Hash Tag Am Writing

I am very much #amwriting, as the twitterverse would put it, but I realise it's been a while since I wrote about my writing. So the latest developments are:

• I completed a new horror/fantasy short story called "The Serpent's Psyche". It went out on submission last week but was declined by the market I sent it to. Then I read it again and thought "Jesus, no wonder - this sucks." If even I can't believe in my own story then how can I expect someone else to? So it's back to the wordshop for a new draft.
• A new science fiction short story is in the works. It is in very early draft stage but the lessons from "The Serpent's Psyche" will hopefully make this a smoother writing process (Tip: try to create a name for your story before you get to the final draft, kids - it's amazing how much the title can change the whole damn thing). And no, this particular science fiction story does not have a name... yet!
• I re-read my previously published short story, "A Fair Price" and was pleased to find it ain't half bad. Plans are afoot to get it turned into a very short eBook...

I'm pleased with the progress I've made this year after defining goals and tracking myself against them. It all sounds very work-like but I promise it's been a lot of fun. I have rediscovered though how hellish the editing process is; to that end I bought myself "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers". It is amazing and has already helped with the rewrite process for "The Serpent's Psyche". Highly recommended if you too are struggling in a mire of words that don't seem to be any good or doing what you want them to.

Here's to further flowing narratives and engaging dialogues - hopefully my future bit of writing news will be even more exciting.

5 Ideas to Be Inspired Every Day

Inspiration has not always been my friend. There have been times when it’s been the notable absence at the table and other times it’s been the unwelcome guest that just won’t shut up. That being said, I prefer the latter, as I find the day to day grind can get me down if I don’t have any wild ideas running through my mind. And they don’t always translate into fantastical ideas for stories but can include a new approach to a project at work, or a solution to a life problem I’ve been wrestling with unsuccessfully; inspiration is for everybody, not just creatives! But getting inspired is not a guarantee and can easily be drowned out by more immediate concerns. So here’s my list of things I’ve found that help to keep those crazy ideas flowing;

Look After Yourself

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been stressed, depressed or otherwise so miserable that all ideas dry up and I end up comatose in front of a monotonous TV show (normally involving property). It’s so easy to fall into a negative cycle of not feeling inspired, being unhappy and that in turn leading to yet more struggles to be inspired. If you ever feel like this, then stop. Stop judging yourself, stop pressuring yourself and stop finding yourself wanting. Put creative work on hold and simply do something you enjoy. Easier said than done but it’s worth trying. Also, if you think you may be in a depressive cycle then the best thing you can do is what feels right for you. Everyone says you should talk to someone about it but if you’d prefer to stick forks in your eyes than I recommend Hyperbole and a Half: it’s an online blog from a few years ago and it genuinely helped me when I was in a really low mental state. The writer’s posts about depression rang a bell and helped me through and to see the funny/ridiculous side of the situation. Seriously, go buy her book; it’s awesome.

Always Be On The Lookout

Assuming you are in a reasonable mental state one of the biggest reasons you may be lacking inspiration is you’re just not seeing your environment anymore. We get so used to the lives we lead it can be easy to miss those little moments on the walk to work or on public transport that could give you your next great idea. Now, I’m not advocating eavesdropping on other people’s conversations but… actually, that’s exactly what I’m recommending. Especially for any writers out there who have to tackle dialogue; picking up the natural cadence of how others speak, their vernacular and even the content of their conversations will really help the juices flow when you want to make sure your characters don’t all sound like carbon copies of yourself.

Clean and Tidy Your Spaces

This is a pot-kettle-black thing to include because I’m rubbish at keeping my spaces tidy (at this moment I’m surrounded by a pile of notebooks and paper to my left, unopened mail to my right and receipts a plenty in front of my keyboard). But tidying your work space can really help the ideas to bloom, especially when you replace the clutter with items that you find beautiful, interesting or full of memories. And who doesn’t like a clean desk - no matter how short-lived.

Read More, Watch More and Learn

Lacking ideas of your own? Maybe you need to recharge your ideas battery. And there’s no better way to do that than to read, watch or listen to things that you didn’t create. Go pick up that book that’s been sitting at the top of your to-read pile for months and give yourself an hour or two in the week to work your way through it. Fit in an episode of that TV show you’re obsessed with, or that podcast you just can’t get out of your head. But rather than just absorb and move on, try writing out what it is you love about the thing. What do you hate about it? What would you do differently? Just analysing the mediums we consume can really help us see our way to new ideas of our own.

Make Time

All of this takes time, as any endeavour does. It needn’t take a lot of time but it needs to be scheduled into your day. Think about it; when the laundry needs done, you make time to do it. When you need to fill your empty cupboards you make the time to go to the store and buy stuff. Inspiration isn’t a chore but start treating it like one - at first you’ll struggle to come up with anything but as your brain gets in the habit of thinking a certain way, at a set time each day, the ideas will come and will even start to arrive outside of your designated “inspire me” time. Which leads to...

