Wednesday on Writing... Back to Basics

A couple of weeks back, readers, I hit The Wall...

And I hit it hard. Everything was going so well, I had finished rewriting the two chapters that I was just not happy with and the WIP was going well, I was in my stride, hammering out great word count numbers daily and beginning to think "wow, I can actually do this!"

Then it happened...

I had all these ideas, sentences, dialogue snippets, etc, bouncing around my head but I could not get them down. My brain froze, my typing fingers went on strike, my computer just sat there humming away, while my chin rested heavily in my hand as I gazed out of the window.

This wasn't the urban myth 'Writer's Block' because I actually knew what I wanted to write, and how it was going to work, there was no lack of ideas, but I couldn't seem to actually, er, write.

I was stuck. Big time. So I did what I thought would be best, I took a couple of days away from the WIP, but that only made it worse 'cause I kept thinking about it.

Cue much self doubt and I'm-never-going-to-be-good-enough thoughts.

Then there was the rare occurrence of a sunny day here in the UK. My husband was out for the day, our brand new picnic bench that hadn't been used once in the two weeks we had had it due to the non-stop rain was tempting me, and I had the ideas and the time to write. But I wanted to sit outside.

So, I raced up to my study and grabbed my research notebook, my pencil case, a notepad, emailed myself the latest version of my WIP and took it all outside with the iPad, a cup of coffee, a bottle of water, and my sunglasses.

The words came!

They flowed from the end of my pen like... well, I can't think of a good analogy at the moment but you get the idea.

Surprisingly, this has worked quite well. I managed 3000 words that day, I'm surprised that my hand didn't wear down into a stump!

My desk for that rare sunny day!

I was well and truly past the wall, I thought, until I tried going back to the laptop... then it happened all over again.

The next week I was sitting down in front of my laptop, chin firmly in hand, getting once again frustrated by my lack of words. I thought about writing with pen and paper again, but it was raining so I couldn't go outside. But I took decisive action, I switched off the laptop pushed it to the back of my desk got out the same pen and pad I had used the previous time and started writing!

It was a miracle! It happened again... I wrote for nearly seven hours straight that day. And I have been doing the same ever since.

I have been typing up as I go along, and when I type up the previous days/weeks work I do a mini-edit, but I have the basis all there in ink to help me. It's like my version of the Fast Draft.

There is something strangely soothing and organic about putting pen to paper; my ideas don't seem hindered, and I'm not so distracted by everything. Every-damn-thing! It's an almost romantic feeling. A blank piece of paper looks far less daunting than a blank word document...

And, you don't get that glaring, mocking red wiggly line underneath a word you've spelled wrong, which no matter how hard I try to ignore at that moment I simply can't. It's freeing!


Plus I love the fact that if I want to go and write outside, I don't have to take my laptop downstairs, set up an extension cord, etc, I can just go with a pen and paper. If I go out, I can take a pad of paper with me much easier than lugging my laptop about! 

I have long been one of those people with a bit of a stationary obsession, I have tons of pens and stacks of notepads. My 'gear' of choice here is a regular biro pen, I have boxes of bic-style pens in my study (my husband gets them for me from work) and it must be black ink and a cheap A4 ruled refill pad from Tesco. It may not be glamorous but it works. For now at least. Perhaps in future I will use some of the many pretty notebooks I have hoarded over the years, I'm quite partial to a moleskin notebook!

And, writing with pen and paper doesn't cut me off from technology even though I have my laptop switched off. With my friend 'The iPad' by my side I have access to the web if I need to research something, dictionary apps if I can't find the right word, email and word processing apps if I want to refer back to my WIP and, most important of all, Twitter so I needn't miss out on the virtual-socialising with other writers out there.

Perhaps one day I'll go back to writing straight to screen, but for now I'm sticking to this as it seems to help.

There are lots of writers who still use longhand - Jackie Collins for one, who always writes with a yellow legal pad and a black felt pen. Cecelia Ahern is another. Or how about J.K Rowling... All of these authors are doing something right! Not that I ever expect to be anywhere near as brilliant as those three, but I'm just saying.

In a world where we use technology for nearly every facet of our lives, perhaps sitting back and doing things the old fashioned way gives us a chance to reinvigorate our creative juices. Or perhaps, this is just the latest attempt of mine to actually find a style of writing that fits...

What's your writing style - longhand or straight-to-screen, or perhaps a bit of both? And, what are your own writing rituals?

Xx

Wednesday on Writing... Distraction, Distraction, Distraction

There are days when writing is easy. I'll start the day sitting on my sofa with a cup of coffee as usual and I will be raring to go, bouncing with the want to get up to my desk and open up that word document and hammer out some words, cramped fingers be damned.

Then there are days when writing is like pulling teeth. Every word feels like it's tortured out of me and whatever I do get down just ends up as a load of old rubbish destined to meet the editing scissors.

And then there are days when I do want to write, but everything else around me just seems so much more interesting!

It's called distraction! We all suffer from it, and I am suffering from it in a bad way at the moment...

It's called Football Fever... Thanks to the current Euro 2012 tournament I can't seem to keep my focus on my WIP for more than an hour or so at a time.

I sit at my desk in the morning, have a prat around on twitter, check my email, then write blogs, or do anything else I need to do. By the time I'm usually getting into my stride with writing, at around 11am, I'm distracted by checking the football news on the internet, or watching the highlights on the telly, or prating around on twitter again... anything but writing!

In fact I have been so swept up by this disease that I haven't even read a book in five days... That's almost unheard of for me.

