Exclamation Marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exclaimed out

This is just a quick post but I have just been drowning in exclamation marks. I have recently marked an assignment that was only 2,000 words long but had 70 (yes that is seventy) exclamation marks in it. And yes, I was sad enough to count them but that is because I became so distracted by the fact that virtually every sentence was ended with one. A cardinal sin as far as I am concerned particularly when writing for children, which this piece was.

For me exclamation marks should be used sparely for added impact. They should be used when you want to shout about something happening. If, however, you fill your piece with them their impact becomes diluted.

Oxford Dictionaries state that 'the main use of the exclamation mark is to end sentences that express: 

• an exclamation: Ow! That hurt!
• direct speech that represents something shouted or spoken very loudly: 'Look up there!' she yelled.
• something that amuses the writer: Included on the list of banned items was 'crochet hooks'!
• An exclamation mark can also be used in brackets after a statement to show that the writer finds it funny or ironic: She says she’s stopped feeling insecure (!) since she met him.

But even then I would be careful where you use them. I am really going to think about when to use them from now onwards. I had become blinded to them but now I realise how irritating they can become as I read this piece. 

For a start it made me think about the number of times when you are doing an email or a facebook post and you use thousands of exclamations (I am prone to exaggeration by the way) or lots of smiley faces or kisses.

There was a brilliant facebook thread started by Nicola Morgan who had sent a text to her plumber, I think, with a kiss at the end of it by accident. The conversation was full of wonderful examples of cringe making accidental kisses. I occasionally get them from students. I am sure they are harmless but sometimes they can make you feel quite uncomfortable.  But I am equally as guilty. I think it is all related to the fact we often hold conversations via a computer screen or a phone screen rather than face to face so you need to get nuances across and ensure the person the other end doesn't take offence.

Anyway that is off topic, back to the poor old exclamation mark. As I said this was to be a quick post and I am not asking you to never use the exclamation mark when writing but just to think about it. Make sure it has real impact and the reader can concentrate on the story and not the ever breeding exclamation mark!!!!!!!!! (sorry had to be done ;-)  and the smiley face...oh and perhaps a kiss xx)

I heard a snippet of this lady this morning and it made me smile. Here is one of my favourite, if poignant, songs.

Finding your voice

Al Alverez talks about the idea that when you read a novel the voice tells you a story. We all know how important it is as sometimes in rejections letters you find the response ‘the voice just wasn’t strong enough for me.’ ‘I am looking for a really strong voice.’ ‘Your story just didn’t come alive.’ Getting a strong voice is really important as you become a writer. When you start writing you become a bit of a tart. You try on lots of different voices, fall in love with them and then equally as quickly disregard them and move on to the next. These voices might be influenced by books or poetry you are reading, favourite films. But you need to find your own and while you hone your craft your voice will become stronger. Have faith. You will begin to trust your own voice rather than copying others. This is when your story will start to come alive. But voice is not straight forward. It consists of lots of things.

There are times when I am marking work when everything is on the page as it should be. There are characters, a story line and a setting, but it still feels flat. There is no life to it. I don’t experience the story as I read it. And that’s what I want. I want a story that draws me in so I forget that the rest of the world is happening. When it works, for that moment I am lost in between those enticing pages. As I mark I will often write things like: show not tell, point of view, tone, get rid of the authorial voice, give me a sense of place, let me know your characters. Getting these right will help you start to make your story come to life.

The editor, Beverley Birch says, “'Voice' is so much more than tone of the writing and what the characters actually say.  It's a web of impressions, speech, and thought, and perceptions, and physicality, and a whole lot more. It rises from the writer’s subconscious, but it is also something that has to be worked at, refined, honed, made apt and truthful.  It's instinct and inspiration, but also craft and technique...it requires boldness and exploration, and a finely tuned ear for the detail.”

Nobody can give you a voice, but we can give you the tools to help. If you are interested, Beverley Birch and Imogen Cooper are doing a workshop on the ‘voice’ entitled ‘Through the Narrator’s Eye’ at the end of April as part of Golden Egg Academy. Check it out here.

Or if you don’t want a full workshop perhaps book an editorial surgery where we can talk through some of the issues of voice. First surgeries are in London on 11^th May. Check it out here . Scroll down below the in-depth reports to find where you can book.

And just because it seems like a beautiful day to start writing and finding your voice

For P...

