Clamouring to become visible...

Approaching the blank page - part 3 From Write Anything - 9 August 09

2009-11-01T00:01:00.000Z

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on August 09, 2009. The original text can be found here. Apologies for the delay between posts - I've been a little busy the past few weeks, and let this slip my mind. This is the third in a four-part guide I wrote describing how I get past my own writer's block - I hope it gives you some ideas and inspiration.

Approaching the blank page - part 3

Image via Wikimedia Commons in the public domain.

For the past two weeks I've been teasing you all with ideas about how to approach the blank page, and I've not let you write. But, if you've been playing along (and assuming I'm not talking complete nonsense!) you have some inspiration, you are in a good writing space with all your materials to hand, so pens at the ready, fingers on the keys and...

... pause. Sorry everyone, we're still not writing. You have a blank page in front of you. And you have some inspiration. But do you actually know what you are going to write?

I'm not asking what you are going to write about. That's your inspiration. Let's pick a common enough storyline by way of an example. Two people meet, and overcome the odds to fall in love and be together. That's what you're writing about. But what are you writing?

Fiction comes in a variety of forms, and you should give some consideration to what you are going to write. The above idea could be accommodated by a poem, a short story, a novel, a play, or a screenplay television or cinema. While you can easily turn a short story into a novel once you start writing, it isn't quite so easy to turn a screenplay into novel or vice versa - writing a script is a technical process and if you want to go down that route you need to know all kinds of formatting details that are irrelevant to writing prose. Similarly, poetry has it's own conventions and rules, and switching from one to the other is not always easy.

As well as considerations of the form of the story you want to tell, there are content considerations. So you want to tell the story of forbidden love. Does an outlaw seek the heart of the Sheriff's daughter in the wild west? Perhaps a forbidden love between a German girl and a British soldier in World War II. Is one character an elf, another a human? Maybe they are from different species in a galactic civil war.

As well as knowing the form for your story, you'll need to decide in advance the genre you're working in, be it historical, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, steampunk, contemporary or any one of the myriad of different genres and sub-genres. To get an idea of how many there are, take a look at this list.

You've got your ideas, you've got your tools, and you know what form your story will take. You're almost ready to tackle that blank page.

Almost.

But that's for another week...

Writing Goals and Resolutions - October Update

2009-10-31T10:41:00.002Z

With only one sixth of the year remaining (!!!), we've hit the home stretch of 2009. Here is October's update on my writing goals for this year, and my general New Year resolutions.

Writing Goals

Write every day, aiming for a minimum of two pages each day.
Far more writing done this month than in the most of the previous months, and for the first time in a long time, it has been mainly fiction. I've completed my contribution for the anthology, but my time is still (in the main) taken up with editing the other stories. However, with NaNoWriMo just around the corner, this goal is going to be incredibly important next month!
Launch the Chinese Whispers anthology.
We are go for launch. The stories are, by and large, finished. Just a few minor edits to mould them into a cohesive whole. Then we just need to assemble it into a book, work out cover art, introductions, ISBNs, set up an online store, work out ebook formats, find a POD distribution, figure out pricing and not go crazy before our official launch date. Pre-orders are November 24!!!
Enter six writing contests.
Who has the time? Apart from all those people who juggle a job, other projects and still manage to enter these contests... OK, my time management sucks...
Complete two manuscripts to a publishable standard.
What's a "manuscript"? What's "publishable standard"? What's "two"? Let's just file this under FAIL.
Participate in, and complete, NaNoWriMo 2009.
NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow.... I have an idea. Sort of.

New Year Resolutions

Read at least one book per month.
Books read this month - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore.
Assorted running goals
Winter is a good time to start running... Or to plan to start running...

One nude, two returns and a whole heap of dates

2009-10-15T22:21:00.004+01:00

A few little updates, related to the title.

After several months, I've returned to work (the first return), which has been a mixed experience. It's good to get stable routine back into my life, but it's incredible just how much I've forgotten, and there are have been a few times that I've felt overwhelmed by simple tasks. But I've survived it, so hopefully things should get easier as the weeks progress. I've realised how little use I made of the time off. Opportunities to write, to read, to draw - wasted. Oh well...

Now for the nude. I took my first life drawing class last Friday at the Wellcome Collection, which was good fun. It's amazing how quickly you just accept a nude body posing in front of two dozen complete strangers. And I think that's because you are no longer looking, but seeing - every nuance, every negative space, every curve and imperfection. Here's the best of my sketches from Friday, of our life model Carol.

Now for the second return. You may remember that in March 2008 whilst on holiday in Derbyshire I visited the Chatsworth Estate. On Saturday I returned in the company of my in-laws to celebrate my father-in-law's 60th birthday. The grounds of the estate were host to Beyond Limits 4, an exhibition of Modern and Contemporary sculpture. I had my favourites, which I may say more about another day, but I also took the opportunity to sketch a couple of the installations.

Claude Lalanne's Olympe (Grande)

Eric Goulder's The Woman

And the whole heap of dates? October sees the deadline for final versions of the ten stories comprising the Chinese Whisperings anthology, November sees multiple dates for cover art, advance release and a press release. And in early December, we launch...

Wish us luck...

Approaching the blank page - part 2 From Write Anything - 2 August 09

2009-10-11T00:01:00.001+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on August 02, 2009. The original text can be found here. This is the second in a four-part guide I wrote describing how I get past my own writer's block - I hope it gives you some ideas and inspiration.

Approaching the blank page - part 2

Last week was all about stepping away from the blank page to get an idea of what to write about. Now we can step back to the page and begin the task of how to start.

And it's not by writing.

Writing is a physical activity. You may be sedentary, but it is a biomechanical process, and as such you have to make sure you are doing it right. Eye strain, back ache and carpal tunnel syndrome are among some of the potential injuries you can give yourself when writing.

So take a look at where you plan to do your writing, and make sure it is comfortable. Not too comfortable, you want to actually write, not curl up and fall asleep. If you are writing at a desk or a table, you want it to be at an appropriate height for how you write. For example, if you are typing you want to keep your elbows bent at a 90 degree angle, with your forearms parallel to the ground. But if handwriting it should be slightly higher than that to allow for the higher angle of your elbow. Having a height adjustable chair can help with this.

Speaking of chairs, when sitting at a chair your feet should touch the ground and your thighs be parallel with the ground. Your back should be straight and supported. As someone who suffers from back problems I can tell you that nothing will put you off writing more than persistent pain. You're going to be writing for long periods at a time, so you need to be comfortable enough to do that.

