May
2005
Top authors take to the Union |
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| Philip
Pullman |
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Philip
Pullman was one of three top contemporary authors that held court
in the Oxford Union's Debating Chamber.
Richard Blane witnessed this fascinating discussion. |
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The
life of a writer is no easy round of coffees and lunches, punctuated
by occasional bursts of creative activity.
This discussion between Philip Pullman, author of the 'His Dark Materials'
trilogy, Robert Harris, author of 'Pompeii', and Nicholas Evans, author
of 'The Horse Whisperer', centred on how they begin their novels.
The three men described what a hard and sometimes tedious process
writing can be, best summarised by Evans' joke: "Why don't writers
stare out of the window in the morning? - Because then they'd have
nothing to do in the afternoon."
Yet the talk was by no means dispiriting for budding writers amongst
the audience that filled the Oxford Union's Debating Chamber.
There's something reassuring about hearing writers as accomplished
and successful as Evans, Harris and Pullman describe their struggles.
Harris lamented the way his dream start to 'Fatherland' went wrong.
After dashing off the first 25 pages with relative ease, he found
he had put his hero in a room full of policeman, "and had no
idea what any of them were meant to be doing there."
He had to abandon the manuscript for a year until he could come up
with an answer.
All three men also had plenty of advice for aspiring writers.
Pullman said he overcame writer's block by introducing new characters,
in line with Raymond Chandler's adage: "When in doubt, have a
man come through the door with a gun in his hand," (though Pullman
conceded that using this trick too frequently can leave A LOT of loose
ends to be tied up at the novel's conclusion).
Harris, more prosaically, suggested that "a good hour's walk
generally loosens things."
And Evans counselled that writers should never think about a potential
reader - if you're telling a story and it makes you cry, chances are
it's good. Faking it gets you nowhere.
Although all three speakers agreed that the process of beginning a
book (let alone finishing it) can be hard, they all came across as
men who enjoy their lives as writers.
Robert Harris summed this feeling up, explaining that, "Writing
is all about passion.
All these problems - technical problems - are things to overcome,
so we can communicate what we care about."
The views expressed in these comments are those of
the contributor's and not the BBC. |
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