Writing The China Book? Here's Some Tips

Admit it. There’s been at least one moment, marveling at the sun rising over the Forbidden City or the moon rising out of a pair of split pants, that you’ve paused and thought, “Wow, I should write a book about this magical place called China.”

And maybe you should. With the Bookworm International Literary Festival opening tomorrow night, we sought some advice and encouragement from two of the festival guests: prodigious novelist/creative writing professor Jill Dawson and publisher/writer Graham Earnshaw.

Graham says: "They say that writing a book is something that is inside everyone, that everyone has got one book in them. I think that everyone should write that book."

Jill says: "Write the kind of books you want to read yourself."

Graham says: "Don’t wait for the muse. Just start writing."

Jill says: "I always have lots of competing things I want to write about. I try to just pay attention to the one that’s obsessing me the most."

Graham says: "The most important thing about writing is persistence. You’ve got to have that imperfect first draft in order to get to that Pulitzer Prize-winning tenth draft."

Jill says: "I keep notebooks, lots and lots of notebooks. I never let something go completely. The story I’m beginning at the moment arose from something I cut out of a newspaper in 1992 – I keep things."

Graham says: "The experience that you and I and everyone in China is having here, this incredible lunge into the future which China is all about, just has to generate an enormous range of topics for books."

Jill says: "Most of writing is in the rewriting. In my case a 90,000-word novel might be rewritten six or seven times. It’s a rare moment when what you put down first is actually any good."

Graham says: "The answer for the future is to look to publish pretty locally. Aim to use the visibility you have in your own local community as the basis to kick-starting a book. If it picks up, then it can go further than that."

Jill says: "A lot of the time, what I’m teaching in workshops is confidence."

Graham says: "What people like to write most is fiction. The problem with fiction is that it sells badly unless your surname happens to be Grisham or Rowling. The alternative is to write nonfiction. Nonfiction is something for which there are larger sales, bigger markets, appetites."

Jill says: "It’s not fun the whole way through. There is a point when you have to make yourself sit there, no question."

Graham says: "Think about the smaller publishing houses as a way to get your book published – the larger publishing houses now are … frantic with fear."

Jill says: "Pay attention to the writing. It’s still possible to write something good and for it to get noticed."

Graham says: "We welcome all manuscripts – in fact, it would be great to see more."

Dawson hosts a creative writing workshop on March 13 and discusses the state of contemporary British literature on March 14. Earnshaw discusses his new book, The Great Walk of China, on March 6. Details at www.beijingbookworm.com/literaryfestival.php.