January 2017

January 30, 2017

Make Believe

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Make Believe

When we write, anything can happen.  Literally.  The Martians could land tomorrow. The sky could turn black and the clouds could hail frogs and pennies from heaven, refrigerators, even.

By Мавланов Бахт – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

 

That is some power we have, and I believe in it so strongly, that, especially as I get older and feel more acutely the impact my words and feelings have on others, I find myself shying away from angry, sinister or brutal plot lines in novels – I can’t handle them well, because they feel too real and close to the bone.

And because I have to make myself believe in my characters if they are to have any hope of coming alive on the page, I do like to hope for the best, see life righting itself and the good guys win the day.  Some realists would say that is a sell-out, but I have to believe in good winning in the end, or I would simply lose the will to live.

Besides, I am well aware that what we believe we find evidence for.  Given the way I feel about life and excavate circumstances for their meaning, I have to find the best in all things, even on body swerve days.  I don’t see it as part of my job to add to the grief, trauma or bad news out in the world.

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January 25, 2017

Realism in writing

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Realism in writing

 

Realism, what is that?  When we write stories, is it simply the accurate recording of circumstances and events, the faithful rendering of our characters’ personalities and ways of speaking?  Or is it more to do with accurately reflecting what happens in the world, and being a faithful channel for wonderful characters who are very keen to see the light of day, who are longing to have their say?

Currently, I suppose, I tend to the view that realism is what we want it to be.  If we are writing about unknown worlds in the future, places and galaxies that exist mostly in our heads, (Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’, for example) we can do what we like, though our internal structure has to be consistent enough to allow the plot to hang together.  Our portraits may be incomplete, fanciful, annoying, but that hardly matters if we decide it doesn’t.  We might intend to be annoying, whimsical…. So long as we do, and we can carry that off, fine.

I write about people, mainly.  I like to think of them as realistic, like anyone I might meet.  But of course, I love to think of them as somehow special too, so the gentlemen tend to be handsome, the women are usually very pretty…. I like realism, but not so much that I feel as if I’m eating cold porridge.  Make-believe has to allow for a mix of fantasy and realism.  So for me there has to be a happy ending – or at least, a satisfyingly ambivalent one; though some people would say that realistically, there ain’t no such thing…!

But there could be.  Where fantasy and realism meet, that is where, for me, every happy ending might be.  That hope is, I believe, the magic factor that keeps us coming back to stories of ‘real people’, who are just magical enough to lift us up, raise our spirits and swell our hearts with hope.

I do hope you agree.

 

 

 

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January 23, 2017

Wish Fulfilment

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Wish Fulfilment

For me, the ultimate thrill of authorship is wish fulfilment.

‘I wish I had a million pounds….’ Well, maybe I don’t quite yet, but, with a bit of hope, a bit of a decision to think big, who knows?

I was brought up with the saying, ‘Seeing is believing’ and I suspect that most of us were.  But if we turn that round to ‘Believing is Seeing’, then we really have a scenario in which whatever we believe – whatever we put our energy into – can come alive for us.

So say I write about an orphan girl, unloved, who wanders the streets of London, finds a lottery ticket that someone has dropped on the pavement, discovers it is a winning ticket and starts a new life with three hundred thousand pounds in her back pocket.  Will I be making that more likely for myself?  I might invest my character with many of my own characteristics, and I might take her places and to meet people who are like my friends, but directly, I am unlikely to win at the lottery just because I write about it.

But there are two lessons I can draw from this at the moment.  The first is that the positive energy that comes from a great, heart-warming or inspirational story, the optimism of a saga that sweeps through the generations, does affect our lives.  As we create worlds, we imbibe that energy – we have to, if we are to make our worlds and our characters feel real to us – and in that process, our personal ambitions cannot help expanding.

The second lesson is that as we write, – just as when we read great books that others have written – we can collect ideas and convictions that we can take up in our daily lives and turn towards good.  Writing is not all a one-way street to characters who are needy, hungry or deprived.  There is also the small matter of their eventual success, their reconciliation, their triumph over adversity and their decision to escape, make new lives for themselves, or allow themselves to fall in love….

I’m grateful to my characters, since, writing about their vindications and their success, I feel more likely to succeed.

 

 

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January 20, 2017

Is it a thriller?

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Is it a thriller?

I like books, of course, and I used to say I liked thrillers. Edgy, exciting, with narrow escapes, a bit of luck, coincidences to make the hair stand on the back of my neck, a nice bit of calculation to keep the grey matter going.

But, whether it is a current trend – in what, apparently is called genre fiction, which is supposed to stand in opposition to literary fiction – though I think it is pointless to take such distinctions literally – increasingly, the thrillers I read are merely violent.

John Grisham’s debut, A Time to Kill, is undoubtedly a violent tale. But arguably, it was The Firm a thrilling book with remarkably few references to blood and gore which established his reputation as a thriller writer. Indeed, I always thought that it was the allusions to violence, the danger of it, that made a book thrilling, rather than the blood bath; but in this, I appear to be out of step with modern trends.

