November 2016

November 29, 2016

In Control Scotland

, , , , 0 Comments

In Control Scotland

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the AGM in Glasgow of In Control Scotland.  ICS supports citizens in Scotland to make the most of their self-directed support, to advocate for greater awareness of SDS, and to ensure that a person centred approach obtains meaningful outcomes which help us all to achieve good lives.

Going along to the venue last Thursday and meeting people from all walks of life, I was again amazed at what the average bod in the street takes for granted: the right to decide whether, when and how to do something; the right to enjoy activities outside their homes and engage in employment, hobbies and socialising; the right to make friends and find companionship and love; all these things we so often assume we can enjoy.  And if someone somewhere were to come along and say, ‘sorry, you can’t afford to go out, and you can’t afford to socialise in your modest way, your budget is being cut….’ we would be irked, to say the least.

In a climate in which rationing is fashionable, and in which service providers are often expected to focus on ‘areas of greatest need’, social care budgets are under constant scrutiny.  For my money, the only way to ensure that social care provides relevant services to its citizens is to ensure they remain user led.

Thankfully, legislation passed by the Scottish government ensures that Self Directed Support is now the default position for all care provision in Scotland.  Although this option has several complexions, (some of which hand back control of care and outcomes to the social services departments from which they have been devolved) to have the principle enshrined in law is an immensely helpful first step.  But a lot of work still needs to be done, to ensure that these rights are not eroded and to guarantee that people have the right to make meaningful choices and are awarded the dignity and privacy to make full and rewarding life possible.

Many thanks to everyone for extending such a warm welcome to me for the afternoon, in particular to John Dalrymple for the invitation to attend, to Catriona, Marie, Louise and Lorna for their cheerful company, and to Diana for recognising me, and for the lift home afterwards (in very frosty conditions).  I had a wonderful time.

 

‘Colours of Happiness’ 3″ by Camdiluv ♥ from Concepción, CHILE
‘Colours of Happiness’ 3″ by Camdiluv ♥

 

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 25, 2016

How Long To Write A Book

, , , , , , 2 Comments

How Long To Write A Book

Okay, apart from NaNoWriMo, (National Novel Writing Month) which takes place through November each year, timed, I conjecture, to fill the time between Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving, how long would we take to write a novel?

at_a_reading_desk_by_frederic_leighton

I like to be clear about this so that I can minimise self-imposed stress.  Having a clear strategy keeps my sense of fun alive and well.  If I’m not having any fun, why am I writing?  Good strategies have to include fun time.  So long as we have a strategy, we can work with it, improve it and vary it with the seasons. Having no strategy simply adds to hassle, and no-one wants more of that, do they?

As a bench mark, I like to say that it takes me a year to write a book.  By which I mean, a good, solid, complete outline which probably needs a bit of editing and fine tuning, but with all the ideas and plot lines in place.  That also gives me (and other people) an easy ready reckoner, and time to deal with and enjoy the rest of my life without undue stress, and with most weekends off.  Yes, I do try to take weekends off because that keeps the rest of my life in perspective and I like to see my daughter sometimes, not just bark at her from my office chair.

So, a year, then.  That is a time-frame that works for me, at the moment.  It might change, but with so much other stuff butting in all the time, I find it is very, very important to give myself plenty of time, or, at the very least, the illusion of it.  (I can write under time pressure, but not for ever.)  Time pressure does tend to banish colour, whimsy and the humour that I do love to insinuate into my characters’ lives.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 23, 2016

Fear of Failure

, , , , , 0 Comments

Fear of Failure

On the long and winding road that is a writer’s career, one aspect that perhaps deserves a passing glance is fear of failure.

What is this thing that lurks unseen, this oddly shapen, unacknowledged and slightly shameful thing?  Fear of failure? Never heard of it….

Fear of Success, Fear of Failure, Fear of the Unknown…. Fear lurks in many guises, and stalks a lot of artistic people, a lot of business people.  Fear keeps us trapped in the things we know and have done a million times.  Fear is the loop that we know, that we often hate, and that we fear to escape from, because we have learned to be afraid of a bogeyman lurking outside, in the great, unknown.  The edge of the world beyond which there be dragons….

 

800px-the_two_brothers_by_elenore_abbott

 

 

I say, What?  Why should that space on the horizon be scary?  What did that figment of a briar bush ever do to you?  It’s just sitting there, harmlessly being a briar bush.  It ain’t going to suddenly get up and attack you, any more than you are likely to walk towards it and fall in head first.

Fear of failure reminds me of an anecdote I read in the wonderful book by Helen Fielding, ‘Cause Celeb’ which I like because it reminds me of hot places and the often weird dislocation of travel.

