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...Really?

A child's shoe found at Auschwitz
Seen at the Museum of Peace, Caen

Write what you know is something you often hear being told to aspiring writers. But I believe if writers wrote only what they knew we would have a very limited number of books, which are likely to be very boring. For example did JK Rowling attend a school for wizards? Did Stephenie Meyers have an intimate knowledge of Vampires? Of course not, what could be argued is that JK knew about school stories and Meyers knew Dracula. There are many others I could list too but that is not the point of this post.

My dearly beloved nemesis Foucault suggests that it isn't worth writing a book unless it teaches the author something. This I can empathise with. All the novels I have written so far have taught me something. Even subjects I thought I knew inside out I have learnt more while researching. Milan Kundera develops this idea further when he states  in his Jerusalem Address: The Noel and Europe that 'great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors.'  Sounds surprising and unlikely doesn't it? I have a very lively group of second years with whom I had a very interesting debate about this comment yesterday. I suggested that perhaps it could mean that as novelists we make our stories more intelligent by leaving questions on the page (yes a Blanchot idea that I have previously mentioned) for the reader to answer because as writers we should withdraw from the text and leave it as 'witness not authority' (Foucault). The moment we step into the realms of it being an authority means a story is going to be didactic, which will cause the reader, more than likely, to switch off. I believe a book should be a challenge to write and you leave, having written the story, knowing more than you did before, something the reader should also experience.

I know that all sounded a bit highfalutin didn't it? what I suppose I really mean is that whatever you are writing you must make sure you write the best you can and that you research your piece. I marked an historical piece recently that had a phone call in the middle of it. The piece was set about 30 years before the phone was even invented. It is slips like that that can really destroy a piece for the reader. They stop 'suspending disbelief' as they start thinking if that's wrong what else is. Research is so important. The photo above comes from a trip to Caen that I took while researching my PhD novel. Little did I know then that some of that research and, in particular, the visit to the Museum of Peace, would be so useful for my latest novel. I love doing research but am also aware that you have to know when to stop. I have known several people who were so busy researching every detail of their story they actually never got round to writing it.

As those of you who follow this blog will know a month ago I typed 'The End' to my latest novel. It has been sitting in a metaphorical drawer. I will be going back to it very soon to add in the light and shade, fill in the colour. Part of that will include the research I have done which will mean I can add tiny details that just add credibility to my story and make it more intelligent than me, while leaving questions on the page for the reader.

What I would suggest is a better recommendation for writers is not necessarily to write what you know but to write what you are interested in. Paul Klee suggests that drawing is taking a line for a walk, I would suggest with writing it is taking your words for a walk. See where they take you, you might be surprised. Have a fun weekend everyone.

This week's sound track is Reel Big Fish with Take On Me. It is a song I very much associate with my sons as this is a band they have been to see many times. There used to be a lot of car singing and dancing to this song many moons ago. They are grown and flown leading very happy lives that is still surrounded by music. I know this would form part of their sound track so it is for them and for their future.

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 for children is hard....

The joy of reading

Writing for children is hard and don't let anyone tell you anything else. Many years ago I was convinced to do the MA in Writing for Children because 'if you can write for children you can write for anyone.' And this is actually something I believe to a certain extent, partly because. as I said above, it is hard to write for children and get it right.  But how many times am I asked: 'When are you going to write a proper book?' (meaning an adult book) Because of course the books our children read are not real, they not proper, not worthwhile. Yet these are the same books than can create the most wonderful memories. Allow children to escape into their own worlds and form their minds.

The people that I know that write for children do so because they are driven, then can't not write. They love what they do. They are also fully aware they are unlikely to make millions at it. Though if I had a pound for everytime someone said to me 'Oh you're going to be the next JK are you?' I might just be. But you can't be the next JK Rowling because there is only one JK. We are all totally different, we approach writing differently and write different stories. Who knows what the next big thing will be? I know a few publishers who would pay a huge amount to have that insight however. What we need to keep doing is writing the best stories we can to the best of our ability. Writing is a craft and something that can be honed, the more you write and the more you read the better you will become.