Make sure you have adequate light levels too. I do most of my writing beside a window so that I have the benefit of daylight. I also have an adjustable swing lamp on my desk for writing at night.

Do you have all the materials close at hand you need to write with? Pen, spare ink, spare pens, pencils (plural), pencil sharpener, eraser, typewriter ribbon, plenty of paper, your computer - however you write, have the essentials at hand so you aren't having to disrupt your flow of writing.

Finally, unplug from the internet. If you write longhand or use a typewriter, then this isn't going to be so much of a problem for you. However, if like me you write on a computer, it is a huge pitfall. The internet is great for research, but a fiend for eating up your time. So shut down your web browser. Close the e-mail program. Turn off the instant messaging software. If you have a desktop alert for new e-mails, turn it off too. If you use wi-fi, try turning off the router. Wired internet connection? Unplug it from the computer. Cut yourself off from it while you are writing to remove the temptation to "just check your e-mail". You can always reward yourself with some web time for completing an hour or so of writing.

These are what I consider the non-negotiable preparation for writing, the things you really have to do to get your writing done.

There are other things of course, that are down to personal preference. Some people like to write in absolute silence, others need music in the background. I prefer to have some music playing, but it can't be anything that will distract me, so I prefer to have music with no lyrics. And it can't be the radio for me, as I'll concentrate too much on people talking, but for others having talk radio playing is a benefit.

Same goes for television. I know writers who can have the television playing in the background, can keep up with their writing while watching a film or a TV show. I'm guilty of doing this sometimes, but it tends to be non-fiction. I just can't write fiction with the TV on.

And then there's the subject of refreshments. I heartily endorse having a drink with you whilst you write. What you drink is down to you. I usually have a large mug of coffee, or some water or fruit juice, but I've been known to write with a bottle of beer or a margarita. Again, down to you, with a caveat that you don't use "getting another drink" as an excuse to keep wandering off and not writing. And if do have an alcoholic beverage with you when writing, please drink responsibly. Not everyone can be Hemmingway.

NaNoWriMo Q&A

2009-10-08T09:12:00.002+01:00

Hat tip to regular Write Anything reader and contributer Benjamin Solah for kicking off this NaNoWriMo meme.

Benjamin has posted his own answers, with links to other participants, on his blog, so please click through and have a read of those responses. Now, on to my own answers (oh, and I get my double bonus points for this pic, right Ben?)

Me at my desk with my PowerBook, my writing software, my notepad and pencil, my coffee mug, and my writing buddies

When and how did you find out about NaNoWriMo? How did you go?
I first heard about NaNoWriMo in November 2006 as I was studying for a PhD at the London School of Economics. I began to subscribe to the weekly NaNoWriMo podcast, and decided that it sounded like a fun idea but (a) it was already one week into November, so too late to start, (b) I had enough to do writing up essays on my dissertation subject, and (c) nobody could write 50,000 words of a novel in only a month... So that first year I left it. Come 2007, I was already reading the Write Anything website, found out more about NaNo through them, and had committed to taking part - just as I was appointed Sunday writer for the site. My timing is great...

How many times have you done NaNoWriMo?
Still a relative newcomer. I've only been participating since 2007, so this will be my third.

How many times have you won? If you haven’t won, what was your best result?
I won in 2007. Staggered over the line on the last day at about lunchtime, and promptly cracked open a bottle of champagne. I'd taken a few days off work so that I could finish up! Last year didn't go so good...

How did you go last year?
I gave up during the second week! I'd got behind badly, there were things happening in my life that needed to be my priority, and I just couldn't focus on it. Think I got to about 10,000 words or so. I shall return to the idea I had in the future though.

Where do you write and with what do you write?
Mostly at home in the evenings after work. The first year I did NaNo though I took myself off to the atrium of my office and wrote on my laptop - it was quite open though, and I was something of an object of curiosity to my colleagues!

Originally I only wrote on my computer, but I'm moving back to longhand. I write on pretty much any paper I can find (though I have a liking for Black n' Red A5 hardback notepads), with a mechanical pencil. When I move back to my computer (a PowerBook G4) I write using Scrivener, a wonderful bit of writing software that combines planning and notetaking with a full screen simple text editor, then pulls together your work and outputs it formatted for novels, screenplays etc. Very useful, very quick, and probably the best writing software I've used. Mac only I'm afraid, and it isn't free, but it is well worth the money.

How do you find time to write?
Ha! I don't know - who has free time? I've been off sick for several months, so theoretically I've had nothing but time, but haven't been able to write much of anything in that time. Really, it's all about finding the time. When I return to work I'll have an hour's commute each way. Part of the reason for switching to longhand is that it is easy to write that way when travelling. Lunchtimes I can grab 30 minutes or so for writing. Then at home if I turn off the TV then I have time. It's all about creating the time by being discriminating about what you choose to spend your time on.

Are your partners, friends and family allies or enemies?
Definitely allies. Most of my friends know I'm a writer, and the times I write the most are not times when they make demands on me anyway. And my wife is incredibly supportive, as well as having a good eye for detail and picking up on mistakes I've missed.

What are you strengths and what do you use to help you get to the end?
Ideas and ability. I'm not normally short of an idea for the story, or the ability to take a situation and turn it into a story. And, although sometimes I doubt it, I can actually write. That's always an advantage in this sort of venture...

What are you weaknesses, obstacles and challenges that hinder you from finishing?
Procrastination and distraction. I'm like a magpie, the next shiny object to pop up will make me flock towards it and abandon whatever I was doing. I'm not terribly self-disciplined, though I think I'm getting better. The big temptation is to be lazy, to sit in front of the television with the computer and say I'll write. No I won't, I'll half-watch whatever is on the TV, and mess around online. Turn off the TV and shut off the computer - that's the only way I'll get things done. There are only maybe 5 or 6 shoes I genuinely make an effort to watch, and with the advent of timeshifting schedules, online catch up services etc I can say "I will write at these times, and watch these shows at these times", and make my own schedule, not the one dictated by others.

Do you plot/outline/plan or do you write by the seat of your pants? How much do you plot or how unprepared are you?
I'm a pantser - I start with an idea, and let things grow organically. In my first year of NaNo I used the Snowflake method, but in actually writing the story I deviated wildly from what I had sketched out. I found the method good for getting a handle on my characters, but not much use for plotting. I take the characters, take a situation, and see what they do. I didn't plot at all for the second year, I just let it ocme, and that's what I plan to do this year.