A moment from the good times

This post is  especially for P. I hope you find your way back to us very soon. We love you and miss you so much. You gave me my first book of poetry and set me on my writing journey so it seems only right I should post this:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

And below is a family song. I hope you can remember it from numerous weddings and parties. We sang it at the end of my 50th party. Paul, Leo, Toby, Charlie and Greg all did us proud with their singing and dancing. We will sing it again with you very soon, I am sure. Love Nxxx

Here comes the sun....PLEASE

This is what I want to be doing

I have had enough - that's it I've said it. I am so tired of the cold and the greyness. Yesterday was Spring Equinox yet the winter still seems be holding us in its tight grip. But I know I am not the only one. Everyone is feeling the same and it just reinforces the end of semester exhaustion.

A little bit of sunshine makes such a difference. A couple of weeks ago we had a glorious day (just the one) and I noticed everyone was smiling. They were all walking along with a bounce in their step and it made me realise how much weather can affect how you feel and how you treat others. Everyone was so happy. And words were written.

Don't get me wrong I am perfectly aware that come the summer (if it ever comes that is) we will be moaning that it is too hot. We are British after all and never satisfied.

This current greyness and cold seems to suck the life out of you and your creativity. Trying to write when you are so cold is difficult if not impossible. I end up writing fully clothed in my bed, with a hat on. Great image eh?

The picture above is entitled 'A man reading in the garden' by Daumier and a copy of which I was given for my birthday by a good friend. It is framed and waiting to be hung and it is my inspiration that the sunshine will come back. The trees will burst forth and the words will flow again, people will smile and there will be life giving light.

Even Rumi seemed to feel the same about winter...

My worst habit is I get so tired of winter 
I become a torture to those I’m with.

If you’re not here, nothing grows. 
I lack clarity. My words 
tangle and knot up.

Therefore, it had to be this song, it is an open prayer to the weather gods as far as I am concerned PLEASE LET US HAVE SOME SUNSHINE AND WARMTH:

It is all about the details

Three generations - happy days

This photo bears no relation to this post other than it is a follow on from last week's one. I had used the clip from Notting Hill because it reminded me of a time when my mother was very happy. This is actually a photo from that period - notice a theme? She still has a glass of champagne in her hand, things never change!

This post is actually all about the details. Those little words that can lift your writing off the page and make it come to life in the reader's mind. It is something that I often find my students overlook. They don't see it as important. However, the details can give so many clues to what a character is like or what is going to happen in a story. They can be teasers.

What am I talking about? Well look at these two sentences and think about what they say are actually saying:

'She took a sip of a delicious white wine.'

Perfectly good sentence, that says exactly what is going on. However, compare that with this:

'She took a sip of a cool, crisp Chablis.'

Immediately you can get some idea of the weather - why would she want a cool, crisp drink unless it was hot? Could this be taking place in the summer? What sort of person drinks Chablis?

Think about cars.

'He was driving a bright red Ferrari' - quite cliched but it says a lot in comparison with 'He was driving a rusty, old mini.'

But it needn't be about objects that belong to people. Think about settings. If you say the wood was full of bluebells it immediately tells the reader what time of year it is.

There is a fine balance though between info dumping and not giving any information at all. Look at it as giving the reader enough clues for them to create an image but still have to work at it a bit. They can all add to the sense of tension in a story too.

I am currently reading Lauren St John's The One Dollar Horse and she is very good at this. There is this constant sense of underlying tension of potential disaster as she carefully slips in the odd critical detail that gets the reader worrying. I am almost reluctant to keep reading at the moment because I am terrified something dreadful is going to happen to the wonderful Storm Warning and I won't be able to cope. However, I will keep reading as I have faith that the author will make it end happily despite all these hints...doesn't it? If these hints and details weren't in the book though it would lose so much. It would be such a flat story. Next time you pick up a book look out for them. See what sort of a difference they make to you as a reader then bring this to your own writing.

And how about a bit of James Mraz and James Morrison playing 'Details in the Fabric.' Just seemed appropriate

The Importance of Storytelling

Happy times!

It is Mother's Day in the UK and this photo is one of my fondest memories and epitomises her. Full of wine and laughter. But she was also a great story teller. I was her carer and after her lunch and a couple of glasses of wine she would regale me with stories of her childhood and her life as a WRN during the Second World War. She did some amazing things. I have used some of these memories in a short story I have written for adults and which I finally finished this week.I have entered it into a competition just because I felt I owed it to her to do something with it.

