Word Count 83: Newcastle writing centre plan, NaNoWriMoOhNo, Pagans pre-order

Plus Silent Book Club, The Nutshell Method, and Buttons.

Hi there, 

Despite the fact that we picked all the apples from our tree on the weekend, and despite the fact that the weather has now cooled off significantly, I am still in denial about summer being over. I’m hoping for some warm days to come, but I’ve already dug out the leccie blankie and starting thinking about sewing myself a quilted jacket. 

But, dammit, it’s still summer! It is! 

Read this: Newcastle centre for writing and publishing takes aim at London’s dominance

I love this idea of a new centre for writing and publishing that will, hopefully, be based in Newcastle’s Bolbeck Hall in the city centre. London’s dominance of the publishing industry really isn’t good for writers, not least because it makes life more challenging for writers from the nations and regions — when all the events and networking opportunities are in London and you are not, it makes it hard to meet people who might be able to help your career along. 

This centre would also be good for publishing, though. We Brits are excel at writing, as Claire Malcolm, the chief executive of New Writing North, says: 

Books are one of our biggest exports. We’re really good at it. They add so much to our international profile. Why don’t we invest in them like we invest in theatre or music or the visual arts?

Here’s hoping that the project gets the funding it needs to go ahead. Maybe then similar centres might open in other parts of the country. 

Read this, too: NaNoWriMo in AI hot water

Last week, National Novel Writing Month did the stupidest thing you could possibly imagine that an organisation that’s supposed to support writers could possibly do: It put out a statement in support of authors using genAI which also accused anyone who opposes it of being classist and ableist. 

We also want to be clear in our belief that the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege. 

• Classism. Not all writers have the financial ability to hire humans to help at certain phases of their writing. For some writers, the decision to use AI is a practical, not an ideological, one. The financial ability to engage a human for feedback and review assumes a level of privilege that not all community members possess.

• Ableism. Not all brains have same abilities and not all writers function at the same level of education or proficiency in the language in which they are writing. Some brains and ability levels require outside help or accommodations to achieve certain goals. The notion that all writers “should“ be able to perform certain functions independently or is a position that we disagree with wholeheartedly. There is a wealth of reasons why individuals can't "see" the issues in their writing without help. 

After a massive backlash, not least from working class and disabled writers who pointed out that they’re just as capable of writing without the use of genAI as anyone else is, NaNoWriMo walked back their position. But not before they’d written a ‘fauxpology’, that attempted to shift attention on to bad behaviour within their writing community. 

Lots of people wondered why NaNoWriMo might come out in favour of genAI. I’m sure the fact that they are sponsored this year by ProWritingAid, a genAI writing tool, has absolutely nothing to do with it. 

Look, I know what it’s like to run an organisation with a huge footprint on a tiny budget. Ada Lovelace Day has never brought in as much sponsorship money as I’d have liked, but I’ve still found it within me to decline offers of sponsorship from companies I feel are ethically unsupportable, particularly in the crypto space. 

I have no sympathy at all for NaNoWriMo. They could have said no to ProWritingAid. 

What I will be reading: Pagans

In an act of rank favouritism, I want to draw your attention to James Henry’s upcoming book, Pagans, which is available for pre-order now. 

I fell in love with James’s writing not through his TV work — Green Wing, Smack The Pony, Hey Duggee and more — but this his self-published book, The Cabinet of Curiosities, which I recently revisited via James’s fabulous audiobook. 

Set in a 21^st century where the Norman Conquest never happened, in a Britain still ruled by its ancient tribes, Pagans is an awesome-sounding murder mystery: 

…when a Celtic diplomat is found brutally murdered, his body nailed to an ancient oak, the fragile peace is threatened. Captain Aedith Mercia, daughter of a powerful Saxon leader, must join forces with Celtic Tribal Detective Inspector Drustan to solve the murder – and stop political unrest spilling onto the streets. 

But is this an isolated incident? Or are Aedith and Drustan facing a serial killer with a decades-old grudge? To find out, they must delve into their own murky pasts and tackle forces that go deeper than they ever could have imagined.

Read this, three: The Silent Book Club

I lived with my Aunty Stella and Uncle Luke in Sydney, Australia, for a while when I was 18. One of my most treasured memories is our weekly trip to a local Chinese restaurant where we would enjoy fabulous food, including deep fried ice cream, whilst sitting in silence, reading our books. 

So it was with no little delight that I learnt about the Silent Book Club, where folks gather to just sit and read a book, any book, in silence. This interview from Toronto Silent Book Club organiser Vicki Ziegler explains how it all works. Sounds wonderful to me! 

Tip-top tip: The Nutshell Method

Thanks to fellow comedy writer Mike for pointing me in the direction of Jill Chamberlain’s The Nutshell Method, which you can use to debug your story plot. 

Chamberlain brings together the core elements of a successful story into a single worksheet, which might sound horribly reductive but is actually super useful. Being able to see everything on one sheet of paper means that I can keep it all clear in my head whilst I rework the Fieldwork pilot. 

You can download the two worksheets, one for comedies (any film with a happy ending) and one for tragedies directly from Chamberlain’s website, and she talks about her method at length on YouTube and, obviously, in her book.

Obligatory cat photo

Please enjoy feasting your eyes on the magnificent Button, owned by Andy Brockie-Dunlop, who has kindly shared this rather marvellous photo with me. 

That’s it for this week! I’m going to take a month off from the newsletter in order to get Ada Lovelace Day done, and to have a proper week off afterwards, so I’ll see you again on 22 October, ish. If the jetlag lets me. 

All the best, 

Suw