The other little gem is: 'I'm going to write a children's books when I have time, it must be so easy....' Well actually, as we already know, it is not. You have to contemplate your audience. Think about the language you are going to use and consider whether your story is age appropriate. And that's just the beginning...

I am lucky I am a lecturer in creative writing so am surrounded by like minded people. I have spent the whole weekend writing feedback on draft assignments for all my students, giving advice on how to make their piece better before they submit and marking assignments. We workshop it in groups and they have numerous chances to polish that piece of work. That is fine when you are at university, however, when you are writing on your own or away from this hothouse situation that sort of support is not always available. You can get a lot of encouragement and good advice from critiquing groups and I heartily recommend being part of one of those.

However, there is nothing like working with an editor and a professional. On that basis I am doubly lucky as since the end of my PhD I have been working with an editor. I cannot tell you what sort of a difference that makes to your writing. It helps you lift the writing off the page so the story can become one of those ones that just might stay with a child forever...she says hopefully!!

This is a fabulous way to work and now there is an opportunity for you to do that too. Imogen Cooper of The Chicken House has set up The Golden Egg Academy - check out the website. I am lucky enough to also be involved in this. Our latest news is that Beverley Birch will be working with us too.  There is to be an official launch in January, at which point I will give you lots more information. It is a very exciting project and one that I am thrilled to be involved in.

The important thing is, it doesn't matter how hard writing for children is, we will still keep doing it because then we can have moments like the photo above where I am sharing a book with my gorgeous grandson. Something we do on a regular basis.

Now this is Karine Polwart in concert on the 30th November. It is not the greatest recording but I love it because of the emotion behind it. She is singing the song 'Salters Road' directly to a member of the audience for whose mother she wrote the song. That is what being creative is all about, it is about connections and emotions. Enjoy!

Writing Britain

British Library

Yesterday I met up with a great friend who had done her MA in Writing for Children at the same time as me. We don't often get together as she lives in Cambridge but when we do there is an awful lot of talking going on. The reason for our latest get together was because a few weeks ago I won tickets for the Writing Britain Wastelands to Wonderlands exhibition at the British Library. (Many thanks to the Tall Tales & Short Stories blog).

It was a joyous exhibition, there were some wonderful books, in particular a beautifully illustrated manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1410), which was just incredible to look at it.....the work - it must have taken hours. But for me, as a writer, the best parts were the handwritten manuscripts whether in books or loose leaf paper. It was seeing how they wrote, how they edited, what their processes were. It was all about the creative practice for me. There were manuscripts from Austen, Emily Bronte, James Joyce (how he reads his edits goodness knows), Dickens, J.G.Ballard (he uses a fascinating method of different coloued pens, writes in black, then edits first in red then in blue), Katherine Mansfield, Angela Carter (a personal hero), Philip Larkin, Virginia Woolf (another hero), William Blake, to name but a few. But I have to say I was delighted to see so many children's books too - Lewis Carrol's handwritten and illustrated book that he gave to Alice, Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, right up to a JK Rowlings hand written 'The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters' chapter from Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. I was previously lucky enough to see a handwritten manuscript by Philip Pullman, which is held at Seven Stories in Newcastle.As I said as a writer it is a real thrill to see these things. It is not only good to see how they do things and how they approach the process but also it might give you new ideas and it might even mean you have your methods affirmed as their approach to editing is the same as yours.

The exhibition is only on until the 25th September, but if you get a chance to go, do so. It is well worth it.

On a different matter it was ten years ago that I started as a very tentative mature student at the University of Winchester. Little did I know all these years later I would be teaching at the same place. If I am honest at that stage it was the last thing on my mind but am so glad I was brave enough to do it because it changed my life in so many ways. But that is history and now I am looking forward so here is 'History's Door' by Husky to celebrate the fact:

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.