Craft with care

This week I bumped into a friend from my writing class of last year and discovered he has just written a play (despite multiple demands on his personal life at the moment) and, upon reflection, it has spurred me on to reinvigorate my own writing.

Writers read and readers write, but sometimes it’s easy to get cocooned into one stream or the other and recently, I’ve been very much sailing down the reading route… Of which there is nothing at all wrong in doing, but the novel-writing has taken a back seat of late and I know this is partly due to the aforementioned, and the fact I have yet to hear back from all of the publishers I submitted the first book to. (I’m determined to wait them out before I post my experiences and feed back on the holy grail of rejection which pretty much all writers must endure on the path to publication. Agents, I have found, are much more quick to dismiss you than the people who publish…)

Anyway, on the back of my last post, which referred to the inspiration gleaned from writing groups/articles etc, it was a nice coincidence to stumble upon this very thing myself soon after.

Writing is a discipline and when you edit news-writing every day, do a blog every week, write some articles and scribble a few notes or sentences down for your book, you can fool yourself into thinking you’ve been rather busy. Well, ok, this is true of course, except that the writing in question is other people’s; akin to journaling; journalism; and, well, fairly sparse ‘creative writing’ respectively.

A friend asked me this week how to protect her voice ahead of teaching experience and, as I emailed her my tips (as a former speech and language therapist), I found there were parallels with writing (stay with me on this):

Good vocal care primarily requires rest, being relaxed, lack of stress, fresh air and an awareness of how you use your voice (amongst other things).

Good writing requires rest (time, perhaps, spent reading to inspire your own words), being relaxed (an uptight writer will invariably find it difficult to put pen to paper), lack of stress (pressurising yourself to produce perfect prose/poetry etc – and quickly – or comparing yourself to others will more likely result in unsatisfactory work and less of it), fresh air (well, I find a lot of inspiration for my writing comes when I’m out walking my dog around the coast, and it helps to clear the mind and get out of the house – taking note of the world around you) and, finally, an awareness of how you’re writing (are you using a particular style; have you adapted to the audience you want to write for; are you integrating any advice given to you by fellow writers etc).

So, all in all, with writing, as with any other area in life, a little thought and care, I think, into how you do it will reap rewards. Having reassessed my own writing portfolio, I recognise that it’s a bit of a kaleidoscope of genres and that not all are currently equally attended to, but… I’m constantly inspired by the people I interact with to reassess what I’m doing and, who knows, that second novel may get finished yet… 

Time will tell…

This time last year I was immersed in weekly writing classes up until December, which not only inspired and encouraged creativity through the exercises we were set and the advice given, but also created links with other local writers and generated critical feedback. Indeed, the course inspired this blog and encouraged me to write short stories, which I had previously stayed away from.

So, whilst the New Year is generally the time for reflection, reviewing goals and assessing achievements from the year past, I have decided to take stock now and can only proclaim that, with my writing – time will tell.

On paper, I have achieved a lot of what I set out to do (both consciously and unconsciously). I could make a list and check off each item. In fact, let me:

1. Finish my children’s novel – check
2. Write a synopsis – check
3. Submit my manuscript to publishers and agents – check
4. Write more short stories – check
5. Produce poetry – check (and published! – check)
6. Connect (and maintain connections) with other writers – check
7. Read more (an endless ambition) – check
8. Attend more writing/literary events – check

However, whilst this all sounds great, there are many things I can uncheck as well:

1. Write my second book (or possibly the third, given the length of my first!) – ?
2. Secure an agent – ?
3. Get my first book published –  ?
4. Maintain daily writing discipline – ? (this has slipped!)
5. Keep motivated/inspired/encouraged etc etc ….. you get the picture

Does it mean I’ve failed at my goals and am not a ‘proper writer’? Well no – I know I’m a writer and as I’ve said before, publishing success isn’t the only success worth seeking. It’s good to have goals and the point of my reflection is to see with hindsight where I’m at, where I was at and where I might go next.

It’s a balancing act trying to juggle journalism with fiction writing (along with my forays and side-steps into short stories and poetry), and perhaps moreso now with the addition of freelancing pressure, which requires an altogether different discipline, but every writer has much to juggle along with their ‘writing life’ and the fact is – time will tell with my writing, and what’s wrong with that? I’m in this for the long run and prefer to pace myself.

Writers often berate themselves over not writing enough – if I had a pound for every time I’ve heard a writer say – ‘I wish I had time to write more’ or, ‘I haven’t written anything in ages’, then I’d be a more profitable writer than I currently am – but, while ‘real writers’ write rather than simply talk, sometimes talking helps spur on creativity. Be it a writer friend, class or article – it all helps.

As long as you do write and keep at it, time will tell if you’re on track to achieving what you really want to achieve. It’s like the idea of the sculpture chipping away at the marble to finally create a masterpiece statue – for a long time it seems a fruitless task and the shape is indistinct but bit by bit, a form emerges, until at last – there stands a finished work of art.