In it, a group of people is walking in the bush, and they come upon two Landrovers which have collided with each other, crashed in this otherwise wide-open landscape with no roads, no other people, nothing as far as the eye can see except sand, rocks and brush.  There was plenty of room for them, anywhere in the whole wide horizon, but they somehow magically, found each other and collided….

The universe is essentially a safe, fun place to be.  And we have to believe that, if we want to start, finish, edit, polish and start submitting our work.  It may take years, but it may also be the best fun, the most exciting challenge we have ever faced.

Thanks for reading.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 21, 2016

Self Imposed Stress

, , , , , , 0 Comments

Self Imposed Stress

 

800px-pierre-auguste_renoir_-_la_lecture_du_role

 

Self-imposed stress is one of these ‘working for ourselves, got to work’ bugbears that, I think, infects all of us creative people, at some time or other.

Just to be clear: a bit of self-imposed stress is A Good Thing.  We can all do with taking our work seriously, with planning and setting out our strategies, and taking the time to bother with the details.  And a few deadlines thrown in there to motivate us do no harm at all.  Sometimes, I wear a smart jacket to work in the lounge.  I find that working and being alone for long periods, this kind of device helps to convince me that what I am doing is good, pays well, and makes a difference.  But what if stress becomes paralysing and self-defeating?  What can we do about stress that becomes all consuming?

A lot of unbearable and unhelpful stress comes from the divide between what we tell ourselves we should be doing – with our logical, bullying minds, as often as not – and what we want to do, which is to rest, relax, take it easy and go with the flow.  We consult our diaries and lament that we only have two days left this week to write seven thousand words.  We decided on our strategy ages ago, so we must do it, by golly, or the rest of our plans will be in shreds.  And our failure to adhere to our own plans can then feel like the ultimate betrayal, which just makes us too stressed to work at all!

Here are my top tips to avoid stress:

  • I try to take the weekends away from my work.  Thus, I have time to re-engage with normal, gentler routines and expectations, and enjoy conversations which are not punctuated by the clack of the PC keyboard.
  • To help demarcate my work / life boundaries, if I need extra motivation, I wear a jacket and my smart clothes to work and change out of them after work is finished for the day.
  • As I work from home, I accept that if I worked in any other office, I would be out of the house until at least 5.30 in the evening.  So, I don’t worry if I have to work a little after my daughter is back from school.  That’s okay.  I am here for her.
  • I vary my routines.  I don’t always write every morning or afternoon, but keep myself moving through the day. This helps to keep my focus strong.
  • I keep lists of stuff to do, and a pad by my bed for collecting ideas, so I don’t have to pad around the house at midnight to pin down a brilliant idea.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 17, 2016

Not getting finished

, , , , , 0 Comments

Writing Hazards – not getting finished.

Continuing my occasional series on the hazards that wait to trip up the unwary writer, I’d like to spare another glance at that perennial nightmare, not getting finished.

I’ve always found it very easy to start new projects.  Ideas come to me all the time, and starting a new piece of writing is brilliant fun, lively and very exciting, unlike any other feeling.  Finishing was always my biggest challenge, so nowadays, I also feel the most enormous sense of achievement when I finish something.  Finishing a piece of work I started a year earlier means I have taken it seriously, valued my time, persisted and crossed the line called THE END.  Hooray!

It is natural, when writing, to want to find the right words, to care about the plurals that don’t need possessive commas, and the possessives that do, and to search for elegant phrasing and a good style.  In managing all these hopes and dreams there is nothing more valuable than a gram of practical common sense to ensure that we don’t get bogged down in details.

To start writing is obviously important, and to finish is equally important.  But the questions will arise, am I finished yet?  Have I done my best?  To answer, well, I’m knackered, is not conclusive, as we might merely need a break for a week or two.  We might need to put the writing in a drawer and leave it for six months.  That might be part of our proving process.

 

edward_robert_hughes_-_idle_tears

But if we keep saying, ‘No, not yet, not quite, just a little bit more here and there and everywhere’ there is a chance that we are caught in the net of detail, of fine proofing everything too far, of caring so much about the details that we cannot stand back and see the project as a complete, vigorous whole.

We have to give it room to move, we need to allow it to stand up tall, and we must take the risk that yes, we might have done better – or hey!  We might have written a whole different book! – but this is where we are, what we have, and finally, it has to be good enough or we will never have the courage to let go.

If it helps, we might call the stages to completion ‘finished in outline’, a ‘finished first draft’, or ‘I’ve finished the barebones’, but somewhere, the words FINISHED will feature.