I watch very little TV these days, and so films that my daughter would scarcely raise an eyebrow at, would probably give me nightmares. I read few thrillers, either, though many thriller writers excel. Increasingly I blame this on the realisation that I don’t find references to gun toting alcoholics who rape girls, and farm hand yokels who spit and swear, drive pickups and shoot people for fun, thrilling at all.

Last night I had to decide not to continue reading a book, otherwise well written and confident, which was disappointingly violent, and in which the hapless females seemed to have the ill-fortune to encounter violent sociopaths wherever they went, with disastrous and very bloody consequences.

Quite apart from the realisation that most sociopaths I know are socially indistinguishable from my neighbours and hide in plain sight behind the façade of respectability, repeated references in thrillers to downtown yokels with vile morals disrespects the vast majority of people who are kind, thoughtful, hardworking and desperate to escape the burden of nine to five purgatory, wherever they work. It may well be that stories of tormented or doomed young girls in trouble sells copy. Perhaps we find clichés of tough, hardened folk difficult to escape. But readers can choose, and I suspect that the explicit and relentless violence in many thrillers becomes unsavoury and damaging.

Maybe someday, booksellers might look to categorise books according to their ‘blood content’ thus assisting hapless readers like me who are looking for an exciting read which manages to steer clear of violent, misogynistic men and beautiful, tormented, abused girls.

 

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January 18, 2017

Ideas will come

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Ideas will come

 

I have learned that the most important part of any endeavour – any plan, idea, thought or wish – is to admit the idea and make a start with it.  Because – and here is why – when we make any start with anything, our commitment brings up new ideas that – Wow! – we would never had thought of, if we hadn’t made that start, decided to allow any sort of beginning its space to blossom.

To give an example, I’m writing a series at the moment on the Joys of Writing, which, I’m surprised to notice, I have not directly mentioned before as a topic well worth considering, except in passing where I occasionally use words like: love, joy and pleasure, fulfilment, fun….

When I started thinking about the Joys of Writing, I was simply taking the flip side of all the things I had been writing about before – all the pitfalls and caveats that writers like to worry about – and saying, ‘So, what can I do with that, then?’  It seemed like a good thing to contemplate, even as I notice – and how is this even remotely possible?? – that the real Joys of Writing are a subject that appears rather to have passed me by, until now.

And, lo and behold, having started to write about the Joys of Writing, I find that lots of ideas for blogging on this topic start popping into my head, ideas such as wish fulfilment, realism in fiction, feeling alive, playing God….There are lots of ideas waiting to be explored.

So through this exercise I have learned, again, that the most important part of doing anything is to make a start, show willing and commit even a tiny corner of my mind to whatever I am contemplating.  Because only that decision will unleash all these ideas – which are limitless, really – all just waiting to be discovered.

Thanks for reading.

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January 16, 2017

Five go for afternoon tea

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Five go for afternoon tea.

Yesterday afternoon, an unseasonably warm Sunday, five authors from all over the UK met to start 2017 in fine style.

Claire Wingfield, the author and editor who has been instrumental in helping me organise my books and for keeping me motivated over many years, (read our interview on her blog here) thoughtfully suggested our get-together and arranged a table for us at the Signet Library restaurant in Edinburgh.  (Think mirrored tables, fine tableware and thousands of real books lining the walls).  Julie D’Amour

Kristin Pedroja  and Icy Sedgwick

Claire, and I met up for lots of very fine nibbles and lashings of hot beverages, and spent a wonderful few hours discussing our writing, our motivations – what works for us and what doesn’t – and our ambitions for the coming year.

I am very encouraged by the progress I have made with my writing in the last year and I have managed to make a fairly respectable showing.  But I haven’t written as much as I would like to.

All that is set to change in 2017 when I hope to have much more time to spend crafting stories for the sheer joy of it.  The sense of freedom to create new worlds is always what motivates me most to write, and is, in its own way, a rather addictive escapism which I heartily endorse!

Thanks so much to Claire and to Kristin, Julie and Icy for such a wonderful afternoon.

Thanks for reading.

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January 12, 2017

The Joys of Writing

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The joys of writing are – obvious, right?  They include, having fun, enjoying the power to be a creative genius who dreams up new worlds, or finds wonderful new ways to present ever-popular themes.

For example, it looks as if the Tudor theme – mad kings, several hapless wives, beheadings, the search for the elusive male heir and lots of illegitimate siblings…. is set to run and run, but how would it be if we re-wrote that context with a twist, (as Robert Harris wrote ‘Fatherland’ supposing that the Axis powers had won the Second World War).

What if Edward VI had lived into old age, or hapless Lady Jane Grey had stayed on the throne?  What if we took all the historical facts but planted them in a different social or sexual context, Amazon women, the Matriarchy in the fantastic, sci fi future?  It might make an interesting twist.

