Out and About

Over the past couple of months I’ve been busy with, among other things, writing-related commitments. In September I visited the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock for an event called ‘Kilmarnock Voices’ in which myself and writers David Ross (The Last Days of Disco) and Frank Beattie, aka ‘Mandy Stafford’ (The Dandelion in the Glass) all read from our first novels then took questions from the audience. Librarian Margaret Patterson chaired the event. Although the books all have an Ayrshire setting they are otherwise very different in style and theme. However, one question raised the matter of writing from the point of view of the opposite sex and this resulted in a thought-provoking discussion on the matter, to which all three of us contributed.

With David Ross (left) and Frank Beattie outside the Dick Institute.

I’ve been thinking on and off about this since. There are famous examples of male writers who are not thought to write women well and vice versa. It is a topic that relates to that old question of whether it is better to write about ‘what you know’. But it also presupposes that women and men are inherently different, or at least experience life in a different way – such that they cannot truly recreate what it is like to be a member of the opposite sex. All I know is that there are plenty of female characters created by male writers who I have found convincing. Thinking of the ‘classics’, Dickens gets a lot of stick for his women but Lady Deadlock in Bleak House has a depth which is well conveyed.  Then again, many of my favourite female characters have been written by women – practically all of Jane Austen’s women, attractive or not so, are believable and brilliantly observed, even if their concerns are very different from those of women today. The real answer is probably the dull one – some men can write women well and some women can write men well but overall, each sex probably writes characters of their own gender better.

  The second of my recent writing commitments was a visit to a reading group who had read Beauty Tips. It was an interesting experience, not least because I hadn’t been to a reading group before. They are reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction and I got a few recommendations for non-fiction in particular which I’d not heard about. Do No Harm was one of their top tips. I’ve added it to my list and am looking forward to reading it. There was also a lot of discussion about writing and publishing and a lot of interest in the editing process. All of this was washed down with hot drinks and snacks which, on a cold winter night straight after work, was very welcome.

Last but not least, I did an interview with writer Rosemary Gemmell this month, for her blog Reading and Writing. Her questions got me thinking and also introduced me to her excellent blog. Rosemary is a talented writer with a long list of novels for adults and ‘tweens’ to her name. Her most recent novel is The Highland Lass.  She is very active in supporting other writers, both through her on-line work and in her capacity as a long-standing member of Erskine Writers’ Club. You can find her blog here. http://ros-readingandwriting.blogspot.co.uk/