Why Write?

Today is World Book Day. If you haven't heard of it, it's a worldwide celebration of reading and all things related, ie books, authors etc. 

I'm all for celebrations. My good friend and narcissistic publisher Edie Tor is marking the day by having the complete works of ELJames tattooed on her body, but I wouldn't go that far. For one thing, ELJames is hardly my benchmark for literary merit*, even if she has sold cartloads of copies. And for another, I come out in hives when I put transfers on my wrist, so tattoos might just be fatal.

I'm all for reading, however. Far better to stimulate the imagination than pig out on junk telly. And with the advent of ebooks and KSP, the choice of reading material has never been wider. Which begs the question: With an ocean of books out there, should anyone be bothering to write more?

Of course "should" never enters into it, does it? If people feel the need to do something, for whatever obscure and indefinable reason, they tend to just go ahead and do it. And it doesn't really matter how loony it seems to everyone else. Witness the number who die trying to be the zillionth climber of Everest, or walking to the North Pole, or pole-vaulting across the Grand Canyon. The rest of us shake our heads on the sidelines, but it never deterred anyone.

So why do we write? What is the need we're trying to fulfil when we torture ourselves with rewrites, critiques, rejection letters and bad reviews? If it's for glory or riches, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. Granted a few do win the jackpot - it's an analogy worth emphasising because you're about as likely to win the lottery than hit Harry Potter levels of riches - but the vast majority never see enough to cover the cost of pens and ink. 

But isn't art its own reward? Someone once said art is the purpose of life, and therefore no one should expect to earn from it. Like the poor sod trying to pogo across the Sahara it's one little contribution to the tapestry of life, a little coloured fleck in the midst of all that rich imagery. It's an achievement, of sorts. It's something out of nothing. And that's always worth the effort.

Happy World Book Day! 



*Is she anybody's?

The Graveyard of Abandoned Projects

Gah! I have been through the wringer with this WIP, let me tell you. I don't usually suffer from writer's block but there are days when it's like wading through treacle.


But finally the end is in sight. The end of this revision, that is. And possibly the end of this WIP because I promised myself if one more run through doesn't fix it I would stop torturing myself and consign it to the Graveyard of Abandoned Projects.


The trouble with this writing lark is the more you do it and the more you learn about what is right and what is wrong the harder it becomes to feel satisfied with what you've written. I've learned a lot writing this particular book, or I should say rewriting it since I've spent more time doing that. I have umpteen files of discarded material as proof of my many changes of mind. But at least I've stuck with it and should have a semi decent draft of something which may never see the light of day but does at  least have a beginning, middle and end.

Hodilays!

Well, it's finally arrived.  My long anticipated holiday is here at last.  In a few hours I'll be zooming up the motorway to the Perthshire wilderness for a week of solitude, pub grub and no internet.


It's odd but the prospect fills me with a kind of giddy panic.  It's so easy to go online I'm hardly off it these days - not that that's a good thing - but I'm hoping its absence will help me get my head together on one or two projects.  


I'm taking a minimum of writerly paraphernalia, basically notebook and pen. It's so long since I didn't type it will be interesting to see if I can still write longhand.  I might end up pulling something and having to wear a splint.


This being Scotland there's a good amount of rain forecast, so I might even drown!


Anyway, before I go here's an interesting blog post I spotted this week that might be worth your attention.  


Be good!

What Not To Write Part 2

I'm dabbling in art again.  Every few years I get the itch to paint things, but this time I'm sketching.  The urge comes and goes and I go with the flow.  But I've been reading a fascinating book called Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  It's very likely you've heard of it, being a classic in its revolutionary approach to drawing.  Everyone can draw, she says.  The problem is not in the hand or the eye, but in the brain.  Your brain has certain preconceived templates, or gestalt, into which it fits the sensory stimuli it receives.  That's why we tend to draw what we expect to see, rather than what we actually see.  Artists must learn to overcome their own brain to get to the reality, the truth of the world before them.


To help with this she suggests copying from inverted images.  Turn a person's photograph upside down and you no longer see the person but a mass of light and shade.  It's harder to copy because there are no preconceived ideas to hang the blobs on, but the results are astonishingly accurate.  In this way we bypass our own filtering system to find something more real.


And it's making me think about how I write.  Isn't that a filtering process too?  Do I really tell it like it is?  Can I tell it like it is?  Is there some way to overcome the gestalt?

