A big think about writing

I’ve been having a (post-NaNo) BIG THINK about my writing. I finished my last (OU) creative writing course in May (A363 Advanced Creative Writing) and though I’ve written a lot of words since then I have only submitted one short story (4000 words) – deemed ‘intriguing’ but ‘difficult to place’ by the editor I sent it to in June and who refrained from telling me until September that he wasn’t going to publish it. So I’ve sat on this story for a while (almost as long as he did) and – with NaNo finished – decided now was the perfect time to reassess the whole goddam writing thing.

The issue isn’t whether or not I should write, but – having had a few pieces of flash fiction and poetry published online and in print, where do I want to go from here? Should I do an MA or should I just write? And if I (just) write, what sort of writing should I do? More flash fiction? Longer short stories? Poetry? A novel?

This is when I began to realise that I was asking myself the wrong questions. Whilst I have been writing, I have been reluctant to edit – and when I asked myself why, I realised that it was because of what my writing was about.

My writing is essentially character-based, and often dark. I am not a plot-driven writer, I am a left-brained creative who struggles with logic and a linear approach to anything. I’m a lateral and intuitive thinker, a sensitive soul, a people-watcher. This is how I figure things out; writing is my way of making sense of the stuff I see and hear out there in the world.

But after all the thinking I’ve done, all the notes I’ve written, all the writing I’ve done, all the friends I’ve discussed this with, I’ve read two books that have changed things.

My first epiphany came while reading Doug Coupland’s Generation X (and subsequently Generation A, which I’m half-way through). I could write a novel in which nothing really happens. No – truly, it is OK – he has done it, in a very clever way and it is an amazing read. I only wish I’d discovered him ten years ago.

The second epiphany happened the other night whilst reading one of Salt’s most recent publications: Short Circuit – a book of essays about the art of writing short fiction, edited by Vanessa Gebbie.  I’ve only read three of the essays but these have been reassuring, illuminating and liberating (and I can’t wait to read the rest):

Tania Hershman in her essay, Art breathes from containment … sums up (flash fiction) by saying, ‘there is nothing that flash fiction cannot be, there is no prohibition on style, content, tone, pace, point of view, linear or non-linear narrative.’

Elizabeth Baines essay, True story, real story – good fiction (despite personal reluctance and with great authorial generosity) provides insight into her writing process and explains how she absorbs real life experiences and reconstructs them as fiction. This was particularly reassuring not just because my creative process is so similar to hers but also because it connects with another – the most daunting – of my writing ‘issues’, the ‘what it’s about’ which Alison MacLeod addresses in her essay, Writing and risk-taking.

She begins, ‘there will be good reasons not to write almost every story that you care about writing …’ Tell me about it, I was already thinking out loud at this point.

She says, ‘I often find myself drawn to writing about characters who are attracted to something that is taboo.’ OK, well what I write about isn’t exactly taboo, but the characters can be edgy, my stories often exhume the character’s psychological or emotional issues, but as Alison says, (this)

‘can create a complex emotional world (and) … contradictory feelings are jet-fuel for stories; they immediately give a story the tension of opposing emotions and they are also, in their messiness, particularly true to life.’

WOOHOO. This last essay was the one I found the most liberating. Yes I will take the risks I want to take with my characters and my stories, and furthermore I will take the risk that my stories – though ‘intriguing’, might be ‘difficult to place’, but if that is how I write, – and if someone enjoys what I’ve written and sees some value in it – then it will have been worth the risk.

So thank you to Tania, Elizabeth and Alison, I am now officially ‘unstuck’ – and a huge thank you to Salt for publishing this brilliant book.

NaNoWriMo redux

Well I did it – again. This year it took me 16 days to write a total of 50,848 words, as verified today by the Office of Letters & Light (organisers of NaNoWriMo).

This year – probably because of Twitter – I’ve noticed the backlash and the sniggers, from other writers, bloggers and the odd agent (I assume US-based) who feared her in-tray would be groaning after the ‘thanksgiving’ holiday with manuscripts from naiive NaNoers who believed by completing the challenge that they’d produced a ‘finished’ novel.

I tried not to read much of this crap – mainly because I didn’t want anything to distract me from what I was hoping to achieve – and no, my 50,848 words do not resemble a novel at all – how could they when I wrote them at the speed of light – but what I’ve come out with after only a couple of weeks is a vast creative resource from which a novel may emerge – there’s probably 20,000 words worth of scenes that connect – plus several short story ideas and quite possibly some poetry.