Writing, as I may have mentioned before, is an approximate art, which, in hoping to write for fluency, drama and pace, will inevitably sacrifice some detail, a few accurate niceties and the more delicate handling of a more sedate piece. But this is a price worth paying for a complete work.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 14, 2016

Be Brave

, , , , , , 7 Comments

Be brave

 

isabel_la_catolica-2

As far as I can so far make out, the three most valuable attributes for successful writing are the willingness to be brave and honest, stamina and imagination.  We need to be authentic, and to give expression to our unique voice, as well as stamina for the road ahead, and imagination to feed our prose.

Honestly, I wonder why I write, sometimes.  It is such a labour of love and the process is akin to leaping off a cliff without a parachute.  We leap, hoping for a soft landing.  And if we are not careful and proud of what we do, we can be injured by such comments as one I received recently, ‘Oh how are the mighty fallen…!’ when I said I was now writing women’s fiction.  That comment from an intimate of my circle could have stopped me in my tracks and made me take down everything….

Then, in a cooler moment, I recall that I write because, honestly, I want to express my version of the truth.  If we take it that few truths are immutable, and that most human truths are a matter of perspective, our view opens up the reality of a gazillion different opinions and sights on every question.

I also really enjoy writing.  You know those times when you don’t really give a damn what your fingers are doing, and you’re not listening for the phone or the doorbell.  When the time seems to go by faster than you’d like, and you feel the cold holding your legs stiff but are too far away to care…?  I love that feeling of crafting something different, being away in a different world.  That feeling is worth a great deal to me.  It makes me happy to smile when daughter comes home, when hubby asks ‘did you have a good day, and I can agree wholeheartedly that yes, I did, thank you.

Thanks for reading!

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 12, 2016

Deciding is the hardest part

, , , , 0 Comments

Deciding is the hardest part

1024px-natalie_and_missal

How long do we spend wondering about something, before we do it?  I’m willing to bet that the thoughts about what we should do, what we think we can do, or want to do, take a great deal of headspace in our lives, especially when we live and work for ourselves and by ourselves a lot of the time.  But what if we were simply to go ahead and do stuff, without thinking about whether we should, all the time?

How long would it take, for example, to think of a plot for a story, with a beginning, middle and end?  It could take forever, and be our excuse for never actually picking up a pen, or setting down to type.  It’s a fallacy that things have to be perfect before we start.  The trick is to allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes, to experiment, to make a start at something, because every small action forward is better than any number of theories and grand hopes.  It is normal to try twenty things and only one of them ‘works out’.  That is how we discover what we really want to do.  Everything we are brave enough to attempt is valuable.

Perhaps I feel really strongly about this because, if I want to go out and do things, I have to really decide, and discipline myself to just do it.  If I didn’t, I’d still be sitting in that comfortable window seat over there, reading books and wondering when I was going to do something with my life.

When we make a decision to do something, that is when we should feel proudest of ourselves, really.  Because, as every tired worker knows, deciding is the hardest part of life, whether that be to write a book, bake a cake or learn to drive a car.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 9, 2016

Being Self Conscious

, , , , , , , 2 Comments

Being self conscious

Continuing my occasional series about the dangers and pitfalls that lurk waiting to derail of a writer’s career, here I give a passing mention to writerly self-consciousness, an aspect of creative endeavour that we often overlook.  (I don’t want to make it self-conscious by making too much of it, but it deserves a passing glance, because its effects can be far-reaching.)

Being self-conscious as a writer is absolutely fatal to the process of creation.  Like a pianist who plays all the right notes in all the right order but plays them mechanically – without a shred of emotion – the resulting material can be disappointing.  Sorry, but it’s true.

Perhaps more than most, I have reason to want to hide away from the wide world, to hide from the glare of public scrutiny the stack of apparent disappointments (okay then, ‘learning opportunities’) that, until relatively recently, appeared to make up most of my life.  Certainly, if I were overly self-conscious about my failings, I would still be sitting, stuck in that window seat over there, having writing nothing, trapped in a dark world clouded by fear and almost crippling silence.

Writing about life, happiness, progress, what it means to be happy and how to manage the tricksier aspects of sexual intimacy leaves no place to hide, and if even for a moment I gave in to embarrassment, I would probably pack everything in and take up a job as a desk clerk.  I’ve been very tempted.  But gradually, the pain and fear of exposure to ridicule dissipates and I learn to stand my ground.  As we must all do, if we have any hope of writing well.

armand_point_la_legende_doree

Writing anything, we best follow the advice of Margaret Atwood,

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand…”

Which feels, occasionally, a bit bizarre.  There’s me, the social person called Fran who eats, sleeps and relates to others.  There’s Fran the writer who invents characters and gives them life and things to say to each other.  And here’s Fran who has to assume she has never read, seen or created anything – a process of learned ignorance which is useful when it comes to re-reading our work, but which also helps us to be clear, honest and authentic.  It’s not a guarantee – there are none! – but it helps me to write.

Thanks for reading.

