READING ALOUD ... THE REAL ACID TEST
When my two girls were smaller, Nelli and I used to entertain them during long journeys in the car by playing tapes of Harry Potter read by Stephen Fry. It is only now that I have begun to appreciate what a trial that must have been for J.K. Rowling. Reading your work aloud betrays all its worst aspects: the duplicate adjectives and phrases; the clumsy dialogue; and any over-wrought verbosity. Being read aloud is the real acid test for any piece of writing.
The problem is that reading your work aloud is a very tedious and time-consuming activity. I always start off determined to read all my edits aloud but about ten pages in I get fed-up and begin to silently scan-read. That’s why going to a writers’ group is so useful. You get the chance to read some of your stuff aloud and the self-criticism that results is, I think, even more valuable that the criticism you get from your fellow attendees.
I haven’t had much to read at Renegades for the last few weeks, but I decided that this week I’d make an effort and chose a scene I’d written a few months ago which is – probably – going to feature in the final Demi-Monde book, ‘The Demi-Monde: Fall’. I chose it because it had originally been intended for inclusion in Summer but because of pace and plot changes it got bumped, but as I’d edited it a couple of time I was fairly confident that it was of an okay standard.
Fool!!!!
I think since the editing of the first DM book ‘Winter’ my style has changed. Much of this is due to the influence of Nick, my first editor at Quercus, and his mania for pace. It’s a mania I’ve caught and now when I write I want the story to move along briskly. Pace is everything and I rely much more on the readers’ imagination to fill in any descriptive blanks I might leave. Not so much ‘show not tell’ rather ‘suggest not tell’. And this change in style was really emphasised when I read the piece out at the Renegades.
It seemed so slow and ponderous, giving way too much information and detail none of which moved either the plot or the action along. I couldn’t even forgive it on the grounds that I’d written this twaddle to achieve that old standby ‘character development’.
SO … I’m going to re-edit and take it to the next Renegades and have another go. And I’ll keep taking it back until I’ve got it right!
The last thing I want is ever having to listen to Stephen Fry reading crap with my name on it (I wish!).
Monday, 28 March 2011
Sunday, 27 March 2011
WRITING SIC-NOTES OR THE ART OF THE BLURB
With attention starting to shift away from the hardback of ‘The Demi-Monde: Winter’ and towards the paperback (due out in September 2011), Jo asked me to give my suggestions regarding how we could re-work the blurb that goes on the back cover.
One sage on the net calls the blurb ‘eye-candy for readers’ which isn’t a bad description, while another called it the second most important factor in securing the purchase of a book (after the cover design). I’m not so sure about this (surely the author’s name/reputation is the most important thing in the buy/no buy stakes) but it’s certainly up there. So it’s IMPORTANT and has to be taken seriously.
The experience I’ve gained from writing promo-copy for pharmaceutical products and telecom services tells me that a blurb must do three things. It must STOP the potential customer, it must INTRIGUE them and it must CLOSE them (i.e. persuade them to buy). Closing is of course the difficult one and always brings to mind Alex Baldwin in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (brilliant movie!) and his ‘ABC’: Always Be Closing.
It was these three imperatives – STOP, INTRIGUE, CLOSE – I had at the back of my mind when I tried re-writing the Demi-Monde’s blurb. On this basis I suppose you could call blurbs SIC-Notes!
The original blurb Quercus used on the hardback read:
“EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE IN VIRTUAL REALITY
The Demi-Monde is the most advanced computer simulation ever devised. Created to prepare soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare, it is a virtual world locked in eternal civil war. Its thirty million digital inhabitants are ruled by duplicates of some of history’s cruellest tyrants: Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust; Beria, Stalin’s arch executioner; Torquemada, the pitiless Inquisitor General; Robespierre, the face of the Reign of Terror.
But something has gone badly wrong inside the Demi-Monde and the US President’s daughter has become trapped in this terrible world. It falls to eighteen-year-old Ella Thomas to rescue her, yet once Ella has entered the Demi-Monde she finds that everything is not as it seems, that its cyber-walls are struggling to contain the evil within and that the Real World is in more danger than it realises.”
