Coming Unstuck

This week hasn’t quite gone to plan. I continued to struggle with getting words onto paper (or screen). I have still been making lists but it didn’t seem to be helping. I was ruminating ideas but not putting them down.

By the time I reached my writers group on Thursday night I hadn’t written anything and the pages I had tried to rework were disjointed and the scene started in third person, shifted to first person and then back to third, but another character’s point of view.

This is why I think writers groups are so important. We were a little light on the ground as half our number are attending a creative writing course, but the opportunity to share my work and talk about it was very helpful.  It is also helpful to listen to other writers, hear how they write, talk about what issues or problems or challenges they face.

I left the group feeling enthusiastic and recharged. And I have been writing. I am also more settled on the voice. I know what I am comfortable with and so that seems to work best. There are some plot points that need some work but I am happy at the moment to continue writing and let it work itself out.

I may have already mentioned that when I start writing I don’t write to a plan. I usually have a character or a scene in mind and the story builds from there. The overall plot is coming together with my fantasy draft as it moves along. But there are times when I write something and then wonder how it will resolve itself or end or connect to another scene or character. I have found in the past that the characters can determine things for themselves. That is work out how the story should go.

So now that I am writing , I am going to just write and see what happens.

Happy Scribbling.

Group Discussions

I have become one of those people. You know the ones that seem to think anything is possible. Like the ex-smoker in a group that says you just need to stop.

I have been lucky enough to be asked to join a new writers group. I didn’t realise how much I missed talking with other writers and hearing what they are doing and writing. We are all unpublished and there is a mix of genres being written and of course different ways of going about that.

One member of the group, at our last meeting, read a first draft piece to introduce one of her main characters to get an idea from the group as to how it was working. It was great to talk it through, everyone had good ideas on ways to tidy it up and we talked about how she would use it, or whether it was a good exercise for her to develop more background on the character but that the actual piece itself may not end up in the final version.

I think with a first draft it is important to get the story down on paper and then rework. So this is where I turned into “one of those people”.

I asked how much of her story she had written down, and then suggested that if she gets the story down, she could work on the order, detail and so on later. She said she has the order and the plot quite well planned as it has spent several years moving around her head and taking over her thinking. But she has written very little of the story down.

‘But you want to write it.’

‘Yes, but I don’t have time.’

‘Just an hour a day?’

Here she scoffed and it was driving home that I realised we can’t put our own ideals and goals onto others.

She wants to write her story but she needs to work out herself the best way to do that. I should have suggested 10 minutes a day. Everyone can find 10 minutes and then build on that. An hour really does sound daunting when we have so much else happening in our lives.

I have recently decided that writing is what I really want to do above all else. I still need to spend time with my family, go to work and the gym, and do some housework. But if I want to be a writer then I need to fit writing in too. I get up early to get that writing time every day.  And sometimes if I’m really lucky I can get some more time of an evening or weekend.

But just like kicking the smoking habit, just because I can do it doesn’t mean everyone else can too or in the same way. We each need to work out what is best for us, and the best way to get that. And tt is worth noting that another member of the group also gets up at 5am to spend a quiet, uninterrupted hour writing. At least I know I am not alone.

Happy Scribbling

Half a Step Back

Someone once shared the insight that writers see the world from half a step back. Actually it was very good writer and teacher, at the best course I have attended to date (but I might go into that another time).

That I could see the world that way, and that others did as well was such an enlightening moment. It not only gave me purpose, but it helped me feel better about not fitting. I quite often get the feeling that I’m not quite in the mix with everyone else; that I am experiencing life but not quite the same as those around me. It also meant that maybe I was a writer and thought like other writers, or saw the world like a writer.

When I start to get a bit overwhelmed, or feeling “out of it” I can use that idea again. It has become my mantra “half a step back” and it usually puts me back in perspective and a smile on my face. I may even use it for my memoir, if I ever write it. Or something about green. I have this thing about writing green...

Anyway.

Writing can be personal, insular and solitary. I think it is important for us to spend time with like minded people. Whether that is other writers, or even readers; people who enjoy the written word. It helps put you in perspective it can be a great way to improve your writing or just assist with motivation.

There are different ways to do this, writing groups, reading groups, classes and courses. Even the internet now offers so much, online courses, online forums and of course some writers out there have a blog of their own where they share information, ideas, their writing life and their writing.

Once you get over the initial fear of sharing your writing with others it can be very useful. I have also found in many of the course I have attended that no two people in the class with me had the same style or genre. Or if they did have the same genre, they came at it from a very different angle. The exercises in classes like this really show how differently people think and write. It is also a chance to bounce and critique your own work.

I find feedback very useful, not everyone appreciates it but I need to know that what I am writing works for readers. I may enjoy the story but I am more involved than anyone else and there are times that you know the characters or the place so well that you don’t see what is missing. It might be in your head but not clearly on the page and readers can help with that.

Think about how you view the world. What do you do with what you see?

Happy Scribbling