Women’s fiction and chic lit

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 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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December 22, 2016

Falling in love again

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Falling in love again

What if, when we write about our characters’ journeys, we find ourselves falling in love again?

I have found that, while I’ve been learning to balance the lives and hopes of my characters in a realistic and tender way, I am brought up short to consider how I behave when I’m with the real people I love, who live with me.  Okay, so my characters are telling me to get a life?  Is this some sort of sad confession, an admission that I spend so much time inside the heads of my make believe worlds that I haven’t time to engage with normal folks?

No, actually, quite the opposite.  Looking at my MCs Lisa or her husband Simon carefully, I can see the value of applying that care in my own home.  To put it simply, making my prose as meaningful as I know how, I have to appreciate anew the value of my family, my friends and acquaintances, and all the gifts they bring to my life.  It would be ludicrous to attend to my MCs needs with minute attention, and then behave thoughtlessly or brusquely with the real people I know.

So I guess this means I’m grateful to Lisa, and to Simon for helping me, this year, to keep going, to stay calm and relatively sane – that, I can’t comment on, so much. You’d be better to ask Seline or Eddie…But I have learned to be more patient, to be kinder and to enjoy the love and laughter with a fresh appreciation.  Not just for what my family put up with, but with full awareness that so many others don’t have the blessings I am privileged to share with my family.

Thank you to everyone, this year, for making my time well spent.  For being here to help and comfort, to console and advise.  I could do none of this – whatever this has been or may turn out to be – without you, and I am blessed beyond measure by my friendship with you.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Season. Thanks for reading.

 

 

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December 16, 2016

Reading Old Favourites

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Reading Old Favourites

As anyone who knows me knows, I have spent acres of my life reading books.  I’m not especially well read – I like to discover my kind of a great author and read all their books, and I’m fond of re-reading old favourites – but I don’t mind that.  Over the course of a decade or so, several re-reads of a book is no punishment, as each time, I collect something new from the experience as my perspective alters.

Having come a roundabout route to writing, I suspect that re-reading old favourites has also taught me a few ideas about structure, a bit more about how to plot and has reinforced grammar lessons.  If I ever need to, that is how I justify my tendency to circle the old favourites.  (I have bought the full set of James Herriot’s  books at least seven times and I used to read Tintin and Snoopy constantly.)

But on a broader stage, reading and writing has taught me a great deal about ordinary empathy.

Assuming our characters are composites of real people, with a bit of sparkle and magic thrown in, we certainly get up close and personal with them, wouldn’t you say?  I’m reluctant to offer easy answers off pat about life, and having to live with characters for years, I have had to come to terms with their ambivalence, their flaws, and the very normal tendency of people to muck up and carry on living.  Our books of fiction may be make-believe and contain the usual caveat ‘All characters and events in this book are entirely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental but we still learn a lot from them.

It’s like having the option to experiment with different life choices, but with few of the consequences.

What if our character has a drug habit or an addiction to playing card games?  What will happen to them?  As authors, we can watch our characters, and actually, in that process, we learn what we would do.  It’s nice to have that freedom to experiment.

Thanks for reading.

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December 14, 2016

How are the mighty fallen

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How are the mighty fallen

Is there a pecking order in literature?  Probably, to the purists there will always be.

But surely the most important aspect of any book is not its might, or the puissance of its ambition, but whether people read it.  A book may be erudite, learned and witty, but if it runs to three thousand pages, fifteen volumes, or if it makes too many allusions to literature long past, it will probably end up decorating the shelves…  Which is no bad thing.  Lots of noble books decorate shelves, and contain much useful information…

When applied to fiction of a more populist bent, it seems to me that people can get the wrong idea about that too.  Writing books about ‘ordinary people’ – a description which I take slight issue with, as in my experience we are all extraordinary – an author takes dilemmas and situations that feel everyday, and suggests creative solutions.

A fellow author Diane Dickson  inspires me because her heroes and heroines take their courage in their hands and leave home, or take a chance to start again with something, and it intrigues me to see what twists and turns the characters go through before they get their answers.  From watching the progress of Diane’s characters, I notice that what most of us want most of the time is more courage, more faith and love.  It is a truism that we all want the same things: love, peace, hope, prosperity, and a sense of worth.  We all only differ in the ways in which these can be achieved.

