Awful Arrogant Authors

Talking with and listening to other writers is one of the most valuable and enjoyable things I do on my writing journey.  I’ve already learnt so much from them, even from passing comments or throwaway remarks.

For some reason beyond my logical comprehension, I had an expectation that authors – especially published ones - would be egotistical, superior literary gods who have perfect prose flowing out of their fingertips at the slightest provocation and look down on anyone who isn’t as miraculously gifted.

Having now met a growing number of writers, I haven’t actually met even one awful, arrogant author…yet.  Because we’re not in direct competition, we’re generally nice to and encouraging of each other.  Even if two writers were writing about the same topic, the books they produce will be markedly different, as no one has the exact same voice or viewpoint as anyone else.  Everyone’s work is unique.  Writing is nothing like an exam where there are right answers and we can compare our marks and grades.  Good work sometimes doesn’t get published and bad work sometimes does!

The amazing authors I met at Arvon (not awful or arrogant in the slightest!)

It was when reading an interview with Harlan Coben earlier this year that I discovered that, like me, he swings from thinking his work is great to the next day thinking it sucks.  At Arvon, Lucy Christopher shared how stuck she’d sometimes got while writing “The Killing Woods” and had to walk around the Forest of Dean, as well as get a friend to write some music for her, to release the story.  Also, at Arvon, Meg Rosoff told us that she often gets caught between finishing one book and starting on a new one, with no ideas coming and no obvious way forward, sometimes for weeks (although she more than capably gets there in the end) :-)

Sharing our writerly struggles is unbelievably important.  Writing is a very isolated task – the majority of it done at home, on your own.  I often go whole (school hour) days without talking to anyone.  It’s far too easy to end up thinking that you’re the only person who ever faces certain difficulties or having certain struggles.

Other things we share can be more positive, like recommendations of useful books, courses or conferences.  I was encouraged to find out at Arvon (yes, “at Arvon” will be a repetitive phrase in my blog, definitely for weeks to come, possibly months, perhaps even years!) that my writing process is a lot like Melvin Burgess’s.  When we’re working on the first draft of a book, we both have key scenes in our heads which we write and then start to link them together.  I admire people who can write in a linear way, but that doesn’t appear to be my style and it was great to find out that I’m not completely odd in my preferred method!

Writers can also help you to tap into and understand unconscious thoughts more fully.  At Arvon, Meg Rosoff shared a dressage analogy about resonance - the art of the horse and rider working together in complete unity – and how that is also true in writing, when you suddenly connect with an idea and it starts going full flow, in perfect tune with the story.  It was useful, but one of my course mates, Dale, reiterated it the next day as a surfing analogy, which I understood a lot better having surfed before (but never having done dressage!).

To surf, there’s a lot of preparation, including checking the tide times (finding the right time), but if you’re ever gonna do it you actually have to get into the water.  There can be so many obstacles even when you get there – the wind taking the tops off waves so they’re not that good; it’s too cold to be enjoyable; there are too many people in way to get a good run.  But when you catch THE wave, then the triumph and exhilaration of the ride make it well worth the wait! 

It can be hard to find the right time to write and even when you do, the right words might not come, a character might be difficult or a plot twist not authentic and credible enough.  But on those days when it all starts to flow, wow!  The rest of the world falls away and literary magic happens on the page.  Those days make all the hard slog and the times when you write one word after another on the page just coz you have to worth it.  They are the practice waves that mean you’re there and you’re ready when the big one comes!  I’ve found this image really encouraging and a great motivator to get on and write every day, regardless of how well it goes.

The writing has been going splendiferously well recently though :-)  More on that next time…

Sex, Drugs and Fairytales (more from Arvon!)

Something that had concerned me before going on the Writing for Young Adults Arvon course was the fact it was subtitled “Playing On The Edge”.  My heart sunk when I noticed that (after I’d paid!) and I was convinced that we were gonna be made to write about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll the whole time. 

However, in the Plot workshop, scary Melvin (who wasn’t scary at all, in truth, but a really lovely guy!) got us deconstructing Jack and the Beanstalk by examining the different characters and their roles in the story.  Looking at magic beans and geese that lay golden eggs with the writer of gritty books like “Junk” and “Doing It”?  Who would have ever predicted that!  So much for my concerns :-)

We then had to plot a contemporary story using the plot of another fairytale as its framework.  My group’s reworked version of Snow White meets the Brownlee brothers was surprisingly good and definitely writable.  I was almost tempted to give it a try, but sadly there are other ideas that are calling to me more loudly at the moment.  “Nick a plot!” was Melvin’s brilliant summary advice at the end of the session!

One of the YA stories I’m developing is loosely based on another story and I have ideas about other possibilities too.  It’s a fantastic way to brainstorm plot ideas, even if you don’t end up using them.  If you’re not confident about plotting then it can also ensure that your story has a good structure, with the necessary rise and falls, twists and turns.  Lots of writers do it!

The final workshop of the week on Setting, with Lucy, was probably the most hotly anticipated.  In no way does that belittle the great teaching that Melvin gave us, but setting is difficult.  Lucy is much lauded for her incredible skills at not only bringing settings to life, but even making them an integral part of the story.

Fascinatingly – especially for someone like me, who starts a story with plot or theme ideas – Lucy always starts from the setting and looks for the story in it.  Her first book “Stolen” is set in the Australian Outback, her second “Flyaway” is based on a RSPB nature reserve, and her third book “The Killing Woods” is inspired primarily by the Forest of Dean, near where she lives.

