The logistical pressures of moving countries and cities – from London to Calcutta – and a nasty bout of flu meant that it was sensible to stay offline for a while.

Over the next few blogs I will seek to provide an overview of the educational climate in India, and the extent to which international alliances are changing or are likely to change the university experience .

Why are British universities seeking to find a presence in India?

The Indian government has plans to increase the number of university goers from a current 12 per cent of the population to 30 per cent. In plain terms this works out to a present university student population of 12 million, and a projected increase to 30 million. This is clearly a very ambitious plan and opinions are mixed as to whether it can or should be achieved.

In this first piece though I want to present a side to the global impact of the ongoing changes in the Indian university system that is seldom seen in the media.

That is, what is the university experience in India from the point of view of the student and the lecturer?

I went to school in Calcutta and also did my first undergraduate degree in the city. When I went to the UK to do my second undergraduate degree it wasn’t the differences in the educational culture that I noticed but rather the continuities. This was probably because both the school and university I attended were established in the nineteenth century when Calcutta was the capital of British India, and at the heart of a close engagement between the cultures of India and of Britain.

What I experienced in India was a meticulousness of detail and depth of approach which I am truly grateful for. Somewhere along the way I also became firmly imbued with the idea that the big picture matters. So valuing the humanities was important because it helped one to link the puzzle pieces of the world together.

A common expectation and hope amongst the educational community in India is, I think, that alliances with British or other overseas universities will mean more flexibility for students and teaching staff. By which I mean exposure to the arts, sciences and perhaps even technical knowledges together. It seems rather harsh to expect an eighteen year old to choose a “stream” and stand by it life-long.

A simple scan-through of the weekly educational supplement to the Kolkata edition of The Times of India gives a thumbnail picture of the kinds of degrees and career pathways being offered to current undergraduates. Management and science degrees predominate but there’s a wide range of IT -related and engineering courses, along with intriguingly specialist courses in things like wine-making, chocolate making and magicianship (though not at Hogwarts).

What I wonder as a global citizen and a teacher is this – how are we going to help students join the dots? Will the view that learning has value in and of itself because it nurtures creative and critical thinking hold in the new university environment being fashioned?

This wider view of the meaning and value of education already has a space both in India and in the UK. But I have also experienced the piece meal view – in both countries – that being educated in order to find and keep a job is all that’s needed.

It’s an interesting time to be in education – and I hope in succeeding pieces to chronicle more of the changes taking place. The future – not just for the UK and India but for the world – looks an utterly different place than most would have imagined it a mere ten years ago.

I think he meant by this that there is a craft and a science to producing that finished piece of work, whatever the discipline.  When the moment comes that you submit, defend and are finally awarded a doctorate by your examiners, you are being recognized as a worthy peer by the academy.

What is it then in your hands to do with the piece of work you have invested several years of your life in?

Publication – yes, but in what form and with whom? I was approached shortly after being awarded my doctorate by a company that wanted to publish my thesis. However, they did not have a peer review process. A friend of mine was similarly approached, and accepted. But she is a communications professional. The value of having her work out in book form supercedes the necessity of peer review. For someone like me who is building a career in scholarship, peer review makes the difference between work that will stand me in good stead when being considered for a lectureship, and work that may not carry so much weight.

How do you find the right publisher and the right audience for your work? Who will hold the copyright and for how long? How long will it take to appear in print?

To all researchers – please consider this an open call to write in with publication questions and answers. The greater our knowledge, the better our decisions.

Have you got an artistic friend who can design you an eye catching flier? Think about unusual fliers – there are many online companies who will print 250 business cards very cheaply – could you use these as fliers? Do you know someone with access to b+w printing at work? Printing black on coloured paper can be eye-catching. You need to start thinking about your fliers and posters about 6 weeks before the day, so that you can get willing helpers to plant them about.

Use all your social networks – set up a Facebook page and invite people to your event, Tweet about the event, make a blog – but don’t send out too many invites from different addresses to the same event. It’s annoying. Make sure the venue has copies of your flier and lists the event on their website. If there are local writing and reading groups, let them know about it too. Libraries are a good place to put an A4 poster.

