READING MATTERS

As a writer, I know it's important to read, in order to improve my craft. This is not a hard task. I've always loved reading, though my choice and preferred genre has probably moved considerably since the Famous Five series and The Valley of the Dolls. I used to read at the breakfast table, walking to school, helping to dress my younger siblings, and even under the covers by torchlight. 


However, reading as a child and as a reader is a much more satisfying experience than reading as a 'writer'. 
You don't have any of those little voices in your head which insist on looking for rounded characters, distinctive dialogue which don't need speech tags, consistent point of view, showing not telling, plenty of conflict and of course a good old plot to follow. I'm not saying that readers don't notice these things, they do and will make choices based on these elements about whether a book was a 'good and satisfying' read or not. It's just that they don't particularly label  or define their satisfaction or dissatisfaction in detail. Well, not in general anyway. As a writer, learning the craft, I find it so difficult to just sit back and enjoy a story. I'm always deconstructing it to try and uncover why I like a particular character or hate them at first read. Or murmuring into my coffee cup ' that's telling, not showing', or tutting at the scene where numerous 'head hopping' is ruining my concentration. All things, that as a writer, I have to strip down and build up again to ensure that the story is not only technically written well, but has a good chance of pleasing the intended reader.


This tendency I suppose on the one hand must be a good thing, because it shows that I am indeed learning the craft. Maybe one day, it will all become second nature to me and I can return to reading (or not as the case maybe) for the pure pleasure of entering a world of someone else's making.

Don't Think Just Write

ADVICE FOR WRITERS

Read, read and read...


That's what they say. If you want to improve your craft, keep reading. Since living here, the changes in my lifestyle, however hard, have had one particular benefit. More time to read. And that has meant that I've read stuff I probably wouldn't have before. Despite my desire to enter the Mills and Boon competition though, I've never, ever picked up one of their books. Not because I don;t think they are good - I don;t know never having read them, but perhaps that is the reason why I'm struggling to write in their style. So for me, I think its good advice.





Book Review

The Street Lawyer By John Grisham

John Grisham is very talented, both in the writing and legal world. This story is set in present day and is written from the view point of the main protagonist Michael Brock. Writing in the first person is quite difficult to maintain (so I'm told) but Grisham manages to keep the pace going and at the same time allow us to occupy the life of Brock for a short while. Brock is a savvy lawyer, working to live at a very savvy lawyers firm. The firm owns his life but when we first meet him, that's OK because of the financial rewards that it will bring him. But it has costs, his marriage for one, to Claire who to fill the void which was once love, is chasing her own career as a brain surgeon.

Then Michael experiences a violation of his world and is shown what life is like for many of the homeless in Washington D.C. He is taken as a hostage, along with colleagues by 'Mister' a victim of the street but also, it appears, of Brock's firm, Sweeney & Drake. The hostage situation is quickly resolved, Mister is shot dead by a sniper, but Brock is traumatised by the event, one which he left covered in the lifeblood of his captor. Brock starts to think about things differently. From the street perspective rather than the cocoon of Sweeney and Drake. He starts to question each and every one of his personal principles and finds that actually, they weren't principles at all. One word described them - greed. His colleagues think he's having a 'breakdown' and at first are very sympathetic, but the firm soon changes its tune as Brock discovers the reason for Misters desperate actions. Through a brief encounter with a mother and her four children Brock uncovers the reason why they all perished in a car, on a cold winters night. He is driven, along with the help of Mordecei Green the director of a street legal clinic, to seek justice for the lives he's seen wiped out.

The story is one of change, for Brock. He has left his wife, his promising career and the guarantee of financial security but he has gained a life and a moral standing. Wonderful scenes and images are created by Grisham's ability to get inside the characters head and show us who he is warts and all. A good read all round.

REJECTION

Current Work: Picking myself up and dusting myself down
Listening to: A buzzard 'keying' for its partner
Reading: Just finished Bad Heir Day by Wendy Holden - see below

The Good and The Bad
I'm not sure how to start this entry, I've started typing several times and seem to have turned into a blob of nonsense when it comes to words. Yesterday I heard that the agent I'd been so kindly recommended to, doesn't feel able to take me on. Now I know in my heart that I never imagined I would be 'discovered' or even encouraged in a million years. But when you hear those words 'no thanks' the sense of disappointment is so overwhelming. However, I have to look on the bright side, she didn't trash my work, she wished me well with finding representation and she replied within 10 days of my submitting my manuscript. So this morning when I woke, I felt a little happier turning a disappointment into a positive thing and I shan't fall at the first hurdle. Better writers than me have been rejected (why does JK always come to mind?) so enough of the maudlin (which I am just soooo good at) and chin up. I'm going to blast it off to another this week, and will keep on at it. I have too, I've stepped too far over the edge to stop now...

Book Worm

Bad Heir Day by Wendy Holden


Characters: Anna (a wannabe writer just like me) is the main character. Cassandra is a has been writer and a has been everything who things she's got it all but hasn't. Then there is Seb, Jamie and Robbie - love interests of Anna and her friend and advisor Geri.
Setting: In present time UK and Scotland
Plot: Well, girl wants to fall in love and meets a load of despots along the way. It's a chick lit book.
Quick Summary: Humorous, entertaining and doesn't need a lot of concentration to enjoy. A good 'filler' in between tougher reads. I like these kinds of books, it's a bit like reading the 'Hello' Magazine but without the pictures. Thoroughly enjoyable
Recommendation: Definitely

Confucius Says... Quotes on Writing

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” - Samuel Beckett
Wise, wise words...