All-in-all it ain’t too bad especially as none of the potential readers would have known me from a hole in the ground. But now I suppose it’s too long to STOP, too convoluted to INTRIGUE and there’s no CLOSE. Worse, I think including the names of some of the historical characters I use in the novel is a bit of a turn-off: a couple of reviewers have mentioned being nervous of the historical baggage the book comes with, so, in retrospect, emphasising it wasn’t such a terrific idea.
The blurb we’re currently working on for the paperback reads:
“We want you to go to Hell, Miss Thomas.’ And for five million bucks Ella was prepared to give even Hell – the Demi-Monde – a shot. And all she had to do to earn it was find the President’s daughter and lead her to safety.
But getting into the Demi-Monde was the easy part, surviving to collect her money was quite another. There were thirty million digital-Duplicates at war in the nightmare that was the US Military’s virtual-training ground, thirty million Dupes living and dying in the Victorian cyber-slums of this make-believe world, Dupes programmed with a craving for blood and led by some of history’s most vicious tyrants.
And as Ella was to discover, for every bizarre conceit in the Demi-Monde there was a sinister reason behind it. In the Demi-Monde she could trust nothing and nobody . . . not even herself.”
It’s obviously shorter and snappier – which I like – and I like having an ellipse near the end; ellipses denoting something unsaid. I wanted to bring out the blood aspect too, just to intrigue those with a penchant for vampires. The opening is good too, quite arresting. Yeah, I like it.
As for the Closing aspect, unlike the hardback, we’ll now have a few quotes to play with and these, from what I can see on other books are what turn a potential buyer into a real one. The quotes that are challenging for inclusion are:
‘Part Matrix, part Escape from New York, with a dash of Film Noir and a whole host of imagination. Beautifully written . . . ’ Falcata Times
‘…the world…is a psychopathic nightmare, while Ella, by contrast, is a touchingly vulnerable heroine whose quest is fraught with both physical and psychological dangers’ Eric Brown, The Guardian
‘A proverbial page-turner . . . Demi-Monde: Winter is a magnificent debut novel . . . that fires the imagination in the way that only truly good SF can’ Concatenation
‘Discworld's savage noir cousin. Welcome to holo-hell' Stephen Baxter
‘Wow! It's highly ingenious and very well written, not only gripping to read but beautifully executed’ Ian Watson
‘Incredibly entertaining’ The Times
‘A f****** brilliant book’ Burlesque Bandstand
The BIG problem I face with book blurbs is that there seems to be an inherent conservatism within the book wholesaler/retailer community. So some of the ideas I have for Spring and Summer will probably turn out to be no-nos. Shame, I thought they were real Stoppers.
One sage on the net calls the blurb ‘eye-candy for readers’ which isn’t a bad description, while another called it the second most important factor in securing the purchase of a book (after the cover design). I’m not so sure about this (surely the author’s name/reputation is the most important thing in the buy/no buy stakes) but it’s certainly up there. So it’s IMPORTANT and has to be taken seriously.
The experience I’ve gained from writing promo-copy for pharmaceutical products and telecom services tells me that a blurb must do three things. It must STOP the potential customer, it must INTRIGUE them and it must CLOSE them (i.e. persuade them to buy). Closing is of course the difficult one and always brings to mind Alex Baldwin in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (brilliant movie!) and his ‘ABC’: Always Be Closing.
It was these three imperatives – STOP, INTRIGUE, CLOSE – I had at the back of my mind when I tried re-writing the Demi-Monde’s blurb. On this basis I suppose you could call blurbs SIC-Notes!
The original blurb Quercus used on the hardback read:
“EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE IN VIRTUAL REALITY
The Demi-Monde is the most advanced computer simulation ever devised. Created to prepare soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare, it is a virtual world locked in eternal civil war. Its thirty million digital inhabitants are ruled by duplicates of some of history’s cruellest tyrants: Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust; Beria, Stalin’s arch executioner; Torquemada, the pitiless Inquisitor General; Robespierre, the face of the Reign of Terror.
