Words Unlimited

Creative Risk

I’ve been away for a long summer break and that included NOT writing – what might happen to the ninety-thousand words of my current work-in-progress while I wasn’t looking?

I also wanted to soak up new experiences away from words.

One of the most memorable experiences this summer was to attend a performance of Grimes on The Beach. An opera staged on a shingle beach with a back-drop of the North Sea in an English summer? If that doesn’t define creative risk, well what does? There was no fall back, either perform or cancel – a massive, complex creative undertaking at the mercy of the weather.  Really, what do we novelists have to moan about? Unbelievably, for each of the three nights it was staged the weather held.

Having watched the live performance on Aldeburgh beach on 21 June it seemed a bit of an indulgence to go and see the film, released on 5 September. But the film provided a whole new perspective on the opera and on Oke's performance as Grimes.

More creative risk as the film-makers avoided simply making a film of an opera on the beach. It is so much more interesting than that, and compelling. If it’s on at a cinema near you, I do recommend.

Mid-September and I'm back at my desk beginning to work again with words.

I’m keeping the images from this production and the music of Benjamin Britten in my head to remind myself to dare to something risky as I pull those ninety thousand words into the shape of a novel.

Mining The Core - Colm Toibin and Mary

So you want to write a novel. Why? What is obsessing you?

What is the core pre-occupation that you can’t leave alone or won’t leave you alone? What is the core that you need to mine?

These are the kinds of questions I ask my students and myself at the start of what feels like a novel.

Early on with a new project you tend to stumble through tentative drafts, eagerly follow research leads and - if you’re me – stack up heaps of notes, cuttings, books, photographs and have to remind yourself to stop collecting and start sifting and writing.

Colm Toibin recently wrote about the process of thinking and research that lead him to write his new novella The Testament of Mary. It’s not surprising to find Toibin writing about a mother and son – a theme in much of his work – but this mother and this son?  

cover of the American edition

In a recent article in The Guardian he revealed how he kept following his curiosity, seeking answers to questions that had arisen after looking at two paintings in Venice. It offers a wonderful insight into the process of mining the core. Read it, here.

It was interesting to see the two different covers for the book: the US edition features the image, while the UK edition features the words.

below: cover of UK edition

Raising The Game?

How can we keep a connection to the positive energy of the Olympic Summer before it evaporates, fast as the vapour trail from that final Red Arrows fly-past?

While sports clubs everywhere are overrun with new recruits – the inspired generation? – for many of us, certainly me, it’s too late to attempt to run 100m in under 10 seconds. But, aside from sport, how can each of us take inspiration from the Olympic Summer and channel such positive energy into other areas of our everyday lives and, more particularly, our writing lives?

The ‘E’ word

Interviewed before the Paralympics closing ceremony, comedian Jimmy Carr said, ‘I’ve had the summer off – from cynicism.’  Exactly.

We’ve watched athletes compete and co-operate. We’ve marvelled as ordinary people performed extraordinary feats of grace and endurance. We’ve talked about excellence and having fun; we’ve cared and shared. The Games Makers have shown it’s possible to get a buzz out of doing something without getting paid. If one word can sum all of this up, it’s ENTHUSIASM.

There, I’ve said it – the ‘E’ word. It tends not to be cool to be enthusiastic but, in the face of such amazing events, our bottled up enthusiasm couldn’t help but surface. 

It’s probably not simply British reserve or Metro cool that keeps us wary of overt displays of excitement. The word derives from the Greek entheos - ‘the god within.’ When enthusiasm entered the English language c1600 it meant to be possessed by God or deluded that one had a direct channel to God. Enthusiasm was close to an unhealthy fanaticism.

Over the centuries the word has lost its religious connotations. Now, it refers to having great excitement for or interest in anything, but I suppose that could include extreme right wing politics.  Just as the Olympics have created new associations around the Union Jack might the idea of being overtly enthusiastic gain a new respectability?

What might this mean in terms of writing?

The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson on this subject:

‘Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it

nothing great was ever achieved.’

How often do we writers talk about the fears and setbacks rather than the founding enthusiasms that get us tapping at the keyboard in the first place?  How often do we own up to our excitement about our current project?  Could it be that the worst aspects of the effort start to dominate because we detach that effort from the founding enthusiasm?

Medal or Personal Best?