Keep a Notebook With You At All Times

We’ve all heard it, multiple times, but seriously - get a notebook or an app on your phone where you can write your ideas down no matter where you are or what you’re doing. I use Evernote as it syncs automatically, meaning I have access to all my crazy ideas and thoughts on my phone, my laptop and my main computer. I used to use an actual physical notebook but found it was tricky to pull the thing out my bag and surreptitiously write down my thoughts sitting in a pub with my friends or in the middle of meetings. Using my phone I just come off as being rude and uncultured rather than a special kind of crazy.

Hopefully this little list has given you some starters to work on but I’m always on the look out for more inspiration ideas. What techniques have you used to stay inspired?

Steering the Craft - The Sound of Your Writing

This is the first in my exercises for Steering the Craft. It was actually really enjoyable, an opportunity to play with language in a way I normally forget to do when I'm writing. What you can discover just by not worrying about the final result is remarkable. There's still progress to make, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. Hopefully you'll enjoy them too, and I highly recommend giving these exercises a go yourself: the discovery alone will make it worth it.


Exercise One: Being Gorgeous

"Part One: Write a paragraph to a page of narrative that's meant to be read aloud. Use onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition, rhythmic effects, made-up words or names, dialect - any kinds of sound effect you like - but NOT rhyme or meter."

When the day is swallowed by the sneaking dark and shadows stretch their arms to share their cloak, that's when the Ingrilin come out. No one sees them, that's their gift, their curse, but they see all. The long fingers slide over the ground ahead, scraping away the soil in the days when forests ruled the land. Now they simply slither over the concrete, their sleekit forms sliding over the tacky tarmac, past the cars careening to their destinations. Around the people bobbing along under their umbrellas, oblivious to the pitch black shadows by their feet.
Ingrilin do not know wherefor they go, only that they must. Each night they depart, only to be concealed in their lairs by the time the first rays of the sun kiss the ground. No one knows what they do in the between time, but even people in the enlightened age shiver and hurry past the black alley, avoid the street where the lamps are off. The shadow, with its languorous stretch across the uneven paving stones, is stepped over quickly. The mind remembers, even if the person does not.
What of those who forget completely? Those who step off the luminous path and into the unlit nook? Mostly, they are safe to trot away, continue their life of oblivion. But some are not so fortunate. And the Ingrilin are always waiting.

"Part Two: In a paragraph or so, describe an action, or a person feeling strong emotion - joy, fear, grief. Try to make the rhythm and movement of the sentences embody or represent the physical reality you're writing about."

There are some who enjoy speaking in public. Those people are mad. Most feel their insides quiver, their tongue retreat to their throat, as though to escape via the oesophagus. Sweat breaks out in all the worst places, and before they know it their nails are nibbled and turned to stubs. The notes so carefully taken are made damp, crushed under the pressure of what's to come. All this before the performance itself when the many eyes stare, expectant.
The voice croaks, the words all trying to beat the others to be heard. The tumbling oratory is matched by the rolling gut, just waiting for it to be over. The many eyes glaze, lost to inner thoughts. But still the vernacular somersaults must go on until, by a miracle of time and space, the notes are read, the words are said. The polite applause releases the speaker to their freedom. As they sit, a rush of comfort settles. And they hope next time will be easier.

Forcing the Muse

Three weeks since returning from my holiday, I'm making myself post something as it's safe to say the writing bug has not been with me lately. It's not that I don't want to write but I'm finding the words are stuck; I need a plumber to remove the blockage with one of those amusingly shaped plungers. Though I have just realised how much I like the word "plunger".

To combat the lack of words I've decided I need to approach this like I do going to the gym; make myself do it at set times, on set days, no matter how I feel. When exercise is the activity this often leads to a lot of internal whinging and negotiation with my inner self; bargains are proposed and regrettably rejected. Wails of "but I can't" are met with "but you must". So far I haven't had a routine for the writing to allow this fun dialogue to happen in my head, but here we are. Now I have two activities in which to explore the depths of my insanity.

I tried to do a bit of writing on holiday but was never that optimistic it would lead to much. In Magaluf there are lots of distractions of the sun, pool, drinks and dancing variety. And as it turned out food poisoning, when me and my man made the mistake of having the hotel's freshly cooked omelettes. I may never eat an omelette again. Couple with a decided lack of sun, grumpy neighbours, and a gym that was more a death trap then a work out area, it wasn't the smoothest of holidays, but it was still fun.

