To be a writer write

I’m a sucker for soundbites (and Twitter is great for those, with its 140 character restraint)!  Some are funny but true, e.g. “My mind often wanders…and sometimes it leaves completely”, but my favourites are the ones that challenge and/or inspire me.

Two have been particularly thought-provoking recently.  The first was a tweet from Nicky Gumbel who said “It’s never too late to be the person you’re supposed to be”.  

I often feel that I’m trying to become a published writer too late, having missed years of opportunities and not really standing a chance against younger, but more experienced, writers.  It’s far too easy to regret not having got more serious about writing sooner and think about all the years when I haven’t got on with it, rather than grabbing hold of the fact that it’s never too late to try.  I’m terrible at thinking “one day I’ll…”  Then you get to a certain age and realise that there might be less “one days” ahead of you than you think, so you really need to get on and do something about whatever it is you want to do something about!!

Anyway, perhaps I’ll be a better writer now than I would have been, because I have so much more knowledge and life experience, lol ;-)

The other challenging comment, kinda via my Oxford tutor, was “if you want to be a writer write.”

When you first start out being a writer it’s really hard to know when it’s okay to start calling yourself a writer.  Some people say that you should call yourself a writer and then it will hopefully be self-fulfilling.  Some say you’re not a writer until you’re published.  But actually the bottom line is that you are only a writer (noun) if you actually write (verb) and ideally on a daily basis.

Ouch!  I constantly struggle to find time to actually write!  I want to do it.  I’m productive when I do do it.  But SO many things fight for my time and writing is invariably the main thing that gets squeezed out :-(  I recently set myself the challenge of writing for a minimum amount of time every day.  That went well until I started having to sort out our house ready to move (again!). Now I haven’t had the opportunity to write for days and I’m very frustrated about that.  For now, I’m just going to have to grit my teeth, get through the next crazy week and then get stuck in again properly and quickly.  If I’m going to be a writer then I’m clearly gonna have to fight back against the other things that steal my time away.

Although I may not be able to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard currently, my brain is still able to play with ideas and compose scintillating prose while I pack boxes and paint walls :-)  Thankfully, imagination is not bound by the necessities of everyday living!

Getting going and keeping going!

The second significant turning point (for those of you paying attention in the last post!) in getting started properly on this journey was going to one day of the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in the middle of August.

I’d seen it advertised before but had pretty much ignored it because, after all, I’m not really a “writer” yet!  But then it came to my attention again a couple of weeks beforehand and I thought, what the heck, it’s less than an hour away at a venue I’m familiar with and my course tutor is doing a session on Children’s and YA fiction, so I can learn more about it and meet him.  Let’s give it a go!

What a great decision!  I went to 2 sessions delivered by a literary agent on how to get a literary agent which will be invaluable when I finally finish my manuscript, lol ;-)  I learnt a lot about myself in a right side brain creativity session, which will also be a potentially good method to get to know my characters better.  In the YA session I realised that Suzanne Collins is an incredibly skilled writer who packs a huge amount into each chapter of the Hunger Games, rather than just someone who “got lucky” with a clever novel idea.  

But most of all, it was really inspiring and motivating to be around lots of other people on their writing journeys – some published, some not, in a wide variety of different areas of writing.  I came away fired up but also wondering how on earth I was going to be able to keep that motivation up on my own.

The answer, surprisingly, has come in the form of Twitter.  Meg Davis, the literary agent at Swanwick, had mentioned that having a strong online presence was incredibly useful for publishers when it comes to promoting an author and their books.  So, I figured that if I’m going to get serious about writing then I may as well get my presence more established on Twitter sooner rather than later.

I’ve had a Twitter account for 3 years already but done very little on it (@melgreen73 if you're interested - I'm not very exciting...yet!).  I’ve always preferred Facebook as it’s a lot more personal and relational.  That’s right, of course, but I’d also missed an important point.  Twitter is mainly about information sharing and self-promotion (as well as being a great place to practise writing more concisely – a skill I need to develop, lol!).  It’s not better or worse than Facebook, it’s just different, and is valuable and useful in ways I hadn’t previously considered.

The best thing about Twitter so far is that I’ve been able to start following people who continue to inspire, inform and motivate me to write on a daily basis.  So, among others, I follow Stephen Fry coz everybody does ;-)  I follow Nicky Gumbel coz he’s wise and insightful.  I follow Bear Grylls coz he’s fun and inspiring as well as pretty hot, lol!  And I follow Bright Literary (literary agents) coz they give me invaluable writing and publishing tips - the sort of relevant and up-to-the-minute information you just couldn’t pay for.  I punched the air in delight the day they said they were hoping to find some humour for 7+ boys in their submissions pile while they ate their lunch and vowed that I would send them some asap!!

So with all this on-going motivation and inspiration, I have no excuse not to get writing, right?!

Just Another Dreamer?

Sadly, I’m the sort of numpty who can believe she’s been told by God to be a writer and then get distracted by any number of meaningful and/or pointless activities and still not get on with it, or at least not whole-heartedly!

But things have suddenly changed in the last few weeks.

Taking a 10 week online course with Oxford University on “Writing Fiction for Young Adults” has been one of two significant turning points.  Although the book I’ve had in mind to write for many years is a children’s one (more on that another time), I realised earlier this year that Young Adult (YA) fiction is what I’m really passionate about and what I would always read myself by choice.

It’s hard to vocalise adequately all that I got out of the course!  There was a lot of theoretical information and useful links that I’ll keep accessing (and blogs I’ll keep following).  There were multiple opportunities to do creative writing exercises and post them to the forums for feedback from course mates and the excellent tutor.  His feedback was particularly insightful and specific, and allegedly (like Mr Walton, my GCSE tutor, before him) believes that I might be “a very capable writer”.

Of course, he’s a nice guy who wants to encourage potential writers.  He’s also paid to be encouraging.  But it would be good to find out if he’s right.

So, I’ve gained a much clearer understanding about YA fiction and the process of writing in general, as well as some practical skills to help me do it better.  But greater than all the things you can appraise in an end-of-course evaluation form, I came away from those 10 weeks inspired and fired up about having a proper go at writing.

And that could make all the difference right now…

Let's Start At The Very Beginning

My writing journey began *cough* years ago when I loved writing stories at school and was told that I was good at it.  This journey's destination though is completely up in the air right now. 

When I mention to other people that I’m trying to become a writer, at least 90% of them say that they‘ve always wanted to write a book too and would still like to…one day.

Can I actually succeed in becoming a published writer though or will I end the same way as most of these other wannabees, looking back with just regrets or a fantasy of what might have been?

Coming back to this neglected dream happened two years ago at Newday, an annual Christian youth event.  That year there was a strong focus in the talks and seminars on creativity, and writing was included in that.  God had started reminding me about my long-held desire to write just before then, but while at Newday He clearly told me to be a writer (that might sound slightly wacky, but there you go!).

Unfortunately He didn’t tell me what sort of writer to be or what to write, so I spent the first year faffing around waiting for more inspiration and not really getting anywhere.  He also didn’t mention that I was still gonna have to put in some hard work and determination, like everyone else.  Despite my best hopes, a story wasn’t going to suddenly come supernaturally flying into my head fully formed, as Salieri alleges Mozart’s symphonies did in my favourite play/film “Amadeus”.

So, a year later, I’m back at Newday, and at the beginning of the first meeting, God gives me a gentle but powerful reminder of His commission!  This video is playing (make sure you view it on full-screen!), I go “wow” and God goes “yes, words are pretty powerful, hey?!”  Ah….yes…sorry, I’ll get on with this writer thing then…