Perhaps the way to do this is to write around the story, the way Edwards advocates drawing what isn't the subject.  Our brains are programmed to join the dots and fill in the missing information.  Screen actors know this principle; the single most differentiating feature of screen acting is the blank face onto which the audience project their own feelings.  Use only streaks of light and shade, the well chosen word and curious phrase, enough to suggest what is happening.  Less is more.

Nice Surprise

In the weeks since finishing latest draft of WIP I've been in a kind of doldrums.  It's a familiar pattern, but gets no easier to deal with.  By the time I limp over the finish line I am so drained and weary it's a relief to put it to bed, but with it comes the loss of confidence.  I'm not sure why this happens, or even if it happens to others as well as me.  It feels like everything I write is stilted and crap, every idea is contrived or cliche.  I feel like a complete fraud and wonder why I'm even trying.


But then a little time passes and for some reason I take a look at something I wrote and forgot about.  Last night I opened a piece I began during the summer, a couple of thousand words of an opening chapter.  I read it expecting nothing, so it was nice to find it wasn't half bad.  It drew me in.  It stirred me to want to imagine more.  It made me think, not with arrogance but astonishment,  'I really can do this'.


And this has happened time after time.  Just when I've written myself off as useless I get a nice surprise that keeps me going.  

A moan

Well, so much for a week off.  Other Half has been laid up with a stinking cold all week, I've had to sit in waiting for gas men fitting radiators and washing machine men fixing me Hotpoint - which, I might add, broke down again a day later.  So what with all that I've ended up doing pretty much what I usually do and missed out on the planned days out and trips to the shops.  On top of that The Great Spider Invasion has started - I counted four of the brutes one windy evening which did nothing to alleviate my stress level.  And an order of my much loved Traquair Ale seems to have gone astray despite being despatched a couple of days ago.

Oh well.  On the plus side I have made some headway with the WIP.  I'm thrashing out the last act now, always the trickiest part for me.  And I've treated myself to a new Moleskine notebook.  Never owned one before so I thought I'd give it a go.  Surprisingly they are not made from moles after all...

A Week Off

Other half and younger son are on a week's holiday so it's a break in routine.  I've been catching up with the bits of painting left over by the professionals and getting a different perspective on things.  Not much time for writing although I'm doing odd bits when I can.

Last week I took my razor sharp editor's knife and cut 4 whole chapters which made my eyes water I don't mind telling you.  The story had taken a wrong turn and it had to go.  My priority at the moment is getting the shape of the story right, and it's proving elusive.  But I now feel I have the bones of something better.  Of course I'll need to write a lot of new material but once I get the form right that won't be difficult.

So I'm taking this week to mull things over before getting back to it.  I feel like a mole emerging from the gloom of his tunnel.  So that's what the world is like...

Writers Online

The internet has revolutionised communications.  So what does that mean for the aspiring writer?


In the Bad Old Days you'd sit in your draughty garret scratching stories onto parchment with only your own dark thoughts for company.  Nowadays you don't need to be so isolated.  One click gets you onto Facebook, Twitter and the myriad of writers' forums out there.  In the early days it's nice to meet like minded people and get some answers to your newbie questions.  But you can get so involved with this online community you forget why you ended up there. 


These days display sites have eclipsed the standard critique sites.  Display sites, like Authonomy and Book Country (to name but two - there are plenty more) are more about platform and discoverability.  Mutual backslapping is the order of the day, and anything resembling honest, ie. critical, critique is likely to be met with hostility because it is deemed "unsupportive". 


So, is the internet a good place for writers or just another procrastination technique?


I think there are hazards as well as benefits.  The internet is great for instant research and you can pick up lots of advice.  There's bad advice too, of course.  But as long as you're selective and trust your own instincts you shouldn't go far wrong.  The support group and mutual praise is nice in the early days when you're feeling shy and insecure but beware it doesn't become a crutch.  Your work is for the public at large, not just your little clique of mates who never dislike anything you write.


So really, nothing much has changed.  The internet might have made people more accessible, but writing is still a solitary activity and too much company might just blow you off course.

New Project Planning

I'm itching to get to grips with something new, having finally put the WIP to one side for a cooling off period. I don't know about you but by the time I get to the end of a draft of something I'm so sick of being immersed in that world I'm twitching for a complete change. As it's a paranormal mystery with high drama and life or death stakes it's not surprising I fancy something a little lighter.

