Sunday 29 December 2013

Writing tip 5 - Live, look, listen, learn. Love. = le livre

What is it about words that begin with the letter 'L"?

Personally I think these impact quite a bit on what is produced. Especially the first one. Important to get out and live life as we go along. Funny thing about writers (big generalisation coming up!) is that we tend to be introverts.


I was born an introvert and grew into one strange combination of someone who is alternately happy to hide away, while at the same time committing myself to activities that force me into the social sphere. I have never regretted the latter. Not wishing to be crude, but let's just say that if I hadn't done that, and if I hadn't kept doing that, I might well have disappeared up any one of my own apertures, a tendency that, even now, I must constantly fight in my own writing.

So my tip is this: don't forget to live. I mean to really engage in living, not to be a fly in the wall, or always in the kitchen at parties (remember the old refrain). On the other hand, sometimes it's good to be a fly on the wall, so this doesn't mean never stepping back. It's just that most of us are already quite good at stepping back.

Look; find new ways of seeing. As writers we need a certain flexibility of mind - a willing suspension of disbelief - just as readers and audiences do. I think this is about taking time to try on the other person's shoes before rushing into judgement. I doesn't mean characters can't be judgemental, but the writer needs to stand back from the character (along with the reader) and know them as separate from self. This also protects the writer from being too distressed when people don't like what they write, or don't like a character.

This is because the writing is not the same as the writer - it is a product of thought, plot decisions, character decisions and play. The process is captured as a product, but by the time the product is produced, the process has moved on. At the same time, the writing can only come from the writer, so the writer needs to constantly grow as a person.

Listen. It takes patience and humility to really hear what another person is saying, especially if that person is very different from oneself. Language is imperfect and we all do our best to express what we mean, but there are so many things that interfere with this. This is such fertile ground for the writer - the stumbling imprecisions of communication. I have recently read Graham Swift's Last Orders (yes, I am a late bloomer in every way - like a Dixie Chick - taking the long way around). If you want a book that brilliantly illustrates the difficulties that people have in reaching out to one another through language read Last Orders.

Learn. Never stop. Everyone has more to learn and much to impart. If writing isn't about learning about the many possibilities of life, then what do we do it for?

Love. Write with love. Keep going until you love what you write. Find a little love and understanding for each of your characters, even (especially?) the villains.

Writing Prompt:

Do something you have never done before; visit a place you have never visited before. Anywhere. Engage, observe, talk to people, listen and learn. Then, as soon as possible, write down your observations either as notes, stream-of-consciousness, or creatively as a poem or scene.

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