WEATHER AND WRITING

Current Work: Drafting short story, final finishing touches to manuscript for submission

Listening to: The bird life in my garden, currently a Hoopoo and a Golden Oriele
Reading: Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory

Weather and Things
There are a lot of things which affect my life as a writer. I suppose that goes for most people whatever their passion might be. I was communicating with colleague in Canada who told me it was minus 5 there and snow on the cards. Here it is rising 25 (in the shade) with a clear Wedgwood blue sky. The heat knocks me down for while until my body gets use to it. The worst thing is the lack of sleep, so that makes me grumpy as well. Not a good state for a writer. But this is just the beginning so I better get used to it! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. The good weather I think also brings about a different creative side of me, which is happier and lighter which has got to be good. Hasn't it?

The Riddler
This week it has to be this editing thing that's bugging me right now. My other half has now finished proofing my first novel and I now need to polish it up and package it up and whizz it off. It just feels strange and I keep putting it off. I'm not sure why or even if this is a common state of affairs with your first novel. Somehow it's quite scary, it's not the rejection I fear for I'm kind of thinking that's a given. It's the thought of someone reading it, someone I don't know - but then I won't know what they think, will I?

The Bookworm
Well, I started Revolutionary Road last week and have shelved it after four days of perseverance. Maybe its just not the read for me at present, but it didn't capture my imagination at all. In fact I took a great dislike to the two key characters - Frank and April - and gave up. I'm now reading Wideacre and prospects are looking good for this one.

A Final Word.
Our elderly neighbour passed away at the weekend. She's not been well for some time and was at least in her late eighties but all the same - it's a different place. She provided much sage advice, inspiration and encouragement and shall never be forgotten. Arreverdici Bruna

TIME IS TICKING BY

Current Work: Queries, novel editing and admin

Listening to: Italian radio to improve my understanding

Reading: Fleshmarket Close (Ian Rankin), old diaries

First Thought for the Day:

A time will come when a politician who has wilfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own. -H.G. Wells, writer (1866-1946)

Friday Fumbling

It’s been a strange day, they very often are here! I and my Man Friday are still trying to get to grips with the Italian Health System. Today we were up at a sparrow’s song, in the dark as MF had to have an eye examination. The poor chap suffers from Type 2 Diabetes and this is one of the regular checks he has to have, the service is very good and very similar to the UK, just with a few (or should I say many) misunderstandings. We reached the hospital at 7.30 am (no 9-5 here) and the waiting room was full of octogenarians smiling a toothless grin at the stranieri (foreigners). Anyway it turned out that he should have other tests before this one and now we have had to rearrange it for next month.

You may well be asking what all this has got to do with writing? Well, I for one believe in making everything an opportunity for writing and this will be no different. I managed to scribble a few character sketches, add more to a piece I’m putting together on our experience which will also fuel the novel in progress. So never look a gift horse in the mouth – OK enough of the cliché’s they get a bit boring but sometimes they just tumble out.

Weekly Assessment

Not bad, I’d say 8/10. Not bad for the Queen of Procrastination? I have lots of red ticks in my diary against actions (it’s a lovely feeling – sad aren’t I?). I’ve started editing my draft novel which feels strange but its lovely to get together with it again and the characters feel as fresh as when I was writing about them.

Today is my query and admin day, though with the trip this morning I’m running a little late and we have to go out again in about 10 minutes.

Plans for the Weekend

I like weekends. Sunday particularly as I try as much as I can to keep it sacred (to me and my other half, not for any other reason). If we’ve had a Red Cross parcel from my dad, I’ll demolish the reading material or catch up on the novel on my bedside table. I’ve just finished a biography about Rosalind Franklin, the silent but considerable contributing scientist to the discovery of DNA which led to a Nobel Prize. Not for poor Rosalind though, it’s a fascinating read, not only because of how women were viewed at the time but also because she was the great Aunt of my brother in law! And he’s brainy too!

Dogs are also on the weekend agenda. Bertie’s sister is coming to stay for another week and we’ve been bracing ourselves! Lots of exercise thought to balance the overindulgence with the vino rosso!

Until later….

And Finally, the Last Word of the Day:

nubilous

PRONUNCIATION:

(NOO-buh-luhs, NYOO-)

MEANING:

adjective: 1. Cloudy, misty, or foggy. 2. Vague or obscure.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin nubilosus (cloudy), from nubes (cloud).

USAGE:

Antonioni is probably best known for Blow-Up, a nubilous 1966 drama set in swinging London about a fashion photographer who comes to believe that a photograph he took of two lovers in a public park also shows, hidden in the background, evidence of a murder."

Rick Lyman; Michelangelo Antonioni, Subversive Filmmaker; International Herald Tribune (Paris, France); August 1, 2007.

"All of which nubilous musing serves little purpose, except to show that cloud-gazing, as a way of passing time, has appealed to all humanity since the earliest of times."

Andy Drought; We Really Don't Know Clouds At All; The Herald (Glasgow, UK); Oct 27, 2001.