On dictating to the reader & accepting criticism for my writing sins
25 October 2014
LEONARD FONG ROKA
I feel that September’s 2014 Crocodile Prize writers’ seminar held at the National Library’s American Corner did some justice to me as a struggling Bougainvillean author.
And visiting Australian author Trevor Shearston ahsd some welcome words for me as a lone Bougainvillean voice.
“Your writing is unique, Leonard,” he said to me, “but you only need to do away with trying to dictate to your readers what they should see in your texts or stories.”
As a lone mushroom, I sprouted in Bougainville’s Arawa High School in 1997, encouraged by my New Guinean teacher William Mania and Kiwi ornithologist and author Don Hadden.
The pair may have found some magic in me, but they are not around to guide the magic. I am alone in Bougainville.
I earned some funny tags as a result of this stance: 'a lone Bougainvillean voice', 'Captain Bougainville', and 'the Bougainvillean machine gun' being three of them.
I took of the 2013 Crocodile Prize for short stories and the 2014 award for Book of the Year. I am a writing icon of sort for Bougainvilleans.
In the inhospitable American Corner seminar room on 18 September, Trevor Shearston took me by surprise in telling me I had a certain literary weakness in trying to dictate what the reader should feel, see, smell and think in my stories.
Shearston found this sin of mine especially well established in a short story, The Bloody Frontier, which is in my second book, Moments in Bougainville.
Thankfully, according to Shearston, my Bougainville crisis memoir, Brokenville, has a low level of dictation to the reader.
Over time, these unique Australians Philip Fitzpatrick, Keith Jackson and Trevor Shearston have contributed greatly to my development as a writer.
But I am a learner and my journey will continue as long as I am still breathing the fine Bougainville air.
I wouldn't agree, necessarily, with Trevor Shearston's critique of your writing, Leonard and/but I do admire your willingness to listen and reflect. These qualities are vital for all of us and, especially, for those of us who want to write. Your final sentence said it all: we are all learners .....
Posted by: Ed Brumby | 25 October 2014 at 03:00 PM