Writing tip 21 - if you get stuck, simply write

This is where I found myself over the last month. Writer's block. A loss of faith in my own ability to produce that second novel. 

I had two responses (more than two) to this.  One was to (virtually) stop writing new material. The other was to over-edit. It's not the over-editing on the page that is the problem so much as the over-editing inside my head. Going over things too much might suggest a good work ethic (in my own imagination), but it's not always the way to get the best result. I began to lose the bigger picture altogether.

So this is what I've done about it. Yesterday I got up and started writing. I had another thousand words by 9.30 am. Made another cup of coffee. Wrote more words. Today? The same. I'm going to keep writing forward for as long as I can. Let's see where it leads.

So here is this week's tip, for a first draft. If in doubt, forget about that inner critic and simply write more scenes. More chapters. Whether or not you will use these is largely irrelevant. Sometimes the key to writer's block (or writers' block) is to simply write whatever comes to mind. I am repeating myself, but it doesn't matter. I am relinquishing control. Contrary to one (now relatively common) perception, this doesn't necessarily mean opening a vein and bleeding onto the page. Thoughts might, or might not, reflect habitual patterns of belief, or character, but they are, after all, only fleeting electrical impulses, or chemical signals, and they can be changed.

Someone once said to me that you can often only work out what you are thinking when you say it, or write it down. Or maybe the words are a way of making some sort of sense of various physical sensations, impulses and emotions.

Alternatively, what you put on the page can be seen simply as words that can be used to shape a story. This is how I'm thinking about it today. Whatever I produce is material to be mined, whether that material is made up of my actual beliefs, or is a thought experiment, or something that the story suggests because of the decisions already made and what has already been written down. Ultimately, those words don't work for the story can be changed or deleted.

But I'm leaving that for later.

Writing Prompt: Yes, see above... write something new.

Writing tip 20 - Find your peer group

While writing is a largely solitary activity, it can be helpful to meet up with one or two (or a few) writing friends from time to time, to discuss progress, read, or simply connect.

If you look at the list of acknowledgements in any debut novel you will get a sense of the collaboration that takes place throughout the process.

Finding your group is not necessarily as easy as simply linking up with a couple of others who are writing. One of the functions of the Book Length Project Group is to bring a wide range of writers of various levels of experience together. As they network they can talk and get a feel for who they might like to link up with on a more regular basis.

There are groups on the internet that discuss issues related to writing, and blogs, many of which go into far more depth than this one. They can be helpful. Writers festivals are another way to meet up with people seriously interested in writing. Consider volunteering at your local writer's festival.

Each needs to decide for him or herself if, how much, and what kind of group contact, is helpful, but I think that some regular peer contact might be worth considering.

Prompt

Consider the kind of work that fits best with your own. Seek out writers who are like-minded. or not like-minded, if this is what works best for you. Try meeting on a regular basis. Attending a regular workshop might be one way to do this.

Writing tip 19 - When you get stuck, read.

I was at a poetry workshop on Saturday and poet Jackson said that she had heard that writer's block was not so much a case of the writing being stuck, as the writer being stuck (sorry if I have that wrong Jackson!)

Maybe that's why I find reading helpful when I get stuck - especially if it is a novel that hits the mark. This week's tip is one that many writers suggest (and just as many seem to ignore) and that is to read, read, read. For me it's part of my self-imposed professional development (to use that lovely bureaucratic term).

When I have been trying to solve a particular problem of how to lift the text, or help the pace, or avoid the cliché, a good book often brings back that old experience of recognition. This is why I do this! Because this is possible.

Besides novels I like to read poetry, and compilations of interviews with writers such as those in Ramona Koval's Speaking Volumes - Conversations with remarkable writers, and The Paris Review Interviews - Volumes 1-4. Another good one is Graham Swift's Making an Elephant - Writing from within.

Writing prompt

Put your writing aside for a few days and read a good book, all the way through, then get stuck back in.

The trouble with flying ... and other stories

Glen and Kristen from BLPG each have stories in this new compilation edited by Richard Rossiter and Susan Midalia. 

You can pre-order a copy at this link up to April 30 and receive a 10% discount. I've just pre-ordered mine.

April poetry month prompt

Choose a line from one of your favourite poems and use this to start your own.

Writing Tip 18 - Make a connection - and how this relates to likeability of characters

I found this Ricky Gervais quote in last weekend's Review from The Australian newspaper:

"Any art form, even one as lowly as TV comedy or presenting an awards show, is about making a connection."

If you haven't yet caught his Derek series, you really can see a great example of connection. This is my favourite Ricky Gervais creation, a show with pathos, humour and a sense of genuine love for the characters it portrays.  Derek is one of the helpers in an aged care home, a gentle, kind soul, who always falls on his feet.

Making a connection might mean many things, but my understanding of how a writer goes about this has to do with empathy which then (hopefully) results in communicating something that has meaning for people. It has to do with the relationship that is established. Relationship is important between the characters in a story, and because the reader is invited in, the relationship extends to the reader, and because the writer is expressing something from his or her own imagination, the relationship involves and implicates the writer. This doesn't mean that the character is the writer, any more than a child pretending to be Superman, or  Winnie the Pooh, is Superman or Winnie the Pooh. The imagination of the writer is constantly modified and restricted by what s/he has already written, and the decisions progressively made about a character's history and personality. This means that the final version of the character might be very different from the one that started out on the page. Likeability (and connection) can drift, or be reinforced.

Of course, not all writing is touchy-feely, but perhaps an element of including one's better nature in a work of fiction can only help with making connections. I gather that there is something about likeability (of at least some) of the characters that seems to be required of writers when it comes to whether or not a work will be published by a traditional publisher, or do well in sales. What it is, I find difficult to pin down, but likeability could be partly about whether a reader is able to imagine him or herself relating emotionally to what a character is experiencing, or is at least able to empathise.

And if writing is about communication, then surely this can only be a good thing.

Writing Prompt:

Revisit a favourite novel with a character that you love, and list all the aspects of that character's personality that you admire. Why do you connect to this character?

Undertake a similar exercise with your current writing project to bring those elements to consciousness. Write a scene where you play with the likeability of a character in a conscious way.

Daily Poetry prompt - April

April is Autism Spectrum Disorder Awareness Month. Today's prompt is to write a poem responding to this picture:

Daily poetry prompt - April

Begin a poem with

He stayed...

or

She said...

or

You went....

or

They were...

Daily poetry prompt - April

Find a newspaper article with potential, and edit it back or remix it,  to create a 'found poem', or a found song.

April - Daily Poetry Prompt

Find a photograph of your own that evokes some emotion in you and respond to it poetically


Or

One of these

Daily poetry prompt April Poetry Month

Choose a book title as your start line and write from there.

Here are some  suggestions in case you don't have easy access:

Antipodes

Zero at the Bone

The Last Sky

The Dream Merchants

Careless

The Marriage Plot

A Stranger in My Street

Big Brother

Book of Longing

Koala

Summer Lovin'

April Poetry Month - Prompt 2

The challenge is to write a poem a day for April.


Prompt 2:

 

or

Incorporate some, or all, of the following words into a poem or song lyric:

Truth

Determination

Self Respect

Humour

Freedom

Strength

Happiness