ON OVERCOMING SHYNESS....

One of the posts I've had the most personal responses to recently was one in which I mentioned my shyness and the cure that's helped me, Bach's Rescue Remedy.

I posted this photograph on Facebook as a joke about my forthcoming Kilimanjaro preparations, but it does seem to make a difference for me.



And here are some of the other things that help me overcome shyness when it comes to readings and public speaking etc ...

1. Making a note of all the things I've missed in the past because of it. And how much I would have enjoyed them. So I don't want to miss more in the future. Do I?

2. This tip I read which is that a speech should contain a fact, a feeling (created by talking about the senses) and an action. Just thinking about how I am gong to include this gives me some kind of structure apart from just panicking.

3. Remembering that no one else notices how nervous I am. Just bluff it out and smile. Also remember that people actually want me to do well. They are not the enemy. Although strangely easy to forget this sometimes.

4. In my head unless I'm careful, I often have a scenario going on about how I'm going to trip over, that I will start crying, that ... etc etc. The strange thing is that these thoughts are almost a little comforting - as if it's not really going to be as bad as that. How could it be? But that's all a bit negative, so I try to think instead about what people (the audience) want to hear. How can I give them that? Just replacing the first scenario with this calms me. Gives me something other than myself to think about, because it's not about me anymore. It's about everybody else. I remember listening to a talk by Dr Wayne Dyer in which he said that he sat in his dressing room before any presentation asking 'how could he serve'? Well, I don't have dressing rooms, and I'm not so sure about the serving, but I like the sentiment.

5. Have the first few lines ready, and prepared. And how I'm going to finish. And to practice this a few times in front of the mirror. Smiling. And bluffing it out (with a few drops of rescue remedy to hand..).

What tips do you have? Let's compile a list.

SHORT CIRCUITING....

A lovely lovely night yesterday reading in Soho, London for the new guide to writing short stories, Short Circuit.




(photo from my facebook page courtesy of Elizabeth Baines)

My chapter in the book is about how we use inspiration from other people - friends, family, newspaper stories, anecdotes - for our fiction. Not just repeating almost word for word what we've been told but searching for the seed in the story that engaged us in the first place, and working it out on the page in our own unique way. The more I think about it, the one word that sums up inspiration best in writing is desire. I know that sometimes when people tell me a story I'd like to write about, I feel a pang of something that could probably be expressed best as desire - both in terms of wanting something but also, and as importantly, feeling the loss of it.

Anyway, no losses last night. I got to spend time with some of my writing friends I normally meet on-line, including Elizabeth Baines, Tania Hershman, and Vanessa Gebbie, Also to meet Marian Garvey.

Star of the show was Vanessa with her reading - looking round the room I could see I wasn't the only one who was moved. Quite right, because she's the editor of the book, and the good news is that she announced last night that it was already on the required reading lists for a number of universities as well as getting good reviews already from individual writers.

Here is the info on the book:

Short Circuit is a unique and indispensable guide to writing the short story. A collection of 24 specially commissioned essays from well-published short story writers, many of them prize winners in some of the toughest short story competitions in the English language. The writers are also experienced and successful teachers of their craft.

Each essay picks up on one or more craft or process issues and explores them in context, within the creative practice of the writer. Each writer has given of themselves very generously, exploring what it is that helps them produce strong short fiction, looking at their sources of inspiration, revealing more than a little of what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. They share favourite writing exercises, and suggest lists of published stories they find inspirational. Much of the guidance can equally be applied to writing longer fiction.

Contributions include five essays from winners of The Bridport Prize. There are interviews with Clare Wigfall — winner of The National Short Story Award — and with Tobias Hill whose short story collection won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. Other prize-winning writers in this book include winners of The Asham Award for New Women Writers, The Fish Histories Prize, The Fish Short Story Prize, The BBC Short Story Prize, The Commonwealth Award, Writers Inc. Writer of the Year, The Willesden Herald Prize, NAWG Millennium Award for Radio Short Story and the Per Contra Prize.

You can buy it here or here.

Many thanks to Jen of Salt for a lovely evening, and happy pizza after!

I'm reading in Canterbury tonight

Oops, another thing I forgot to mention ...

