If you are sitting in front of your computer screen and regardless of the reassuring absence of underline a word simply looks wrong then one of two things is happening to you.
1. You are finally really looking at a word you have taken horribly for granted since you were five.
2. Brain Freeze
The correct response to either of these situations is to do the dishes. This blog post may or may not be directed to my teenage offspring.
I assume that you read. Writers read right?
I have found a surprising reluctance in many of my friends and colleagues to visit the pen-smiths of the past. I agree that many of the works written in the 19th century are so far removed from modern journalistic style that they seem to represent a different species rather than a different time. The 20th century brings long descriptive passages and worthiness doesn’t it? Don’t ever assume that you know a writer’s work on reputation alone. Dickens!
If you make assumptions about literature then you run the risk of missing out on those writers and passages of prose that sing with you. Sometimes you find literary joy in the strangest of places.
My personal discovery this year was Proust. I’m not a literary snob, I read everything including shampoo bottles and cereal packets but I had assumed that Proust was probably not for me.
( Assumptions, pah!)
I approached the first tome of “La recherche du temps perdu ” in trepidation.
I found literary description that you could bathe in. Proust sings with me.
Now, not everyone you read will click with you. That isn’t a deficiency in their writing or in your understanding, that is just the joy of difference. Go out into the world and find those writers who ” Sing with you “. and you will gain more than you ever thought possible.
Oh, and the occasional Dead White Male will be a Woman.
Being a writer is a strange and unusual compulsion.
On the other hand it makes life very interesting.
I don’t think there are many other occupations which begin the day with research into diving equipment, loiter around the methods of disposing of a body, and end with a copy piece about Madeira cake.
The hours are often long and the pay is poor. I recommend that for the first few years of throwing words at the world you forget all about working out your hourly rate. On the other hand there is something to be said for beginning the day in joy and completing it in satisfaction. You might not be rich as a writer but if writing is your compulsion then as long as you are allowed to wallow in the words you stand a good chance of being happy.
Consider the blank page before you. Does it make you anxious?
Are you feeling time pressure?
Do you realise that you are god?
In the universe of this page, you rule. Dive to the depths of the ocean. Visit other galaxies. Live the life of a soccer mom. Drive the despair of a serial killer. Paint the colours of the forest. Write the words you can never say. Invent a community. Change history. Delete time and re-arrange it.
Words are Freedom.
Be free.
Writing can be an isolating experience. We throw ourselves into the worlds of our imagination. We lock horns with the intangible. We love and lose, talk of guile and greed. We engage with our internal inquisitor. It can seem a very narcissistic occupation.
The truth is that the sheer effort of writing well tends to weed out the self important and the showboater. It leaves a honed core of truly dedicated observers. We watch the world. Does that make our opinions more important than those of anyone else? More important? No. Better informed? Perhaps.
Writers are no more important than anyone else in the world. Writers are also no less important than anyone else in the world. We are its voice. So keep ploughing through that draft. Keep papering the wall with your rejections. Keep learning to use the subjunctive. Keep editing. Keep growing.
This is who you are
and it’s good.
An excellent website for all fiction writers out there.
http://www.fictionaddiction.net
Chipping Norton Litfest
18-21 April
http://www.chiplitfest.com
The Brympton literary Festival
19-21 April
http://www.brymptonfestival.co.uk
Verulam writer’s circle
20 April
http://www.verulamwriterscircle.org.uk
Stratford-upon-avon literary Festival
21 April – 5 May
http://www.stratfordliteraryfestival.co.UK
Hexham Book Festival
22 April – 2 May
http://www.hexambookfestival.co.uk
Scarborough literature festival
11-14 April
http://www.scarboroughliteraturefestival.co.uk
Cambridge Wordfest
12-14 April
http://www.cambridgewordfest.co.uk
Aye Write! Glasgow Book festival
12-20 April
http://www.ayewrite.com
London Book Fair
15-17 April
http://www.londonbookfair.co.UK
Grammar.
It’s a funny old word. One that makes some people smile and other people cry.
Literary marmite (vegemite).
I often get told that
“It’s okay for you but I can’t get my head around it.”
Well the bad thing about grammar is that there are a lot of rules. The good thing about grammar is that there are a lot of rules.
If you come across a rule that you don’t understand does it occur to you that you have come across a teacher who doesn’t know how to explain it to you?
Or do you give up?
Heck lady/Mister…buy a different book! Go to a different class. Look at a different tutorial online. You do realise that teachers aren’t one size fits all?
Every person works differently, thinks differently, reasons differently and breaks down their understanding of grammar differently.
Oh yes, the rules stay the same but the teaching?
Not so much.
Don’t be so quick to let that rattler go.
You can understand it.
Approach it from another direction.
Today I am plotting a novel.
I mean that I am breaking down the story into chunks that make sense, which is all that plotting really is.
A-B, B-C, C-D and by the time we get to Z we have a murderer. Ta Dah!
Of course on other days plotting a novel means sitting behind a huge cup of coffee and thinking,
“I’ll write a novel”.
One of these approaches gets the job done. I recommend the de-caffeinated.
stirlingwriter 