Even for the most organised of us there is always an element of surprise when it comes to writing. Personally I find this excitement of discovery highly enjoyable. You may plan the journey, and may know the route, but you always encounter surprises along the way. The artistic vision in our heads hardly ever translates […]
Writing
Staring at the Sea
I am slipping on the Dunning-Kruger curve again, like a mountain of many peaks (each one revealing another) the further I travel, the more my journey continues; the more I learn the less I know. I contemplate my place here, writing this at this moment in time, and also here physically torn from my soul […]
The Twilight of the King
You are tired, at the edge of everything. You look down. It is dark below and darker above. A blackstar oversees everything now. But pause, ask yourself before you take another step: are you the subject or the ruler? Who controls your destiny? How long must this continue—this false reign? All he does is sit upon […]
Writing What We Are
Writing in the dark My writing process is pretty chaotic. I usually dive in with very little premeditation. I put a word in front of another like stumbling through a darkened room. After a while I am swept away by a flurry of inspiration. I think, wow, that’s brilliant, take a break, read it back and […]
The Fear and Loathing of Facebook
You know how it is, you’ve been there too. You sit down with the best intentions. There are so many thoughts brimming in your head: Today, I’m gonna to finish that story; that new chapter starts right here, right now; I’m gonna finish my first draft, yes! An hour later you’re still on Facebook. What? How did that […]
How Poetry Makes Us Better Writers
Prose writers of worlds unite As prose writers we need to become adept at developing absorbing storylines, blending action and narrative, fleshing out characters, plotting their rise or downfall, architecting large worlds, interweaving subplots, layering subtext, while maintaining reader interest. (Phew! that’s a lot to be keeping track of.) But, sometimes all of this distracts […]
The Darkness of Ideas
I am struck by a thought out of nowhere—perhaps prompted by a dream or an overheard conversation. It feels like fire. What a great story that would make! But my memory is unreliable. So I note it down on whatever is at hand: mobile phone, napkin, cigarette packet, takeaway menu, anything. The idea is like a hot […]
Yet Another Prompt
The importance of routine Writing regularly is important. Routine practice of writing is like the athlete who hits the gym, the wood-carver who sharpens his gouge, the painter who sketches in pencil. It lays the foundations for everything else. Take a few days off and the incapacity to write becomes a fear-laden vicious circle. Luckily […]
The Loneliness of a Literary Fiction Writer
Sometimes writing a novel is a joyless task. It is fraught with pain and frustration. Who would want to do it? Oh, me. But there are also times when it feels so blissful you fall in love with everything (as long as nobody disturbs you while you’re writing). I wrote 4,000 words towards the second […]
A Work of Infinite Perfection
He surrounds himself with blue-bottled, iron gall ink as favoured by Oscar Wilde; reproduction Baker, Cooke & Smith dip pens used by Charles Dickens; and unruled, cream-coloured notebooks such as those used by Virginia Woolf. He sits at his Edwardian writing table—a beautiful piece of finest mahogany which he is told belonged to the young […]
Lies, Damned Lies, and Fiction
A world without meaning Yesterday I wrote about a visitation from an old friend (with a line borrowed from Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence). It was one of those posts that are all fire and fury, where words cascade and you run with them. I probably wasn’t as lucid as I should have been. I […]
The Grand Illusion of Goats, Time, and Actuality
‘Daddy! You can’t write things like this, it’s redeckless! [sic] It’s so badly written, it’s unbelievable. Besides. Your sentence structures, are all wrong.’ ‘Give me that! What would you know?’ Julian was stunned that Blank 1 had managed to get hold of his book 2, but still, at that moment he loved his son and felt […]
Overcoming Writer’s Block Or: How to Drag Someone Else Down With You
I sat down this morning with the intention of continuing the second draft of my novel. I didn’t think I could do it. In fact, it felt like the worst idea in the world. I wanted to do anything but that. I had a mini crisis of confidence. My head felt empty of words. But I […]
On Approaching the Second Draft
Rereading the First Draft I reread the first draft of my novel yesterday after a three-month break. I’m pleased to say that it was mostly not awful. However, it’s not necessarily the story I feel I want to tell now. (And to be honest it was a bit of a Frankenstein monster of a plot, […]