Do you participate in the real life community, go to write ins and meet ups in your area?
In the first year I went along to the launch party for London based Wrimos, but that was it. I didn't the second year, and I have never been to a write-in (although this year I may, we'll see). I participate more in the NaNoWriMo regional forum and specific interest groups, but even that I'm going to scale back this year as a part of my mission to be less "always on".

What are your writing aids? Special snacks, music, totems, rewards or punishments?
Coffee. I have an oversized mug, and it's my writing mug. The message on it is "Careful of what you sad and do, I'm writing a novel and it might include YOU!". I also have my two NaNoWriMo mascots, who you can see in the picture at the top of the page. One is a plush Cthulhu, the cutest way to succumb to the gibbering insanity, and the other is a Beanie Baby called Creepers, a plush skeleton with glow in the dark robe. Cute, yet disturbing - both of them. Given my interests, you can see why they were bought for me!

In terms of rewards - a day off every week or so if I've kept ahead of the word count, and a bottle of something nice for completing it!

Approaching the blank page - part 1 From Write Anything - 26 July 09

2009-10-04T00:01:00.000+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on July 26, 2009. The original text can be found here. This is the first in a four-part guide I wrote describing how I get past my own writer's block - it would be hubristic of me to claim that this will solve the problem for everyone, but perhaps it will provide some writers with inspiration for finding their own way through the blank page.

Approaching the blank page - part 1

Image via Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

This is it. This is the moment. You are a writer. You want to write. You sit down, open up your notebook, fire up the word processor, put a sheet of paper into the typewriter, sharpen that pencil, dip pen into ink, your fingers hovering over the keys - however you write, you're about to begin, and you're about to begin on a blank page.

And that's when you stop. You are on the precipice here, peering over the edge into the void, a little scared, and wondering what you are supposed to be doing now.

The blank page is terrifying. It is pristine, pure - do you really want to defile it with poor spelling and grammar, cliché and redundancy? It is also potential - this could be a shopping list, or it could be a book that changes the world forever. And you won't know until you write.

So how do you start? Well, that greatly depends on how you answer the following question...

Do you know what you want to write about?

If you do, then there are all kinds of techniques, tricks and tools you can use - and they are for another day. Right now, I want to speak to all of you people at the back of the room, trying hard not to make eye contact, looking a little sheepish and who gave an embarrassed, mumbled "no" in answer.

If you don't know what you want to write about, then the blank page is the scariest thing you'll see. Because you don't feel its potential, instead it seems to mock you.

So, in this situation, when you don't know what to write about, how do you approach the blank page?

You don't. You back away from the blank page.

Counterintuitive, yes, but if you don't have anything to say, then you need to find something to say, and you won't find it by staring at a piece of paper and cursing your inability to fill it with squiggles and words. You can't see the wood for the trees, and in this case you can't see your story for the pulped tree staring back at you.

If you don't know what to write about, then you are not just lacking in inspiration, you are lacking in ideas. This is nothing to be ashamed about, it happens to every writer. The solution is to go hunting for ideas. The best writing connects to the reader, it is visceral, it grabs them and speaks to them intimately.

So your ideas have to have that same power. You won't get them sitting alone straining to fill up a page. If you are lacking in ideas, then take a break from writing.

Go read. Watch television, or a movie. Call on old friend and have a chat. Talk a walk around town, and observe people. And I mean really observe them, wonder about their lives, their jobs, how they are feeling, what they are up to. Walk in nature and listen to birdsong, watch insects buzzing from flower to flower. Read a newspaper and catch up on world affairs.

This is where your ideas come from - from the vast theatre of life, the ongoing drama that is the human experience. Some of my best writing and ideas have come from random news stories, snatches of conversation, and observing people and asking "what if".

A news report on declining bee populations led to an apocalyptic short story of a world without bees. My daily commute to work led to a short horror story in the London Underground. A holiday in New England gave me the location and character inspirations for a novel.

It's all out there, and it's yours for the taking, so go and soak it all up. Take as much time as you need, and once you've got an idea, or two, or three, or four hundred, come back to that blank page.

Then we'll think about how to start.

Writing Goals and Resolutions - September Update

2009-09-30T00:02:00.005+01:00

Here we go with September's update on my writing goals for 2009, and my general New Year resolutions.

Writing Goals

Write every day, aiming for a minimum of two pages each day.
I'm still editing more than I'm writing, but I'm at least writing again. Earlier in the month I got an idea for a story that excited me for the first time in a long, long time, so I'm working on that - strike while the iron is hot! And the next few weeks will see me writing my contribution to...
The Chinese Whispers anthology.
My turn to contribute a story, and to square the circle. So no pressure. Chinese Whisperings marches on at a cracking pace. We are already releasing sneak previews of each story, and if you leave a comment on the blog, you are eligible for entry into a prize draw to win an exclusive ebook version of the anthology - The Red Book Reversed.
Enter six writing contests.
I entered two so far this year, and didn't place in either. The new idea I've had I'm considering either entering it into the Writing Magazine New Subscriber's short story contest, or turning it into a script for the Scotland Writes Competition. We'll see.
Complete two manuscripts to a publishable standard.
*insert hollow laughter here* Seriously, not going to happen. Not even one of them.
Participate in, and complete, NaNoWriMo 2009.
Last month I said I wouldn't be taking part in NaNo, but I've been thinking a lot about anthologies, and there is a collection of short stories I've been meaning to get finished....

New Year Resolutions

Read at least one book per month.
Books read this month - The Rat on Fire by George V Higgins, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Quakers and The Arts by David Sox.
Assorted running goals
I'm slowly running again. By slowly I mean both my pace, and the number of times I run each week. Several months of inactivity have taken a toll on personal fitness, and it's going to take a long time to get back to where I once was. Maybe by Christmas (so long as I don't wind up repeating my foot injury of last New Year...)

Manifesto From Write Anything - 19 July 09

2009-09-27T00:02:00.001+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on July 19, 2009. The original text can be found here. This is as succinct a statement of why I write as I can come up with. This is who I am.

Manifesto

Than you to everyone for your suggestions at the end of last week's ~~petulant whine~~ appeal for ideas. I've got an idea for a few different articles based on suggestions, but I thought the first one to address should be something that Rob asked, as it seems to be one of the first things to address - why do we write?

Well, I can't really speak for anyone else, I can only say why I write, and give thoughts on what I perceive to be the general urge to write.

All life is story and myth. We tell stories about ourselves every day, in gossip, in conversation, in blogs and emails and telephone calls. "You'll never guess who I met", "did you hear about Sandy", "I'm so excited I just have to tell you...."

Our popular entertainment consists almost exclusively of stories. Drama, comedy, horror, fantasy, science fiction, romance on television, DVD, the movies, radio, online (even books!).

