Writing in Scotland

Blocked and doing nothing - I'm scunnered.

2009-04-22T15:06:00.001+01:00

I'm supposed to be doing script frenzy and a radio play for an Open University Creative Writing course that I'm in the process of completing and I'm stuck. Out of ideas and motivation. Deadlines loom and they usually do the trick but not this time.
I've sent off for a book ( my usual means of advice ) called The War of Art which comes highly recommended. I hope it comes soon and I hope it can help.

It's started and I've got seven pages but behind schedule

2009-04-04T18:42:00.001+01:00

It's a real temptation for me to play with a computer. I don't mean games, but incessant tweaking and distraction of checking email, RSS feeds, podcasts, and a couple of my favourite sites. It can be an hour before I settle down to any productive work. I'm trying to break that habit. I must break this habit.

Wasting Time is So Easy to Do.

2009-03-16T09:51:00.001Z

I'm finding it very easy to spend a lot of time preparing to write. Reading books, listening to podcasts, anything but real prep for my plays.
How about a bit of plotting and outlining?
That involves my in thinking. Maybe I should listen to that insightful aphorism... If you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting what you've always got... So for the first time in many a year I be starting my outlines and plotting for this years Script Frenzy.

Script Frenzy 2009 Approaches

2009-03-13T10:38:00.001Z

I'll be doing Script Frenzy 2009.

Walking in This World

2008-05-20T10:24:00.001+01:00

I first did The Artist's Way back in 1998 and again in 2000. I bought Walking in This World in 2003. I never did anything with it until this weekend when I dug it out and got all fired up again about revitalizing my writing practice and my creativity. It's built upon The Artist's Way using morning pages and artist's dates. It introduces an additional tool to one's armoury, the weekly walk.

I'm now doing week 1 of the 12 week programme.

I'm also a bit overweight, a lot in fact, a side effect of giving up smoking 15 years ago so I'm also looking at Julia Cameron's The Writing Diet which looks compatible with Walking in the World.

It's a case of I have to change aspects of my life and I want to write and share the joy of writing with others. Is writing for therapeutic effect incompatible with writing for communication? A resounding NO.

I believe that authentic story telling is driven by deeply held view's and feelings that the writer or storyteller needs to get out of themselves and wants to share with others and in doing so, the shared experience resonates between them. That's when you know good writing.

It's beyond spelling and grammar. The use of language should be transparent; it should not get in the way of the meaning through poor grammar or spelling that irk some people, or use of dialect that becomes a chore to read, or using vocabulary that's out of place, or showy language just to prove you've a great command of the language.

Let it be what it needs to be, to get the thought into the mind of another soul, to be understood, to be felt, to be identified with.

More on Developing a Writing Practice.

2008-05-15T12:16:00.001+01:00

Guildenstern Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead.

And how true that is for me. I do enjoy various sensory experiences, watching a video or observing a painting or having a dance, but I think in words and enjoy speaking and listening and reading and writing more than my other sensory channels.
It's through words that a lot of my understanding has developed and my day job is totally dependant on the use of literate communications.
But, it's not me that I communicate but the ideas and views of others and that has left me jaded and wanting to do more to explore my own views on life.
Firstly about ten years ago I came on Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.
It is a useful book for any kind of artist but I think it's a great motivator for the aspiring writer. The great tool it gives you is the idea of morning pages. Yes it's been put forward by many other writers before Ms. Cameron, but I discovered her first.
Morning pages are three pages you hand write as soon as you get up in the morning and before you do anything else like listen to the radio or watch TV or make your breakfast or even just a cup of tea. You trying to use the quiet time when you first get up to bridge between the conscious world and the subconscious world and to let those thoughts come out on the page. What troubles you no matter how petty or how often the same thought comes up you just put down the words one after another. That's writing; putting one word down after another on the page.
You don't write these pages to be read. You can read them but distance is needed, weeks, months, or years. They may produce usable snips, but that's not why you do them. You write every day and you can call yourself a writer.
Don't worry about the size of these pages. I find that it takes me thirty minutes to fill three pages regardless of the page size. Just write without stopping, judging, or analysing the writing. It's the process that's important in this exercise, not the product.
I've been doing, on and off, morning pages for almost ten years, producing millions of words. When I let my morning pages lapse I find writing harder at other time. The catharsis that comes from doing morning pages helps me be a more productive writer.
It might work for you

How to develop a writing practice.

