspicion that they were much older. I think they dated back to the great War of 1914 to 1918. War in the 50s was not a distant memory the end of World War II was less than a decade lots of people spoke about events houses that disappeared suddenly people that were no longer around tube stations that were used as aerate shelters there was so many things still in the streets that reminded those that have lived through these dreadful days. I remember as a child going to Wanstead flats and tripping over the guy ropes of an anti aircraft balloon I would’ve been about four years of age at that time which meant that the anti aircraft had been in place for probably 10 years also why never gone away when it was no longer required reminds mystery to me. My head hurts though when I tripped over that bloody rope rope thank you that’s right. I remember going on holiday with the school to Dymchurch and spending many happy hours searching for 303 rifle bullets and their cases. Our slides amassed quite a collection of them and we were very proud of our war memorabilia.
Events can be used to accurately form A picture in the mind of your reader of what the postwar Eastend of London was really like. These images live on only in museums and the minds and hearts of people that lived there. There is a great interest in forming a view of events that have been portrayed endlessly on TV and in films. Personal accounts of what it was like will always interest the book reading public.
LAST BIT
Deb is writing a memoir and would really like written descriptive pictures of peoples past events that she could use in a short novel. She encouraged us to thinking about perhaps writing our own biographical novel with a time limit of three months. She thought this would be a very challenging and interesting project for all of us that attend the ThoughtTree workshops.
Deb thought that the next ThoughtTree workshop would be held on the 19th to 20th of July and would be at the Village paintpot cafe as was usual.