Even current affairs and news is a form of storytelling, depending on the point of view you want to put across from supposedly objective events (or in some cases events cut from whole cloth). The news is myth in the making, before passing into the realms of history, myths that are generally accepted.

Religion too comes down to storytelling, an esoteric myth to history's exoteric myths.

Stories impart essential information, warnings about dangers, and explanations for how things are. Humans are curious, curious about everything, and stories are how we explain things. From reminiscing about our greatest hunts and warnings of the dangers lurking in the dark, to how we came to set foot on the moon, our existence is told and retold through stories.

I think this urge exists within us all, but it appears to be stronger in some than in others. We can all tell a story, but some seem able to take any event and make a tale of it, to reach into their own minds and create realities, universalise emotions and themes, and weave them into a coherent whole that entertains and inspires others.

Society has always had its bards and storytellers, just as it has always had warriors, hunters, priests, scientists and healers. Anyone could be any of these things, but we are drawn to what we have an aptitude for.

I believe that I have an aptitude for storytelling. I have always taken events and wove them into something more, there are vivid images that bubble through my mind, insistent that they need to released, to be told and retold. At times it seems that the ideas are independent of me, that I am the conduit through which they can appear, to be given life through being read by others.

It is an urge that burns away in the mind, sometimes quietly, sometimes violently, and that can only be satisfied through the telling.

I write not simply because I enjoy it, because in truth sometimes it is horrible. Lonely, painful, frustrating (and more of that another day). I write because it drives me, because telling a story is part of who I am, and because I will not be happy until the stories have been told.

I write because I choose to. I write because I have to. I write because the story is part of me, and I am part of the story.

Fiction Friday - 25 September 2009 To thine own self be true

2009-09-25T02:21:00.003+01:00

This Week's Theme: The house lights dim, the curtain goes up... you’re on.

The last night. The last performance. Indeed, the very final performance. There shall be no curtain calls, not this time. Listen to that young wretch prattle on, mangling the Bard's poetry. Inelegant. Inarticulate. Some television star who knows nothing of the theatre, nothing of projection and enunciation.

He butchered the soliloquy. Oh, there was a time when they paid to see me deliver those immortal lines. Even Sir Larry, god rest him, congratulated me on my performance.

"Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hunt..."

Ignorant buffoon! Horrid hent, not horrid hunt. Lord, these young so-called stars, their refusal to take direction... My days of playing the Prince are long past. But tonight... tonight they shall remember my Polonius, oh yes. Neither a borrower nor a lender be... Oh irony, thou art a wicked mistress. Sage Polonius, wise words that I deliver to the audience, and yet it is advice I take not myself. Creditors hounding me, bankruptcy, oh the ignominy - and the press! Those damned journalists delighting in the "downfall of the down and out actor". Bloody vermin the lot of them.

"He'll take what he can get" - my agent had the audacity to say it to the director. He'll take what he can get. And now, working on scale - how is that supposed to help me, struggling on nominal fees in some godforsaken repertory?

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

And there is my cue, the beginning of my final scene. They'll remember this for the rest of their lives...

"He will come straight. Look you lay home to him..." That's how you deliver lines boy; strong, assured, right to the back of the house. My god, it should be my name up front, not this soap actor.

"...withdraw; I hear him coming..."

Aah, Margaret. Always a pleasure to work with you. The bloom is off the rose, but you are still as radiant playing Gertrude as you were when you were my Ophelia. A true professional to the end.

And here comes the clumsy sod, tripping onto the stage, mugging it up for the crowds.

"Now, mother, what's the matter?"

It hasn't been to bad a career, I suppose. For a time I was the one they all looked up to. And they'll be talking tonight, and for some time to come. They'll all remember the night they saw Jacob Samuel's final performance.

"You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife..."

And so it begins. They'll remember him too, of course. Perhaps his career will recover. Still, too late now, far too late.

"What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!"

Goodbye, Margaret - now my final act begins. What, ho! help, help, help!

"How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!"

Strike true boy, strike true...

Thank you boy, what finesse you lack in your performance, you make up for with the enthusiasm of your swordplay. It will be swift. But remain professional Jacob. Professional to the end.

Oh... Oh... I am... I am... I... am... slain....

The gasp from the boy, true emotion that he cannot fake. He knows, but the audience? Or Margaret?

"O me, what hast thou done?"

No, Margaret hasn't... realised... And now the houselights dim... To die... To sleep...

"LINE!"

The director... oh poor Hamlet... alone realising what he's done... To sleep... Perchance to dream...

"Oh god, oh god, OH GOD! Someone, someone call an ambulance, quickly!"

What dreams may come... when I... have shuffled off this mortal coil? My finest scene... the finest death of Polonius ever acted. But no bow... no curtain call... savour the last few... moments... ay, there's the rub... I go now to that... undiscover'd country... from whose bourn... no... traveller...

Overdraft From Write Anything - 12 July 09

2009-09-20T00:02:00.001+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on July 12, 2009. The original text can be found here. I was beginning to suffer a little from burn out on the Write Anything site, and was finding it difficult to come up with something to write about. This was my plea to the readership to find out what they wanted to read about.

Overdraft

In The Artist's Way Julia Cameron talks about something called "filling the well". All artistic endeavours draw heavily upon our artistic well. Each brushstroke, each paragraph, each performance is like pulling another bucket of nourishing water from the well.

Then one day, you drop the bucket down and instead of a splash, you hear a clunk. You've tapped the well for all it can give you. While you've been busy drawing on the well, you've done nothing to replenish the well.

That's what it feels like at the moment for me. I have neglected to replenish my well, existing on the artistic equivalent of the deep groundwater, overtaxing it and myself.

There are a number of things that you can do to refill your artist's well, and Julia Cameron's book is effectively a twelve week course in water resource management for the artist. One method of replenishing a well not mentioned however is time - leave the well alone, stop drawing on it, let it fill back up.

But wait, you cry - if we've followed the metaphor correctly, wouldn't that mean stopping writing altogether? Perhaps. But I think writers have different wells for different occasions, and it is one specific well that I'm thinking of letting lie fallow for a while. It is the well I draw on for inspiration for these articles.

And this is where you guys can help. I find that at the moment I can write when told what to write, but I'm finding it fiendishly difficult to come up with my own ideas. I know from looking at the webstats that we get a lot of hits daily, but only a handful of people leave comments. So either the majority of people are totally satisfied with what they've read and can add nothing further (which I doubt) or we're not inspiring and challenging people enough.

I need your ideas for things to write about.