Over the summer I jotted down phrases that came up repeatedly from the athletes or their coaches, phrases that spoke of the effort born of enthusiasm. Some of these could be reframed and applied to the process of developing as a writer:

 ‘it’s about putting in the hours of training’

‘it all came together on the day’

‘I look to get the best from each individual’

‘that’s a new Personal Best’

‘I’ll review my speeds then make a plan for Rio’

‘it’s all about making steps to improve’

I was struck by the number of athletes who didn’t get a medal, even came last, but still had a smile on their face. Pitting themselves against the medal winners they’d produced a Personal Best. Taking part had got the best out of that individual. 

Each time you submit work – poem, short story or novel – you enter the race. The competitive world of publishing is altogether more chaotic and quixotic than the world of elite sports. But each submission is an opportunity to raise your game by giving that piece one more tweak to make it a Personal Best, at that time. The feedback may not be what you’d hoped for but from it, how can you make steps to improve the work?

It’s part of the writing process to follow through on rejection by reviewing and making a plan for the next submission. As one swimmer said, ‘I’ll review my speeds and make a plan for Rio.’ You have no chance of getting a medal if you don’t take the training seriously with your eye on the next race.  

The Art & The Graft

Achievements - in sport or in writing - begin with some natural aptitude plus vision and imagination. As Stephen Hawking put during the Paralympic Opening Ceremony,   "Look at the stars and not down at your feet. Be curious."  Curiosity, enthusiasm and a facility with words – the art – get a writing project off to a good start. Next comes the craft, or should I say graft. 

Jessica Ennis has a natural talent for the hurdling but less talent for throwing the javelin. To get her heptathlon gold medal meant putting in extra hours in on javelin training, breaking down the technique into stages, improving each so that ‘it all came together on the day.’

When a piece of writing isn’t working it’s the graft of re-drafting that brings success. You take the novel apart and put it back in a way so that it will all come together. Or, having tried it, you might decide that this particular ‘sport’ isn’t for you. It might be time to try a different genre. 

It’s all too easy to focus on the exhaustion and frustration of the writing process but watching the Olympics has reminded me how important it is to stay in touch with the enjoyment and enthusiasm that made me want to write in the first place.

If you’re struggling too much at the graft why not return to the authors who inspire you, or go back to an image or a character that made you want to start that project in the first place. In short – reconnect the effort to the vision, the enthusiasm, and declare it to yourself and others. 

What excited many of us over the summer was not simply the medal ceremonies but the stories behind each athlete – the process that led them either to a medal or Personal Best.

With writing you are in charge of what Personal Best means for you. As to the medals – I reckon if you’ve had something published by a reputable publisher – be it mainstream or small press, poetry, fiction or non-fiction – you are a medal winner. Congratulations! I’ll leave you to rank yourself gold, silver or bronze.

Meanwhile, if you've been inspired by the Olympics and Paralympics do leave a comment, I'd love to hear how it affected you. Let's keep that energy going ...

Anne Tyler on How to Start a Novel

Much on Twitter this last week about the excellent interview with novelist Anne Tyler at the Oxford Literary Festival. I picked up this audio snippet on how she starts a novel. Forget waiting for inspiration ... Listen, here. 

Fascinating. So, out with the notebooks, in with index cards to be kept in a box. Great idea. So often I can't remember in which notebook I wrote that fascinating overheard.

Anne Tyler is also the Winner of the 2012 Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Off to buy the new book, The Beginner's Goodbye, perfect Easter weekend reading.

Happy Birthday Dickens

Two-hundred and still very much alive through the energy of his writing.  Claire Tomalin's wonderful biography reveals the many facets of the man behind the books. If you haven't read it yet, I'd say it's a must for any writer.

This video will give you a taster - Dickens walking to sort out his ideas, Dickens performing, acting, being his characters.

More on bicentenary events, here.

 

 

Finish That Book!

Posting this as a note-to-self but I'm sure it's going to strike a chord for others. I'm definitely at the 'muddle in the middle' stage with current WIP so was pleased to come across this on YouTube. Worth saving. I love this straightforward, uncomplicated wisdom.

 

 

One Thing At A Time - The Bigger Picture

It's always interesting to reflect on writing by listening in to a practitioner in another art form discuss their creative process. Martin Gayford's interviews with David Hockney are full of gems.

For those days when the draft of the next chapter of your novel looks rather too sketchy, consider what Hockney does when working on a large, complex picture.  Think of your draft in terms of the painter’s charcoal sketch. The outlines might be there but what about the layers of colour, the detail of the brushstrokes?

