Cause and effect

Cause and effect...

This week I have been doing the edits on Flight that the lovely Penny and Janet wanted me to do for Firefly. I had had a bright idea as to how I could enliven a scene and make it more thrilling but I needed to check that what I was suggesting was viable. I was pretty certain it was, but you know how you always doubt yourself. My book has horses in it and this particular scene concerned the horses again so I went to my Oracle, the ever knowing Imogen Cooper. As always she came back with the most pertinent of questions. 'Yes, it does work, but how come they can suddenly do it? You need to feed something in earlier about it.'

Doh! Of course, I do. I know that. I am forever telling my students and my 'Eggs' that. Don't just put something randomly in. There has to be cause and effect. It is Chekov's if you say there is a gun hanging on the wall in the first chapter then someone needs to be shot by it later in the book. Trouble is when it is your own work it is not always so easy to see or remember that - definitely a case of do as I say not do as I do in this instance. So infuriating. But it was easily fixed after some thought. I was able to add a scene earlier on that introduced the idea, which I think works. Let's see what feedback I get though. Watch this space.

The idea behind cause and effect is it gives your characters a reason or the capability for undertaking a certain action. The reader is going to pick up on these hints, it is like a jigsaw puzzle for them and as they read so the pieces slot into place. They get a sense of satisfaction, enhancing the reader experience. The ultimate for cause and effect is, of course, J K Rowling who sprinkled throughout her stories cause and effect. Hints in the first story that were carried through to the final story. That is true dedication and not always necessary.

What you have to remember to do, and particularly when as I was, adding scenes in when editing later, consider whether you have a reason for this scene. Another way to look at it is has someone dropped a pebble in a pond that caused the ripples enabling this event to happen and what were the implications. Who did they impact on? It might not just be this particular event - who else might it affect? Ask yourself these questions.

In the meantime enjoy your writing this week.

Today's music is a mash up of old dance scenes with Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk Ft Bruno Mars because it makes me smile and I love the way the two the words and pictures match - Not quite a cause and an effect but a good reaction.

Write what you know...or not

Seeing Marina Abramovic's 512 Hours

Many creative writing experts/books tell you to "write what you know!" Seems a logical idea doesn't it at face value anyway. But if you unpack it and think about it seriously, it is really quite limiting because how much do you actually know and how interesting would it really be to another person? To be honest if people had only written what they knew a lot of the best books would never have been written. For example, if J K Rowling had written only what she knew could she have written the fabulous Harry Potter series that purportedly got so many children back into reading? My glorious nemesis and friend Foucault says there is no point writing anything unless the author is going to learn something. Well you're not going to do that if you already know it and I have to say I agree with him With all four novels that I have written so far I have learnt something new from the research I have undertaken, whether it was from sleeping on the streets, visiting drug rehabilitation centres or doing all the incredible research with horses or looking into the past for my latest WIP.

So let's be real and take that phrase for a walk and expand it a bit just like Cec Murphy suggests by saying 'write what you know, write what you want to know more about; write what you're afraid to write.' Now to me that seems far more sensible and reflects what we really do. It challenges you as the writer to expand your ideas and actually gives you so many options to write what you want. Now more recently I came across another idea which was once again a variation on a theme and that was 'writing what you feel.' Another interesting idea which seemed to open out all sorts of possibilities.

However, what they all seem to forget to mention is one vital factor. Not once do they mention story. And to me that seems quite a crucial element. It doesn't matter what you don't know, do know, want to know or even how much research you've you done if you have no story, nothing will really happen. Get that story first and then think about what you do or don't know. Be open to respond to where the story takes you.

The photograph is an example of being willing to respond to the story. 512 Hours was Marina Abramovic's durational performance in 2014 at the Serpentine Gallery. You went in and had to leave everything outside, bags, watches, phones. Inside you were given headphones so you could hear no noise and were taken in to the rooms. Nobody spoke unless you were the priviledge few that MA spoke to (yes I was one she had a couple of conversations with moments I will treasure) There were some chairs and benches in some rooms. In one room you could separate black rice from white rice and count it. MA would walk amongst the people occasionally taking people's hands and placing them at various places in the room. Sometimes even making them face a wall. At other times walking up and down with them.Always in silence. I had read about the exhibition. I knew what to expect. Or put it another way, (and this is slightly tenuous but trust me you'll see what I mean ) 'I'd write what I know' but actually when I was in the room and I opened my eyes and took in everything, I started to open my mind, I stopped just knowing and started being. The stories then began to flow. In other words, for me, writing what you know is not enough, if that makes sense.