For some months now we've been trying to enhance the interactivity of the site with the readership, and the best way to do this is through the comments. So lets start writing about what you the readers want to read about. What am I not talking about, that you desperately want to read about? What areas do you think are being ignored that you want to see explored? This may be my column, but it's your time I'm taking up expecting you to read this. That's an obligation on me to provide something worthwhile to you.

So lets hear from you out there, the silent visitors. Let's make this your site too. Talk to me.

The pages are still blank From Write Anything - 5 July 09

2009-09-13T00:02:00.002+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on July 05, 2009. The original text can be found here.

The pages are still blank

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible
Vladimir Nabokov

This quotation from Nabokov was the inspiration for the name of this blog. At the time, it encapsulated perfectly my feelings as an emerging writer, a neophyte in the field of writing, yearning to release the words that I was aware of, stories that wanted to be seen and read by others.

Today the phrase has another, less joyous connotation for me. The words are there, I can sense them, I know they are, but clamoring now means struggle. It is a hard fight to make make the words visible. It is a painful and slow process to make sense of the screaming in my head, so many words at once and the totality making little sense, barely able to discern the single strands of coherence.

Words are there. They want to be seen, they want to be read. But at times I can't see how to make them known.

For some ~~months~~ years now I have struggled, and have at least been diagnosed with, depression. My attention is unfocused, my will almost non-existent and my energy low. Writing is an effort, whereas before it was a joy. And while the anti-depressants I have begun to take will help to dispel the worst of the murky gloom that hangs over my mind, I'm terrified that it will also dull other parts of me, specifically my ability to imagine, to write, to tell stories.

Is depression, indeed is mental illness more generally, the price for artistic merit? Or is artistic talent more prevalent amongst those who are prone to, or suffer from, mental illnesses? I know of (and in some cases know personally) writers who suffer from depression. Musicians and visual artists also have amongst their ranks many talented individuals who have seen depression touch their lives to varying degrees.

Is the incidence of depression amongst artists higher than the rest of the population? Or are artists more willing to acknowledge it, and so it is merely a higher reported incidence?

Whitton Church

2009-09-10T11:10:00.002+01:00

On Tuesday morning I sat in the churchyard of St Philip & St James, Whitton, sketching the view of the church and listening to the Foo Fighters whilst waiting for Julia to finish at the physiotherapist across the road.

This is the view of the church from the other end of the churchyard, so the angle is different from where I was sitting. The image is courtesy of the St Philip & St James Church website.

And here is my sketch, in graphite.

Next stop is getting out the waterpaints and actually painting...

Needs more zombie? From Write Anything - 21 June 09

2009-09-06T00:02:00.000+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on June 21, 2009. The original text can be found here.

Needs more zombie?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains...

So begins Seth Grahame-Smith's novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a parody cum tribute to Jane Austen's original. Officially this is a mash-up, taking two seemingly incompatible materials, and merging them into a new and original artwork.

Musical mash-ups require talent - having an ear for what might work, then mixing them together seamlessly, a triumph of technical prowess and musical imagination. The literary equivalent is played for laughs, but does it require much in the way of talent and originality?

I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in June and enjoyed it. I enjoy Austen, Pride and Prejudice is my favourite of her books, and if you know me then you'll know that zombies appeal to me - it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is the sort of book I would like.

And so it is, on its own. Much of the original Austen text is untouched, and all the classic elements of zombie stories are included. There is a measure of talent in knowing what of Austen could be cut out so that the inclusion of the zombie elements did not confuse, or overburden the book by doubling its length. The zombie plague now feels like an essential setting for the story of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy, rather than an awkward bolt-on.

But that's only a small measure of talent and originality. This is very much a book of the moment, and somewhat divisive. You will either love it, or consider it a literary travesty. I fear that as time passes, the willingness to read this will wane, and I dread to think that this might be the vanguard of a new literary genre, [Classic Novel] + [Monster of the Week] = Bestseller, because I think people will quickly grow weary of it.

Already, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 2 is available for pre-order (although since Austen never wrote a sequel this may be a more original piece of work). The movie is slated for release in 2011, by which point I think the concept will have jumped the shark - not that this will necessarily stop the "flog a dead horse brigade" in Hollywood, who are rumoured to already have Pride and Predator in the works.

I hope that this will be all we get of the monster-lit mashup market, before it seems less like a quirky and funny idea, and more like a juvenile prank that becomes more tiresome with repetition. The concept of fusing classic drama with sci-fi and horror is hardly new, having been done twice in my memory on British television - the sketch show Dead Ringers had Jane Austen meets The Terminator, and in the mid-nineties comedian Harry Enfield speculated on what a Terminator film from Merchant Ivory would look like.

Still, if any zombies want to invade the interminably boring Wessex of Thomas Hardy's novels, then I would be delighted to see that happen...

Writing Goals and Resolutions - August Update

2009-09-05T20:30:00.001+01:00

Here we go with August's update on my writing goals for 2009, and my general New Year resolutions. Late. Unsuccessful.

Writing Goals

Write every day, aiming for a minimum of two pages each day.
In line with my Write Anything column last week, I'm starting to write in pen and ink rather than on the computer. One advantage of that is two pages is a lot less in terms of words. The disadvantage is I still need to write...
Compile an electronic anthology of my best short stories from 2008.
I'll revisit these at some point, but for now I'm going to leave it. Consequently, this will be the last mention of this goal.
Launch the Chinese Whispers anthology.
Please visit the Chinese Whisperings site for updates on the anthology. It's getting closer...
Enter six writing contests.
Still only two. There are a few more competitions I could enter, but right now it's hit and miss whether I make the deadlines or not.
Complete two manuscripts to a publishable standard.
Four months left in the year. I'm not going to hit two. I may not even hit one.
Participate in, and complete, NaNoWriMo 2009.
After some thought, I have decided I'm not going to participate in NaNo this year. Last year was a struggle, and with the Chinese Whisperings anthology hitting its final stretch in November, I need to spend the time concentrating on that, as it is a sorely neglected project on my part.

New Year Resolutions

Read at least one book per month.
Books read this month - The Devil Within by Stephanie Merritt.
Assorted running goals
My back is beginning to return to pre-accident levels - well, almost. I'd say it's as bad now as it was before the physio started in April. Hoping to start some gentle running very shortly, see how I take to that, and build up from there.

One million From Write Anything - 14 June 09

2009-08-30T00:02:00.001+01:00

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on June 14, 2009. The original text can be found here. I have skipped forward about a month through the archives, as the articles on Write Anything through May and early June were mainly lists, or had already featured on my own website.

