Inspiration and Writer's Block 

How do you find inspiration to write? That's the question I get asked often when I tell people that I'm a writer. Not that I go around telling everyone I meet that I am a writer, of course. Well, not everyone I meet, at least. Its differnet for every writer. Some are inspired by their dreams, like C S Lewis, were they'll either get a number of images, or the whole plot from a dream and turn into a peice of fiction. I've written like that in the past. I had two seperate dreams, which I wrote as two seperate stories then decided to link them together into a novel length story, titled Arabian Dreams (don't worry, its in my to-do list). Some use their nightmares, e.g. Wes Craven, Stephen King. But its not always that straight forward. Anything can inspire a writer. A beautiful landscape, a shopping bag floating on the wind, a news report, a newspaper article, anything. For me a good movie or well-written peice of writing can get my creative juices flowing and my fingers begin to itch for my keyboard. I've invested in a nice Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and that also helps.

But what about writer's block, is usually the next question, how do you get over it. The most famous instance of writer's block was Henry Roth, he managed to go sixty years without writing. There are a number of sites dedicated to writer's block and provide strategies of overcoming it. My solution for it is to fix a time (10pm-1am) so your brain is prepped and ready for writing when you do sit down. This should help get over the 'I'm really busy and can't seem to find the time' problem. Have a glass of water before you start, this will help your brain operate better, or grab a can of your favourite caffiene drink (hot or cold). Do something before you start writing that normally get's your brain into creative gear (avoid the videogame console, otherwise you'll end up not writing), that is if you need to. If you not feeling particularly creative, write anyway, you can come back to it and sort it out when you're editing. If you're stuck on a particular peice, move to something else, e.g. short story or other writing project. But be careful you don't fall into the trap of avoiding the difficult peice completely (why do you think its taken me this long!). Hopefully that should help. There are some links below that may prove useful.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/567/01/

http://www.sff.net/People/LisaRC/

http://www.writersblock.com/

http://www.43folders.com/2004/11/18/hack-your-way-out-of-writers-block 

CPD for Writers

Continued Professional Development is a term that people are used to hearing in their normal work lives. It is a part of the psychological contract between employers and employees. It refers to the unspoken promise of improving a person's employability by providing training and ongoing development, whether through accredited courses or in-house training. In our 'work' lives it is the foregone conclusion that CPD is a good idea. For some reason though, we don't seem to consider it in our lives as writers.

Going back almost a decade, when I went to University, there was only one college that was providing Creative Writing as a minor, rather than a one off optional module. It was pretty much the deciding factor for me. Now, there a great many universities that offer Creative Writing as a Joint Honours route. It works really well if taken with the more traditional preserve of writers, English (Studies, Literature, Language, whatever). There are even Masters programs available now for Creative Writing. Many of the courses will have established writers, journos, editors, etc, coming in to add value to the learning. But of course, degree programs aren't the only way into the writing world. There is also a selection of correspondence courses, writing workshops and weekend sabbaticals available too. But these are only starting points and no guarantee of publication.

Online writing workshops like Critters , or the traditional writer's circles, are a good way of improving your own writing by critiquing other peoples work and applying the learning retrospectively onto your own work. Also, fellow critics will be provide you with direct feedback on your work. This will make you more aware of the reoccurring flaws or handicaps in your writing, e.g. mine is cramming too much story into my short pieces. Once you get something published, it doesn't mean that you should stop trying to improve either. Every rewrite that you do, every novel that you read and every bit of feedback you receive is an opportunity to improve your craft.

There are also shelf-loads of books on the various aspects of writing that provide deep insights into the process of writing, many which are worth re-reading over and over again. There are websites dedicated to the craft of writing, podcasts, radio shows, magazines, etc, which will sharpen your mental pencil and help you brush off the dust collecting on your keyboard.

Even a rejection letter from a kindly agent or editor will provide an insight that may lead you to becoming the writer you want to be.

Writing Good Dialogue - Part 1

For a narrative writer, dialogue is perhaps the most challenging thing to write effectively. I have been accused by the Brothers' Anwar of writing cheesy dialogue, so this is something I have been looking into. I'll give you an executive summary of what I've learnt.

