LIVE! #34
3 October 2021
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics training
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Today's author: Maggie O'Farrell
- Born: N. Ireland; Educated: Cambridge; Lives:
Edinburgh,
with novelist husband William Sutcliffe & their 3 children - First aware of Hamnet through her high school English teacher, Mr. Henderson
- Started writing Hamnet ten years ago; procrastinated by writing two novels and a memoir
- - Instructions for a Heatwave (2013)
- - This Must Be the Place (2016)
- - I Am, I Am, I Am (memoir, 2017)
- Couldn't write death scene until her son was 12 years old. Written in a garden shed.
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Character & character development
- • Pacing
- • Horizontal structure
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
Hamnet - Stats
- Marketing: Historical Literary Fiction, Romance Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
- Genre: Realistic Historical Archplot Long-Form
- Print Pages: 320
- Word count: 108,033; Avg. wds/sent.: 13.96
- Reading Level: Grade 7; Lexical Density: 43.45
- Flesch Reading Ease: 79.73
- POV: Multiple
- Publish date: July 21, 2020
- Publisher: Vintage
- Sold By: Random House
- Audio book narr.: Ell Potter (12 hrs 42 mins)
- Awards: 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award; 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction
- Recognition: A Best Book of 2020: NY Times
Writers Who Read: Coming Up
November 7: Inside Story - Martin Amis (UK, 2020)
December 5: Deacon King Kong - James McBride (USA, 2020)