One million

With much pomp, circumstance, hyperbole and stupidity, The Global Language Monitor made the ludicrous and inaccurate claim that the English language had just reached it's 1,000,000th word. And that word? Web 2.0.

This auspicious event occurred on June 10th 2009 at 10:22 GMT. Citizens of the Anglophone world took to the streets to celebrate this epoch defining moment.

As you can tell, I'm somewhat scathing of this. Firstly, if I may be pedantic, "Web 2.0" is not one word, it is two. The GLM has an odd attitude to what a solitary word looks like - their 1,000,001st word for instance is "financial tsunami", which is again not one word but two (and I would argue is a descriptive metaphor...).

GLM declares "with a new word created about every 98 minutes" Web 2.0 became the 1,000,000th word on Wednesday of this week. Of course, that implies that this word is new. Tautologically speaking, a new word can't be one that has been in existence and use for several years, but that's what Web 2.0 is. The Wikipedia entry for Web 2.0 has existed since February 2005. There is an annual conference on Web 2.0 called the Web 2.0 Summit held in California (you can read the news and coverage from 2007's conference online).

It is not new, and not really a word, and as the BBC has pointed out the methods of the GLM are not taken seriously by lexicographers. GLM requires the word to be used 25,000 times online before it declares it a "new" word - this ignores all other print forms (which traditional dictionary compilers look at) and completely ignores actual usage.

For words to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary for example, they undergo a long period of rigourous scrutiny - the rule of thumb is "any word can be included which appears five times, in five different printed sources, over a period of five years". But the compilers of the OED do not make the hubristic claim that these words are "new" to the English language, as GLM does. Merely that these words are new to the OED.

The bumblebee has always been able to fly, but exactly how seemed to defy what we know about physics and mechanics. Then, through careful study, what was always apparent was scientifically explained. The OED are like those scientists who have finally explained how bumblebees can fly - we all knew it, and now they can explain it. The GLM however would have us believe that they bumblebees have only just begun to fly because they noticed it.

In truth, there are more than 1,000,000 words in English, and many of them are unknown, unrecorded, and have private and personal meanings. This public relations exercise by a marketing company that is effectively paid money to carry out Google searches, garnered GLM hours of media time. Given what Web 2.0 actually involves, the cynic in me can't help but wonder which Web 2.0 client may have been engaging their services in the run up to the "discovery" of this word...

Smudged fingers

2009-08-22T13:34:00.003+01:00

This was sketched out this morning as I was listening to some classical music, I remember Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, Handel's Messiah, and Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Possibly Morning from Greig's Peer Gynt Suite too. I don't know where this location is, it likely does not exist. I might have taken some of it from cliffs in Cornwall, although the lighthouse and the broken wooden fence are a little New England. I like the small bird flying at the top of the picture. A gull, or a tern maybe. It looks serene.

Continuing on from the first picture I put up on here, the blank figure, blindfolded, in bondage, with a fog around the head and a hand just visible reaching. It might be lifting the blindfold, it might be crushing the head. The fog makes it hard to see, without the ability to hope all things take on an air of threat, of menace.

Yesterday I bought myself a clutch pencil, a nice mechanical device that holds graphite leads nicely, making it easier to draw. A treat to myself, these are the first two attempts with the pencil. I like the built in graphite sharpener, I used the shavings to create the foggy imagery, I think that works quite well.

Art as therapy, therapy as blogging

2009-08-21T08:47:00.003+01:00

I don't know if I've subconsciously stolen this imagery from elsewhere. It seems very familiar, which made it fairly quick to draw, but I don't know if the familiarity is from seeing it elsewhere, or familiarity with the subject. I can't quite get the almost faceless image of a huddled figure out of my mind, but this is the closest I can represent the way I feel pretty much the whole time. There is sunshine there, but the figure either can't see it, or isn't looking.

When your day to day conversation with your family is peppered with words like nihilism, hypomania and a host of other philosophical and medical terms, when you keep track of the days by the letters on a foil pill packet, when you find yourself wandering around in circles, slamming your fists together and muttering, and you can't remember why, when being unable to find a roll of sticky tape takes on such huge proportions in your mind that your entire life is a failure because you can't find some damn tape to stick down a piece of paper, when real things don't appear real and the made up stuff is so vivid, and you can't keep track of the todays, yesterdays and last weeks - then things are, to put it mildly, troubled.

Yesterday I spent the whole day reading Stephanie Merritt's excellent memoir, The Devil Within. I had to put it down after the first chapter to compose myself - that entire first chapter was a mirror - those are my thoughts, my actions, my feelings, all laid bare on paper. Throughout the book, thoughts that I believed were mine alone, humiliating questions about why can't I cope, when everyone else can - all there on the page, scattered throughout the book. Someone else had been there, someone else got it, someone else confronted all the same questions as me.

There's an incredible selfishness in all of that, an egocentric introspection, but in here is all I am, and I don't even trust him, and I sure as hell don't like him. You have to be selfish when you're stuck inside here, watching as some Other moves around for you, talks for you, and you don't see anything, you just look out of eye-shaped windows and try to scream I'm still in here, please let me out.

My brother told me this is the worst I have been, but it isn't the first time I've been like this. This is me all the way back almost 15 years, this is something I've lived with, lived through, in varying degrees. This is me for my past, my present, probably my future. All of it. Manageable, yes - but likely permanent.

At the moment it has a name, it is called "depression", "deppressive illness", "reactive depression" - I'm sure the name will change after further evaluation.

But it's also called "Paul", because it's part of who I am, and always have been. And so I have to cope, because so long as I'm not going anywhere, he's not going anywhere.

Adapting to preference From Write Anything - 3 May 09

2009-08-16T00:02:00.000+01:00

This is adapted from an article that appeared on the Write Anything website on May 03, 2009. The original text can be found here.

Adapting to preference

A few months ago I was caught up in a heated discussion about Angels & Demons, the film sequel to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

One friend, who had read the book, was excited about the film and keen to see whether it lived up to the original. After a brief exchange about our opinions on Dan Brown as a writer (which won't be repeated here!), another friend mentioned that film adaptations are never as good as the original books, which was met with nods and grunts of agreement, until one of the group started to list films which, in his opinion, were better than the original text - for example, Jaws, Kes, The Shining and Watership Down.

Once the heretical notion of a film being better than the source book was mentioned, this opened the floodgates. Having recently read The Prestige (despite being warned in advance by Dale), I can honestly say that the film was far better by a country mile.

Of the titles mentioned above, I have seen all four as films, but only read Watership Down as a book, and had to disagree, I thought the film was nowhere near as good as the original.

