[melliyna]

I don't think this has been asked before but what is the hardest part of writing a novel? And do you think it's hard to jump from poetry to fiction writing? As an aspiring poet/fiction writer myself I know that if I try to write a poem I have to be in a certain frame of mind and a different one if it's a story and it's difficult to jump between the two sometimes. Do you find that?

And don't feel you need to answer this question - at least not until The Crow is completely finished ;)

[alison]

Almost there on the appendices - sheesh, what possessed me to write them as well? :rolleyes: It's beginning to be as much work as if I really were a scholar, I have to do so much cross-checking...

Will Maerad ever return to Gilman's cot, to face her demons and free the slaves and take swift and terrible revenge?

Good question - I have wondered this myself. :) I'm not sure I can get her there, given where she has to go in the next book - but all possibilities are on the rable, of course...

When you hear Maerad and Cadvan talk in your head, do you imagine them with Australian accents?

No, Emerald_dragyn - sort of neutral English accents I think, but I am still quite English (I came to Australia when I was seven years old...)

wat dont you like about wrighting

It's getting the spelling right, owleye :D (Sorry, couldn't resist...) I actually love writing, but writers are terrible moaners, given half a chance - how they suffer for their art, yada yada - and sadly, I'm as bad as the rest of them... I adore being a writer, it's a privilege to be able to do what I most love doing. The only thing I don't like is being poor.

I don't think this has been asked before but what is the hardest part of writing a novel? And do you think it's hard to jump from poetry to fiction writing? As an aspiring poet/fiction writer myself I know that if I try to write a poem I have to be in a certain frame of mind and a different one if it's a story and it's difficult to jump between the two sometimes. Do you find that?

Hi Melliyna - I expect every writer has different answers to these questions. Probably the thing I find hardest about novels is simply that they're long, and you have to sustain concentration for the whole length of them. When I begin, it's always what I'm most conscious of, how many pages there are before me, and what I try not to think about. Then there are just the bad days when you begin to think you'll never finish (see above about moaning). The rest is just working, and I enjoy that.

I do think that poetry and prose - although they are both deeply related - come from different functions of the brain. I can write prose when it feels like pushing the proverbial uphill (not always, though), but poetry doesn't work like that, I have to wait until my mind is is a state of particular receptivity, when parts of my memory or associative things become more available to my conscious mind. And that state is very unpedictable and you can't force it...if I write poems without being in that state, they are very dull. It's definitely some sort of heightened thinking. The two activities are for me very complemetary, I need both. I miss poetry when I haven't done it for a while.

[Bridie]

oo so alison if youre english where were you born?

[owleye]

it wasnt my fault, my keybord was breaking

[owleye]

oh yea and do you like it in england?

[whitesilkbreeze]

Thanks for answering so many questions!

Just one more for now -

As a poet, what is it that you like about poetry and how would you advise someone who doesn't appreciate poetry (but would very much like to learn how to!) 'get into' poetry? Where would one begin?

The only poetry I've ever read were poems for school. I eventually got into a few of them after analysing them a bit. Does this mean that one should study a poem over and over again to really appreciate them? Normally I speed through a novel and can enjoy them thoroughly, even if I don't read between the lines, but it doesn't seem to work quite like that for me in poetry.

I hear so much about how poetry is really wonderful and I feel like I'm missing out on something I would love if I only knew how to.

[alison]

Owleye, I was only teasing - I didn't mean to hurt your feelings...Bridie, I was actually born in South Africa, because my father, who was a miner, was working there - that's also why I ended up in Australia. But when we were in England, we lived in Cornwall, in St Austell. Most of my aunts and uncles are still there. And yes, I do like coming to England, although I don't feel very English any more, I do feel, strangely, quite at home.

As a poet, what is it that you like about poetry and how would you advise someone who doesn't appreciate poetry (but would very much like to learn how to!) 'get into' poetry? Where would one begin?

Whitesilkbreeze, that's a tricky question. There's no one way, because everyone is different, and I feel quite strongly that no one should read poetry: poets don't write it for it to be forced down some unfortunate student's neck! The best way, probably, is to be lucky enough to have a brilliant English teacher who can bring it alive for you. Failing that - and I do think poetry is in the main quite badly taught, and people are put off for life because of that - maybe a good place to start is the English Romantics or the Modernists, though it's hard to tell what anyone will respond to without knowing them well... One of my favourites is Coleridge's Kubla Khan (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html) and I have always loved William Blake - there's quite a lot of his paintings and poems online - try some of the Songs of Innocence and Experience at http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/. Other poets worth trying are TS Eliot, Pablo Neruda, William Butler Yeats, Emily Dickinson. Or maybe Sylvia Plath. A good general anthology should have all those poets in it.

It's true, you can't read poetry fast, because a large part of its meaning is in the sounds of the words. Poets make language sing, they use it to make patterns of sound as well as sense, and when these things work together, you get something passionate and beautiful. One of the things that people find hardest to do, because of they way they are taught, is to let go of a certain kind of understanding: the poem is what it is, and the meaning emerges from all its aspects, from what you experience as you read it; especially, from what you feel. Poetry is all about feeling. Which is to say, it's not about trying to "translate" it into prose. ("What is the poet trying to say?") This is why poetry doesn't work as study object, although a good teacher will show you all the fascinating ways a good poet can work language; it's not about that kind of comprehension... If you don't "get" it, just read it again. And read it out aloud, to get the feel of it in your mouth. If it's not pleasurable, maybe try something else...Above everything else, you should enjoy it!

[emerald_dragyn]

When you hear Maerad and Cadvan talk in your head, do you imagine them with Australian accents?

No, Emerald_dragyn - sort of neutral English accents I think, but I am still quite English (I came to Australia when I was seven years old...)



*shakes head* I feel so disillusioned.. I tried to imagine them with english accents, but it just won't happen... naturally i don't hear them with yobbo accents, but kind of english aussie...

do you have an australian accent?

btw, who's watching the ashes?? nailbiter, huh?

Emerald :) :) :)

[SumSanusne]

Do you or did you ever have trouble with scansion when reading or writing poems, Alison? I've been reading poems by Ovid recently, and I find scansion a difficult subject to get my head over.

[Mrs. Cadvan]

Ooo, St Austell - I've been there! Naturally, the first place my family scuttled off to was the brewery... :D

Back to the questions though, and this one's a bit stupid really, but never mind:
Exactly how barren is the land around Gilman's Cot? For some reason I got into my head that the hamlet overlooked a great big pine forest from its mountainous ledge, but when I read The Gift again recently I couldn't find any mention of such vegetation. :D
It's just that, as someone who would like to consider herself an accurate "illustrator", I can't stand getting details wrong. :)