Listening, as opposed to hearing, takes practise. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the late American-Hungarian psychologist who coined the term ‘flow’ said: ‘It is not hearing that improves life, but listening.’
In these last few years of studying, I have had ample opportunity to incorporate the art of listening into my writing practice. And by that I mean actively listening — being open and receptive to feedback, even feedback that makes me squirm, and crucially, resisting the urge to defend or explain my work. Whether or not I take on the feedback is another matter, but I’ve found that as my cohort and I have progressed through the course, we’ve generally become better at giving feedback. Nowadays, I recognise many truths in what my classmates and teachers point out — what a gift!
I recently presented the outline of my novel-length manuscript to my class. I had it ready months ahead of schedule and jumped at the chance to present early when a spot became available. I presented two outlines, one based on the three-act structure and the other kishōtenketsu. Both structural approaches were well received, but hats were tipped in favour of kishōtenketsu, which is what I’d been leaning towards. Testing out my ideas early has meant I can incorporate that feedback into my final assignment — a related but standalone short story in kishōtenketsu.
Earlier this month, I attended a couple of writerly things:
Castlemaine State Festival’s event ‘On Matters of the Heart’ with Mel Fulton in conversation with Jennifer Down, Kylie Ladd and Ronnie Scott.
Writers Victoria’s seminar ‘Lets Talk about Collaborative Writing with Snack Syndicate’, hosted by Caitlin McGregor.
Both events complement my themes for the year — trust and intentionality. I was inspired by Scott’s research approach for his recent release, Shirley. Despite its being a fictional work, he interviewed people — some he knew, others who’d volunteered — to gather thoughts on parenting. Scott carried out the interviews with no clear idea about what it was he wanted to know. I may adopt this approach to inform relationship dynamics in my manuscript. I’ll be seeking out tales of relationship breakups and shakeups.
Finally, in keeping with my recent trend of teasing or revealing exciting news, I have some exciting news to announce in Issue 13, which will also mark the one year anniversary of The Raptorial.
Creative antics
On collaborating with others
Some months back, I tried to get a collaborative project up and running through an Instagram post but the response has been lacklustre. I got an inkling into likely reasons for this (social media noise and algorithm aside) while listening to Snack Syndicate’s Astrid Lorange and Andrew Brooks during their Writers Victoria seminar:
Trust is paramount — this may require establishing a relationship beforehand, agreeing on the terms of collaboration, setting boundaries and limits, or all of the above.
Different strokes for different folks — models of collaboration that work look different to different people. Finding a model that works requires a consideration of individual preferences, access needs, and barriers to collaboration. For example, for some people, space and autonomy may be desirable or even necessary, and collaboration may work best as separate works brought together through proximity.
Correspondence is great for initiating and maintain collaborations — the lag time in letters, emails, voice memos can enable collaborators to have space, time, and agency in the process.
Reflecting on times that I’ve been successful in initiating collaborations, I realise that I’d done some of the above intuitively. These collaborations have all been with people I’d already had some kind of relationship with, and each was initiated through one-on-one correspondence rather than a wait and see with a call out to the ether.
My favourite collaborative writing project to date, though not one I initiated, was with Katherin Garland. In late 2015, I received an email from Kathy, a then relatively new acquaintance from the WordPress blogging community, asking if I’d like to co-write a post about maintaining goals. It was such an easy, smooth collaboration — we agreed on structure, narrative style, responsibilities, editing approach, and posting schedules. The best part was the friendship that blossomed as a result — 8 years on, and it’s more sisterhood than friendship now, despite having never met in person and living almost 16,000 kilometres apart.
I haven’t yet given up on my collaborative project, but when time permits, I will be more intentional in seeking out collaborators. Having said that, the invitation remains open, so if you’re interested, get in touch!
Raptorial Writes
A monthly writing prompt
A ten-sentence collaborative story. Read the story in the comments thread and join in with one sentence of your own. I’ve kicked things off. Copy and paste what I’ve written in a reply, edit as you see fit, and add the next sentence. Each participant repeats this until we get to ten sentences. Whoever writes the tenth sentence needs to wrap it up. Multiple contributions welcome, provided there is at least one other person who has added a sentence after any one of yours.
I’ll post the final story, with light edits, to Instagram using #RaptorialWrites and tag contributors (share your instagram handle, if you have one, with your contribution). Let’s go!
Raptorial Bites
A monthly short story book club
Have a read of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel (1941) and join the conversation over at this month’s Raptorial Bites thread.
You can also browse past Raptorial Bites and join conversations at any time — comments remain open, and admittedly, I have a little catching up to do!
On his debut shift without supervision, Tom selects the easier, barcoded items to deal with first.