Tag Archives: Nourish the Writer

July 19, 2010 · 12:23 am

In need of a little R&R

My writing friend, Richard Harland, has just come back from a tour of the US and the UK to promote his steampunk YA book, Worldshaker. Being the kind of chap he is, he got right into the whole thing and had this outfit made.

To read about his tour see here.

Richard is back home and having a well deserved rest.

I wish I could say I had such a good reason to need some R&R, but all I’ve been doing is working, renovating my house, trying to complete a book and helping to run a national workshop. None of which are as exciting as visiting the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges. (Go Richard!).

Is anyone else running on the spot just to stop from going backwards?

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July 3, 2010 · 11:10 pm

Are all dedicated readers aspiring writers?

I love reading.

But I can just remember a time when I couldn’t read. I was two and my mother had a picture in the bathroom. It contained a children’s nursery rhyme about cleaning up the bathroom. And after the bath, she’d point to it and read it and say, now you can’t leave the bathroom before you clean it up. So we’d put the toys away and hang up the bathmat.

I hated that picture because it had power over me and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t see where the power came from.

I started school at four and I don’t remember learning to read.  It was the time of Dick and Dora and their dog Spot. (See Spot run. See Dick run. See Dora run. Riveting stuff). I remember being pages ahead of  the class because listening to them read was painful. When it came to my turn I had no idea where they were and the teacher thought I couldn’t read.

So reading is like breathing to me. I can’t help it. Conversely coming up with stories is also like breathing. There have always been stories in my head. I’d pester my poor grandfather for stories. And wonder why he couldn’t come up with dozens of them. His stories tended to be practical snippets like. You grab a snake behind the head real quick, and crack him like a whip to break his back. Grandfather was from the bush.

When I had my secondhand bookshop I’d read a book before lunch, a book after lunch and a book after dinner. (This was in the days when books were 60,000 words). Soon I’d read every book that interested me in my shop. I’d prowl the shelves searching for anything that piqued my interest. When ever someone bought in books to sell I’d put aside any that I found interesting and devour them.

But before long there were days when I could not find anything to read. Or I would start books and get annoyed with them. So I just had to write to feed my reading habit. That’s how I started writing.

Are all dedicated readers aspiring writers? Over at the ROR blog the Sunday Writing Craft post is a Checklist for Aspiring Writers.

I suppose it is different now that we can buy the DVD of our choice, surf the net and play computer games.  But sometimes, only a book will do. What do you do when you can’t find a book to read?

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Filed under creativity, Fantasy books, Fun Stuff, Nourish the Writer, The World in all its Absurdity, The Writing Fraternity, Writing craft

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June 14, 2010 · 9:30 am

Creativity and your Surroundings

I’ve always loved this Lord Leighton painting Flaming June, dating from 1995. When you see it large on the wall it is just so lush and intimate, it just about takes your breath away.

(I’m the sort of person who can go to the art gallery, wander around for a couple of hours and come out feeling like I’m floating on air, there’s so many endorphins swimming around in my body).

I’m going to reward myself by buying a poster of Flaming June and getting it framed. I almost bought it 10 years ago but felt it was too much of an indulgence.

Here I have to confess that I love beautiful things.I always have. As a child I used to collect beautiful moments so I could take them out and think about them again at a later date. I thought everyone did this.

I found school depressing because the classrooms were so ugly and utilitarian. I grew up in Southport on the Gold Coast. In those days it was fibro beach shacks built on scrubby bushland.  I ached for beautiful things.

Here is a link to Dr Alice Boyes, a clinnical psychologist who believes how we feel affects our creativity. She says when we feel positive, we are more creative.

‘In an evolutionary sense, negative emotions like fear are designed to make us focus narrowly on a threat (e.g. is that moving thing a snake?). Positive emotions like feeling happy or upbeat are designed to make us want to explore, try new things, learn new information, and build relationships with other people.’

Which makes sense because to be creative we need to be open and let our mind make those lateral leaps that you just can’t produce by pushing for them. What makes you feel creative?

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June 5, 2010 · 10:41 am

Writers and time management

One of my writing friends asked for a writing craft blog post about how not to waste time surfing the net and reading blogs when you should be writing. While being aware of the irony of this, I got into the spirit and confessed to having a LOL Cat addiction.

I actually think LOL cats is evidence that the world is not a terrible place. The news gives us this skewed view of the world full of disasters and politics and sport. But there are all these people out there taking pictures of their pets and coming up with funny captions, which proves that the world is not all death and disaster.

Here’s one that I just love. I think you have to be a cat person to really appreciate it.

Having been way too over committed recently, I thought  others could learn from my mistakes. So I gave the ‘writer and time management thing’ some thought, and did a post over at the ROR blog on the topic.

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May 28, 2010 · 1:56 am

Back refreshed and ready to tackle a recalcitrant book!

You know how your mind gets when you’ve been working too hard. Seen the same thing day after day, done the same thing day after day and tried to be creative on top of that?

My mind felt stale.  Taking a trip to Tasmania was just the thing I needed to refresh myself.  The air was crisp and cool, something we don’t get much of here in Brisbane, and everywhere I looked there were scenes worthy of photographing. Not that I’m much of a photographer. Daryl took this one of Ross Bridge.

