AS A part of his week-long residency at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Collin Channer on Tuesday presented a public lecture titled 'The Most Important Thing You Need to Know About Writing Novels, Plays or Movies From a Guy Who Should Know'. Channer proved to be as long-winded as the title, and quite lacking in substance.
The lecture was presented by the Institute of Caribbean Studies and the Department of Literature in English, while Channer's residency is sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
Channer authored two novels, Waiting in Vain and Satisfy My Soul along with a novella and short stories. He is also the founder and artistic creator of the annual Calabash International Literary Festival.
WITTY INTRODUCTION
Dr. Michael Buckner's witty introduction of Channer was easily the most well-thought out part of the evening. Buckner regaled the audience with an image of a multi-faceted Colin Channer, a charmer, writer, and creator of Calabash who is crowned with hair that has been "suspended somewhere between a careful production of rastafarian locks and a total disregard for a comb."
With hair more carefully coifed, Channer displayed a more careful disregard for the audience as he kept the packed multi-functional room at the UWI library waiting for over an half an hour. At the end of the lecture he informed them that he really had no reason to be late. Despite his lateness, the audience seemed eager to have the manna of wisdom from an acclaimed author poured upon them.
The wait initially seemed to be worth it as the lecture seemed to be off to a good start but soon skidded on the lack of preparation and became stuck in a quagmire of pointless talk about, rather than analysis of, genres.
Having noted that it is very important that the craft of telling a great story is far more important than mastering the use of language, Channer hardly looked at what makes great stories great.
During the lecture he declared; "Depth is something that eluded me... I'm very happy to exist very close to the surface." In keeping with this ideology, Channer bobbed happily at the surface of the art of storytelling.
Interestingly, though he dismissed the radio as a medium for telling stories, he would later play a medley of songs which he declared as some of the best stories he had ever heard. In the same vein, though he pointed out that one should choose the best medium for telling a story, he drew his diagrams by hand, though his writing only occasional neared legibility.
STICKING WITH THE FORMULA
Channer attempted to side-step saying that if one wanted to get financial backing, one had to stick with the formula. When asked directly about the issue of 'selling out' he declared that it should be viewed as getting the publisher to buy in. However, time and again, he came back to the point that what counts is what sells. "The storytelling industry is not the storytelling charity," he said.
Despite the general lack of depth in what Channer had to say, he managed to make some important points. "The material for story is life itself," he said. Channer would go on to point out that "stories are not about real life, they're metaphors for life." He also pointed out that a writer should only write pieces that they are best equipped to write. Despite this very important advice, he was clearly not properly equipped for the lecture.
