Tag Archives: Writing for its own sake

Musings on an Aftermath of Writing.

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Reflective(Allegorical image by the way)

Some of you will be familiar with the opening of this tale.

Commenced I suppose from 2015, maybe, (although there were myriad false starts) and completed end of 2021. A fantasy trilogy written without much respect for the apparent ‘Rules of Writing’. And that was that. Completed.  Like any writer there were all sorts of ideas, whispers of ideas and the like swirling about. The same characters a few years down the line? Maybe the next generation, their children? A few experimental paragraphs suggested; it wasn’t going to work, not now anyhow. The scene was as if I had spent some time with this varied group, recorded these parts of their individual and joint narratives and now a parting of the ways was taking place, all by mutual consent. There was this singular notion any further novels would be intrusive into their lives. The conclusion was almost as if I had indeed strayed upon another fragment of Creation and had been a mere observer. Time for us all to move on.

The obsession to craft three volumes had been, of course unobtrusive. At the time, simply three basic ideas with plots and sub-plots spinning out all weaving into a pattern of cause and effect. The warning how obsessive I had become was the evening I flew into a rage because Kindle would not accept the download of the final cover, normally the solution would have been quite simple, but when Obsession takes hold anything that gets in the way in a foe…right?….Well no, wrong. Toxic.

Anyway, with the whole project completed and ‘Out There’, a calm settled. The urge to read books rather than listen to audio versions returned. An experiment to paint emerged; by numbers I add, because my perception of colours is rather variable; seriously an adult paint-by-numbers is a challenge, with tiny, tiny patches and titchy, titchy numbers therein; fun though and to be worked on at a leisurely pace. Finally there was the focus to stop trying to take up Quantum Mechanics as a serious interest, the maths and the terminology are beyond my capabilities. Back to History reading and in consequence looking into International Relations and the attendant theories. (Yes there are graphs and data but only for those who have made it their Life’s Work or intending to do so, a working knowledge of what is what is sufficient).

Does that mean you have quit writing? Some may ask. No, comes the simple answer. The Muses still flutter around me (or poke me in the back, if thus inclined). The frenetic side has evaporated. There is an idea to work a series of posts from way-back into a neater format and set in the same realms of the trilogy
Aureyborealice, A Fable in Several Parts…Part I

And there is  https://bbprompt.com/

Which supplies a monthly prompt for short stories and is quite a buzz to join as well as read.

There is a weight lifted though, the notion it was all for fun and relaxation was a flaw in perception, I was in deep. Of course being in deep is something a serious writer should be to embrace, but when you start to live with the characters, muttering phrases of possible conversations to yourself, going over and over in your mind situations, not being able to truly focus on anything else other than the day-to-day living and ‘Your Book’. No, maybe not. It maybe necessary for the true professionals with a contract but for the rest of us; the rest of the world needs to come in.

Maybe therein is the true reason why I’ll not be going back there. Even though it was fun at the time.

Writing eh? You love it. You can’t leave it alone. But it is as well to have boundaries.

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Musings on Writing (Another series). Important Reactions to Use on Suitable Occasions

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At All Times: Ah! I gotta write that down now!

On Reading ‘That Latest Best Seller’ : Yeah. It’s alright. Quite good really. Mind you, if I was writing it……. 

On Reading ‘Another’ Book in ‘That Genre’: Oh for Pity’s sake! Not again! I can do better…in fact I will.

When receiving a rejection letter: Like those editors and agents who turned down The Harry Potter books…..You’ll be sorry.

When reading a bad review: What the…. (Full Metal Jacket) do you know?. Go and write your own (More Full Metal Jacket) book.

When receiving a good review:

On Noticing Very Few Sales: It’s a sleeper. Just wait. In twenty years time.

When Doing The Re-Write: Stupid ‘WORD’, I’ll decide what is a correct choice of words. And add ‘that ‘to Dictionary willya! 

Also When Doing Re-Write: Oh Dearest Muse of Continuity, watch over this fuddled and woebegone writer. 

And When Assailed by Doubt, Naysayers and Lack of Success

Through tarmac

Just One Writer’s Statement…That’s All

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I should be looking through my friends’ blogs and reading of their views, adventures and interludes. I should be reading the news and keeping abreast of the miseries that torment others. I should be….. (you fill in the gaps, they are probably very similar to mine)

OR

I should be writing something about the current state of the nation and world from various perspectives. There again I should be writing something about the creative spirit or maybe some other aspect of the craft of writing.