I had a go at a romcom last year but it ground to a halt. Romance isn't as easy as it looks, I've decided. Maybe I'm just too nasty to want lovey-dovey endings. But I haven't given up on wanting to write a comedy so I'm thinking a Black Comedy would suit me better. Or satire. I love taking the piss out of things so it's right up my street. But choosing a subject is tough. It has to be original and yet have enough potential to sustain the comedy from start to finish. Trying to figure out what I want to write is nearly as tough as writing it.

So I'm reading Catch 22 as an example of black comedy. There are lots of movie examples too, like Brazil and Dr Strangelove which are two of my favourite films. Any other suggestions?

Heard of Ayn Rand?

I hadn't, so it came as a surprise when she was brought to my attention recently on a TV programme All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Born in Russia in 1905, Rand moved to America in the 1920s to carve out a career as a screen writer. Over the years she became known for her philosophical views and for Objectivism, a school of thought which encompasses economics and politics and espouses the individual over collectivism.

Rand is herself a fascinating character. Check out the many interviews on Youtube and you'll instantly see how arresting she was, with dynamic intelligence burning in her huge dark eyes and eloquence tripping off her tongue in a Russian burr. Here she is giving Mike Wallace a run for his money:



Whatever you make of her theories she was clearly no one's fool and lived her life in pursuit of a way of life she clearly felt passionate about.

Curious to know more I downloaded the free ebook of Anthem, available on Gutenberg, a dystopian novella which predates Orwell's 1984 by more than ten years yet is strangely reminiscent. It tells of a post-apocalyptic world where the individual is subsumed into the State and no longer has any control over their life. It is nightmarish and disturbing yet utterly compelling.

Her writing is marvellous, from the little I've seen. I've now ordered her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. It astonishes me that I had never heard of this woman and yet everywhere I look I find the mention of her name polarises opinions. On one message board someone referred to her "disturbing legacy" and vowed never to read any of her books. How anyone can decry something they haven't even read escapes me. One wonders what these people are so afraid of, if her ideas were so off base? No doubt I'll find out.

If you'll take my advice...

Everybody loves to spout advice, don't they? All you need is a half baked opinion - usually actual knowledge or insight gets in the way and makes the issue too complicated - and you can expatiate to your heart's content.

In the past few years of knocking around the internet in search of helpful nuggets of wisdom I've encountered many self-appointed experts. They tend to be somewhat lower on the food chain than the really successful writers whose opinions might actually be worth listening to if they had the time and could be bothered pontificating. Often they are only wannabes themselves. And many of them are so low down the food chain they are probably less knowledgable and experienced than...well, just about anybody.

I've spoken before about the dangers lurking on message boards. There are fantasists and liars around who aren't too fussy about the deceptions they perpetrate, and one thing they love to do is make themselves out to be something better than they are. It's so easy. Why waste twenty years building a real career in creative writing when you can make one up - and with the anonymity of the Internet no one can deny you.

So my opinion about advice obtained online is be very critical of all of it.

Most of it is rubbish. Even the most well intentioned advice might not be suitable for you at your stage of development. What helps one person may not help another. Sweeping statements are usually hopeless. Nothing is ever that simple and even the most obvious rules have been broken at one time or another.

The best teacher is your own experience and that takes time and hard work. Read a lot and write a lot and be skeptical of anyone coming at you with advice.

On Endings (Apocalyptic or not)

Well, despite rumours to the contrary, the world is still intact and didn't come to a biblical end yesterday as predicted. But there is an appetite for the apocalyptic judging by the volume of fiction devoted to the subject. And if Revelations is any guide this is not a new phenomenon. Mankind has always speculated on how the story will end. For that reason Endings are perhaps the most important part of any story. It ain't how you start, it's how you finish, as the saying goes.

I'm revisiting some study notes I took from talks given by screenwriting guru John Truby. I won't bore you by waxing lyrical on his advice about structure, except to say his book Anatomy of Story is one of the few I'd recommend you read if you haven't already. But what's interesting in his talks is the fact that the ending or final revelation, as he puts it, is so crucial to story structure it must be decided even before character or setting. The ending determines everything in the story.

In the past I might have fought shy of this idea. Let the characters loose and they will find out the ending by themselves, I'd say. Well, maybe they will, but they're just as likely to wander off down to the pub because of the wrong decisions you made along the way. Plotting a novel is not simple and there are lots of blind alleys you can find yourself wandering into. My early attempts dried up because of this and once you've wandered too far off course it's almost impossible to find your way back. You end up giving up in frustration and having to start again.