Every character has something that they want. This works at different levels.  Let me boar you with some management theory (the day jobs paying off). Abraham Maslow suggests that people are driven by a hierarchy of needs. The first tier of these needs is the physiological, food, warmth, shelter, etc. Once a person has fulfilled these basic needs, they move onto the next tier, which is safety, i.e. personal safety, security of wealth/income, etc. If you live in a cardboard box under a bridge, changes are you haven't got this far. If you live in a mud hut with a local food source and neighbourhood watch (militia) then you're at the second tier. The next stage is the fulfilment of love, whether that's a love interest, family circle or just plain old friendship.

The first three tiers define how most of us live. The next two tiers define who we want to be. The fourth tier is Esteem, the need to achieve something, earn the respect of your fellow humans, maybe by killing the local rogue troll or dragon. The fifth and final tier is Self-Actualisation, i.e. world peace, defeat evil, overthrow tyrant, the ultimate goals that we dream of achieving. You can't achieve the upper tiers though without first achieving the lower tiers.

What does that mean in terms of your characters and dialogue? Dialogue is action and therefore must move the story forward. Having page after page of witty Tarantino styled dialogue may be amusing to read, but doesn't really push the story forward at all. Therefore dialouge must represent what each character wants to achieve, whether its physiological, safety, love, self-esteem or self-actualisation, i.e. short term and long-term goals.

The next thing you should consider is how your character is going to work this need into their dialogue, i.e. blunt, innocent, round about, cynical, sly, etc. Here are a few example . . .

'Give me some food, please.'   'Are you going to eat that?'  'That looks tasty,'

'Are you putting on weight?'

All of the above snippets are asking for the same thing, but a writer has to choose what is appropriate for thier character.

Finally, you've also got to conside what response your character is looking for. If your character is a beggar and he wants food, he's not going to be haughty, arrogant or insulting, because then he's not going to get anything. If your character is in love with a guy, but isn't sure whether he loves her, she's not going to be blunt and risk scaring him away, because she doens't want to hear the truth, she wants to hear something reasurring, so instead she'll ask, 'Do you find me attractive?' or 'Do you like my new perfume?'

To sum up, dialogue has to show what motivates your character, the strategy imployed by your character to get what they want and what response they are looking for.

Writing Good Dialogue - Part 2 (NEW)

Knowing the why and what of dialogue is all good and well, but just as important is the how of weaving it into your narrative. Whether we like it or not, writers are influenced by what we watch or listen to, just as much as what we read. I know I am. Snappy dialogue from American cinema always seems to be sneaking into my writing, whether its Tarrantino's box fresh monologues, James Bond's crisp one liners, or John Mclane's abrupt utterings, 'Yippee ka yay!', its tempting to try for something similar, right? Well don't.

Here's why. First off, film, television, stage and radio scripts are dialogue heavy because the scriptwriters are usually working with or for a director who will be providing the visuals. For these mediums, dialogue is the only way to really show what happening behind the wooden acting. Hamlet is a really good example of this, with Hamlet launching into a long soliloquy every now and then, to make sure the audience are on the same page as him. We even have to put up with Anakin (sorry Hayden, it's got to be said) moaning like a little kid how his teacher is picking on him, because the director isn't sure the viewers will pick all that up from the earlier scenes in Attack of the Clones. In writing however, we get a more direct and intimate way of engaging with our POV characters by dropping straight into their minds and hearing their thoughts. Ergo, vis-a-vis, concordantly, we don't have to have so much dialogue.

There is of course another school of thought who believe that dialogue should be true to how people actually talk. Arrgh!!! Why subject a reader to that kind of crud? Listen to yourself talking, wait, bar that, writers aren't exactly the best verbal communicators. Listen to some other people talking, at home, school or work. Most of it is crap that is said just to fill the emptiness in between the minute meaningful things that people say, e.g. 'how you doing?' 'What else?' Listen to the ladies at work talking about their soaps (opera) for an hour and half, what are you having for dinner tonight, are you doing anything this weekend, blah, blah, blah. Meaningful would be something like, 'sometimes when I'm alone, I contemplate suicide because of all the badly written dialogue that I have to read through.' Okay, sorry, I'm being cynical. Meaningful dialogue would be something like, 'I'm worried that I'm spending too much money and won't be able to pay the mortgage.' You get the point.