2008-05-14T12:14:00.001+01:00

it passée to write about writer's notebooks but since I've started to think in visual terms i understand the need for doing sketches to practice specific drawing techniques.
Trying different cross-hatch patterns to assess their usefulness for different types of shading. Drawing eye after eye to make sure that you get the shapes correct.
Probably learning to see without imposing any meaning or symbolism onto the image getting down to those quintessential drawing skills that only hit home when you know them experientially. Betty Edwards's drawing books are a great guide to experiencing these fundamentals (more of this in another post sometime if anyone else cares). She brings the art of drawing what you see down to five skills. Five skills or rules to practice and master and you can quickly achieve a high level of competence in drawing in a few months. Taught in the traditional way in art classes , in spite of years of tuition most of use can barely move beyond that childish symbolism of our formative years.
Now I accept that I'm talking about the technical skills of drawing but we need to achieve the technical skills of writing which include grammar, spelling, figures of speech, dialogue.
It's getting your tool box equipped and developing competence at using the tools.
Then the real task for artist and writer is to use those skills to develop works that intrigue, inspire, inform, amuse, titillate, bemuse, entertain, move to action, invoke emotions and on and on.
It's the old chestnut of doing unimportant stuff well or doing important stuff not so well or best is to do the important stuff well. And what is important is defined by you and your reader. What have you to write and will anyone want to read it? More to come.

Script Frenzy 2008 Now Finished.

2008-05-02T12:50:00.002+01:00

I've participated and have by the end of April 2008 completed 44 pages of script. Not a winning performance but 44 more pages than I would have had had Script Frenzy not taken place.
I intend to complete a 100 to 120 page script and at the current rate of production I should achieve it in 6 to 8 weeks. Then I'll know I'm a winner.
If you have an interest in writing anything Script Frenzy(http://scriptfrenzy.org/) and NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) are great motivators to get those shitty first drafts done.

Reading Prep for Screen Frenzy 2008

2008-04-12T18:43:00.004+01:00

Hi,

During March I worked my way through a pile of books in essence covering similar ground but in different styles.

The Complete Idiots Guide to Screenwriting - It gives a broad overview of the history of the film industry, the market, the current screenwriting gurus and their approaches, some info on writing, and how to sell your final script. Good overview but not a writing manual.

How NOT to Write a Screenplay - A good set of what not to do and what to do. Probably best after you've written your first draft. Worth the money.

Billion-Dollar Kiss - All about writing for American TV. A real eye opener. It's on sale at a ridiculously low price on Amazon.com. At that price worth a read.

How To Write A Movie In 21 Days - A gem of a book that convinced me that it was possible to do a first draft in about 30 days. Viki King is inspirational.

Save The Cat - by Blake Snyder. A more sophisticated expression of some of the ideas in the Viki King book. It extends and contributes some additional ideas and refinements. Worth a read and a ponder.

The Moral Premise - Thought provoking and insightful. Has ideas that seem applicable to all types of writing and indirectly claims to eliminate writer's block. Worth a read.

A book just arrived today from Amazon UK The Anatomy of Story - by John Truby. Still to read but the videos on youtube.com make interesting watching. Search for John Truby, Anatomy of Story.

Like so many things sometimes it boils down to a matter of taste of what works for each of us.

Guildenstern Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

It's Day One of Script Frenzy

2008-04-01T12:14:00.003+01:00

I'm having a go at a screenplay for the first time. I've completed a short stage play a couple of years ago and entered it into a contest and it got nowhere. Still, it was a great feeling to have completed it.

Sometimes you've just got to have a go no matter how ill prepared or what other battery of excuses that you come up with. So many fears haunt each of us and we refuse to even accept this truth. I'm too old, I'm big boned, I've not got the qualifications, I don't know the right people and on and on and on.

But these can all be fixed. It might take time but time will pass anyway and doing nothing, in a year or five you'll still be in the same place as today doing the same thing and dreaming.

It may not be possible to get all you want but you certainly can get anything you want if you commit to it.

Where there is a will there is a way.

It's Time to Move onto Something New.