And when you think about it, the ending is the point of the whole exercise. Just as joke writers craft the build up to a punchline with the punchline already in place, a story is the build up to the final scene, whether it's the confrontation between the hero and antagonist, or the blissful surrender of lovers in a romance. The ending determines who and what your characters are, what they want and what they have to do to get it. So it's worth the time to figure out what the ending of your story will be, even before you've figured out how it will start.

Why Write?

Is it a dumb question? I've seen all sorts of answers put forward ranging from the tortured artist who must write or die to the weary hack churning out another article to pay the rent. But money and artistic glory apart, why do we choose to express ourselves this way? Is writing necessary? If all the fiction ever written disappeared tomorrow would it make a difference?

Everybody has their own reasons for wanting to write, I guess. But judging by the sheer numbers of wannabe authors in the world there is clearly a deep-seated drive to commit ourselves to paper. However unique we like to think we are, writing is something many many people aspire to.

Story telling is as old as humanity and was the original entertainment. Sitting around the camp fires prehistoric people regaled each other with myths and legends, passed down from generation to generation. We loved to tell, and we loved to listen. Surely novel writing is simply another form of this, taken to a more refined form.

I think it's connecting with others, in a strangely paradoxical way, considering it involves long lonely hours in the company of fictional creations. It is a distilled shout from the hilltop, amplified through the pages of a book to reach hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of listeners. Someone once said, we read to feel we are not alone. Perhaps we write for that reason too.

Characters: Who Are They Really?

Do you put yourself in your novel?

I've seen this question asked a lot of times on writers' boards. On the face of it, it's a simple proposition. Does your novel contain someone who looks and behaves like you? But scratch the surface and you'll see there is more to it than that. Because as the author you are presenting every character as if he/she were you. You have to understand every character, know what motivates them, know how they feel. If not you couldn't realistically create them, could you? So, logically you put yourself in every character in your book. Each of them is an aspect of you.

And come to think about it, isn't that the reason we write? In the real world the most difficult thing to deal with is usually other people. But not in our fictional world. Here we can literally play God - we have total control of everything that happens and if a character steps out of line we can zap him in a way that wouldn't be acceptable in real life. We can relive all those past humiliations and pay back the hurt. In a sense, writing fiction is therapy. We pour out all our pain and turn it into gold.

And as well as that we get to see/feel/taste all those things we perhaps missed out on in reality. We get to put ourselves in another man's shoes, say all the wicked things we never dared to say. It's said people watch movies to lose themselves in the characters up on the screen. But writing fiction is even more intoxicating. Here there are no boundaries except the limits of your imagination. You get to write, direct and shoot your own movie starring Me, Me and Me. How much better does it get?

Nearing the End

Well, I'm within grasping distance of finishing the WIP, or at least the latest draft. I've had to drastically rework so much of it it's really a first draft in places. But as the End gets closer so my metaphorical pen seems to get heavier and I find myself struggling to put words down. I don't know why this is. Part of me thinks, it's just weariness from working on it relentlessly for the best part of a year. Another part of me throws up the old paranoid doubts: the plot doesn't work, the characters are too thin and nobody's going to buy this pile of cack so why are you wasting your time when the sun is shining?

I won't know if any or all of that is true until I return to it later, but I want to finish it just so I can put it to one side and write something else. Funny how the grass is always greener when you're up against it. Usually by now I have another idea bubbling away but not this time; I want to choose a really special project so I'm taking my time over it. Rereading bits of John Truby's Anatomy of Story, he emphasises the importance of finding a project that has resonance on a personal level - a story you have to tell. The choice of what to write about is far more important than any other choice, and I think that's true. My stories all seem to have a common thread of isolation and self-delusion. Perhaps I'm trying to tell myself something?

Backstory and Royal Weddings

Someone very wise once said we don't know who we are now unless we study our past. That's why backstory has an important place in the stories we tell.

A few months ago, when the impending Royal Wedding was announced, I was somewhat astonished at the largely negative reaction I saw on the boards I frequent. Why would anyone react this way about celebrating a happy event? After all, William and his betrothed are young, glamorous and photogenic. It's an extra day off work for many people and a moment of glory in these hard recession-weary times.

But I too had those sinking feelings, and I know exactly why. Anyone who is old enough will remember the marriage of his father and mother, nearly 30 years ago. That too was a big production - Hollywood couldn't have done it better - and for months before it was all over the media. On the day crowds lined the streets and everyone tuned in to watch. It was sold as a fairytale wedding and it certainly looked like it.