Literature has always been a rich source of material for adaptation by the film and television industries, be it straight adaptation (eg the already mentioned Angels & Demons) or inspirations (eg 10 Things I Hate About You and Clueless, based upon Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Austen's Emma respectively).

Taste is always subjective - for everyone who loves a writer, there are detractors, for every movie fan there is a hostile critic. The film adaptation of Watchmen was loved and hated in equal measures by people who loved the original comic book.

So I wonder - is our opinion influenced by the order in which we encounter the materials? I consider Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose to be better than the film adaptation, yet Christopher Priest's The Prestige I prefer the film. I read Eco before I saw the film, where it was a few years after seeing the film that I read Priest's original.

The same goes for Watership Down, I read the book first and consider it superior. I have for over 20 years now loved the film The Princess Bride, and have hesitated about taking the copy of Goldman's original book down from my bookshelf and reading it, in case I find it disappointing.

Do you consider all adaptations to be pale reflections of the original work, or have you encountered adaptations which build upon and improve the source material. Did the order in which you encountered them change your opinion?

Get rid of the gubbins

2009-08-12T18:47:00.005+01:00

That's one of the to do items for today on the whiteboard above my desk, one that I've ticked off, and it gave me great delight to do so.

Gubbins, such an evocative term for them - pointless fiddly little widgets and what-not. I had a look at my blogs today, at the voting buttons, the Technorati "authority" ranks etc etc and I just thought "what the hell is the point?"

I mean honestly - what value do they add? None. Do regular readers pay attention to them? No. Do casual readers? No. Do they bring any new readers? No.

So what purpose do they serve? None whatsoever. They are the internet equivalent of slapping your dicks on the table and measuring them. I didn't do that as a teenager, I'm sure as hell not doing it at the age of 30 on the world wide web.

Who honestly gives a flying fuck about your "authority" - all that tells me is that you're a link whore. There are blogs out there with huge numbers who exist for no other purpose than to collect links to other blogs to drive up traffic. For ad revenue, or for spurious claims that they provide you with some kind of value (and honestly, looking at some of these big number blogs, they are just pyramid schemes - "I'll show you hot to make a shitty looking blog that gives you a headache, but makes you money - just make another fucking link whore site like mine!")

Nah, sorry, I'm not playing that game and I'm bowing out. It may not be very social media of me, but screw it, the Emperor has no clothes. Anyone who cares what I have to say will not give a damn about stupid popularity contests, and the type of people who do? Well, they probably weren't interested in what I had to say, only in getting another link...

So they're gone - the only things I've kept are the ones that I think have some genuine value, ones that serve a purpose, or that foster genuine networking and community, not shallow, hollow linkage.

Apologies for the swearing folks, but today I don't feel so eloquent...

Perseid meteor showers 2009

2009-08-12T00:21:00.003+01:00

It seems that it is becoming customary for me to make a post about the Perseid meteor showers each year.

Zenith is predicted for 15:00 UTC, 12 August 2009. Rather inconveniently, that's bang in the middle of the day, so not much chance of seeing anything during the zenith!

However, it is always worth watching the skies during the night before and after the zenith. I was out for the past few hours, lying in a sun lounger in darkenss, staring at the sky. I had a good view of Cassiopeia, which sits just above Perseus, and between the pair of them is the radiant of the Persieds.

Disappointingly, not many were seen. I saw four or five definite meteorites, so hopefully later viewing will be better.

WWYMCD? From Write Anything - 26 April 09

2009-08-09T00:02:00.000+01:00

This is adapted from an article that appeared on the Write Anything website on April 26, 2009. The original text can be found here.

WWYMCD?

Writers are, by and large, a fairly self-centred and narcissistic bunch. After all, we have the temerity to think that our thoughts are important enough that others will want to read them. We long to see our name on a book cover, in a glowing newspaper review. I have a recurring fantasy of travelling on the Tube, watching someone reading a book with my name on it, and they look up, see me, check the author photo, then look back and smile.

And as with all self-centred and narcissistic people, there are fears and issues lurking below the surface. Self-doubt, a need for acceptance, reassurance, and a certain timidity and fear of failure that means we don't always reach for what we want.

Many first novels by new writers are thinly disguised fantasy autobiographies. Look at the main character, then find out about the author, and the parallels will be stunning. It makes me wonder what the friends and relations of an author must make of first published novels.

"What do you mean an overbearing mother, drunken siblings and resentment of how they held you back?"
"That's not me, that's my main character!"
"A likely story!"

The first novel-length story I started work on was rather like this. The main character was a Scottish law student who travelled to London to study and wound up unsatisfied in a career that wasn't what he wanted, and held him back from pursuing writing. Gosh, how on earth did I come up with that idea....?

But in projecting our lives into a fictional world, we can work out on paper the issues that affect us. We can be the best person we can be, even a person we never thought we could be, in a story. Our main characters can do and say the things that we hold back from, through fear, propriety, whatever.

Maybe it works the other way too. Maybe, if our main characters are a part of our psyche, then we can take those strong aspects and project them back into our life. When the boss is giving you a hard time, how would the unflappable detective handle it? In difficult times, maybe one of your characters has a deft and diplomatic manner that you can borrow. After all, if they have it, it came from you, so it must be part of you.

Many writers begin a scene, and let events unfold in a natural manner, depending on how they feel the characters would react, rather than the dictates of a pre-arranged plan.

Maybe in life, not just in fiction we should ask ourselves – What would your Main Character do?

Introducing Chinese Whisperings

2009-08-07T11:07:00.002+01:00

For a year now I've been working behind the scenes on a business project with fellow writer, friend and, I'm now proud to announce, business partner Jodi Cleghorn.

The business idea we've been working on is large, ambitious, and potentially wholly beyond our abilities. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. If it fails, we can at least say we tried. And if it succeeds, well... it's going to be huge if it works.

Phase one of the plan was to produce an anthology of shorts stories by new and emerging writers. Ten writers later, and we feel the idea is working so well that the anthology is going to be a series of anthologies.

Let me introduce to you our new project, Chinese Whisperings.

Chinese Whisperings is a conceptual anthology created by Australian writer Jodi Cleghorn and Scottish writer Paul Anderson. Each anthology is a collection of interwoven short stories by emerging writers from across the English-speaking world. Unlike other anthologies, Chinese Whisperings is created in a sequential fashion.

The Red Book, the first of the anthologies to be produced through Chinese Whisperings, has each successive writer taking a minor character from the preceding story and telling their story as the major character in the next story. Each writer also references events from the preceding story to tie the ten stories together.

