Thoughts on a Thursday – Letting the words spill out

I really wanted to use this image in some way; it’s a picture either my partner or I took when we visited Anglesey and in my mind it’s tied up with the search for Druids and the end of the social and religious order that was wiped out by the Romans.  It isn’t Druidic, of course, but that’s not the point.  I just love it!

 

 

It feels like a good time to use the image now, as I want my words to flow like water.  I want them to spill out onto the paper in front of me – as imperfect and incomplete as they are – into a narrative from which a trail can be picked.

If you’ve ever read Ulysses by James Joyce, you’ll be well aware that some writers have opted to keep the stream of consciousness as a narrative technique; I am not looking to do so and yet that’s what’s happening with my writing right now.  I sit with my plan and my character’s voice and I work my way through the memories she has locked up and hidden away.  The pain, the joy; the unexplored and unexplained – it all trickles down the page and soaks into the manuscript, giving it a cold and unyielding tone which is exactly what I want.

I will have to split it up, add dialogue and descriptive sections.  I am not James Joyce and don’t think many would accept a stream of consciousness novel nowadays even if I were.  But setting the words loose, letting them find their own pathway, frees something up in me.

I am not writing for perfection in a first draft – or any draft, for that matter.  I am trying to find the character’s authentic voice.  By letting her thoughts take over the page without recourse to anyone else I can do that.

So if you are struggling to hear your character in amongst the chatter of your story, it’s worth sitting down and just letting the words flow from one scene to another, through their eyes alone.  Not only does it give you a chance to know your character better but it means you are forming their world without compromising their viewpoint.

Give it a go, and see if it works for you.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

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Thoughts on a Thursday – Passion

I’m not sure if I’ve used this picture before but if I have it’s long enough ago for everyone to have forgotten, I hope!

 

For those of you who don’t recognise this, it’s a passion flower.

This particular plant is a tenacious little thing. I had it in a pot, it got ripped out by small children and left like a handful of twigs on the edge of my garden – and from that scrubby bit of half-dead birds-nest material a bushy climber began colonising a corner of my house.

I have had to cut it back many times but it returns, year after year, to take back its place.  Even when I’ve cut it back, the coils of its tendrils still hang on to wires and other plants.  Its glossy leaves and inside-out flowers are beautiful and I wish I could let it grow as vast and luxurious as it would like.

That plant behaves exactly like I should behave.  It never gave up, it strove for a place in the world.  It absorbed whatever material it could to make a difference and improve its lot.  It held on even when it seemed hopeless.  And it bloomed: no matter how many obstacles were put in its way it found a way to succeed.

I need to be a force of nature.  I need to write with determination, to fight for my place in the writing world, and hold on to whatever gives me strength so I can build on that position.

I need passion for writing – and I have it.  If you want to make writing a key part of your life, you need to have it too.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

 

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Thoughts on a Thursday – Interstellar Inspiration.

I’ve said that I love space enough times that to share another photo of something cosmic won’t be too much of a surprise!

 

This picture is from the Hubblesite website (always worth a visit) and shows an area of space where stars are being born. What is now a gassy, dusty nebula will one day be gone, the materials used to form those stars – and possibly companion planets.  In this mass, perhaps there’s a new Earth waiting to be shaped.

For me, this image is all about scope – the vast possibilities, the innumerable ideas, the expanse of our imaginations.

I remember being told that  there’s really only a handful of stories ever told, but what writers do is find new ways to tell them.  I’m not sure if  I agree there’s only a handful but I certainly think we as writers should find new ways of exploring life, humanity, the nature of existence.

That doesn’t have to be a heavy burden though.  In the picture you can see the darkness and the light, and it’s the same in writing. You can write about horror, or you can write about hope.  You can write about love, or hate.

Most writers fall somewhere on the spectrum, because most of life is somewhere on the spectrum.  But even with this you can vary the surroundings; for example you can create an alternative world, or move back or forward in time.

That’s the joy and fun of writing, for me – however many stories there may be, we’ll never run out of ways to tell them.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

 

 

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Thoughts on a Thursday – Brick Walls

Do you ever feel like you’re facing this?

Sometimes writing feels like this when agents don’t respond, or a story doesn’t behave, or we drop a line from a poem and can’t get the right one to replace it.  I remember many days in the office before I took time off to write where I had the same sense that I was really hitting a brick wall.

It’s exhausting, and frustrating.  You can lose confidence in yourself and your ideas or worse – you can think it’s a sign that you’re on the wrong path.   As a writer, it’s particularly upsetting when you realise work you have nurtured for months is stuck.

But if you really think about it, a brick wall is nothing.

You can climb it, tunnel underneath it, put a ladder against it, bash a hole in it, vault over it.  If you’re a wolf, you can blow on it and it will fall down…  If you’re a wizard you can tap the right bricks and a whole new world will open up!

There are loads of ways to get to the other side of that wall, if you only give yourself the time to work out a route from one side to the other.  You have to trust yourself that any obstacle is a chance to clarify your thoughts, to resolve any discrepancies.  You have to believe you have the tools to get across.

Even when something hits a really big wall – like my book number 2 – you must have faith that there’s a way to get beyond it. That’s why saving work in progress, notes and ideas is so important.

After all, you really don’t know when a gate might open up and let you through.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

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Week 118.5 – Light in the darkness

I thought it was about time to do an inspirational picture post, and trawling through mine and my partner’s photo folders, I found this (thank you to my lovely partner for the permission to use it!):

There are two reason I chose this picture.

The first one is atmosphere – the slightly blurred, muted image with its sepia undertones and wrought iron candlesticks is gothic, or medieval: I feel something looking at it.  Maybe the candles are at a seance, or they are lit due to a power cut in the middle of a storm, or they are on the altar of a church at a wedding.  There is a story behind it and knowing the reality (they were on the dining table at Halloween) doesn’t stop me seeing where else they could feature in a story.

The second is metaphor – what do these two spots of light in the darkness represent?  Is it a couple, stranded?  Or dreams floating in the darkness?  Is it the loneliness of the dark, or the power of hope?  The title I chose for this week has very specific connotations and yet is an accurate representation of the fact – how do we interpret the story that exists behind the light?

For me, the picture suggests great age, a past as yet uncovered, a secret.  I can see a world spinning out of the flickering candlelight – and I can recall stories I read as a child where light and darkness were locked in battle.

So this week, think about where the candles lead you, and what stories the light can reveal.  You’ll probably find more than you thought.

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

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