 

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 7, 2016

Is it CP or is it me

, , , , , 3 Comments

Is it CP or is it me.

In the throes of unhappiness and pondering the lot I have been given, in my youth and for a long time after, I made the classic, youngster error of assuming that all my problems were the result of being disabled.  Not so very disabled, I asserted with a prickly self-righteousness, as to be unable to do the things they do, but enough for it to be a total, permanent pain in the ass.  That was my reasoning, and because I was such a prickly pain, no-one felt like challenging me on it.  Which gave me a perfect, permanent reason to be a bit of a grumpy-mouthed twit.

 

fran-at-school-low-resolution

But then, challenging all my assumptions, I have met and continue to meet people who are disabled, yes, and who manage – gasp! – to be pleasant, funny, helpful, amusing and stoic.  So, I reasoned, being remarkably slow to connect the dots, it can’t be disability that’s entirely the problem, here.

So is it just me?

(Please don’t all rush as one to say, ‘It’s you, it’s you, it’s all you.”)

I face the dreadful realisation, about twenty years too late (twenty? Try forty!) that if I had been a kinder and more confident individual, my life might have been a lot easier.  Of course.

This year has thrown challenges in my path, literally chucking them down.  But hey, we all have challenges to face, we all have times when we wish it would all just go away and we could float away on a peaceful boat to a sunny, warm, peaceful place and rest for a while.

Everyone faces challenges, hardship, sorrow and pain, and none of these circumstances needs to equate with suffering.  We can simply observe, allow, and accept.  When circumstances hurt, or life feels heavy, we really don’t have to become hurtful or heavy ourselves.

Equally, all of us at some time encounter prejudice, unkindness, lack of comprehension, which may well arise because of an impairment: a choice selection of insults around impairment that featured a lot in my youth, spring to mind.  But equally we can be discriminated against or bullied because we are guileless, don’t know how to play the game, because we wear the wrong brand shoes or read obscure literature …. None of these forms of discrimination is actionable, or easy to prove.

So, it must have been me, then.  If so, – and I suspect the jury will be out on this for a while yet – I hope henceforward to be resolutely cheerful.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr

November 4, 2016

Ten strategies to help us write a whole book

, , , , 0 Comments

Ten Strategies to help us write a whole book.

Rachel’s question raises further questions.  Why would a good writer find it hard to write a full-length work, a book?  Short stories, no problem, novellas, no problem.  A book?  Ah, that will take me three years….

Partly it’s what we tell ourselves, isn’t it?  I’m great at editing, a brilliant short story writer, but a whole book?  Well, I suck at that!  Actually, no, you don’t, because a book by any other name is simply a word count with a couple of zeros on the end.

So, I’ve dreamed up ten strategies to help us write (which means: finish) a whole book – Yes!

  • Stop calling it a book.  Call it a prospectus, an outline, a fairy story, a compilation of our favourite characters’ lives.
  • Just write, for a whole day, and see what you end up with.  Ignore the word count, and focus on the movement of your fingers over the keyboard.  To help with this, don’t think about it, don’t rationalise, don’t answer the phone, and when our significant others ask us what we are doing, we don’t have to reply.  When we do, let us reply with minimal information.  The goal is not to get distracted.
  • Don’t censor.  Editing is one skill, writing is quite another.
  • Fall in love with your characters and write all about them.  Notice how they think, why they might not be very nice, what they might do next.
  • Throw out the plot plan.  The best characters lead the author, who merely has to observe, suspend disbelief and transcribe.  Truly, it is not up to me to force my characters.  It is up to me to observe, listen and record.

george_goodwin_kilburne_-_penning_a_letter

  • Don’t judge, correct spelling or worry about inconsistencies. These will all be taken care of later.
  • Don’t think about whether a plot development – which is not yours and which belongs to your characters – is realistic or feasible.
  • Enjoy the feeling of being simply the typist taking dictation.  It is not your story.  You are simply the recording clerk.
  • Don’t print off your work, but do save it every day onto a pen drive, CD or similar.  If you put a lot of time in, your valuable work deserves to be protected from disaster.
  • Allow your characters, scenes and scenarios to unfold, while you float over the whole thing listening, nodding and being generally agreeable.  The secret is to have fun, not save the world.
  • Don’t aim for a particular word count.  I am reliably informed that long books are in vogue, so give full rein to your imagination.
  • Ring fence and respect your desire, not your time.  Keep that flame of enthusiasm bright, and if you are like me, avoid timetables – though you might like to believe that you will set aside two days a week to do nothing but write, it will drive you crazy if those two days never happen.  Instead, write in between doctor’s appointments, while waiting for the plumber, just before you have to take your daughter to her fencing club…..

Thanks for reading.

Please share:

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblrFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedintumblr
1 2