I made a book when I was eight years old. It’s about a busy week in the life of Tricksy the Dragon, and it earned a ‘Highly Commended’ certificate in the 1977 West Australian ‘Make a Book’ competition. My dad’s secretary typed the words out for me and I drew a very bad picture of a dragon for the front cover. It’s still on my bookshelf.
I made a picture storybook for my two-year-old niece: Miles’ Book. Photos and simple sentences arranged on cardboard, then laminated and stapled: pretty simple. Miles is 19 now; I made her another book last Christmas. She’d just had a baby, so I figured food was a good choice for a Christmas present. I did lots of baking, then decided to go a step further and pass on the recipes. Great Aunty Helen’s Christmas Cook Book was the result. Cardboard again, but this time with a hard cover and bound with coptic stitch. Dedicated to Miles and her daughter, Milla. When Miles unwrapped her present, she was delighted. Turns out that Miles’ Book, although falling apart, has been Miles’ favourite book for years. Her partner confirmed this: “She reads it all the time, she was reading it yesterday!”
Spurred on by this success, I decided to make a late Christmas present for my husband. This one was the classic ‘slim, leather-bound volume of poetry’. I used black card as the pages, with the poems printed on pale blue parchment and attached with glue. Richie made the leather-bound covers and I bound it using coptic stitch and flaxen thread. (Loving that coptic stitch!) Aspects of Love contains poems written by both of us. In many ways, it’s the seed that grew into this blog – the work of Macbelle.
I’m studying Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University in Melbourne. Part of the reason I enrolled in this course is because I really love making things, with my intellect and my hands. I wanted to make some things that had a life beyond my presence; beyond a bespoke gift and the ephemeral nature of hospitality. I want to make books. Sure, I’d also love to be a traditionally-published writer, flown around the countryside for book launches and guest appearances on festival panels, but that may not happen. However, I can be involved in the world of publishing. Modern technology means that ‘making books’ is very do-able. Australia has a thriving small press network and I want to be part of it. Studying at RMIT was my first step towards realising that dream. Collaboration…
As part of my editing course, I’ve worked on two photo books with students from a separate program within my university. That was interesting: working with non-writers to produce a printed and bound coffee-table style book of images and words. I ended up doing a lot of writing as well as copy editing and proofreading. But that’s the editor’s job: manage the project and make it happen – to deadline. Even if it means proofreading a PDF at midnight and emailing changes through to the other party so they can submit their project at 9am the next day. (I proofread the finished product at 8.30am. Only three typos – one being my misspelt name.)
And then there’s the 9 Slices project, part of Melbourne’s Emerging Writers’ Festival and the love-child of Francesca Rendle-Short, Associate Professor in Creative Writing at RMIT University.
It was an ambitious premise: gather students from many different programs, arrange them into nine teams of writer/editor/designer (plus photography and marketing students, to record and promote) and give each team one day to create a chapter of a book. Then print and launch the end product on the tenth day. Talk about collaboration…
Working on this book is the most challenging and rewarding book-making experience I’ve had so far. We worked between 1000£ Bend (a cafe and bar) and Slice Girls (the pizzeria next door). Writing a book isn’t much of a spectator sport: a group of people sit tapping away on computers, every now and again someone stares into the middle distance, then starts tapping away again. Music plays, pizzas are cooked and eaten, people come and go. Concentrated silence interspersed with animated conversation.
Nonetheless, 9 Slices was definitely an ‘event’.
On our allotted day, with my co-collaborators Joshua and Debbie, a 3007 word story was written, workshopped and edited, and the finished story was illustrated, designed, typeset and dropped into the master document ready for proofreading the next day. We started before 9am and by midday Josh had written 1000 words. He read it aloud, we talked about it, I read it aloud, we talked about it some more. Josh went back to writing, I started copyediting, Debbie played with layout and images. A few hours later, at 2000 words, we workshopped again.
“Uh huh, I like where we are, but where are we going next?”
Day 2 team, 9 Slices
Hmm. Issues of storyline, structure, naming characters (or not), how to incorporate quotes from other writers (no time to seek permissions), what themes are working, which are distractions and where will it end… Another image is needed, Josh takes more photos, keeps writing. Debbie designs the title page and running headers and fits all the words in. We eat cake, we keep working.
Another 1000 words, more copyediting, more designing, the pizza shop closes. We move back to 1000£ Bend: it’s definitely a bar now, complete with happy, noisy drinkers and loud dance-able music. We find a powerpoint and create our own bubble of concentration. Josh and I drink a beer. I field a phone call from Francesca, full of vital information needing to be shared with the following days’ teams.The finished chapter is added to the master after midnight, just before closing time. We are done. Tomorrow the process will be repeated, and again, and again…until the book is complete.
Each day, like the pizzas, has a different flavour. Everyone’s creative process is different. Some need a typewriter and pyjamas, some find inspiration in past lives, some reach through inconvenient sickness to dwell on the present, some need a style sheet and definite answers, some need to go with their individual flow. Each day (as they inevitably do) comes to a close and has to be let go.
“We’ve done our best. Let it stand!”
Day 3 writer celebrates with Day 2 editor
In the early hours of the tenth day, the final product was being sent to the publishers. Not quite in time for the end-of-festival party, but that just gives us an excuse to have another (launch) party when everyone is better slept. Together, we made a book in nine days. That’s a triumph.
I’ve been involved in some fairly crazy projects in my time. I’ve cooked a Reconciliation Day barbeque for 130 people in the middle of the bush (“We’ve got a lot of sausages, 20 kilos of kangaroo meat might be a bit too much”); I’ve seen the back room of my milk bar covered ankle deep in bark and leaf litter for an art exhibition, while a band jammed in the shop and onlookers used Tic Tac boxes as shakers; I’ve cooked a balanced meal for 120 people, my only cooking equipment a three-shelf bread oven and six giant trays; I’ve had conversations in my shoebox-sized cafe in Brunswick that felt like they’d been written by Hunter S Thompson…
All of those moments now exist only in my memory and (possibly) the memories of the other people who were there. Sure, they’re all really good memories, and I may find some photographic evidence of them if I search through a box in my back shed, but basically, they’re ephemeral. They’re not the same as making a book.
3am Book Cover, 9 Slices
I didn’t write any of the words in this book, but I helped to edit them and to get the whole manuscript ready for publication. In the future, when I walk down my hallway and see the spine of 9 Slices on the bookshelf, I’ll know that I was part of the creation of that book. And that’s satisfying.
I also know I’ll be making more books in the future, traditionally published as well as hand-bound using coptic stitch.
9 Slices postcard: photo Francesca Rendle-Short, design Sophie Gaur
3am book cover: photo Francesca Rendle-Short
Thanks to Joshua and Debbie for generous collaboration and Isaac for a great photo opportunity
Limited editions of 9 Slices will be available from Readings and Embiggen book stores in Melbourne. Stay tuned for the digital version…
reading poetry in bed 