It was built by convicts back in the days when a soldier who had served at Waterloo could find himself on the other side of the world in a tiny town in the middle of Tasmania, guarding the female convicts.

I took this picture at dawn from the top of a hill at St Helens on the east coast of Tasmania. It was beautiful, the photo doesn’t do it justice. The people inthe house below had a fire going to keep warm and I was trying to capture the dawn sun shining through the smoke.

The other thing that I did a lot of was writing. I took my lap top and wrote about 60 pages of my latest WIP (work-in-progress). I did want to finish the book and I’m about a chapter off the end but I can’t finish it.

I know how I want the story to end, but the characters are refusing to go in that direction. I’ll have to return to the beginning and rewrite it, tweaking as I go, to get to know them all over again, because they have grown and changed as I wrote. Now they have a better idea of what is true to them, than I do and forcing them  to do something just because I’d planned it, is only going to make the writing flat and boring. Sigh.

Do you have recalcitrant characters?

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May 14, 2010 · 9:04 pm

Nourish the Inner Writer

It is time for me to ‘Nourish the Inner Writer’. I had to take myself aside the other day and tell myself, ‘You can’t do everything, Grasshopper. Take a step back and have some quiet time’.

I feel like I have been running on the spot since I went back to work in February. Teaching three subjects was fun, I enjoyed the students and I learnt so much, you always do when you teach. This time it was Academic Essay Writing, Interactive Narrative (for computer games) and Script writing & Storyboards. But this meant there were assignments to mark every three weeks or so, because we run an accelerated course and it was the marking that got to me.  I’ve just finished a week of marking to get everything done in time for moderation.

All this wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t had to edit my three books in the same 12 weeks. The books come out a month apart starting in June. Over here at the ROR blog I’ve done a post about the editing process. The short version is that each book has to be edited 3-4 times before it goes to the printer and each book is over 100,000 words. I’m up to the page proofs of book two (that’s the last one before it goes to the printer) and I just sent back the copy edits (that’s the second last one) of book three. So I’m nearly done.

On top of this I’ve been trying to write the first book of my Australindia series, which is really exciting, but completely new — new world, new characters etc. I find writing a first draft requires dedicated time at the computer because I have to get into the headspace where the characters and the world come to life. And I just haven’t had blocks of time to do this. It’s made me feel guilty and slightly edgy, because the story keeps calling me back. The characters are getting ‘ansty’. (That’s Australian slang for a bit ‘aggro’, sorry another bit of Australian slang, but I’m sure you can work out what it means).

Feeling guilty because your book characters are getting neglected must be a specifically writerly phenomenon. Trent Jamieson’s done a post about it here. You have to give yourself permission to take time off to recharge the batteries.

So that’s what I’ve done. I’m going to take time off. The next term starts on the last day of May. I have a very small window of opportunity. Daryl and I are going to run away to Tasmania for a driving holiday. It’s not quite as romantic as it sounds because we have to take our youngest son (15) with us. But I am really looking forward to being visually stimulated. Tasmania is lovely. And I’m taking my laptop with me. I plan to write in the evenings. No marking, no deadlines, no large family to run about. Heaven!

So that is how I plan to nourish the Inner Writer. How do you Nourish your Inner whatever it may be?

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April 27, 2010 · 9:27 pm

Writers lead exciting lives!

What I’m NOT doing today is lying on my back in a sunny field watching the clouds go by.

What I am doing is checking the page proofs for book one of King Rolen’s Kin.

I suppose I could be cleaning the stove …

No, honestly, I’m happy to spend the day checking the page proofs. There is something very satisfying about polishing your work and the closer the book comes to publication, the more satisfying (and scary) that is.

I had a nightmare the other night. I dreamed the book had come out and a reviewer gave it a scathing review. They said it was derivative. Then they pointed out all these things that were derivative and I was thinking how did I not see this? And feeling awful!

In the light of day I know the book is not derivative. Sure it is a traditional fantasy so it plays with themes that are familiar to all of us, but it is also quirky and fun because the characters are what drive the plot forward, which makes it a satisfying read. I hope.

I’m guessing every writer quakes in their boots when their book is about to be published.  Here’s hoping King Rolen’s Kin is a Keeper. What books do you consider Keepers?

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March 31, 2010 · 12:36 pm

Life gets in the way

by Hhen

Let me think, what would I rather be doing? Writing or working? That’s a tough one …

The last month has been full-on.  I went back to work, three days a week teaching. There are mountains of assignments for me to mark. We decided to sell our house after 20 years. There are mountains of belongings for me to sort, sell, give-away or keep.  The housework with a large family never stops. And, with a trilogy due out this year, there are three books for me to edit. I’m in the middle of the edits of the third book right now.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy teaching and I quite like the idea of moving. Getting rid of things is like a breath of fresh air. I don’t love housework,  I’m not that perverse.  I really love writing. Immersing myself in a story just sweeps me away. And it has been a real pleasure to work with my editor, Jonthan Oliver from Solaris.

Which brings me back to what I would really rather be doing and that is writing. Does anyone else find that life gets in the way of what they really want to do?

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