Tag Archives: Picking up the Pieces

Foundations in Time

PaulaHeadshot2015It’s an absolute delight to introduce our second ‘Write Time’ guest blogger. Paula Vince is an award winning Australian author, whose novels continue to inspire and challenge. Paula writes not only to entertain, but through her work she skillfully tackles difficult topics with sensitivity and insight, offering her readers a fresh perspective by enabling them to walk ‘in the shoes’ of her characters. Having been in the writing industry for many years, Paula knows the ‘write times’ well. Let’s welcome her now as she shares wisdom from her journey. Thanks, Paula.

In 1951, a man named Arthur Koestler wrote, ‘A writer’s ambition should be to trade 100 contemporary readers for 10 readers in 10 years time, and for one reader in 100 years.’

If we agree with his premise, we’re being short-sighted when we judge the impact of any book by its immediate public reception, or by what we can ever see, for that matter.

One of the beauties of the written word in the form of stories and wisdom is that it has the potential to keep impacting new readers in time, maybe centuries after its author wrote it. For example, Jane Austen was born in 1775, but started a chain reaction of young woman readers who regard Lizzie Bennett as a role model, and swoon over Mr Darcy. Some of these readers surely haven’t even been born yet.

PickingUpThePiecesAnother ripple effect evident through time is that of influence. Jane Austen strongly admired the writing of Samuel Richardson, Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Anne Radcliffe. Many contemporary people who love Austen have surely never heard of these long-ago authors, or know very little about them, yet still benefit from whatever Austen took on board from them. She, in turn, became an inspiration for more modern authors, including Virginia Woolf, Fay Weldon and J.K. Rowling. Next in the sequence, these ladies are no doubt influencing, a line of still more modern authors. Some of them surely haven’t even been born yet.Greenfield Legacy

That’s what I love when I hear people refer to the roots of good literature, and encourage us to reach down into them. We may see the woody, physical roots of a tree with our naked eyes, yet the roots of literature are just as real. They are simply formed of more intangible matter, such as time.

In ‘One Year to a Writing Life’, author Susan Tiberghian says, ‘We enter this world on the shoulders of our predecessors, emerging from centuries of thought, reflection, storytelling and dreams. We learn by reading others, by reaching down into our universal roots.’

Best ForgottenI’d like to finish with an equally inspiring thought along the same lines from ‘The Distant Hours’, a novel by Kate Morton. Percy Blythe, one of three sisters who lived in their family castle, reflects how her personal history was built on a lineage of words and ideas. ‘Daddy had said time and again, the family tree was laced together with sentences in place of limbs. Layers of expressed thought had soaked into the soil of the castle gardens, so that poems and plays, prose and political treatises would always whisper to her when she needed them. Ancestors she would never meet, who had lived and died before her birth, left behind them words, words, words, chattering to one another, to her, from beyond the grave, so she was never lonely, never alone.’

It’s an honour to do the same, each in our own small way?

Imogen's ChancePaula Vince is a South Australian author of contemporary, inspirational fiction. She lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, with its four distinct seasons, and loves to use her environment as settings for her stories. Her novel, ‘Picking up the Pieces‘ won the religious fiction section of the International Book Awards in 2011, and ‘Best Forgotten‘ was winner of the CALEB prize the same year. She is also one of the four authors of ‘The Greenfield Legacy’, Australia’s first and only collaborated Christian novel. Her most recent novel, ‘Imogen’s Chance’ was published April 2014. For more of Paula’s reflections, you may like to visit her book review blog, The Vince Review where she also interviews other authors.
 

You Heard ‘Write’

paula's cover photoToday we have with us one of the darlings of Australia’s inspirational fiction community, award winning author Paula Vince. Paula is a gracious advocate of Australian writers (and writers in general), and is consciously active in her support, including through her blog and review site. It’s wonderful to have her guest blogging today. Read on for reflections from her ‘write life’ experiences.

 

I must admit that what I like least, even after several years of writing, is the question, ‘What is your occupation?’ My heart still lurches when anybody asks me that, probably because I’ve become used to either one of two polar opposite responses. Some people say, ‘Wow, you’re kidding me! You’re really a writer? That’s amazing.’ Then they follow up with more questions concerning wages and platforms which I feel inevitably help me lose face.

The second type of response is a cynical looking, ‘Yeah, right, sister,’ sort of smirk and rolling of the eyes. Without having to put it into words, these people might as well say, ‘You live in a dream world, so get real,’ which I find highly embarrassing.

Sometimes I feel it must be much easier for people who are able to reply, ‘hairdresser’, ‘chef’, ‘bank teller’ or any of a number of other socially acceptable occupations. I’ve wondered why this simple question about my occupation evokes these yo-yo reactions from others. I think it must be because emotions are the raw materials fiction authors work with, so it can’t help but draw an emotional sort of response. I have to remind myself that this is a very good thing. It’s healthy for us to get our emotions stirred up. Not only does a good novel strengthen our empathy muscles, which sometimes get slack, but it makes life more fascinating. As authors, we are dealing with things beneath the surface, but we don’t always get credit for positive change we’ve been responsible for.

I like to remember what stimulated me to want to write novels in the first place. The work of other fiction authors helped rescue what might otherwise have been a bit of a drab and downtrodden childhood. Firing up my imagination with other people’s stories made me so happy I always wanted to do the same. Although we might not be providing direct assistance, such as food, clothing and shelter, to others, it’s a big mistake to think that we’re just wallowing in a self-indulgent world of our own. Nothing could be further from the truth. The services fiction authors offer to the community are of immense value.

Many of our friends and acquaintances wear socially acceptable masks, becoming clones of media darlings or surging along with the crowd. It’s hard to really be sure what makes them tick. Fictional characters give us an outlet to feel things. We are able to delve directly into their deep inner hearts. It might be the best chance some readers get to put themselves in the shoes of others. Every so often, I get a lovely comment, such as, ‘When your hero faced that situation when so-and-so happened, my heart stood still. I was really cheering him on.’ Then I’m reinforced that I’m doing the right thing. It makes up for those awkward, ‘What is your occupation?’ sorts of questions.

Imogen's ChancePaula Vince is a South Australian author of contemporary, inspirational fiction. She lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, with its four distinct seasons, and loves to use her environment as settings for her stories. Her novel, ‘Picking up the Pieces’ won the religious fiction section of the International Book Awards in 2011, and ‘Best Forgotten’ was winner of the CALEB prize the same year. She is also one of the four authors of ‘The Greenfield Legacy’, Australia’s first and only collaborated Christian novel. Her most recent novel, ‘Imogen’s Chance‘ was published April 2014. For more of Paula’s reflections, please visit her blog, It Just Occurred to Me. You may also like to visit her book review blog, The Vince Review where she also interviews other authors.