The first anthology, Chinese Whisperings: The Red Book will be available later this year in ebook format, and hardcopy.

In the meantime, in addition to our main site, you can subscribe to the official Chinese Whisperings blog, follow us on Twitter @ChineseWhisAnth and join the Facebook group.

Fiction(less) Friday

2009-08-07T09:25:00.003+01:00

It's Friday, and on Write Anything that means it is [Fiction] Friday, our weekly flash fiction prompt.

Today I realised it is almost three months since I took part in [Fiction] Friday. Given that I'm one of the writers on the site, that's not good form - and I'm meant to be in charge of the writing prompts in September! But then I've not written much in the way of fiction at all in the last three months, neither for the site nor my own projects. I do need to get back on that horse, and soon. I had grand plans for an aggressive writing schedule that would see me finish two manuscripts by the end of the year, and looking at my calendar, I've spotted that the time alloted to the first one for writing, rewriting and editing, has expired.

B@%&£*$^!

As ever, I do have an excuse. More than one actually. The depression is a fairly major factor. When some days are a struggle to get out of bed, then writing is the furthest thing from my mind.

But I do have another really quite excellent excuse, more of which in my next post...

I'm also branching out into two new(ish) areas. When I was in high school I used to be reasonably good at drawing and painting, and recently I've picked up some paints, pastels and pencils, and want to give that a go again - as much for the therapeutic aspects as for the creativity aspects.

And, there are two script writing competitions I'm going to enter - one is for Co-Producer, which describes itself as "a unique collaborative movie-making project. An online panel of CoProducers will have their say on all aspects of the movie, from pitch to post-production, in exchange for receiving a share of 55% of the movie's net profits."

The idea was to create something unique, and to focus on quality movie ideas. Sadly, being the general public, they tossed out all the original ideas in the first stage, and have plumped for a no thought required action movie. Doubtless there will be calls for Jason Statham to star.

However, members are now able to submit their pitches to write the script, so I think I'd like to try to drag it back from the precipice of humdrum mediocrity it is hellbent on becoming. That may sound big-headed of me, but honestly, you should have read some of the comments - I understand that big budget action flicks turn profit, but everyone seemed to forget that the way this project is set up, it will simply not have the budget to make this kind of action flick. And the whole ethos of the project was to have something unique, something rarely seen in the cinema. That alone should have disqualified every "tits, guns & explosions" idea that got pitched.

The other script competition is for BBC Scotland, who are looking for pilot episode pitches for a TV series that would reflect contemporary Scotland - open to writers originally from, or currently living in, Scotland.

At the very least, it gives me some practice in formats I'm not used to.

Good article, now change all of it From Write Anything - 19 April 09

2009-08-03T20:49:00.003+01:00

This is adapted from an article that appeared on the Write Anything website on April 19, 2009. The original text can be found here. As the article mentioned below has since been printed, I can tell you that the magazine was Running Free, available by subscription or free from selected running and fitness stores.

Good article, now change all of it

In April I had the privilege of being asked to write an article for a running magazine. It was a short article, about 500 words or so, and the deadline was fairly tight. I was given the assignment on Thursday 9 April, and asked to deliver the article by Tuesday 13 April.

Since this was a holiday weekend in the UK, and this was the first hard copy publication I've written an article for, I decided to be very professional – I carefully researched and edited the article, and sent it early on the Monday, well in advance of the deadline.

And then things went awry. The magazine editor had wanted me to write the article from one point of view, and I had written it from the opposite point of view. This wasn't the fault of either party, but arose from some genuine mix-ups in communication. She then asked whether I would mind rewriting a new article from the perspective she needed, since she already had an article from the point of view I had used.

My first reaction, I'm sad to say, was to get precious about my writing. I had worked hard on this article! My words are precious! Thankfully, I'm old enough to know to ignore my first reactions these days. Temper tantrum out of the way, I replied "sure, just give me a few hours".

I had written the article from a point of view I personally agreed with. But if I'm any kind of writer, I can write from multiple perspectives with clarity and conviction. I treated the assignment as instructions from an editor about things that could be improved. For some points of the argument, I merely adapted them to the other perspective. And whilst writing, I came up with some good new points that fit perfectly with the new perspective. I hit save, and sent the article off.

The editor was very happy with it (in fact, she thought the original version was very good too), and it appeared in the May edition of the magazine.

A day or two later, an interview with this editor was published. The interview had been conducted before the article was commissioned. One question and answer seemed to me to be particularly relevant:

Can you name the three most important attributes that make a freelance journalist stand out for you and would make you use them again? ... There's a lot to be said for simply being a nice person to work with ... If someone's difficult and gets grumpy if I ask for something to be changed, for example, I simply won't commission them again.

As for the three most important attributes, I'm going to say:

1. Good writing
2. Flexibility
3. Able to turn good quality articles over quickly

I think I met all those requirements...

Writing Goals and Resolutions - July Update

2009-07-31T17:12:00.003+01:00

Here we go with July's update on my writing goals for 2009, and my general New Year resolutions. This month has been very much up and down for me, and this is reflected in my goals again - more misses than hits I'm afraid.

Writing Goals

Write every day, aiming for a minimum of two pages each day.
I'm beginning to start looking at the creative page again. I'm writing my Sunday column, and I've been writing the odd little snippet, but my main focus has been on the anthology and associated work. Well, what focus I have left. I'm looking at a new outlet for my creativity though, whilst blocked as a writer. I used to paint. This week I picked up some acrylics and pastels, and I'm going back to that. We'll see if that helps me.
Compile an electronic anthology of my best short stories from 2008.
Last month I said I didn't think I'd see this happening, but I still think I'd like to do something with these stories. They were good, and I think with a little polish they could shine.
Launch the Chinese Whispers anthology.
Well, it looks like the website is completed and we're hoping to be launching the anthology in November!
Enter six writing contests.
Still only two. Missed most deadlines, but there are still one or two that are out there. Again, with focus being on the anthology, I'm unlikely to hit this.
Complete two manuscripts to a publishable standard.
Oh Long Watch. How I have neglected thee!
Participate in, and complete, NaNoWriMo 2009.
3 months to go. Yikes!

New Year Resolutions

Read at least one book per month.
Books read this month - Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski, Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham.
Get my 5k time down to 18 minutes.
Run the BUPA London 10,000 in 45 minutes.
Take part in a half-marathon in late summer.
Take part in a full-marathon at the end of the year.
All of these goals came off the rails due to my accident. I'm sorely missing running, and I'm going to start very gently running for very short distances to see how my back takes to it - if all is good, I'll extend my distances.