In the years that followed people gradually woke up to the fact that it had been a sham. The groom was marrying to please his family and had no great love for his bride, in fact he was heavily involved with a married friend. Of course their personal lives are their own business, but what makes me bitter is the way the public, who paid for this sideshow, were completely lied to for years until the marriage ended in bitter divorce.

All of which serves to illustrate the importance of backstory. We need to know something about the background of a character in order to understand the story happening now, simply because events of the past shape us as people. Of course that doesn't mean a complete biography, and the skill lies in getting that balance between giving enough information with moving the story forward.

But never underestimate the importance of backstory in helping your reader understand who your character is today.

10 Most Annoying Lists

You know those lists you often find on message boards: Ten things to guarantee rejection or Five ways NOT to start your novel. Well, maybe I've been knocking around the internet too long, but these lists are really starting to annoy me. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the arrogance behind it; I know the Secret Formula for success, folks. Just follow these simple rules.

Because there are no rules, however much we like to think there are.

However I realise I am swimming against the tide here so in keeping with bloggers' love of lists of rules, here are my 10 Most Annoying Lists:

10 Things that are probably wrong with your manuscript.

10 Ways to alienate an agent.

10 Ways to guarantee you never get published.

5 Things you shouldn't put on toast

20 best writing aids

10 most cliched story ideas

10 least likely romantic pairings

20 Blogs you should read

10 presents you should never give your granny

20 things you should never write in your query.

The Gas Man Cometh

I had the gas man in today. Now, he's called the gas man because he services my boiler but this particular bloke gets that title because he gasses - a lot. Not that I mind someone chatting away, it's just that - well, there's an art to conversation isn't there? Just like there's an art to writing a story. It can't be just a stream of consciousness because who's interested in that? Even when a story appears to be just a stream of consciousness it's very likely there's a lot more going on. That's the skill of the author. And the better they are at it, the less you notice.

Writing fiction, like conversation, is give and take. Just as in good conversation we must listen as much as talk, in writing good fiction we must anticipate the reader's expectations and meet them. If we simply drone on and on about all the stuff we researched about fly fishing for four pages, thinking we'll impress with our extensive knowledge, we risk losing their rapt attention.

Still, I can't complain. At least my boiler's serviced.

When to Call It Quits.

It's a funny life, making up stories and writing them down. Some stories can seem like the hottest thing since sliced ...er, chillies? Then you get half way through writing it down and find all your enthusiasm for the project has evaporated. So how do you know whether to force yourself to stick with it, or abandon the idea and start something else?

It's a tough one. Only you know how you really feel about a project. You could just be suffering from Act 2 Doldrums and need to push on through. Any activity gets boring if you've done it for long enough. It's important to analyse why you're stalled.

Do you still feel excited about the initial premise? If not, it's a pretty strong indication you may be flogging a dead horse. The first draft is only the start of a long process of editing and submissions, and if your heart isn't in it maybe you would be better off finding something you do feel compelled to write.

But the problem with shelving it is you could be reinforcing your lack of confidence in your ability to finish a project. If this is your first attempt at a novel it probably doesn't matter, but if you have a string of unfinished manuscripts cluttering up your hard drive this could be yet another confirmation of your failure. In that case you might be better off gritting your teeth and forcing yourself to get through it just for the satisfaction of writing The End.

If you do still like the premise, then maybe you are coming at the story from the wrong angle. You could try changing the MC, the POV or setting. Maybe you've taken a wrong turning somewhere in the plot and your subconscious is rebelling? You might need to take some time to think it through before continuing.

Remember though: most successful authors had a few attempts before they finally managed to write a fully finished novel, so don't beat yourself up if you decide to abandon a project. Writing should be fun, not torture.

And The Award For Bravery Goes To...

I'm passing this on because when I read it it made me smile and we can all do with reasons to smile, can't we?

Many blogs (not the ones I read, I hasten to add) seem to concentrate on the negative aspects of this writing life. Every post is like a side swipe at unpublished authors. You're never good enough, you're doing it all wrong, you can't get published that way...etc, etc, yada yada yada. And yes, it is tough - I'd never pretend otherwise - but is it really necessary to be so negative about people's efforts? Rejection is tough enough without some smarty pants blogger telling us how rubbish we are. So that's why this blog post made such a nice change.

And to all authors, published or unpublished, new or accomplished, rich or poor, I salute you. It is not an easy road we walk, and it takes brass cojones to even attempt it. You're all stars in my book.