It may take weeks, months or longer for such a work to be produced, but what matters is that the artist keeps at it and remains patient with the job at hand. I’ve been reading short stories about patient women this week – most of whom waited years to see their desires accomplished and not always in the ways they expected. It’s a reminder to me that the good things take time to create and that patience is key – waiting to hear back from agents or publishers; waiting for the right time to give over to writing your next novel/short story/poem; waiting to hone your technique until it catches the attention of ‘the right person’ (by which I mean you work at creating the situation but wait for the opportune moments!); or simply waiting until you – the writer – are satisfied with the works of art you have produced.

It’s my thought that if you want to write, you will; if you want to develop, you will; and if you really want to achieve your goals, you will. These things may not happen in the timeframe or indeed, in the ways you expect or want them to but… persevere and it is my belief that you might just be surprised.

Time tells a lot and, whether or not goals have been accomplished or have floated out of sight, I for one, intend to keep chipping away – and see what takes shape.

Fairytales

In the past week, and it has only taken a week because ‘life’ will get in the way, I have been immersed in a fairytale and, as someone who has written their own fantastical tale, I could claim research into the children’s book market as my excuse for doing so.

But I won’t.

For you see, the book I’ve been reading is simply an incredibly imaginative, well-written and yes, a page-turner of a story, and whether it’s marketed at young adults or not, it’s worth a read. In my previous post I mentioned about writers writing what they want to write about and writing for themselves as opposed to the commercial book market and the author behind this tale has done just that. He has always loved fairytales – not the schmaltzy gooey stories which have come to the fore over the past few decades, but the traditional, the original fairytale – where good doesn’t necessarily always triumph and where evil is more than a shadow lurking in the corner.

The fairytales of old could send a chill down your spine, make you shiver and be thankful you weren’t part of them, whereas more recent tales are, in contrast, like a sunny walk in the park, where you know there really isn’t anything to be worried about. They lack the macabre, the sinister, the unbelievable.

For example, if anyone has ever read Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water Babies’, which I finally got around to recently, then you’ll know what I mean. It certainly isn’t what I’d deem a fairytale as children would know them to be today and, antiquated language aside, it’s a plot which at times beggars belief… and a bit of re-reading, I have to admit. It’s convoluted and confusing but certainly doesn’t shy away from danger and The Hard Lessons of Life in the story – ‘But it was of no use, and the dog was hanged: and Tom couldn’t even have his carcase; for they had abolished the have-his-carcase act in that country…’

Fast-forward to today and to writing a little less meandering but just as engaging in the aforementioned book of good vs evil, it is very encouraging to see a fairytale top the New York Times bestseller list – a fairytale which has enraptured both adults and children alike. As I read on a publisher’s website this week, great writing is great writing, whatever the content – be it fairytale, women’s fiction, crime novel or whatever, if it’s good then it’s good, and anyone can and should want to read it.

There is an upward trend for adults reading young adult fiction (e.g. The Hunger Games; Harry Potter), which doesn’t mean they’re reading ‘beneath their age group’, no – it just means they’re reading great stories, rather magnificently written. Full stop.

Inspiration

Having ended my last post with reference to the fact that a ‘real writer’ is one who does just that and is spurred on by ‘the process’ of writing rather than the accolades which surround the successfully published writer, it led me to wondering this week about the motivation in writing and how to keep it going because, ‘real writer’ or not, everyone at some point or another stumbles.

It’s been a while since I referred to my own personal quest to get my children’s book published and I intend to reflect on that in the near future but in the meantime – publication success aside – how do writers keep the words flowing day-to-day when, to the outsider, there may seem little point in producing them without a clear and – dare I say it – commercial, purpose? Well…

The answer is different for everyone and far be it from me to pin that down but most writers would say they couldn’t imagine not being able to write. It is a love of words, it is a private communication of thought onto paper or screen and it doesn’t have to go anywhere – to have produced it is often enough.

The thing with writing however, is that, the more you do it, the better you get. The better you get, the more you begin to tentatively share it. The more you share it, the more people comment on it and… the more often those comments are good, the more you want to continue sharing – be it through a published book, article or poem –  until the point comes where validation can become more important than anything else and then…

… you may just lose inspiration. If the point in writing is simply to please other people and garner good opinion rather than to fulfil the need to write and write well, then I rather think the thread connecting you to it, has snapped.

Some writers are happy never to be published – others will do nothing else but try to be. It’s all down to personal choice and surely most writers would admit they wouldn’t turn down the chance of publication but, in the swamp that is the process of trying – don’t let this be the sole reason you write.

The first question you will undoubtedly be asked when you tell someone you’re writing or have written a book is, ‘Is it published?’ and the knowing look which follows if you dare to answer ‘no’ immediately equates ‘writing success’, I think, with money – that is, if you can’t sell it, it must be worthless.

The question is – would you rather write for the market, or create something you can be proud of for yourself…?