But something has gone badly wrong inside the Demi-Monde and the US President’s daughter has become trapped in this terrible world. It falls to eighteen-year-old Ella Thomas to rescue her, yet once Ella has entered the Demi-Monde she finds that everything is not as it seems, that its cyber-walls are struggling to contain the evil within and that the Real World is in more danger than it realises.”
All-in-all it ain’t too bad especially as none of the potential readers would have known me from a hole in the ground. But now I suppose it’s too long to STOP, too convoluted to INTRIGUE and there’s no CLOSE. Worse, I think including the names of some of the historical characters I use in the novel is a bit of a turn-off: a couple of reviewers have mentioned being nervous of the historical baggage the book comes with, so, in retrospect, emphasising it wasn’t such a terrific idea.
The blurb we’re currently working on for the paperback reads:
“We want you to go to Hell, Miss Thomas.’ And for five million bucks Ella was prepared to give even Hell – the Demi-Monde – a shot. And all she had to do to earn it was find the President’s daughter and lead her to safety.
But getting into the Demi-Monde was the easy part, surviving to collect her money was quite another. There were thirty million digital-Duplicates at war in the nightmare that was the US Military’s virtual-training ground, thirty million Dupes living and dying in the Victorian cyber-slums of this make-believe world, Dupes programmed with a craving for blood and led by some of history’s most vicious tyrants.
And as Ella was to discover, for every bizarre conceit in the Demi-Monde there was a sinister reason behind it. In the Demi-Monde she could trust nothing and nobody . . . not even herself.”
It’s obviously shorter and snappier – which I like – and I like having an ellipse near the end; ellipses denoting something unsaid. I wanted to bring out the blood aspect too, just to intrigue those with a penchant for vampires. The opening is good too, quite arresting. Yeah, I like it.
As for the Closing aspect, unlike the hardback, we’ll now have a few quotes to play with and these, from what I can see on other books are what turn a potential buyer into a real one. The quotes that are challenging for inclusion are:
‘Part Matrix, part Escape from New York, with a dash of Film Noir and a whole host of imagination. Beautifully written . . . ’ Falcata Times
‘…the world…is a psychopathic nightmare, while Ella, by contrast, is a touchingly vulnerable heroine whose quest is fraught with both physical and psychological dangers’ Eric Brown, The Guardian
‘A proverbial page-turner . . . Demi-Monde: Winter is a magnificent debut novel . . . that fires the imagination in the way that only truly good SF can’ Concatenation
‘Discworld's savage noir cousin. Welcome to holo-hell' Stephen Baxter
‘Wow! It's highly ingenious and very well written, not only gripping to read but beautifully executed’ Ian Watson
‘Incredibly entertaining’ The Times
‘A f****** brilliant book’ Burlesque Bandstand
The BIG problem I face with book blurbs is that there seems to be an inherent conservatism within the book wholesaler/retailer community. So some of the ideas I have for Spring and Summer will probably turn out to be no-nos. Shame, I thought they were real Stoppers.
Friday, 25 March 2011
THE EAGLE: A REVIEW
Okay, as the girls are on holiday we decided to make TWO trips to the cinema this week and the choice was 'The Eagle', the film version of the novel 'The Eagle of the Ninth' by Rosemary Sutcliff. This film split the Rees family along the age fault-line.
Set in Britain of 140CE the story relates how the hero - Marcus Flavius Aquila - and his faithful slave - Esca - journey to the wilds of Scotland to retrieve the Eagle lost by the Ninth Legion that was commanded by Aquila's father.
As I said, the older and younger generations of the Rees household were split.
My opinion (supported by Nelli) was that it was a somewhat dour, over-long historical drama which teetered on the edge of being simultaneously boring and risible. I thought the lead actor - Channing Tatum - had all the charisma of a deckchair as he glowered and emoted through the movie's two hour length, while even the normally reliable Jamie Bell seemed unable to give his reluctant but loyal sidekick character any noticeable depth. Low points were Donald Sutherland lumbering his Roman senator with a mid-West accent and the 'Seal People' - the Scottish natives the hero has to interface with - having the appearance of MacMohicans daubed with B&Q's best undercoat emulsion. There were, of course, some good things: the cinematography was terrific and the portrayal of the squalor of 2nd Century Britain suitably ... squalid. But really this was an eminently forgettable film.