It made me think me think about storytelling and how important in our lives it is. There was a fascinating article, which was brought to my attention by JW, entitled 'The Science of Storytelling: Why telling a story is the powerful way to activate the brain' by Leo Wildrich. I for one know I learn so much more when the lecturer used anecdotes to illustrate their point. It brings the idea to life. I can look for things that relate to me - make the connections. Storytelling, in numerous forms, has been one of the most fundamental communication methods since the world began. Stories provide affirmation that our lives have meaning. It is all about making the connections between cause and effect. Perhaps this is why we, as writers, like to read or hear about authors and their experience of becoming published. We want to find bits of us that we can relate to in that story that means we will get a chance to be published.

By telling stories we can plant ideas, thoughts, coping strategies and emotion into the reader's brain. I have written about this previously in various posts about contentious issues in young adult fiction etc in my blog already. After all it was my PhD. When writing, regardless of whether it is YAF, children or writing for adults, I believe it is important that you are not aiming to write a lesson/lecture instead you need to be writing a good story. One that the reader can climb into and become so involved that they are living the story. They need to care about the characters and what is going to happen to them. With any good story it also gives them a chance to think how they would react in any given situation amidst the page turning safety of a book. However, readers don't want to be told how to react. They want to work it out for themselves. You, as the writer, just gives them the clues. As such stories should never be predictable. There should be an element of anticipation but also a good dose of uncertainty that means they are not convinced they know exactly what will happen.

Stories continue to be an important part of my life. I love writing them and I love telling them. I am trying to emulate those lecturers who inspired me the most by telling anecdotal lectures. Stories are the food of life after all.

This is for my Mummy. I still miss her every day. This was her favourite film for a very long time. It brings back some very happy memories of when she was really well and happy.I have many stories I could tell about that time. Is it wine time?

I don't have time to write...apparently yes you do!

Meg Rosoff's Eck 

It has been an interesting week. On Tuesday the truly wonderful, Meg Rosoff came down to the University to talk to our MA students. As always she gave a fascinating talk, open to all and to a packed room, which she finished by reading from There is No Dog. This was followed by a workshop just for the MA students that had us all digging into the depths of our feelings looking for our voice. It certainly gave me a lot to think about. It was a very useful session.

This week I have also been bemoaning my lack of time to write my new book. Blaming my work, blaming the fact I know I have some rewrites to do to Trafficking and therefore can't focus on new stuff. Blaming everything I could think of rather than facing the truth. Of course you can find time to write if you want/need to but I wasn't. Then I was sitting vacantly staring at my iPad yesterday in the Learning Cafe after a student had failed to turn up to a dissertation meeting (*sigh*). Next to me was another colleague also sitting and working more productively on his iPad. However, little did he know that I was in the middle of an epiphany (as opposed to wasting time on Facebook as I was accused). It suddenly came to me why I was struggling to write this book. It wasn't working. It wasn't right. I am a member of a great critique group who had given some very useful and positive feedback on the chapters I had written so far. But the writing had stalled and I still couldn't move forward with it. I kept walking around it, dancing with it every now and then rather than engaging with the narrative. Why? Well that was my epiphany - I needed to kill off another character. I had started off with four siblings, cut this down to three and now I knew I needed to cut it down to two. Bye, bye Rose, exit left stage from Persephone's Pegasus please.

I then had another epiphany - it was a busy day for them - that even when you don't think you are having time to write you are in fact sub-consciously thinking about your work in progress. It is there in the back of your mind being mulled over quietly. My panic that I wasn't writing, I felt, was unfounded. I was in fact writing but not necessarily on the page. I am hoping I can move forward now and take this story where I want to because I do believe it is quite a good one.

My epiphanies may well have been instigated by an  interview with Nick Cave, which was posted earlier this week by JW (thank you). At the end of the interview he talks about the brief light bulb moment when you get an idea. I thought, rather insightfully, he talked about the fact it is not just having the ideas, it is what you do with them. He pointed out that, inevitably, it takes a lot of hard work to make the light bulb moment into something really good. See being creative is not easy!

This is one of my favourite songs from a new album I have just got by Heidi Talbot. Happy Weekend everyone!