So, I put this question out to the world...

What are your distractions, and how do you try to stop them interfering with writing?

Answers much appreciated, and if you find my missing attention span then please send it to me!

Xx

Writing on Wednesday... What's in a name?

From the title of this blog post you probably think that I'm talking about names for characters, but I'm not.

In actual fact I'm talking about my name. Or more precisely my pen name, my nom de plume, my pseudonym, my alter ego, etc.

I don't have one at the moment, and recently I have begun to think that perhaps I a) would like one, and b) probably should have one. At the moment I tend to just use my initials online as I value my online privacy, but going forwards especially if (WHEN, not if!) I get published I'm going to need to promote myself, and I kinda need a name for that!

I actually like my name, or my first name anyway, but I also have the problem that there is already a writer/journalist out there with the same name, and my maiden name is the shared with a County and Western singer in America - not that I have a problem with sharing after all it is unlikely that a name could ever be truly unique.

But how do you go about choosing a pen name, or deciding if you should have one?

Is it a bit like that game you used to play in high school where you would determine your porn star name by the name of your first pet then your mothers maiden name, or was it your street name?

Or is it a chance to finally call yourself that name you were desperate to be called as a child, 'cause no doubt you thought your parents choice for your name was rubbish?

Perhaps you may pay homage to your favourite fictional character? Or honour a relative?

Maybe you keep your first name, or last, or use your middle name, go back to your maiden name...?

I'm quite confused, there is just so much to think about, and I constantly worry that I will chose the wrong one - what if I grow to hate it?

And then there is also the question of, well why not keep your own name? After all it is your own work.

I would love to know how you went about choosing your own pen name, or if you decided not to bother and why?

Help me! I'm a girl with no name...

Xx

Wednesday on Writing... My new toy!

Being a recent convert to the Save the Cat! method of plotting (I talked about it last week) this week I'm going to show you my brand new plot board.

Here is is -

As you can see, at the moment it is still very much a work in progress.

But what it has allowed me to do is work out firmly how many scenes and/or chapters to have and what should happen in each, as well as whether they work in the story or not. The pink bits are used for either word count or timings, I have a tendency to get my days very confused!

As a result of using the board, and actually staying away from the WIP for a while, I removed something like 5 planned scenes that I found really were not working, and added better ones in.

Behind each chapter card are cards that I have scribbled snippets of dialogue, flow charts, descriptions, etc, that relate to the chapter - I want to add that not everything is pinned up at the moment - when I'm working on that scene or chapter I take these cards down and spread them across my desk so I can refer them whilst writing. Then I pop them back up for safekeeping.

Funnily enough the girl who never plotted has written more words in two days than the last two months with the help of my new board (I was suffering a serious lack of motivation).

The board has really helped cement in my mind what needs to happen, but while I'm in the middle of a chapter I am still very much 'pantsing' it.

I have rewritten my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chapters entirely and even I have to say they are much much better.

Yes, I'm definitely loving my new board. I just need to hang it on the wall now so it's not balancing on my stereo any more!

Wednesday on Writing...

It has been Easter bank holiday weekend here in the UK, which means that my husband had Friday and Monday off work. And typically it rained all of those 4 days, so nothing was really done other than having a nice relaxing long weekend. Of course by the end of Monday I was so ready for Richard to go back to work (!).

Anyway my point is, I didn't update this blog or do anything remotely work-like on Friday or Monday because of this. Weekends and holidays I like to relax and have a break rather than work.

I have called this blog post Wednesday on Writing and this is [I hope] going to be a regular post every Wednesday with an update or feature on writing.

Please email if you have any suggestions or contributions you would like me to feature.

***

I have been reading a few writing craft books recently, in an attempt to both improve my writing as well as kick my recent lack of motivation up it's bum!

The first book I decided to read is Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.

Save the Cat! is a book that I have heard a lot about but never actually got round to reading. But I am so glad I have finally done so...

Not only is the book written with a fun and casual style, as though Blake Snyder is telling you all of this in a conversation, but it is also very useful. Especially if you ignore the amount of Steven Speilberg references (clang!).

Even though the book is written for screenwriters, most everything can be used by those of us writing other stuff. I have seen many authors recommending this book.

What I found most useful is the Logline, Beat Sheet and the advice on using The Board for plotting out your story before actually getting down to writing.

For me this was a revelation! I have no shame in admitting that I am a total pantser when it comes to writing, seriously... During my many years in higher education my essay plans were never longer than half an A4 sheet of paper! However I often hit walls and find certain bits that I want to include just simply don't fit or don't work, so by using The Board I hope this will help me not to hit these walls too often. Blake Snyder's rule of limiting the amount of cards used on it and structuring it round the Beat Sheet, I think, gives a nice balance. I can plot but still very much be a pantser!

I also liked Blake Snyder's honesty about writing, storytelling, and writers.

"To be a [screen]writer is to deal with an ongoing tug of war between breathtaking megolmania and insecurity so deep it takes years of therapy just to be able to say 'I am a writer' out loud"

Other great quotes that really gripped me are:

"Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story."

"A screenwriters daily conundrum is how to avoid cliche.
You can be near the cliche, you can dance around it, you can run right up to it and almost embrace it.
But at the last second you must turn away.
You must give it a twist."

So, I have done my logline and I am in the process of filling out my Beat Sheet whilst fiddling with index cards ready for The Board!

And what is really great about this book is that reading it has made me excited about writing again... hooray!


Xx