But ...
My daughters (16 and 18 years old) thought it pretty good entertainment. They enjoyed it! They also thought Mr Tatum was a good lead. Kit voted it a solid 7 out of 10!
So I guess if you're 25 or under it's a good movie, but if you're 25 or older, it ain't.
Rod: 4/10
Nelli: 4/10
Kit: 7/10
Ellie: is too cool to do this scoring shit but judged it 'good'.
Chronological criticism.
Set in Britain of 140CE the story relates how the hero - Marcus Flavius Aquila - and his faithful slave - Esca - journey to the wilds of Scotland to retrieve the Eagle lost by the Ninth Legion that was commanded by Aquila's father.
As I said, the older and younger generations of the Rees household were split.
My opinion (supported by Nelli) was that it was a somewhat dour, over-long historical drama which teetered on the edge of being simultaneously boring and risible. I thought the lead actor - Channing Tatum - had all the charisma of a deckchair as he glowered and emoted through the movie's two hour length, while even the normally reliable Jamie Bell seemed unable to give his reluctant but loyal sidekick character any noticeable depth. Low points were Donald Sutherland lumbering his Roman senator with a mid-West accent and the 'Seal People' - the Scottish natives the hero has to interface with - having the appearance of MacMohicans daubed with B&Q's best undercoat emulsion. There were, of course, some good things: the cinematography was terrific and the portrayal of the squalor of 2nd Century Britain suitably ... squalid. But really this was an eminently forgettable film.
But ...
My daughters (16 and 18 years old) thought it pretty good entertainment. They enjoyed it! They also thought Mr Tatum was a good lead. Kit voted it a solid 7 out of 10!
So I guess if you're 25 or under it's a good movie, but if you're 25 or older, it ain't.
Rod: 4/10
Nelli: 4/10
Kit: 7/10
Ellie: is too cool to do this scoring shit but judged it 'good'.
Chronological criticism.
POLSKI ŁĄCZNIK: DEMI-MONDE ZIMA
The title of this blog reads (according to Misha at the Renegade Writers group) 'The Polish Connection' but if I've misconstrued it and I've insulted everyone in Poland, I apologise.
I must admit to have had a certain trepidation about the reaction to the book in Poland. The Warsaw Uprising that I use as the basis of the middle part of 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' was a terrible event and what was done to the Jews and to Warsaw itself almost defies belief. I suspect it's still pretty raw subject with Varsovians even sixty-odd years on, so I was unsure of the reception my re-imagining would get. Then there was how the translator would handle my use of puns in words such as LessBiens and the like. I was also worried about what they would make of Burlesque's patois.
It seems I needn't have worried on either score and certainly the translator made a much better fist of things than Google ever could.
Miscontruing from Polish into English is the subject of this blog. The first instalment of the Demi-Monde saga was released in Poland in February as 'Demi-Monde: Zima' and there's been quite a lot of internet traffic about it. The problem is that most of this traffic has been - understandably - in Polish and whilst Nelli can help me with the occasional word for the most part I've had to rely on Google to translate. Which I have to report is unbelievably FRUSTRATING!
Let's start with Lena173who writes on Frecenzje-leny.blogspot.com. She says 'The Demi-Mnde is a novel which has strengthened my conviction that it is worth reaching for what is unknown'. So far so good. But she ends - courtesy of Google - with the paragraph: 'I look forward to another volume of this series and yet it remains for me nothing else but shoot the next victim of the fantasy genre. I highly recommend!' The last three words I can applaud but the rest ...
Next up is Sheila who reviews (I think) for the Fantasta site. This is the sentance I really love: 'Especially since niesztampowe really surprising ending make that I can not wait for the next volume'. But the great thing is that Shiela really liked it.