David Hockney talks about painting from memory. In his case, the Yorkshire landscape. He’s observed and sketched it but back in the studio is working on a vast painting from memory.  He isolates a detail:

‘You decide: I shall go and look at this aspect this morning. If you don’t have a question in mind, there’s far too much to look at … Depending on what you decide, that’s what you see – and you ignore a lot of other things … How do you really see the clouds reflected in the water?’

In your sketchy draft what interests you most? What is your chapter's equivalent of clouds reflected in water? Ask a question. Look closer at the details. Start to build up the layers of colour.

More on the Gayford/Hockney book, here.

 

Words Unlimited in 2012

Now that my new novel project is humming along I’ll be posting regularly again – Quotes, literary events, Book of The Month and Author Interviews. Coming shortly there’s an interview with Sara Grant, graduate of the MA in Creative & Life Writing, who publishes Dark Parties, her first novel for young adults next week.

I’m starting a couple of new categories - Jottings from My Notebook and Pictures from my Phone.

In the annual must-clear-the-shelves-before-I-can-write moment, I’ve been flicking through my many notebooks.  It’s great to find stuff that surprises me. Similarly, uploading photos from my phone, I’ve found images that could trigger poems or stories. Putting some of the most potent – for me – up here means I can flick through them all in one place. I hope some might work for you too or inspire you to make more of your own notebooks and gatherings.

Happy New Year!

On getting back into writing after the festive season ...

I’ve been absent from Words Unlimited these last few months for the best of reasons - I'm writing a new novel and it’s taken me over. It seems to be writing me!

A research trip in November took me away from my desk with a chance to gather information about my main character's location, and much else. Back from the trip I let it all sit in a heap on the shelf. Trawling through it, as I get back to writing this first week of the New Year, I find I’m buzzing with new scenes and ways to develop my character.

It reminds me, yet again, [why is it that so much of writing is about re-inventing the wheel?] that research always leads somewhere. If you’re wondering how to get back to a project after the holidays is it because you need to do some research?

The thing to remember is that you’re not researching as if for a PhD, you need only to find nuggets that trigger the imagination and help you to grow authentic scenes. Instead of sitting there staring at a blank screen why not visit your location – actually or virtually [Googlemaps/Earth?].

Is there one tiny detail you didn’t see before? How might your character respond to that?

On my trip, I was able to photocopy a detailed street map from the Thirties which now means I have an accurate sense of my main character's world - the streets I need for my book were demolished in the 1960s.

This old school photo was a gem of a find. It helps re-build a crucial six months in my character’s past. I couldn’t copy it but I did photograph it in sections on my mobile phone –  the phone camera is fast becoming a ‘notebook’ for me. It's from 1930. Looking at it today, what interests me is the teacher, second from left, with her asymmetrical jacket and those square buttons. Also, the girl in the centre of the photo – she is the only one in about 500 girls with ringlets – I’d swear her hair is red … with just these few details I’m eager to get them into my story, to see these details through the eyes of my character.

In the fridge or on a cloud?

Where do you store your manuscript for safe keeping?

I think it was Alan Bennett who once said that when he went on holiday he would put his work-in-progress in the fridge for safe keeping. If the house burned down surely this metal cabinent would keep his manuscript unsinged?

Sounds to me as if the fridge option was from the days of the typewriter. Imagine - only one copy of your work-in-progress!

Now we're all digital, of course we all back up - daily? weekly? monthly? We have copies on memory sticks, external hard-drives, the CD you burned and sent to your mother.

Last week my computer was on the blink [best not to ask, something to do with RAM] so I started to back up frantically. I was appalled to see that I hadn't done a back-up to my external hard-drive for nearly a month.

On the same day I was willing my computer to survive until the man-who-comes-to-fix-it could get here I discovered Dropbox.

Dropbox is a virtual storage space located on a so-called 'cloud' ie it's somewhere in the ether, not subject to theft or fire [I don't think]. 

I immediately signed up. You get 2GB free - more than enough to store several novels worth of manuscripts, notes, work-in-progress. If you need more GB you pay a modest fee.

I dropped everything in my new Dropbox folder so that, had my computer crashed completely, I could have gone to any other computer - in the library, begged my son to take pity - signed onto my Dropbox account through the interent and accessed all my files. I could work on them and it would save all the changes in Dropbox and on my computer hard-drive.

Each time I work on a file in Dropbox it's always backing up as I go!

I've no idea what happens if the cloud bursts - don't ask!

Keep a hard copy in the fridge? Just in case ... Click here to find out more.