Ian McEwan at the Royal Northern College of Music

The whole team of Bad Language went on a visit to the Royal Northern College of Music yesterday to see the lovely Ian McEwan reading from his new book Solar.

I have to admit I've never read an Ian McEwan book before but I was curious to see him speak and now I am burning to read his new book. He opened by stating that this novel was a character piece; he had a strong desire to create a piece that only revealed the characters past in the last 100 pages. He said that he found it interesting to explain a characters past after we have got to know the character and his actions.

An interesting discussion that came up was how important it is for a writer to be accurate with details? I believe that Ian McEwan spent 5 years researching the topic of his new novel; Climate Change. Despite this he claimed that he is still expecting complaints from readers of supposed inaccuracies. He used an example of one of his past novels where he placed a character in a car and described the action of them changing gears. From this minor detail he got a letter of complaint stating that his details we're inaccurate and the chosen car would not change gears in this way. He always raised the question: How easy is it for writers to point to facts in novels? Is it indeed risky business.

Despite this Ian McEwan stated that he loves writers who give the taste, feel and look of details. Perphaps this is what has lead to his need to get details correct and spent a long time researching the topic of a novel.

How powerful is poetry? This is a provocative question that a member of the audience and I was curious to know his answer, although I doubt that the answer to this question can ever be given a definitive answer. Ian McEwan doubted that poetry ould make anything happen on a national level, or change an issue such as climate change. But he did seem to point towards poetry having the power to change an individual, not a nation.

Ian McEwan is quite a witty man. Here is a few sound bites from him following his reading:

'If it ended too quickly it's because you're reading too fast.'

' The novel would be dead if women gave up reading.'

'With first person writing you have to do a strange rhetorical trick; it doesn't let you off the hook with writing well.'


If that still hasn't made you feel like reading his books, here's a few words that his audience related to his writing; sinister, 'blokey', sparse and carefully chosen. I wonder what words he would use to describe he own writing?

A delayed response to the Writing Industries Conference.

This is my very delayed response to the Writing Industries Conference which took place on Saturday the 6th March in Loughborough.

The day opened with a key note speech by the wonderful Graham Joyce who gave an honest discussion on the end of the print age. Although the future of the print age seems dark, Graham Joyce argued that the future of writers, however, will prosper. Provided that writers can become adaptable and learn to write in various forms. My favourite point in this key speech was the idea that society will always need stories, no matter what form they come in:)

I had two favourite panels of the day. The first was the 'Community Journalism, Blogging and Finding New Relationships' panel chaired by James K Walker, John Coster, Al Needham and Susi O'Neil. The best advice I took from that panel was to do with being honest and direct when blogging - the audience need to know what to expect from your blog and who is speaking. As expected though it was hard to define how running a blog can assist a writer financially although there was a concensus that it definitely helped in building an audience.

My second favourite panel was the 'How does public funding support the development of writers' chaired by Henderson Mullin, Jonathon Davidson, Farhana Shaikh and Kate Wilkinson (standing in for Steve Dearden). The concensus was that writers can't expect funding for their writing only; they need other skills which will advtantage the public in some way as well as themselves. The most interesting idea I took from this panel was that funding bodies do not only have to be literature intended companies; places like the NHS/Walking companies, organisations outside the box can be a possibility if you can explore how literature relates to the companies aims.

Writers need to treat themselves as businesses and find new ways to reach new audiences; whether that be through building an on-line presence, taking part in community projects or finding ways to relate their work to the public. At the end of the print age writing is losing its solitariness; writers will need to have more of a public presence. It's no longer onyl about sitting at home and writing, writers need a face as well.

If the Writing Industries Conference is to run next year I would like to see more opportunities to network and discuss individuals work; perhaps a reading lunch where writers can have an open mic to read their work. I would also like to see more indepth panels that explore already tried and tested ways to build an audience for a writer. There was a lot of general advice and it would be good to see more specific advice aimed at writers who are already networking have a presence in the community and how to push this further. Perhaps this is the hardest thing to define as it is not straight forward.

I would love to see more events such as The Writing Industries Conference around the country to bring writers and literature development activists together. I'm looking forward to the next one:)