So, to writers I say, don’t knock it – see it as a month devoted to being creative. To bloggers who make it their business to write about the business of writing – well, carry on – say what you like about NaNoWriMo, but if it inspires young people to write (more about their Young Writers Scheme later) that can only be a good thing. To the agent who dreaded coming back to a sackload of manuscripts, don’t forget – writers are your business – without them you wouldn’t be an agent – you’d be doing something completely different. And finally, to fellow Nanoers who may be reading this – a huge YAY to those who have already finished and a GOGOGO to those who are still writing – and no, that doesn’t sound cool, but I really don’t give a sh*t!

Flying …

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My word count for today and to celebrate, I decided to create a Wordle. [Below].

 

If you want to create your own Wordle, that’s the link (left). This is mine:

Later on Day Four

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Had another splurge – boosted my word count for today and stopped before I hit the wall. By concentrating on one character a day I seem to be able to get into their heads better with links to the other characters I can develop later. Still not thinking too much about it … want to keep my writing fresh and let the ideas come tumbling out.

NaNoWriMo update …

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Fourth day in and I didn’t begin today until thirty minutes ago but am already 472 words up on yesterday with a total so far of 6060, on target for finishing 28 November. I’ve approached the whole thing in a much more laid back way – last year, my first – I’d no idea if I’d have the stamina or the words even to write 50,000. As it was, I wrote far more and in only three weeks, though once I stopped, that was it, finished.

This time I’m doing other things besides NaNo. Lots of people doing it have full time jobs, children – I don’t have those responsibilities now, so can afford to limit the time I spend writing and do other things like the monthly preparation of reviews and author interviews for The Short Review. Today I’ve prepared three author interviews, Richard Lange, Regi Claire and Ellis Sharp – make really interesting reading, oh … and changed the bed, done two lots of washing … umm, set up digibox with OH (it’s digital switchover day in Granada TV land) so we can watch all the programmes we’ve not been able to watch while we only had terrestrial TV. What has this all got to do with NaNo? Not a lot – but it’s so easy to use up time doing even minor domestic things. OK, now I really am going to stop and find out what my character is going to get up to next …

NaNoWriMo 2009

So … another year, another NaNo and the new web badges for 2009’s participants have gone up on the site today.

This time I’m actually going to try to write a novel. Last year it was an exercise in stamina building. Having bound and gagged my inner editor I wrote 61k pure stream of consciousness drivel in three weeks. No, I couldn’t possibly have edited it into shape, but I did learn how to write snappy dialogue, I learned how to let go and found myself with a creative resource that I’ve drawn on for short stories during the year.

In the run-up to 1 November I’ve decided I’m not writing anything – apart from ideas in my notebook – a bit like going on a diet then being able to splurge when it’s finished (not that I do that but you know what I mean). I have a title for my ‘novel’ – it’s Bending Daisies. As I’ve no idea what I’m writing yet, I’ve no idea what genre it will be either so I’ve filed it under ‘Other Genres’. Warning, it may be speculative. It will be quirky. It could be weird but it will be fun. If you fancy joining me on the NaNo site, I’m there as dotseven. Counting down …

Bit early …

…  to get the bunting out, but 4000 word writing project is almost complete, just have to finish the 1000 word commentary.

Not sure why stupid-tidy-up-person chose today to climb out of my head and clean the house, that definitely wasn’t in the plan but maybe it’ll (literally) clear the way for me to get it finished, printed and posted – by Tuesday – I think (?!) at the latest.

Looking forward to writing something new – I haven’t let myself do anything apart from take notes in the two months plus I’ve been working on this short story. A lot of time you might think, but it’s given me the opportunity to push the boundaries of what I’ve been doing. If I didn’t have to finish it I possibly – no, probably – wouldn’t have discovered another creative layer to my writing that I’m quietly excited about.

Swimming against the current …

Juggling fiction and reality is a good place to be. Juggling writing, rewriting and editing leaves little time for anything other than eating and sleeping. Still in less than a couple of weeks this writing project will be on its way to Milton Keynes where it – or rather three copies of it – will sit on a shelf or in a box and at some point during the summer finally land on someone’s desk to be read.

Meanwhile the ‘to read’ pile of books is growing. Finished Douglas Coupland’s The Gum Thief (tricksy ending, clever man); now reading Murakami’s After Dark. Next in the pile is Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. Gaiman’s writing is new to me so forgive me for not jumping round like a mad thing. I’m trying him out, is that OK?

Right, dinner on then back to writing …