Turn up and write

I enjoyed a presentation this evening by the writer, Jonathan Coe, which was part of the 18th International Book Fair for High-Quality Fiction and Non-Fiction (I don't know if there is a book fair for low quality fiction ..).  This year's guest of honour is the United Kingdom.  Consequently, the book fair has a series of British writers lined up to speak over the next few days.

Coe spoke about a lot of issues; about political comedy, which he feels has become too indulgent and a substitute the real debate that should be going on; the generally polarised debate in society today (the increasing usage of expressive words like 'insane', 'horrific', etc, which have devalued their significance); about the manner in which dissenting parties are incapable of seeing one another's points of view and how public debate has become angry and personal; about politics driven by a nostalgia which can never be reached; about the failure of both sides (in the context of British politics) to address the inequality of the (globalised) economy or, alternately, to develop workable options to it; and of disquiet and fear of the future and a system of society not working.

He also talked about his motivations for writing, about how after 55 years he has become 'thoroughly bored with myself' and sees writing as a means to escape his own company and inhabit his characters for while - at times, he said, these become more important than relationships with family and friends.

Jim Crace was next up. He spoke of the human being's desire to turn experience into narrative; by nature, we are narrative creatures with a sense of before and after.  His advice to budding writers: have the courage to write badly, don't become too self conscious about your writing, stay with the plot and follow through to the end, then go back ('the fun starts') and fix it up.  But turn up and write.
Rather like blipfoto.