So when someone says, ‘Oh, how are the mighty fallen!’ when I say I’m writing general fiction, I reflect that this is a misunderstanding of what true writing is for.  I write to share my experiences, to illuminate possibility, to inspire hope and add a dash of humour to life’s absurdities.  If my books can do any of that, I don’t give a monkey’s uncle whether they are populist or highbrow.

 

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December 9, 2016

How to conquer writers blues

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How to conquer writers blues

We all have days when we feel that this writing spree is rather beside the point, and who do we think we are, anyway, to attempt it.  Writing is, after all, an activity that takes effort, concentration and a lot of thought.

But there is often little to show for our time at the desk, and even the accumulation of several hundred thousand words in several books can feel a little beside the point, unless we hit the publication jackpot and our books make us lots of money.

But when it’s going well, there is no better feeling in the world.  So here are my current tips for banishing the winter blues.

  • One chapter or five pages a day.  It can be a short chapter, or five pages of a longer one.  These might feel half-baked or unfinished.  Is there something not quite ready about it, something we have forgotten?  Writing every day will give us a sense of accomplishment and time to stand back and reflect.
  • Ignore the word count – stop looking at the bottom left of the screen and wondering why the word count never moves.  That hardly matters.  Just write.  It feels like flying, the first time we do it, but it turns out, this is the kind of flying that needs no license or instructor, no log book.  Just go for it.
  • pretend you are not writing – sounds odd, but if we work for ourselves as writers we might think that is what we have to do.  Then, the task becomes heavy and feels unlovely.  Which makes the writing heavy too.  What if we are simply experimenting, having fun, flying by the seat of our pants, following a hunch, doing a bit of detective work, exploring, sizing up the characters on the street, falling in love?  Would that make our writing easier?
  • imagine you are a character with something really important to say.  A character who has the opportunity of a lifetime – literally – to say what s/he has always wanted to, yearned to, from the bottom of their heart.  What would the character say if s/he was heard without judgement?  I really love you?  I loathe you?  Let’s make a dream come true?  The sky is the limit.
  • edit instead – sometimes, sometimes oftentimes, our imagination needs time off.  So edit instead. Set yourself up as a proof reader and pretend this is a manuscript that has landed on your desk.  Set to with a pencil, a cup of tea and a change of hat.

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December 7, 2016

What a relief

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What a relief

Hurray, I have finished the first book in the Lisa Somerville series.  What a relief!

Now I am re-reading what I have written of Book 2, which I tentatively title The Seduction of Susan Scott, underway at about twenty thousand words.  If possible, I would like to have a full, working draft of Susan Scott complete in time for the London Book Fair in March 2017.

Meantime, I’m just so pleased that the first twenty thousand words I have already written seem have stood the test of six months in a metaphorical desk drawer.  Originally, I wrote the first chapters, and then had a change of plan to write Lisa Somerville and heartlessly left Susan Scott to stew.  Thankfully, reading over the material, there appears to be very little I would change, which is heartening.  Which means my plans are hopefully on track, and I may get done what I hope to in the next three months, without too many more derailments and just a bit of luck.

Incidentally, I do believe in luck, if only because luck has that surprising, intangible quality that cheers us up and says, ‘anything is possible, so please keep the faith.’  It may be true that we make our own luck, but believing in the hope of it, makes life easier.

I am really enjoying writing fiction.  The stories of the people I write about are based around my experiences as a lawyer.  All the characters are invented, but the scenarios are all part and parcel of what we might find in a legal office.  The joy of fiction is that I can follow through with a few more twists and turns, and add drama and details as they come to me – I am a firm adherent of the school of writers who plot only loosely, and who wait for the characters to reveal themselves and to guide my thoughts, put words at the end of my fingers.  Being a mere scribe, I have to go where I am bid, which all makes for excitement and, I hope, a more interesting, plausible story.

Thanks so much for reading.

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November 25, 2016

How Long To Write A Book

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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.

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