Fenrir reviewing on Lubimy Czytac said, 'Here, the story (of the Warsaw Uprising) played out again, with a completely different ending, which surprised me mercilessly.' Well, that sounds Okay, especially as Fenrir goes on to say, 'I rarely get such interesting titles, an Demi-Monde, wandered on the shelf reserved for your favourite items'.
It's early days but the reaction so far in Poland seems very positive. Phew!
I must admit to have had a certain trepidation about the reaction to the book in Poland. The Warsaw Uprising that I use as the basis of the middle part of 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' was a terrible event and what was done to the Jews and to Warsaw itself almost defies belief. I suspect it's still pretty raw subject with Varsovians even sixty-odd years on, so I was unsure of the reception my re-imagining would get. Then there was how the translator would handle my use of puns in words such as LessBiens and the like. I was also worried about what they would make of Burlesque's patois.
It seems I needn't have worried on either score and certainly the translator made a much better fist of things than Google ever could.
Miscontruing from Polish into English is the subject of this blog. The first instalment of the Demi-Monde saga was released in Poland in February as 'Demi-Monde: Zima' and there's been quite a lot of internet traffic about it. The problem is that most of this traffic has been - understandably - in Polish and whilst Nelli can help me with the occasional word for the most part I've had to rely on Google to translate. Which I have to report is unbelievably FRUSTRATING!
Let's start with Lena173who writes on Frecenzje-leny.blogspot.com. She says 'The Demi-Mnde is a novel which has strengthened my conviction that it is worth reaching for what is unknown'. So far so good. But she ends - courtesy of Google - with the paragraph: 'I look forward to another volume of this series and yet it remains for me nothing else but shoot the next victim of the fantasy genre. I highly recommend!' The last three words I can applaud but the rest ...
Next up is Sheila who reviews (I think) for the Fantasta site. This is the sentance I really love: 'Especially since niesztampowe really surprising ending make that I can not wait for the next volume'. But the great thing is that Shiela really liked it.
Fenrir reviewing on Lubimy Czytac said, 'Here, the story (of the Warsaw Uprising) played out again, with a completely different ending, which surprised me mercilessly.' Well, that sounds Okay, especially as Fenrir goes on to say, 'I rarely get such interesting titles, an Demi-Monde, wandered on the shelf reserved for your favourite items'.
It's early days but the reaction so far in Poland seems very positive. Phew!
Sunday, 20 March 2011
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
I’m a BIG Philip K. Dick fan. I loved ‘The Man in the High Castle’ (tho’ I could never get to grips with ‘The Three Stigmata’) and I think it was this book which sparked my life-long love of alternative history. So I was intrigued by the thought of yet another PKD story being brought to the cinema. I've not read the short story The Adjustment Bureau was based on – I will – so I had to judge the film on its own merits.
Okay. David Norris (Matt Damon) is an up-and-coming politico with a penchant for self-destruction and a family tragedy writ large in his life. On the eve of being dumped out of a senatorial race after revelations about high-spirited shenanigans when he was younger he meets a rather fey and free-spirited dancer (Elise Sellas played by Emily Blunt) in the Mens’ Room (as you do!) and is instantly smitten. Unfortunately he has an encounter with representatives of the eponymous Adjustment Bureau who are required by ‘the Chairman’ to manipulate human activities to achieve specified outcomes, and one of these necessitates Norris never getting it together with Elise. Of course, having been smitten he can’t get the girl out of his head and spends the rest of the movie trying to find her, Fate having decided that no matter how determined the Adjustment Bureau operatives are that True Love will find a way.
Quite a simple story with some intriguing twists. Damon is excellent – he’s a fine actor – but Blunt I found less convincing. If I have to criticise the movie I would say that the ending isn’t quite as emotion wrenching as it could have been: the dilemma confronting Norris should have been made MUCH more difficult.
No matter: I thought it was a good film … not great but good. The girls liked it too, though I think they would have liked more of a Notebook-esque denouement. A chick movie with attitude.