Do we create, or are we merely scribes of our characters, inviting them out and giving voice to them?  Of course, we take the credit, get the pleasure of putting all that down, and by doing so, we can indulge in the ultimate wish fulfilment.

You want to be a wealthy, successful, beautiful, clever and talented actress with dozens of admirers and a true love in the background who loves you for being you and …. Well, go for it!  Authors create new worlds, so we can indulge in every fancy and whim we like, and that, whatever becomes of the final result, is the most marvellous fun.  Context and believability may come into everything later on, of course, but in the throes of creative passion, who cares what happens.  The thrill is in making it happen and bringing it to life.  Wow, we can do anything we want to!  Isn’t that fantastic?

 

Thanks for reading.

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January 10, 2017

My plans for 2017

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My plans for 2017

Last year was in so many ways such a memorable, challenging and often heart-breaking year.

Now, after the enthusiasm for new beginnings that follow New Year celebrations, I find myself lifting the blinds in the bright morning light of 2017 with a peculiar blend of emotions – relief, trepidation: who apart from another broken-up far eastern guy trying to get into my computer system, will be phoning? What will the news be?  Good?  I sincerely hope so.

Plans for any year are often dictated by other people’s timetables: when daughter is off school, when hubby can take time off.  Even so, I am planning to visit the London Book Fair in March for a couple of days and I’m taking some of my recent material with me.

I plan also to finish my second book in the ‘Lisa Somerville’ series, and make more headway with book three.  I’d like to meet up with lots of like-minded people: authors, writers, campaigners…. I shall be travelling as often as time allows.  Whatever surprises there may be, I am very pleased to have travelled this far.  Long may the adventure continue.

My friend, the lovely Carol Graham is promoting our interview on her blog ‘Never Ever Give Up Hope’ (which is what I intend to do).  You can also also hear us chatting on apple i-tunes (number 83) and there is also a stitcher podcast.

Thank you Carol, so much, for all your enthusiasm and encouragement.

And thanks to you for reading.

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January 6, 2017

Creating New Worlds With Words

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Creating New Worlds with Words

The joys of writing are – obvious, right?  They include, having fun, enjoying the power to be a creative genius who dreams up new worlds, or finds wonderful new ways to present ever-popular themes.

For example, it looks as if the Tudor theme – mad kings, several hapless wives, beheadings, the search for the elusive male heir and lots of illegitimate siblings…. is set to run and run.  But how would it be if we re-wrote that context with a twist, (as Robert Harris wrote ‘Fatherland’ supposing that the Axis powers had won the Second World War).

What if Edward VI had lived into old age, or Mary Jane Grey had stayed on the throne?  What if we took all the historical facts but planted them in a different social or sexual context: Amazon women, the Matriarchy in the fantastic, sci fi future?  That might make an interesting twist.

Do we create, or are we merely scribes of our characters, inviting them out and giving voice to them?  Of course, we take the credit, get the pleasure of putting all that down, and by doing so, we can indulge in the ultimate wish fulfilment.

You want to be a wealthy, successful, beautiful, clever and talented actress with dozens of admirers and a true love in the background who loves you for being you and ….?  Go for it!

Authors create new worlds with words, so we can indulge our every fancy and whim.  And that, whatever becomes of the final result, is the most marvellous fun.  Context and believability may come into everything later on, of course, but in the throes of creative passion, who cares what happens.  The thrill is in making it happen and bringing it to life.  Wow, we can do anything we want to!  Isn’t that fantastic?

Thanks for reading.

 

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January 4, 2017

Happy New Year 2017

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Happy New Year 2017

 

Cartwheel Galaxy Makes Waves

 

In the spirit of a new year, new hopes and a fresh beginning, my next series of articles here will stroll through some of the Joys of Writing.  These are numerous, often unexpected and surprising.  And of course, fun.

Whatever 2017 brings, I would love to have lots of fun this year.  2016, while wonderful in so many ways, was extremely hard work and emotionally draining.  New Year 2017 feels like a good time to reflect on some of the positive, enlivening and helpful reasons why we write.

My previous series of articles have all been mostly about the nuts and bolts of writing, the uncertainties and pitfalls of authorship as a career or ambition.  Yes, we hear a lot about the challenges, the difficulties of working alone, the isolation, the economic challenges, the true cost of the business behind the front page of our latest book, but what about the joys of writing?

In the same way, I suspect, as it is easier to criticize a project than to come up with creative solutions, the joys of writing are probably less easy to pin down than the pitfalls, more intangible.  But they are what motivate countless millions of us to spend hours, weeks, months and decades in pursuit of the written word.  Indeed, it must be joy that keeps the book market alive, or I can’t see what would be the point of reading.

What motivates you to write – do write and tell me!

Let us hope that 2017 brings us all opportunities and blessings galore.  When I looked at my social media accounts, after being on holiday, I found over four hundred messages of goodwill waiting for me!  Thanks to everyone who has been in touch, and for your good wishes.  A fantastic, amazing start to the year.

 

Thank you so much for reading.

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