Thinking outside the page
Marika Azzopardi interviews Trevor Zahra on his latest book, which witnesses the process of creative writing as it happens behind the scenes.
Why do writers write? What urges them to put pen to paper and pour forth their deepest emotions, thoughts and fascinations to readers which they have never met? And how do they do it? How do they give words breathing space; grounding or elevating them above everyday chatter? How do they follow the tightest plot; round characters; add carefully measured out amounts of suspense, sentiment, humour; and pluck the right strings they want to pull, plug and play with the reader's emotions?
Trevor Zahra should know well enough, seeing he's been successful at it for a good number of years. Probably Malta's most prolific author to date, with some 120 works book-ending a 36-year career, he was one of my childhood favourites and I can still remember the thrill of reading Dwal fil-Fortizza which, in my pre-adolescent world, was the epitome of excitement.
After all these years, Mr Zahra's pen has certainly not run dry. In a kind of contemplative mood, he has gathered all his precious years of experience to bring out Il-Kitba Kreattiva, a handbook for budding and seasoned writers alike, as well as teachers of literature.
The book, not a whopper full of never-ending pages, but a slim, unpretentious Virgil to the writer's Dantesque fumbling in dark forests and circles of writer's block hell, is a genuine attempt at bridging the gap between the readerly and writerly experience. In fact Mr Zahra manages to effectively explain the whole process of creating literature, including the search for ideas, the forming of plot and characters, and the use of symbolism, humour and purposeful ambiguity. Thus, Mr Zahra tracks literature's journey from the inception of a new idea to the laying down of a plan, through to research and the full culmination of production when the writing is practically exhausted.
"I was inspired to sit down and write this book after so many talks and workshops during which I was inadvertently asked the same questions time and again. Questions about the whole process of writing - whether stories were conjured up in dreams and whether I'd simply wake up and devote half a morning to penning the whole text. And it seems to me as if writers are considered to be a race apart, producing stories up in some miraculous manner, overnight. In reality, writing is hard work that requires planning and organisation, training, practice, discipline and time."
Mr Zahra strongly believes that the seed of a writing talent must be carefully cultivated over the years and that ultimately, the writer's best ally is the book itself. Reading other books is imperative in widening one's own baggage of experience. To illustrate this, Mr Zahra uses the metaphor of food. "Reading," he says, "is the food of writers. Like food, what a writer reads is assimilated and then transformed into new, original output."
Il-Kitba Kreattiva was launched during a morning workshop at St James Cavalier. The participants ranged from teenage schoolchildren to school teachers, as well as aspiring and seasoned writers who all shared in on the experience of meeting the author and trying out a series of writing exercises included in Il-Kitba Kreattiva that proved both illuminating and exceptionally entertaining.
Mr Zahra says that a writer's personal experiences are an important jumping board for ideas. Yet in his book, he not only draws from his own life but also adds comments on the writing process made by contemporary authors the likes of David Almond, Anne Fine, Gillian Cross, Cornelia Funke and Michael Morpurgo. Mr Zahra also includes excerpts of his favourite works, including Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Frances Hardinge's Fly By Night.
Il-Kitba Kreattiva is particularly well-researched and practical, offering a whole chapter on tangible literary workshop ideas. The author also provides a short bio of all the individual authors quoted and their publications, many of which are within the realm of children's literature; a clear indication of the kind of reading one should be aiming to absorb for inspiration.
Ultimately, as Mr Zahra himself likes to say, "I have analysed the writing of other writers, looked over the whole process of my own writing and sought not to dictate a solution but indicate what works best for me. Each and every author must and does find an own individual way of writing and I hope this book will help lead many in the right direction."
• Il-Kitba Kreattiva is published by Merlin Library.
Trevor Zahra should know well enough, seeing he's been successful at it for a good number of years. Probably Malta's most prolific author to date, with some 120 works book-ending a 36-year career, he was one of my childhood favourites and I can still remember the thrill of reading Dwal fil-Fortizza which, in my pre-adolescent world, was the epitome of excitement.
After all these years, Mr Zahra's pen has certainly not run dry. In a kind of contemplative mood, he has gathered all his precious years of experience to bring out Il-Kitba Kreattiva, a handbook for budding and seasoned writers alike, as well as teachers of literature.
The book, not a whopper full of never-ending pages, but a slim, unpretentious Virgil to the writer's Dantesque fumbling in dark forests and circles of writer's block hell, is a genuine attempt at bridging the gap between the readerly and writerly experience. In fact Mr Zahra manages to effectively explain the whole process of creating literature, including the search for ideas, the forming of plot and characters, and the use of symbolism, humour and purposeful ambiguity. Thus, Mr Zahra tracks literature's journey from the inception of a new idea to the laying down of a plan, through to research and the full culmination of production when the writing is practically exhausted.
"I was inspired to sit down and write this book after so many talks and workshops during which I was inadvertently asked the same questions time and again. Questions about the whole process of writing - whether stories were conjured up in dreams and whether I'd simply wake up and devote half a morning to penning the whole text. And it seems to me as if writers are considered to be a race apart, producing stories up in some miraculous manner, overnight. In reality, writing is hard work that requires planning and organisation, training, practice, discipline and time."
Mr Zahra strongly believes that the seed of a writing talent must be carefully cultivated over the years and that ultimately, the writer's best ally is the book itself. Reading other books is imperative in widening one's own baggage of experience. To illustrate this, Mr Zahra uses the metaphor of food. "Reading," he says, "is the food of writers. Like food, what a writer reads is assimilated and then transformed into new, original output."
Il-Kitba Kreattiva was launched during a morning workshop at St James Cavalier. The participants ranged from teenage schoolchildren to school teachers, as well as aspiring and seasoned writers who all shared in on the experience of meeting the author and trying out a series of writing exercises included in Il-Kitba Kreattiva that proved both illuminating and exceptionally entertaining.
Mr Zahra says that a writer's personal experiences are an important jumping board for ideas. Yet in his book, he not only draws from his own life but also adds comments on the writing process made by contemporary authors the likes of David Almond, Anne Fine, Gillian Cross, Cornelia Funke and Michael Morpurgo. Mr Zahra also includes excerpts of his favourite works, including Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Frances Hardinge's Fly By Night.
Il-Kitba Kreattiva is particularly well-researched and practical, offering a whole chapter on tangible literary workshop ideas. The author also provides a short bio of all the individual authors quoted and their publications, many of which are within the realm of children's literature; a clear indication of the kind of reading one should be aiming to absorb for inspiration.
Ultimately, as Mr Zahra himself likes to say, "I have analysed the writing of other writers, looked over the whole process of my own writing and sought not to dictate a solution but indicate what works best for me. Each and every author must and does find an own individual way of writing and I hope this book will help lead many in the right direction."
• Il-Kitba Kreattiva is published by Merlin Library.