One of my biggest problems with adult literature is how slowly it often moves along, especially when getting bogged down with long-winded description of surroundings.  Consequently, I’d come to the opinion that if a story is full of pace and action then setting needs to be more or less ignored.

Not so!  Done properly, setting can add tremendous depth to the action of a story and not detract from its pace at all.  I’d started to realise this fact when reading Lucy’s books, but it became blindingly obvious during the exercises in this session.  I found the idea of doing sensory sheets before writing a scene particularly useful – thinking about how everything looks, feels, smells, sounds and tastes – to fully embed yourself and your reader in the place.

Some of my fellow writers produced incredible pieces of writing in that session!  I didn’t, although that was because I was still processing this revelation and getting my head around writing in what was a very foreign way for me (being much more into the big picture, rather than the small detail).  However, later that day I applied my newfound skills and awareness to a scene in the story I was working on and was really pleased with what I produced.  So much so, that I was happy to read it out that evening at our end of course celebration evening, rather than run away and get an early train home, which I had seriously been considering doing up until that point!!

This learning was consolidated a couple of days later when I was on a long car journey with my family and we were listening to an Alex Rider audiobook.  With everything I’d learnt still prominent in my mind, I was paying close attention to the writing, as well as the story.  Alex always has a tumultuous roller-coaster ride of a time in these books and so I’d naturally assumed that there’d be little in the way of setting and description, as that would slow down the pace.

To my mahoosive surprise, I was wrong again!  Anthony Horowitz is a master of setting and description!!  The amount of detail he includes is amazing, yet it doesn’t disconnect you from the action, like it so easily could do, but actually takes you deeper into it.  My ears were just sucking it all in and I learnt a huge amount more.

Now I just have to translate all that learning into my own writing!

White Stilettos and Nappy Nights

The most concentrated learning on my Arvon course naturally took place in the 3-hour morning workshops.  It was the opportunity to have successful and world-renowned writers like Melvin Burgess and Lucy Christopher as tutors that had originally attracted me to this course.  Far from disappointing my high expectations, they were exceptional in their teaching, encouragement and the incredible amount of time and energy they gave to us all in many different ways.  Gushing hyperbole again – I apologise but, in my defence, it’s entirely justified!

Workshop time (with thanks to Dorthe Andersen)

An essential aspect in most of our learning was re-connecting with our teen self, so that our written teen voice could be as authentic as possible.  Although adults write YA, you can’t let your “adult” voice speak.  The narrative has to sound like a teenager is speaking, especially if you’re writing in the 1^st person.

Getting in touch with teen Mel again was an interesting one as I really didn’t enjoy my teenage for a number of reasons and have blocked out most of it from my memory.  I learnt a LOT from that time, but I ignore the actual experience as much as possible – life has got so much better since!

In Melvin’s first session on “Voice” we had to relive a teen experience and write about it from the point of view of another character involved in it.  With trepidation, I chose a situation when I was deliberately and unkindly betrayed by some “friends”.  Writing it from the main perpetrator’s POV was fascinating though, coz although I’d kinda understood why she’d done it, I’d never put myself in her position to think it through in detail before.  Reflecting on her possible motivations as though I was her, made me realise that I could have so easily acted the same way she had.  She certainly wouldn’t have thought that what she did was anywhere near as significant as it felt to me.  An incident that’s had serious emotional repercussions throughout my life suddenly seemed less of a big deal.  Unexpected result!

Melvin suggested that writing an autobiography of your teens can be a valuable way to remember that time, especially if you’ve repressed it – not for publishing (ever!) but as a personal exercise, which could have positive repercussions on YA writing.  I think I’ll give that a go!  It could be fun.  It’ll certainly be fascinating to see what comes up.  Melvin reckoned this exercise often unearths good memories from that time too, even if you initially remember it as just being crap.

Lucy’s workshop the next day – this time on the power of “Objects” – continued to help me open up more suppressed memories from my teenage.  Lucy asked us to draw a shoe we wore in our teens.  Initially I couldn’t recall a single thing that went on my feet during that time.  Then suddenly I remembered a much-longed-for pair of white stilettos.  They were so pointed that a kick from them would have done serious harm and made walking pretty painful too.  The heel was so sharp that I was constantly afraid of making a hole in carpets or wooden floors, or – even worse – standing on someone’s foot and doing them a serious injury!  They weren’t very high but they were my first pair of heels and I felt super grown-up and glamorous in them :-)  As I sketched them and jotted down notes about how I’d felt physically and emotionally when wearing them, I was instantly transported straight back to Nappy Night (an under-18s disco at the local nightclub) and numerous memories started flooding back!!

It was bizarre!  I could almost perfectly remember the layout of the place – the bar, the dance floor, the mixing desk, the seating, the lighting - even though it’s more than 20 years since I’ve been there.  I could vividly recall the feelings of hopefulness that whichever guy I fancied at the time would be there, heartaches and awkwardness after relationship splits or wrangles, self-esteem struggles comparing myself to the other seemingly slimmer and prettier girls there, as well as just enjoying the music and the fun of dancing.

They weren't as high as these, but you get the idea!

Who would have ever thought a pair of shoes could provide such powerful and easy access into long-forgotten memories?  I was so pleased with the piece of writing I produced from this exercise that I even volunteered to read it out in the session (having refused up until then)!!

Of course, none of this was supposed to be just a psychological therapy or regression exercise, beneficial though that might be!  If objects hold powerful memories or meanings for us, then that can also be true for our characters.  That workshop gave me lots of ideas for ways I could use objects in my writing.  I might even try and work those white stilettos in…