Long story short, dialogue in writing shouldn't be so exhaustive that the reader feels a little adrift from the plot. Dialogue is just one of many tools that you have to drive your story forward or to unveil a previously unknown fact about your characters.

Dialogue is action and thus forms a part of what people would call showing, as opposed to telling, which would then be the narrative. Everyone harps on about how you should show instead of tell. Bull. I recently listened to a Writing Show podcast in which the lady presenter pointed out that there needs to be a balance. Too much showing means you risk leaving your readers either incredibly bored, or in the dark about certain aspects of your 'world' or plot. Some writers go on about how a line of dialogue should be able to express whether the character is happy or sad, excited or frustrated, confused or angry, blah, blah. Lets look at some examples of why they are wrong.

'I need you to go,' said Andrew.

What does that tell you? Not much except that Andrew wants to someone to go.

'I need you to go,' said Andrew with a smile – or - 'I need you to go,' said Andrew with a frown.

Ah, ha. Now you see were I'm going with this. Just by adding a little narrative context, I've changed the whole meaning of the dialogue. Try this on for size:

'I need you to go,' shouted Andrew – or – 'I need you to go,' cried Andrew.

Now if you had a page of dialogue with only the he said, she said, inserted in the right places, your reader would be completely clueless to the emotional play between the characters that you get from watching a persons face and body language when they speak. Simple pointers like a person shifting their weight from one foot to another can connote far more than a paragraph of speech. Therefore narrative needs to be blended in with dialogue, especially if its a particular long piece of dialogue or when there are other things going on that add context to the dialogue or hint at the emotional impact of the dialogue.

Ready for an Agent?

After having undergone the misery of researching the how and who of finding an agent, I thought I’d share what learning I have gathered. First of, make sure that the draft you are going to submit to the agent meets your own high standard. Here how it is next. If you are a new writer in the United Kingdom, you definitely need an agent. Most publishers won’t even consider looking at an unsolicited manuscript, but if it’s already been past an agent’s desk, it’s much more likely to appeal to a publisher, because someone has already separated the good stuff from the chaff. So here are the steps towards submitting to an agent.

1)     Research! The Writers and Artist Yearbook and the Writers Handbook are good places to start, but personally I found D & C’s Writers Market UK the best of the three for agent listings. Not only does it provide the names of the agents and what they are interested in, it also offers additional tips for each agent. I’m assuming you already which market your book fits in? Whatever you do, don’t send science fiction to someone who explicitly doesn’t want science fiction. In fact don’t send any genre fiction to an agent unless they specify that they are happy for submissions of that kind.

2)     Make two lists. One list is for the agents you think are most likely to accept you on to their busy roster. The second list is in case you’ve exhausted the first list and haven’t found a match. The second list will typically be agents that are likely to look at your work but you’re not to sure,

3)     Once you’ve got your list, go through them one by one. Some agents are listed as being happy to look at simultaneous submissions, but all the writing websites say don’t. Submit to one agent at a time. Before you send anything out, check the agent’s website just to make sure the address and contact name you have listed is still correct and current.

4)     Now for the difficult bit. Most agents want to see an introduction letter, about you and your book, a synopsis of the whole story (no longer than three double-spaced pages) and formatted the same way as your manuscript and three sample chapters (or 30 pages). You’ll have to check the listings to see if they want simultaneous chapters, but it most instances it’s the first two and one other of your choice (go for the one that really shows off your skills). Some agents want to see a biography page too.

5)     Make sure you take time to redraft everything, like you would for your manuscript until it’s nice and polished, with no spelling mistakes. Don’t forget, don’t email or fax the package unless you want to piss the agent off. No staples or fancy slippery folders either. A paperclip or elastic band should do, otherwise leave them loose, but number your pages and put your name on all of them.

6)     Presentation is important so make an effort and use address labels and an envelope that doesn’t have coffee stains on it. If you want to see your manuscript again, stick in a SAE for them to reply in. Provide an email address too for the quick response. No recorded deliveries, they hate going to the post office to pick stuff up.

7)     Say a prayer and slot it into your nearest letterbox. It’ll take 8 weeks to several months before you get a response. In the meantime, carry on polishing your manuscript, because that’s what they’ll want to see if they accept.