2008-02-04T20:44:00.001Z

I suppose that I'm like most people who stay in their day jobs because they've got bills to pay. You may even think that what you do is important and that you do it well. BUT you're just a cog in someone else's machine and well you don't feel valued and you feel patronised by people who struggle to appear competent at their jobs and they judge you. At least you can sleep well.

The world is changing and what worked even a month ago might not work now.

So, what to do?

Back to my writing and doing what that means to me. I'm a learning writer as yet unpublished but the most serious I've ever been. It's me and my word processor.

Doing some teaching online. I'm a good teacher. I'll try my hand at writing and delivering some online writing courses. As exercises in thinking, writing and pleasure. I've been working on a writing techniques project for some time so it might be a good starting point.

Not a Nanowrimo winner this time.

2007-12-02T19:44:00.001Z

Well I started well but I found the typing tedious so I got a great touch typing program and it's helped me get to about 40 wpm and I've high hopes of achieving 70+ wpm in the next few weeks. I really should have thought about that aspect before I started Nano but we can all be short sighted sometimes. BTW the program is called type smart at www.type-smart.com and it's available for Mac and Windows.
So not a failure, just not a winner ... yet.

The Secrets Podcasts as an aid to Nanowrimo

2007-10-27T20:44:00.001+01:00

The Secrets Podcast Episodes #17 to #24 inclusive might prove very useful to many Nanowrimo participants.
You can find them at http://www.stormwolf.com/ or you can subscribe via iTunes.
Only about four days left so good luck to all Nanowrimoers.

HarperCollins UK Virtual Slush Pile Initiative

2007-10-12T19:20:00.001+01:00

It looks like HarperCollins UK is going to embrace the Internet for a new publishing venture. Have a look at http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/ or their new site at http://www.authonomy.com/. Looks worth further investigation.

NaNoWriMo 2007

2007-10-04T20:24:00.001+01:00

Another year and it's time to be heading over to http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and registering for this year's extravaganza.

New version of the excellent and free CELTX screenwriting software now available

2007-09-17T19:42:00.001+01:00

The Celtx folk have just released Celtx version 0.995 available at their site celtx.com for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

This is a great piece of software that rivals the industry leaders and has a very nice price of being free.

Go to their site at celtx.com and have a look to see if it fits your needs.

Still here nothing to say today!

2007-08-29T19:41:00.001+01:00

The title says it all.

Create a Language Clinic

2007-08-28T19:29:00.001+01:00

I'm starting my world building by following Holly Lisle's Create a Language Clinic to create some languages for my prospective world.

It feels correct to start there and I suppose it's as good as any place to start.

The key thing is to start and stop thinking about what to do first.

World Building

2007-08-27T20:36:00.001+01:00

Looks like the first step for me will be to develop a world and all the other things that it involves. Languages, cultures, worldograhpy and any other things I can come up with.

If I go at this correctly then it will be a lot of fun to make a place where I could be captivated by it.

Story Bibles

2007-08-25T19:09:00.001+01:00

I'm starting a story bible for my next project. I've found it hard to find information on how other people do this. Some time ago I managed to find a couple of pages on the net, but I stupidly never kept a link to it and search the net has produced nothing.
So what's a story bible? It's a structured collection of notes etc. of information you'll need in constructing your book.
Main headings that can be included are:
Plot Ideas
Characters
History
Plot Summary or Outline
Research
Image Folder
Questions
The Story
How you do this can be down to your temperament. You may be keen to use your computer and there is nothing wrong with that especially if you use software designed to ease the writing process. Something like Scrivener for the Mac or Writer's Cafe (which is free for the Mac at this time) if you want something cross platform ( Windows, Linux and Mac ).
You can also do it the old fashioned way that can be very sensual compared to a computer. Use box or lever arch files and any other stationery that you like - 5 by 3 cards etc.
If you have any experience of creating story bibles or know of any other resources please leave a comment.

What are You Reading?

2007-08-23T20:41:00.001+01:00

What fiction and non-fiction books are you reading?
I'm currently re-reading the Earthsea sequence by Ursula K. Le Guin as one of my wise guides.
Wise guides is an idea I came across in Heather Sellers' latest book Chapter after Chapter where she suggest that you get together with 6 wise guides, 3 books like the book you want to write and three writing/coaching books to keep you on target with writing advice and motivational stuff.
My other wise guides that I'll be re-reading before I start are:
The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt,
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny,
Writing the Novel by Lawrence Block,
The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray (1st edition), and lastly
Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel.