 Just because it is 9 o'clock on a Saturday...

Writing what you know...or not

We are often told as writers to write what we know but sometimes it is just as important to write what we don't know. J K Rowling had a great success doing precisely that as did Philip Pullman with The Dark Materials. JK can't have known Hogwarts or Diagon Alley as actual places but I bet they are based on things she had seen or read about elsewhere. What J K does do so successfully is to create a world we all believe in. As did Pullman, though obviously using Oxford he highlights the difference in the setting by spelling the country as Brytain. It is the same yet different. If I was going to go all academic on you I could relate it to Freud's uncanny or Bakhtin's carnivalesque. But today I am not.

Our writing cannot help but be based on some part of our autobiographical background. It might be something that we have read, seen or had life experience of. When you write you have a web of identities. For me, mine are as a writer, a mother, a woman and an academic. Each intricate layer informs my narrative and my understanding behind the decisions I make. They make me the writer I am. I write fiction for young adults yet it is a long time since I have been one. My children are no longer teenagers, they have moved on but my writing is still embedded within teenage-dom. For me the important thing is not to restrict myself to one cultural moment. Unless of course the aim is relevant to the story - thinking of Dave Massey's Torn for example. My writing needs to be contingent and fluid reflecting the ever moving world around me while I create a fictional world that is familiar and recognisable, particularly as I write realist novels.

The important thing is not to be afraid. Believe in the world you create and your readers will too. It doesn't matter whether you are creating a realist world, a dystopian one or fantasy world, you need to understand exactly how it works. This means undertaking world building exercises alongside your character building ones. You need to understand not just what your world looks like but how the culture works within it for example.

If we only wrote about what we knew a lot of books would not be written. If you have a story that you love that is a based in a world that you believe in then get down and write it. Just make sure you do all the pre-writing work. If your idea is in an area you have no experience of, research it. Also do not be concerned about using autobiographical instances as the starting point for a story. It is what writers do. (Just a word of caution make sure you are not going to offend anyone if it is going to be obvious it is a story based on a certain person).

Here's a bit of Joni for a Saturday afternoon when all the work and words are not falling right.

Writing about food

See what happens you don't blog for a while and then three come in quick succession - a bit like buses I suppose.

You will know from the post before last that I can't eat. Does this mean I have no interest in food? Do I avoid writing about it? Anything but. I am fascinated by it instead. This blog post was triggered because I have just been marking (again) and I was reading a student's description of a meal and it was just glorious. I could almost taste the food and feel the atmosphere it was so evocative.

It started me thinking about food in books. Warning confession coming up - I just love the way JK Rowling describes her meals in all the Harry Potter books. They are just magical and full of life. The fact she even spent time inventing new foods and sweets and made them feel so real just amazes me. Then there was the description of food in The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. It was so detailed but added so much to the story. These are just two of mine, what are your favourite descriptions of food or meals in books?

Many years ago in a short story I wrote I did a description of making bread. My then lecturer insisted it was read out because it was, apparently, the most sensual description of bread making they had ever heard. That hadn't been my plan. I had just described how it felt to me. Bread making never was the same afterwards.

I think we should never underestimate how useful food/meals can be in a novel. They can give hints as to what the characters are like, where they live, whether they have plenty of money or none at all. Is food all about survival or just something that is eaten three times a day? I feel it can be an under used device for adding characterisation or depth to a story. Well worth considering sometimes. The other thing you can do when developing your characters is to take them out for a meal and talk to them and see what happens (on paper of course) - like with free writing it doesn't necessarily have to end up in the final piece but will certainly tell you more about them and how they interact with others.

I couldn't really end this blog with anything other than this song....so here's to Food Glorious Food!

It must be 'commercial' and the self fulfilling prophecy

Concerned

There is a word that has been haunting me for the past couple of days. That word is 'commerical.' Those of you who are based in the UK or have seen the furore on FB may have seem that our 'esteemed' Prime Minister has suggested that the film industry should support "commercially successful films.' I then read Philippa Francis' blog post on Beverley Birch's visit to the Hampshire Writing Society, at Winchester University, entitled 'It's not about good books anymore...'. Beverley Birch commissions fiction for Hodder Children's Books and is also an author. She presented an illuminating talk entitled 'Between a rock and a hard place: keeping faith with your writing self in today's stormy commercial seas.' During this talk she mentioned how, in the current market, aspiring writers need to understand that the chances of being taken on have nothing to do with the readership. It is all to do with whether the likes of big buyers (supermarkets, book chains etc) will be interested in purchasing it. Apparently, and to quote Philippa: 'It is not enough to have a coherent plot, engaging characterisation and a well-conveyed setting. There must be pace and sense, of course. The voice of the piece must also must be distinctive and vigorous - and it must be commercial.'