Okay. David Norris (Matt Damon) is an up-and-coming politico with a penchant for self-destruction and a family tragedy writ large in his life. On the eve of being dumped out of a senatorial race after revelations about high-spirited shenanigans when he was younger he meets a rather fey and free-spirited dancer (Elise Sellas played by Emily Blunt) in the Mens’ Room (as you do!) and is instantly smitten. Unfortunately he has an encounter with representatives of the eponymous Adjustment Bureau who are required by ‘the Chairman’ to manipulate human activities to achieve specified outcomes, and one of these necessitates Norris never getting it together with Elise. Of course, having been smitten he can’t get the girl out of his head and spends the rest of the movie trying to find her, Fate having decided that no matter how determined the Adjustment Bureau operatives are that True Love will find a way.
Quite a simple story with some intriguing twists. Damon is excellent – he’s a fine actor – but Blunt I found less convincing. If I have to criticise the movie I would say that the ending isn’t quite as emotion wrenching as it could have been: the dilemma confronting Norris should have been made MUCH more difficult.
No matter: I thought it was a good film … not great but good. The girls liked it too, though I think they would have liked more of a Notebook-esque denouement. A chick movie with attitude.
'TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD' THEATRE ROYAL NOTTINGHAM
The family went to see the disappointing ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at The Theatre Royal Nottingham yesterday.
The Rees family seems to be haunted by the Harper Lee’s book: Ellie had it for GCSE so we’ve all read it several times and given the movie a couple of viewings. I think we all agreed that it was an ‘important book’ so everyone was excited about having the opportunity of seeing the characters in the flesh, so to speak.
As I say the production was a disappointment and this, despite the valiant efforts by the players and some very effective stage effects. The fundamental problem was, I think, the script itself. This stage version was written by Christopher Sergel back in 1970 and forty years on it creaked. Overly reverential to Harper Lee’s book it was not a stage adaptation as much as a staged recreation – as Ellie, my daughter, remarked, the only way they could have made it any drier was by simply having one of the actors read from the book.
My other major gripe was the use of a grown-up Scout acting as narrator. This destroyed any chance of the audience suspending disbelief and gutted the play of any tension: every point of conflict was signalled well in advance and there was no room left for the audience to make up its own mind. The narrator also eliminated the childlike naiveté of Scout which, for me, was one of the main strengths of the book. This was a case of too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’.
Compounding these problems the ponderous nature of some of the scenes, a number of which were simply superfluous. I was left with the feeling that to work on the stage the story had to be reworked, with the courtroom scene coming at the end. Sacrilegious I know but better to be contentious than boring.
It would have taken supreme acting skills to have overcome these obstacles. Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch was good but too hectoring – almost peevish – in his handling of Scout and Jem. But then, I suppose, Gregory Peck casts a long shadow. Grace Rowe was too old to be a convincing Scout, whilst Matthew Pattimore’s Jem simply didn’t convince.
One upbeat aspect was the set design. The staging and the lighting effectively evoked the despairing emptiness of a 1935 America gripped by depression and I thought the use of video inspired.
All-in-all a flat, boring production, an opinion shared by the rest of the audience if the rather begrudging applause at the end was any indication.
The Rees family seems to be haunted by the Harper Lee’s book: Ellie had it for GCSE so we’ve all read it several times and given the movie a couple of viewings. I think we all agreed that it was an ‘important book’ so everyone was excited about having the opportunity of seeing the characters in the flesh, so to speak.
As I say the production was a disappointment and this, despite the valiant efforts by the players and some very effective stage effects. The fundamental problem was, I think, the script itself. This stage version was written by Christopher Sergel back in 1970 and forty years on it creaked. Overly reverential to Harper Lee’s book it was not a stage adaptation as much as a staged recreation – as Ellie, my daughter, remarked, the only way they could have made it any drier was by simply having one of the actors read from the book.
My other major gripe was the use of a grown-up Scout acting as narrator. This destroyed any chance of the audience suspending disbelief and gutted the play of any tension: every point of conflict was signalled well in advance and there was no room left for the audience to make up its own mind. The narrator also eliminated the childlike naiveté of Scout which, for me, was one of the main strengths of the book. This was a case of too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’.
