Trump-tastic Trouser Truffles (thanks Dan!)

What an awesome thing crowd-sourcing is - Facebook at its best :-)

I’ve recently had my most popular status on Facebook and it was all about farts.  Or rather what they could be called instead of “fart”.  Who knew that it would grab so many people’s attention and interest?!

Here’s why I did it (aside from the fact that it was serious fun and I might just have to do it again for no good reason!).  Jeannie’s feedback on my manuscript was really encouraging– which I wasn’t expecting as I’d started to convince myself it was complete rubbish (very common for writers to swing between “this is great” and “this is tosh” with their work, often within the same 10 minute period).  However, one seemingly small, but actually massive, thing she flagged up was my use of “whizz” as the codeword my two main characters use for “fart”.

It’s American for “pee”, which I guess I knew but had conveniently forgotten.  Now who knows whether or not this book will ever get published but, just in case it does, it makes sense to smooth its path to being published globally as well and avoid obvious pitfalls like that from the start.

The BIG problem is that “whizz” is used a lot in the book, when they’re discussing farts.  Plus Ben (the lead character) is a runner, so it plays on the idea that running fast could also be described as whizzing (it makes sense when you read the book – at least I hope it does!).  Any alternative word has to nicely fit both uses, so what on earth could be an appropriate substitute?!

Disheartened I turned to my friends for help.  And what a wonderful crazy wave of creativity I was met with!!!  No less than 54 inspired suggestions :-)

I was then faced with the new problem of selecting the right one!   “Fluff” was my initial favourite (thank you Natalie and others) until I realised that it’s quite common for ladies to use that term for farting anyway.  Next I loved “traf” (thank you Jodie), especially as kids think it’s fun to spell words backwards.  I told Jeannie about this change and she asked if I’d googled it to check it out.

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Thence began an Urban Dictionary education I wish I hadn’t needed to have.  I do have to be thorough, especially with a kids’ book, so it is a necessary evil!  Right, I’m not using “traf” then :-(  

Okay, I’ll change “fluff” to “floof” I thought.  That’s a completely made up word.  Apparently not.  It’s slang for ladies’ bits.  Great.

I checked out “flump” and “gurgler” (thanks Tom) before despairing completely.  What is the world coming to?  Has every word been corrupted and got a dodgy alternative meaning??

Just before I chucked the whole manuscript in the bin, thankfully inspiration came to me in a swoosh.  And “swoosh” it almost was, but it's not completely perfect on the Urban Dictionary and Nike might take issue.  However, I think I can get away with “whoosh”.  Similar onomatopoeia to “whizz”, but with no majorly dodgy connotations (that I’ve managed to find so far, anyway).

I’ve tweaked the scene where Ben and Ned discuss what to call his farts and it’s even funnier and richer now thanks to the inclusion of some of your suggestions.  If the book gets published as a series (my ultimate hope!) then I’ll be able to incorporate more of these crazy and wonderful words in the future (subject to the Urban Dictionary test).  If you provided any of these ideas then THANK YOU!!  I may not have used your exact suggestions as my replacement word but your creativity fuelled my creativity.  It was a real pleasure to have you involved in part of my writing journey too - feel free to join in again sometime :-)

Sharing My "Baby" (the detailed progress update!)

I’ve been pretty philosophical in recent posts (and will be again!), so I figured a real progress update was in order for a change.  The last one I did shared that editing the second draft is much harder than writing the first draft, as it’s a much more skilled task. 

A decisive moment in that process came when I got a few days holiday in America back in March.  It gave me the time and space to lay my book out in chapters - each with a post-it summarising what happens in that section - to look at its structure and progress. 

What a simple but powerful act that was!  Possibly it would be for any writer but because I’m such a visual person, seeing it like this meant I instantly understood how it fitted together and where it didn't work.  It enabled me to iron out various issues with the manuscript – especially with its timings.  So, just before the Easter holidays I completed the second draft and printed it out to give to a couple of families (as well as mine) to read and critique. 

Sharing my “baby” was a scary thing!  I've kept it close to my chest since its conception, and no one has read more than about a page of it so far.  But despite the fact I’m such a perfectionist and my own harshest critic, I needed external feedback before I could take it much further.  So I handed over the manuscripts.  And then waited with great fear and trepidation!

I expected the feedback from Jeannie, my writing accountability partner, to be tough. After all, she's a writer and she would be able to pick weak points apart. So I was flabbergasted and thrilled that it was really positive and encouraging.  She made me believe that I actually might be able to do this!  There were plenty of suggestions for tweaks, but overall her and her kids had loved it. Especially - and most importantly - her 8 year old son (the book is aimed at 7-10 year olds, especially boys)!

With the second lot of feedback, I’d foolishly asked my friends to be extremely critical – mainly coz I thought they’d be too nice otherwise – and so it was own fault that I got what I asked for!  It was a painful, but powerful lesson for me about how to ask for feedback.  It’s just as important to ask people what they like and what they think works, as well as what they don’t like and what doesn’t work.  Without the positive stuff it’s too easy to feel demoralised and want to use the manuscript to light a fire that evening!

I also learnt that while feedback from anyone can be helpful, it’s particularly effective if you’re careful who you ask too.  What the target audience think is key.  One of my 12 year old son’s first comments when I asked him for feedback was “It’s not exactly The Hunger Games, is it?”  Er no, sweetheart, it isn’t meant to be :-S  Feedback from a 12 year old girl was that it wasn’t her cup of tea, but she could see that 7-10 year old boys might like it.  That’s not to say that these kids’ opinions aren’t useful, but they're unlikely to be as valuable as feedback from the specific target audience.