There it is, that word again. 'COMMERCIAL!' Now is there anyone out there who could define this for me so that writers, film makers etc can ensure that they only produce 'commercial' work? The point is no one does know what might be commercial. For example, and I apologise that this is an obvious one but everyone will be able to empathise with it, J K Rowling and Harry Potter, back in the 1990s magic, boarding schools and wizards were not commercial. Anything but. Without the likes of Christopher Little and Barry Cunningham (then of Bloomsbury and now of Chicken House fame) following their gut instincts that told them there was 'something' about that first story we would be without one of the most successful series written for children in the past few decades.


My concern is that if all these people keep talking about how everything has got to be 'commercially successful' it will become a self fulfilling prophecy where publishers, film markers, and, in fact, anyone in the arts stops taking risks. Stops listening to that gut feeling. Don't get me wrong I fully understand that not every film can be made or every book can be published and I am also aware that these are businesses so have to make money but I am begging agents, publishers, film makers and, even buyers, to continue to be brave and trust their instincts whilst not being blinded by that word 'commercial.' And, because I am writer, I would ask writers to continue to believe in what you are producing otherwise we risk having a bookshelf full of generic books.


I will now step off my soap box and ask you to listen to this, it is 'Somebody that I used to know' by Goyte

The past and J K Rowling

Yesterday was supposed to be the last post of 2011 but then I thought I would share this with you. In the meantime and at the risk of repeating myself I hope 2012 brings you a lot of happiness and possibly the odd publishing contract!

Just before Christmas I had a skip delivered. Madness you may think but we needed a clear out. There were boxes in my son's room which had never been opened from the day we moved in 5 years ago. But what happens when you have a clear out is that you find things that weren't lost but are full of memories.

There were a mass of documents and brochures relating to my business which was part of my 'past' life. Was I really that woman that ran a PR and management consultancy company? What happened to her? Luckily she faded away. I didn't like her.

There were cards wishing me good luck with my course. I started a degree in English at Winchester uni  in 2002 having lost the business through ill health. There was also a diary which I had planned to write throughout my course which I had forgotten all about. I didn't complete it but I did manage to write odd snippets for the first semester. I found a comment I had written after just two weeks which said 'I love this. I wonder if I can do the MA and then a PhD?' The answer is yes you can and did! The final entry was a random comment relating to bumping into a lecturer who I  knew of but didn't know as he hadn't taught me. He had had to step into mark the creative writing assessments at the last minute. He remembered what I had written and informed me that I could write! I was astounded as this lecturer knew nothing about me. He might not have said that if he had known then how often he would have to work with me in the future... would you AM? LOL

I also found a book plate which is signed by J K Rowling - a proper signature not a laser print one. I had forgotten that we had been given this. It was just lying in a drawer. I have now stuck it into one of her books. When I mentioned on fb that I had found it the immediate suggestion was to sell it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I write for children and I would be rich if I had a pound for every time a person said of my writing: 'Are you going to be the next J K Rowling?' The answer is of course I am not going to be and I wouldn't want to be. The Harry Potter books are unique. Two of my children loved reading them. I would have to order 3 copies of the book when they came out so we could all read it at the same time then we could talk about it and no one could spoil it for the others. My youngest loved the films (he hates books!) and has bought me the complete set of DVDs for Christmas. On which note I confess I love Harry Potter too. I know as a CW lecturer the writing could be tightened at times and I am aware that a lot of people knock them but as far as I am concerned they are great stories to escape into. J K Rowling does the best description of meals ever! So maybe I will keep that signature just for the sheer pleasure of it and as a reminder of all those magical moments when,  as a family, we would discuss Harry Potter. Thank you JK.

This song is called The Universal Child and that is who, as writers, we write for, never forget who they are. I love this song, see if you can spot the Icarus reference. It is here especially for my children who have grown and flown. And for my grandchild and step grandchildren who are just beginning to grow. Just in case you didn't know I am so proud of you all.