Find out the local papers contact info and get your event listed – this normally takes just an email, and a lot of listings websites have an online submission form. If your event is a bit wacky or topical you might even find yourself interviewed by the local paper, as I was for an ME4 Writers Alternative Royal Wedding Open Mic event!

Finally get your contributors to bring all their friends along! If you are charging entry maybe offer a pound off for contributors’ friends and family, using a guestlist. That way you can usually get a bit of an idea about numbers before the day – which can be quite reassuring.

Be early

On the day you have to get to the venue at least half an hour early (more really) – sometimes audience members will turn up early and you have to decide whether to let them sit there and watch you set up, or whether to ask them to go to the bar. If your venue has a bar or cafe, that’s great, but if not you have to decide if you want to risk sending that person away, as they might not come back. You might have to set up seats and move tables – so if you are concerned about spoiling your clothes – bring your best stuff to change into. Now is where it really helps if you’ve got some friends to share tasks with. Check audio is working if using a mic, (hopefully you will have a techy friend or group member who can sort the audio-visuals out for you.) Make sure you know where the toilets and the fire exit are and let people know in your introduction.

If there are a few of you – assign roles, one person to meet and greet, one person to collect entry fees, one person to look after the contributors and let them know where they are in the lineup and how long their set is. Let them know where and when they can sell their pamphlets/books if they’ve got some. If one of you is a good photographer, get them to take some photos of the event or video it, and post to Facebook and Youtube after. You should let people know that there may be photos/film taken of them and let them say no, if they don’t want to be on film.

In your intro make sure you let people know the format of the evening – eg, half an hour, followed by a break, followed by a quiz or raffle with some super second hand book prizes (it’s optional for your event, but a quiz goes down well), then another half hour of readings etc, and thank the audience and writers/readers for coming.

At the end thank everyone again and let them know they can join an email list to find out about upcoming events – have a book and pen ready at the back of the room!

So that’s the event done.

It doesn’t end there though! Now’s the time to collect some informal feedback and use it to make your next event even better. You can do this with a comment form, or just ask people what they thought and if there was anything they would like to see next time. If you enjoyed it and it went well – then do it again! Organising a literary event can be great fun and it gives you that important extra interest for your writing portfolio.

To do list

If the venue charges a fee for the space, then work out how much you will need to charge to cover your costs via an entry fee. Talk to the venue owner or manager, once they know what you’re doing isn’t going to make loads of money (sorry, but it isn’t), and will bring in new customers, they might give you a discount, or give you the venue for free in exchange for including their logo on your publicity. If it’s an unusual venue, check whether you might need permission from the owner, and ask about public liability insurance.

Readers and writers

Do you have any actor friends who might like to showcase their reading skills for the night? Sometimes writers are brilliant at reading their own work, but sometimes a reader can bring something extra to it. For the writer, particularly of drama, it’s often really helpful to hear someone else perform your work, so you can check out what works.

Contributors

Most likely you won’t be able to offer your contributors a fee, but you could offer 2 free tickets if you are charging, and reduced price tickets for friends. They could also bring copies of their pamphlets/books to sell. And of course they will be promoting their writing. If you have a friend who is well-known or already on the live literature circuit – invite them as a guest and let them do a 10-minute guest slot. Make sure you put their name on your fliers and other promotional materials.

Always have a Plan B in case somebody is ill on the day or can’t make it. Here’s your chance to showcase your work, bring some extra poems or a story, just in case. And don’t forget to schedule a slot for your reading! It’s really easy to miss yourslf out when you organise an event, but remember, you are building your profile here as well as organising a fun event and showcasing other writers.

Next read the final instalment, on how to promote your event once you’ve got all this essential planning done.

ME4 Writers' Open mic picnic

ME4 Writers Anti-Valentines flier

I have been organising and hosting live literature readings under ME4 Writers’ ‘Write Now!’ banner for two years. It’s an occasional live night of readings, fun activities and cupcakes, with the aim of introducing and showcasing a variety of genres of writer, with the emphasis on local writers. I have also organised showcase and discussion nights for female playwrights, and am developing a new playwriting night to start in Kent in Autumn.

It’s really hard to get noticed as a writer, so developing a portfolio of related additional interests is a really good idea.

Organising literary events is a great way to start to develop this portfolio and gives you a chance to showcase your work, as well as that of others. This series of articles is to help you set up your own live literature event.