It's at the University of Kent - in the wonderfully named Missing Link at Darwin College...

17 March SARAH SALWAY
6.00 pm Peter Brown Room, Missing Link, Darwin
£2 entry, £1 for students/concessions

You can find out more here. I will not be attempting an Irish accent although I might have a Guinness after. Or two.

Teacher's treats...

I've finished my writing classes in Tunbridge Wells for the summer now, so last night I invited a mixture of students, local artists, writers and friends over for a drink and a reading. You can tell this particular reader is a Sarah because of her tiara. I would like to say I made her wear it, but I've come to terms with the fact I've never had a student yet doesn't do exactly what they want to do and hang my futile attempts at instilling an air of fear and authority.



From the emails I've had - and even the honour of it being a beautiful thing - other people enjoyed last night's 'soiree' nearly as much as I did. But it also made me think a lot because I've always considered my teaching as a way of funding my writing. But suddenly last night, as I listened to the readings and the conversations going on and remembering some of the exercises we'd all done together, I realised just how important teaching has become for me. It is a privilege to work with other peoples' writing and to share the energy of committed writers creating something together. I could never be one of those writers who live hermit-style, communicating only with the page. I need to be engaged somehow with the world. My challenge now is to keep the balance between engaging and writing. One nice thing about the kind of teaching I do is that it's not continuous. I get breaks like now - from July to September - in which to revitalise, think of new ideas, and get ready to start again. To this end, because I've got some exciting teaching prospects coming along, and a connected even more exciting project I'm working on, Clare and I have been sorting through my very very messy piles of teaching notes together.



And slowly, slowly, it's all coming together. I like to think of myself as a creative type who doesn't mind mess but I know now that's not the case. I like order. No, I LOVE order. I crave it. It lets me have the space to think of new ideas. Mind you, I've just spent the last five minutes stroking my new Clare-organised files.



No wonder she wears a tiara. She might not be a Sarah but she's the queen of the alpabeticised system. My only gripe is that she says I've got to learn how to use them myself because she's not going to move in and live with me but, hey, I have a tiara too (and mine's pink). I CAN do it.

Short Story Conference

‘The Story Shall Be Changed’: Tales and Re-tellings in the Short Story

Saturday July 21st, 2007
Edge Hill University

The second short story conference at Edge Hill, bringing together writers, researchers and literary scholars.

Speakers include:

Professor Alan Wall (Richard Dadd in Bedlam and Other Stories)
Andy Sawyer (Science Fiction Foundation, University of Liverpool)
Cecilia Morreau (Leaf Books)

The conference is linked with the inaugural presentation of the Edge Hill Prize, for a published single author collection from the British Isles. This year’s shortlist is:

Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things
Jackie Kay, Wish I Was Here
Nicholas Royle, Mortality
Colm Toibin, Mothers and Sons
Tamar Yellin, Kafka in Bronteland

Judges are A.L. Kennedy, Andrew Cant of Simply Books and Ailsa Cox, Reader in English and Writing at Edge Hill. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at the Royal Exchange, Manchester on July 20th.

Jackie Kay, Nicholas Royle and Tamar Yellin have confirmed that they will be reading at the conference. There will also be readings by short story authors including E.A. Markham, Sarah Salway, David Evans and David Swann.

This is the second annual conference hosted by the North West Short Story Network, supported by Lancaster University, Liverpool Hope, St Martin’s Lancaster, University of Chester, Bolton University, Salford University and Manchester Metropolitan University (Cheshire).

Booking Fees: £55/£30 (students, unwaged)

To book please log on to the website or contact Trish Molynuex, Dept. of English, Edge Hill University, St Helens Rd., Ormskirk L39 4QP.

W: www.edgehill.ac.uk/shortstory

Thank you!

So after my nerves yesterday, the reading could only really be better than I expected. And it was a LOT better than I expected. Lots of friends, questions, laughter and wine ... now I want to do it all over again tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after!
A huge thank you to Waterstones, Tunbridge Wells for supporting their local authors, to Anthony from Bluechrome, to everyone who came to support, and those who emailed after my post yesterday to tell me to remember to breathe!