AND

There are the chores when need attending to, now that my breakfast is finished (8.30 GMT 25th March 2021. UK). (Well, that was when it was started)

YET

Reflection stills and then diverts me to write this…which has come from a frequently visited place on the map of my Writer’s World, wherein stands a temple dedicated to Creativity and from which tolls one clarion bell, a steady simple peel.

There again perhaps inspiration to write this comes from the small bird perched on the guttering of our roof and singing its Spring Time Anthem of ‘Here I Am’. However, the image of a wolf howling out across the still landscape does have its attractions.

SO.

Three volumes. 600,000 + words. Fantasy Adventure. Independent minds. Comradeship. Humour. Romance. Acceptance. Upbeat. The Positive and Constructive Wins Out. Villains cast down.

AND when the final re-write is completed having hunted down most of the typos, the syntax tidied up and the continuity ironed out.

ALL will be well.

What happens after?

Why, the ship sets sail. I was but the shipwright.   

Sailing Ship

But I love my craft.

Post-Completion Gliding

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Autumn is a good time to complete a book upon which I had but one certain intention and that was a feel-good happy ending. In my part of the world when as season grows there is a stillness settling in.

What is done, is done, time to reflect on accomplishments and what may be ahead

In my case, this will be waiting for the cover and Kindling away. Then re-editing and nudging at Volumes I & II so the whole fits together.

I have been posting on this and normally I would enter a link but Word Press seems currently incapable of doing this once simple act……

So to move on to another related topic.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of sticking with your writing. Once you have reached the stage where you can admit to yourself that you wish to write, be it to name a few: fact, fiction, observations, poetry, then you should strive to continue, otherwise you will forever be unsettled. Of course not for everyone the writing path, however once a writer, embrace this with a resolve and an intention to write.

There is this theme which surfaces which suggests the only writing worth anything is the writing read by noticeable numbers of readers. And of course we would all like to have a large audience. Sometimes though this is not to be, there will be a variety of reasons and I will not try and list them, for doing that can be misinterpreted that these reasons are actually shortcomings on the writer’s behalf. This reasoning is flawed. Throughout History making one’s views known has always been a struggle, be it because of status, lack of resources and in this day and age the fact that the Public Place is awash with Ways & Means to announce, preach, amuse, inform, misinform and so on. Getting known is difficult, competitive as well; in this there are shallow folk who achieve this by being notorious or outrageous and when you analyse it nothing else and that’s commercially driven because these attention getters are another source of revenue for the Media Systems who are only too happy to use them, until they get too toxic, then bye-bye Yesterday’s Clown.

To return then to the clearer air of writing just Because. Recognition is nice and should not be avoided, but it should not be the measuring stick. The important facet, the very centre of your reason to write, is simply:

You write because you want to

Beyond that, all is consequence. You may attract readership, you may not. You may remain a writer in the shadows, one of millions. Yet what is wrong with this? A brief scan at any Cosmology site will reveal unto you, breath-takingly vast numbers of galaxies which each, themselves contain numbers of stars so vast as to be beyond normal comprehension. And if you are fortunate to be somewhere not bothered by light-pollution you will glimpse a fraction of those stars.

Thus shine on You Writer. One star in the firmament. No matter what else, you are there, and your light is part of a glorious patchwork of Human Creativity.

Some Thoughts on Writing A Novel

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Warning Foreword:

This post WILL contain some themes of a convolutedly, introspectively, esoteric nature concerning the relationship between a writer and their work. 

So sue me ….

I have this ‘thing’ about liking, nay enjoying re-writes and even more so since I discovered a rare useful device of Word’s ie ‘Review’ & ‘Read Aloud’

Microsoft Word Actually Being Useful in Self-Editing

The cause, may or may not be a combination of the following:

(1) Triumph in picking up all those niggling typos placed by Word’s evil cyber-pixies who wish to discourage all creative writing and would have a World Literature based on Business Projections and Internal Management Documents thus spoiling their plans. 

(2) Not wishing to be the cause of disharmony between me, some innocent beta-reader or helpful editor who inadvertently committed the unforgiveable crime of suggesting I change some part of the narrative or tweak a character. (It’s not that I am inflexible you understand, it’s just that……errr….. I’ll get back to you on that one in another post)

(3) Saving money on the aforementioned in ‘2’.

(4) Some latent vanity in the joy of reading/ listening to my own work. (Well someone has to admit to it!)