Feedback is also subjective and I’m now working through it, deciding what I’ll change on the basis of it and what I won’t.  That can be very complicated though.  For example, the age-appropriateness of language I use at times was one thing flagged up.  To some extent I agree with those comments and have made a few changes.  BUT, I also examined the language used in books like “How To Train Your Dragon” and David Walliams’ “Billionaire Boy” and became completely confused.

“HTTYD” is sometimes defined as being for 7-10 year olds and sometimes for 8-12 year olds.  They’re actually quite different categories and represent a massive range of reading abilities!  The book contains some fabulous words, including many that wouldn’t fit into the recommended guidelines for a 7-10 year old age range.  So, aside from the wonderful but challenging Viking names, we also find “preposterously” on the first page, “initiation” on the second and “cacophony” on the fifth.

In “Billionaire Boy” (a similarly confusing age-categorised book) we also have “preposterously” on the second page, as well as “masseuse” on the third and “palatial” not long after.

So, yes, there are generally accepted norms, but rules are always made to be broken and it can be fun to see what you can get away with.  I love all these words!  Also, kids always need a few new or difficult words.  If it’s in context it can be figured out.  If not, then you can ask someone else, or just get on and not let that one word detract from all the other thousands of words in the book.  It’s about balance and getting that right is my current challenge.

Having your word critiqued is tough!  I doubt it ever gets easier either, but I’m desperately hoping I never get a review like this one of Dan Brown’s new novel.  I don’t care how many books you’ve written or how many millions you have – to be taken apart in such a shrewd and public way, albeit brilliant as well, has still got to hurt.

I’m now working on the third edit of the manuscript – this may seem like a never-ending process to you non-writers out there but allegedly seven (yes, seven!) drafts is the norm.  I’m hoping for four edits, maximum five (please!)!

P.S. Jeannie’s feedback also raised an interesting big issue which I'll explain in more detail in a few days… ;-)

Concise Progress Update - for those with little or no time or interest ;-)

If you can’t be bothered, or haven’t got time, to read the 964 words of my more interesting/enjoyable/detailed/waffly progress update, here’s the concise version (with thanks to Twitter for teaching me the skill of brevity). 

Finished editing the second draft.  Editing is harder than writing.

Gave it to 3 families to read.  Scary sharing my “baby”.

Got feedback.  Big learning experience.

Working on third draft.  Interesting challenges.

Breaking My Heart

Having your heart broken provides such great fodder for writing.  Just ask Taylor Swift!

I bought Taylor’s album “Red” this week, having loved the singles I’d heard off it.  If Wikipedia is to be believed then she’s had at least 6 relationships in the last 4 years, none of which have lasted longer than about 4 months!  That relationship rollercoaster seems to have given her a lot of material to write about – the song lyrics are chockfull of love and heartache.

Perhaps she should be grateful to be able to exorcise these feelings in this way?  Will she still write such great lyrics when she finds someone to settle down quietly with and live happily ever after?  Without love and heartbreak there’d be significantly less literature, music and art in the world.  Sad, but true.

Hopefully that that isn’t because there’s more bad stuff going on in the world than good :-(  I’d like to think that it’s mainly because when we’re happy we just get on and enjoy it, but when things are bad we want to either share it to get some sympathy/support/encouragement, or we want to express it in order to get it out of our systems and find some relief.

The last couple of years have been pants - especially as I’m usually very happy-go-lucky - but I intend to find the silver lining by turning it into stimulus for my writing.  In my Young Adult stuff, that is - it wouldn’t quite work in my current kids’ book as 7-10 year old boys aren’t overly fussed by anything particularly deep in my experience, lol :-)   It’s the perfect way to make sure that none of it wins by stealing stuff from me (especially my mental health and creativity), but actually leaves something positive behind.

Finding a creative outlet when you’re upset/stressed/angry (delete and add to as appropriate) is a great idea and can be done in lots of ways.  Why not give it a try sometime?  You could write, paint, play music, pray, build, dance, act, etc.  Last year I was really cross about something and wrote the following very basic but pretty pithy poem.  It’s not about to win any prizes (understatement!) and I can lol at it now, but it was cathartic to get it down on paper and then move on.  I give it to you as an example of how what you do doesn’t have to be any good, as long as it makes you feel better :-)

Why Bother?

The world would be a better place

If everyone looked out for everyone else

They say.

Do they?

LOL, it’s not even vaguely close to Taylor Swift’s level (not that it was meant to be)!  Her lyrics are really fresh despite the well-worn topics.  It’s so easy as a writer to slip into cliché or standard descriptions, as my writing partner’s recent edit of my manuscript demonstrated, oops :-)  Taylor, however, thinks outside the box (is that a cliché, lol?!) for new ways to describe old feelings:

“Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street”

“Forgetting him is like trying to know somebody you’ve never met” (It hurts my head to try and work out the logic of that one – I’m probably not supposed to!)

I can’t imagine any of us would ever ask for tough times, but we can choose to turn them into great source material for creative purposes, or general motivation for numerous things.  Then we might even produce much better work thanks to those experiences, making sure that they advance, rather than cripple, us!