In spite of what Heather Sellers says about only having six guides I going to include her two books Page after Page and Chapter after Chapter a pair of excellent writing advice books.

Writing Podcasts

2007-08-22T19:20:00.001+01:00

I Should be Writing by Mur Lafferty

A podcast by a wannabe writer for wannabe writers. Inspirational.

The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy by Tee Morris

A successful online writer and podcaster and now in print also. He covers more of the business sid of writing

Writers Talking by Matthew Wayne Selznick

It's a series of interviews with writers about the craft of writing

The Secrets by Michael A. Stackpole

A hughly successful auther with many SF and Fantasy books in print.

The Dragon Page

Interviews with well known writers and book reviews covering SF and Fantasy.

Whispers at the Edge by Philippa Ballantine

An antipodean view on writing.

The Kissy Bits by Kiki

A romance podcast from down under.

Great Writing Sites

2007-08-21T19:50:00.001+01:00

I don't know how I found this site. Holly Lisle is a published writer who believes in paying forward and has done a lot for the writers on the Internet. She founded Forward Motion Writers Forums, started Vision Online magazine ( a paying market ) and has a resource laden site at
http://www.hollylisle.com/

Another site that I fine useful is the http://www.forwriters.com/ site with is a structured directory of things of interest or use for a writer. It's not been updated in a while though.

If your looking for a challenge try http://www.nanowrimo.org/ if you'd like to get a book written in a month or http://www.book-in-a-week.com/ if you fancy your chances of doing a book in a week or even http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/ if your a budding script writer and have a month to spare. These are all great fun sites with a serious side too.

Sometimes you might try a search engine other than Google ( no matter how good it is ) because you might find something unusual going elsewhere.

Lastly for the moment if you want to try your hand at SF have a look at http://www.starrigger.net/ the Science Fiction Worlds of Jeffrey A. Carver where you'll find a comprehensive and free writing course.
I've found these all useful. I hope you do too.

Doing what you enjoy.

2007-08-20T20:44:00.001+01:00

I've been participating in an online discussion involving a well known fantasy writer who is exploring options for their future. What does come out of the communal discussion is that it's most important that you write what you enjoy and enjoy what you write and then if you can share that and others are willing to pay to read what you've written then that's really good icing on the top.
So forget what's in vogue or what earns the big bucks unless you really like them.If romance is your bag, write the best romances that you can, if mystery then be the next Agatha Christie. And don't be snobbish about different genres. They're just different no better or worse than each other.
So write and enjoy.

Writing Advice

2007-08-18T19:04:00.001+01:00

There's a lot of writing advice out there, on the net and in print. Who are we to trust our time and money on. The successful published author might be the best bet. They obviously can write well enough to be published (excluding vanity publishing) and hopefully they can tell a story or at least communicate with the learner writer BUT can they teach effectively. Can they cut away the mystique and unnecessary jargon or even remember to explain it.
For a long time I had a notion of what was meant by a beat in writing but only recently came across a clear definition or description. And there are other examples you'll stumble over. Maybe I've just looked in the wrong places.
Sometimes the advice comes in the form of simple aphorisms like 'Writing is just putting one word after another word on paper or a screen.' Glib, insightful, probably, but of itself is it useful in making one a read writer because ultimately that's what we writers want to be read by others and possibly valued by others an have them enjoy or relate to the reality we have created.
And that's what we do. We create realities that we put forward to our readers, realities that cradle the stories we tell, and if the realities are rich enough and well thought-out and the story is gripping then, with a following wind and a bit of luck, we may have a success.
So, does the advice help you to achieve those ends? It's not just about fictitious worlds but includes us having a deep understanding of this reality which, to a large extent, we share.
Does the advice help you create pictures in words? Can you create a story that moves along at a pace? Is your world peopled with believable beings? Do they do things that matter?
I don't think we are looking for formulas, which if they existed would make it all boring. What we should be looking to do is to acquire and develop a toolkit that suits our individual needs and what suits me or another writer might not suit you.
Happy and productive writing.