Those are the nuts and bolts ones. The actual fun comes in:

(A) The dismantling wholesale and replacing chunks of say 20,000 words with something better.

(B) Catching out the devious Continuity Fae who entrap a writer with whispers of enthusiasm to churn out the words and rush off to the next exciting bit and thus overlooking some leap of logic or several quite contradictory statements/actions undertaken by a major character. (This takes on cosmological proportions when you are writing a series of books).

(C) Actually listening to one or more of the characters who steps out of the narrative, stands in front of you waving an allegorical piece of paper and saying ‘Seriously?’

(D) And above all, the interactions of (A)- (C) which start some unexpected runaway process, dragging you off down a route you never even realised existed and effectively rattling loose most of the story into something else. The thrill of being part of such a situation overwhelms any concerns about having finishing a book by ‘such and such’ a date.

I don’t think my trilogy will ever sell many copies (so far most have been acquired ‘free’ through Amazon). Yet I do not care. The main characters are alive, and vibrantly taking control of the narrative, thus I owe it to them to make sure this is recorded.

The whole process is wonderfully chaotic and unpredictable. Everything else I intended to write or think about writing is on hold while this little universe settles down.

And I wouldn’t have it anyone other way.

Seriously folks… The Joys of Writing

 

 

Writing Just Because…

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I was getting fed-up. With politics, particularly the hypocrisy and incompetence of Opposition Parties ( hush now…not the time nor place) letting undeserving scallywags get away with things (I told ‘me’ to hush now...). Also with books whose blurbs tell me that yet another law officer with soul crushing personal problems is trying to catch another yet serial killer (what is it with the fascination with these monsters who do not deserve the glorification they get). And with cheap juvenile stuff (Colouring book for adults with swear words or men’s organs as the subjects….seriously????). Ah me, unless an effort is made this will turn into a rant. Be soft now and let your Muse turn you from the introduction into the true body of the post.

10th January this year. Something on the subject of writing was in my mind as I stared at the blank posting page, I forget the details now, daresay they will return another day. Anyway My Muse in a supreme bid to break free of all the simmerings spoiling her day, danced through those cloying thoughts in a joyous, determined, urge to be frivolous, took my imagination by the hand and led me away.

It is a work in progress Aureyborealice, A Fable in Several Parts…Part I

Starting out as a simple piece of humorous whimsey using the fairy tale style and mixing in satire, farce with anything else which would fit into the pot. Originally it seemed to have a life of maybe three posts of about 1,600 words a piece. Of course I had forgotten about the will of the characters; once they had settled down and become familiar with my head, they would not leave and insisted on the whole story being told. So here I am with Part X completed, 18,000 + words accounted for and whereas there is an end in sight…. it is a long way off.

I don’t think the finished project will ever see the light of day as a book or novella. So what purpose does it have? There is an easy question to answer….. To write for its own sake. To write this piece because I can and I want to. There are opportunities to air some beliefs, to indulge in screwball humour, some British bawdiness, and as mentioned before some satire. In this tale folk who mean well or have a balanced sense of proportions thrive. Folk who deserve retribution for their careless or unpleasant behaviour and will not learn get justice heaped on them, sometimes in a callous way. Others who had blundered through Life become wiser. A world in whose ethical nature I would like to dwell.

A secondary purpose is the challenge to ensure the plot does not follow the same paths as my current Precipice Dominions project.

The Precipice Dominions

The Precipice Dominions

Therefore this current exercise is a refreshing drink and keeps matters ever active. This said, the two narratives might well take place in the same world, although not in the same locations and certainly not the same times.

Of course writing is an effort, and it is only a writer’s nature that they wish to record this effort, somewhere. So I place this on WP, to remain in its archives, to be chanced upon, for folk to read and above all to state ‘I was here and I wrote this. My Muse (an industrious quirky little pixie of whom I am very fond) I thank you,‘

And it is also on a Word doc. And hopefully on a cloud. The book may yet evolve.

So, fellow writers. You should not fret when the urge takes you to write another piece of work, removed from your current project. Sometimes you need the allegorical walk away from the habitation of your current book into a fresh air. Other times when you are feeling low because the plot will not flow or you seem to be writing for no one but yourself, another piece of work can revitalise, remind you of your nature; To Write because you can. And because you will. Write for the joy of letting the words flow out from thought and take form. You need no other’s approval, they are not above you. You are A Writer. It is enough.