Compounding these problems the ponderous nature of some of the scenes, a number of which were simply superfluous. I was left with the feeling that to work on the stage the story had to be reworked, with the courtroom scene coming at the end. Sacrilegious I know but better to be contentious than boring.
It would have taken supreme acting skills to have overcome these obstacles. Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch was good but too hectoring – almost peevish – in his handling of Scout and Jem. But then, I suppose, Gregory Peck casts a long shadow. Grace Rowe was too old to be a convincing Scout, whilst Matthew Pattimore’s Jem simply didn’t convince.
One upbeat aspect was the set design. The staging and the lighting effectively evoked the despairing emptiness of a 1935 America gripped by depression and I thought the use of video inspired.
All-in-all a flat, boring production, an opinion shared by the rest of the audience if the rather begrudging applause at the end was any indication.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
RENEGADE WRITERS 16TH MARCH 2011 (PART 1)
I think one of the benefits of going to a writer’s group (apart from having your writing critiqued, of course) is that you get to see how other writers approach their work and to compare it with your own modus operandi.
Writing is one of the few forms of delusion that is socially acceptable. I mean, there aren’t many outlets for your fantasies which are so cheap, convenient and which don’t involve plain envelopes, PVC and the risk of social ostracism. Start talking to the chap sitting next to you on the Clapham omnibus about journeying to a virtual world run by long-dead psychopaths (a la the Demi-Monde) and it won’t be long before you’re interfacing with men in white coats and getting up close and personal with an industrial-sized helping of thorazine.
Yeah, the more deranged of our fellow citizens might occasionally visit Cloud Cuckoo Land but few of them are as intent on building a holiday home there as are most SF writers.
Because of this – and because writing is, by definition, very much a solo occupation – there is, I suspect, a real danger that writers can lose perspective. So it’s useful, once a week, to touch base with Planet Earth (even if it is a Planet Earth that occupies different temporal and spatial co-ordinates, but I digress).
And the lodestone of normality at the Renegades is Misha.
Misha is one single-minded lady. Every week she brings in another chapter of the second book relating the adventures of Lettie that she’s writing. She never seems to get fed-up or to succumb to writer’s block (or, as it’s called in the Real World, Can’t-Be-Arsed-Itis) or to get side-tracked and I think it is this determination that will see her books published in the end.
Self-discipline like Misha’s is I think vital for any writer – they’ve got to be able to resist the temptation of ‘Busy Work’, doing things that are related to their writing but which ain’t directly involved with finishing the story they’re working on. Things like writing a blog when you know you should be working on Demi-Monde 4.
Curses!
Writing is one of the few forms of delusion that is socially acceptable. I mean, there aren’t many outlets for your fantasies which are so cheap, convenient and which don’t involve plain envelopes, PVC and the risk of social ostracism. Start talking to the chap sitting next to you on the Clapham omnibus about journeying to a virtual world run by long-dead psychopaths (a la the Demi-Monde) and it won’t be long before you’re interfacing with men in white coats and getting up close and personal with an industrial-sized helping of thorazine.
Yeah, the more deranged of our fellow citizens might occasionally visit Cloud Cuckoo Land but few of them are as intent on building a holiday home there as are most SF writers.
Because of this – and because writing is, by definition, very much a solo occupation – there is, I suspect, a real danger that writers can lose perspective. So it’s useful, once a week, to touch base with Planet Earth (even if it is a Planet Earth that occupies different temporal and spatial co-ordinates, but I digress).
And the lodestone of normality at the Renegades is Misha.
Misha is one single-minded lady. Every week she brings in another chapter of the second book relating the adventures of Lettie that she’s writing. She never seems to get fed-up or to succumb to writer’s block (or, as it’s called in the Real World, Can’t-Be-Arsed-Itis) or to get side-tracked and I think it is this determination that will see her books published in the end.
Self-discipline like Misha’s is I think vital for any writer – they’ve got to be able to resist the temptation of ‘Busy Work’, doing things that are related to their writing but which ain’t directly involved with finishing the story they’re working on. Things like writing a blog when you know you should be working on Demi-Monde 4.
Curses!
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