I will be covering Planning, and Themes and in this article. Further articles will cover Venues and Contributors, and Promotion.

The key is planning and organisation

The first event I put on was a baptism of fire; though I had helped out at events and arranged fundraising parties for plays before, I had never really organised and hosted an event. But somehow I ended up organising and hosting four literary events in as many weeks.

Having a back-up plan is important, and being flexible as people will always drop-out at the last minute. It’s all about what you can get done for free or very little money – you would be surprised how helpful people will be, once you explain what you’re doing.

Before you even start to think about who will be performing…

Think about why you are doing the event, what are its aims and where would be a good venue. If you do go for an unusual venue, check out that whoever owns it has the relevant public liability insurance.

Have a theme

I think the best literary nights take you on an emotional journey, so think about the order and try to start and finish with your strongest writers. The theme could be very loose, and every writer will interpret the theme differently – at least, make sure they do, as no-one wants to hear five pieces of writing that are all of the same pace, and the same story.

Brevity is best

Keep individual stories down to 1,000 words, or less (works out around 8-10 minutes when read). Unless you have a brilliant storyteller, listening to the same person telling a story becomes soporific – maybe this is due to where we are used to hearing stories, as children, at bedtime. In fact you want to try and get some brilliant readers involved if you can – a point I deal with in the second in these articles.

A slot for a poet should also be no more than 6-10 minutes. This could be as little as reading 1-3 poems – they can always do more later, if time allows, it is important to break up the sound of the reading voices and the styles of writing. Make sure you stick to the running order, so you don’t end up with writers who haven’t had a chance to perform as other people have run on.

So that’s the introduction to planning your own literary event. If you are inspired, read the next article dealing with Venues and Contributors.

I had a look at one or two commentaries in the library and was reassured to see that they aren’t too scary, more a chance to talk about wonderful stories and inspirational writers who have influenced a writer’s own work. But where to start?

I came to the PhD with a useful amount of background reading already done — loads of texts that I love and which definitely influence my writing, from non-fiction like The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron to surf fiction like Breath by Tim Winton and Welsh writing in English novels such as my favourites by Niall Griffiths (Grits, Sheepshagger and Runt).

It’s all really varied stuff, in terms of perceived literary merit, age, subject matter, audience, themes and so on. So how on earth am I going to synthesise all this material? I have some idea of how I want to analyse each text in terms of my research questions, but I also want to look at how I write, and for that I need to look at storytelling in general.

My supervisor recommended that I read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, almost a textbook for film students and Hollywood employees. It’s ‘a practical guide for designing and troubleshooting stories’ (xi) — in all forms, not just film. The author is at pains to point out that this is not a formula, but an exploration, via Joseph Campbell, of the simple idea that: ‘All stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies.’ (1).

He might well have added ‘novels’ to that list. Straight away I was excited, because my story is all of the above (except, at this embryonic stage, a record-breaking Hollywood blockbuster…).

Vogler’s book is an attempt to map the stages that stories present, and the way that mirrors human life and experience. I was skeptical about putting all stories into a mould or formula, but Vogler stresses that ‘It should be used as a form, not a formula, a reference point and a source of inspiration, not a dictatorial mandate’ (xix).

The simple structure that he explains is amazing, an explanation in clear terms of something that readers — and in fact anyone who comes across stories in any medium and thinks about their creation — will instantly latch on to. It clarifies and helps with writing, and it’s fun to point out the different stages as seen in films or books — “Hey! That guy is definitely going to be a Mentor, and that pub is a Threshold for sure.”

It also, very helpfully, gives me and my supervisor a common vocabulary with which to discuss storytelling in general, and specifically my characters and the structure of my work.

For a theory, it is immensely accessible and well written, using clear and almost universally known film examples. If you write, you will begin to think in more detail about your own structure, and it may well help you to see where you are going wrong — where you should be challenging the heroine instead having another love scene or argument with a Guardian.

A recommendation worth its weight in gold for me, I hope it intrigues you enough to check it out of the library. I did, and instantly jumped on Amazon to get my own copy so I could cover it in sticky notes.

Vogler, C., 2007. Writerʼs Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Michael Wiese Production. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure/dp/193290736X