Another aid to writing I'm trying is working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin's "Steering the Craft - A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story". It's a short book on writing, with exercises to do at the end of each chapter, and I plan to post my attempts here. Alongside this I've set out my writing goals for the next three months, broken down into the actual pieces I want to have finished in that time and what should be in progress. Waiting for inspiration just isn't working, so a checklist will have to do. I'm even getting up earlier with the express purpose of writing something everyday, before I do anything else. I really like my sleep, so this is a significant step for me.

Hopefully all of this will mean more words on the page, and more posts on this ol' blog. And maybe, just maybe, some stories to show for it all.

It's That Scary Time of Year Again

As October wanes there is a terrible, daunting and spine chilling event on the horizon. If you're thinking Halloween, you're not thinking scary enough. No, I'm referring to Nanowrimo.

Not a greeting from an alien being, but an event that occurs every year in November, where thousands of would-be-writers lock themselves in their fortress of solitude and attempt to hammer out 50,000 words before December 1st. That might be a whole story, it might be a couple of stories or it might even just be the first quarter of an epic fantasy with a dark lord and mysterious strangers appearing at opportune moments. The important thing is getting 50,000 words written on your story(s) before November ends.

I've done Nanowrimo once and it was really, really hard. I don't actually remember if I managed it or not (which suggests I didn't) but it was a great experience for a few reasons;

• It made me sit and write almost every day.
• It forced me to write over 2000 words in every sitting. Well, actually it made me write 500 words one day and then 3500 on another.
• I realised by the end of the process what an incredible ball-ache writing a novel is.

That last may sound like I didn't enjoy it; I did in fact and would highly recommend it. But it is still an indescribably painful, frustrating and emotional process to actually get 50,000 words on screen in such a short time. Even more painful when you read your manuscript and see you've created a monster that should be locked away in the darkest trunk you can find, and then sunk to the bottom of the sea. But that bit doesn't actually matter (another thing I learned). What matters is actually getting those words down and realising that you are capable of doing it. One of the biggest hurdles to writing is the fear factor, and a big fear is that you just can't hack it. But actually, you probably can. It may make you white haired and gibbering in a corner of the room by the end, but you can do it.

I won't be doing Nanowrimo this year, though I am using the month as an incentive to write at least 500 words of something everyday. I have a spreadsheet and everything:

Date	Month	Word Count Goal	Word Count Actual	Difference	Accrual Goal	Accrual Actual	Difference
10/27/2014	October	500	1064	564	500	1064	564
10/28/2014	October	500		-500	1000	1064	64
10/29/2014	October	500		-500	1500	1064	-436
10/30/2014	October	500		-500	2000	1064	-936
10/31/2014	October	500			2500	1064
11/1/2014	November	500			3000	1064
11/2/2014	November	500			3500	1064
11/3/2014	November	500			4000	1064
11/4/2014	November	500			4500	1064
11/5/2014	November	500			5000	1064
11/6/2014	November	500			5500	1064
11/7/2014	November	500			6000	1064
11/8/2014	November	500			6500	1064
11/9/2014	November	500			7000	1064
11/10/2014	November	500			7500	1064
11/11/2014	November	500			8000	1064
11/12/2014	November	500			8500	1064
11/13/2014	November	500			9000	1064

As you can see I doubled my goal yesterday. This blog post will get me today's target. Geeky? Yes. Useful? Definitely. I am a master at procrastinating, even though I really enjoy writing once I'm sitting down and actually doing it. But it's a game me and my subconscious have to play; I'll tell myself to do something, and the other me will say "okay, in a minute". Five hours later and I'm practically screaming at myself to do the thing I want to do. But I still find distractions and shiny things. In fact to understand just how bad this can get go to Hyperbole and a Half to read the post that I think may have been stolen from my own head.

So, in the face of my own never-ending ability to not do the thing I need to do, I need to come up with ways to trick or force myself into it. The above spreadsheet is my whip with which I will hit myself to get shit done. It has worked before, but I think I made the goal too high, so I soon just threw the whip away and played Plants vs Zombies instead. This time I've kept it low; I know I can clear 500 words in under thirty minutes, if the wind blows right, so it's not as daunting as setting 1000 words as the target instead. Hell, this 'ere blog post is already 790 words so I'm totally on target for today.

If you do decide to take on the Nanowrimo challenge - I highly suggest you do if you want to write novels or short stories for a living - then I can only offer the following advice.

• Do play the numbers game: you will not always be able to hit your daily word goal, so there will be some days you can allow yourself to write very little, as long as you write a lot on another day.
• Schedule days off. Seriously, it will stop your brain from dribbling out your ears and down your neck. No one wants brain matter on their clothes.
• Try to get some sort of story plan together before you start. Even if you only plan each day as it happens, it really helps to have thought about what you're going to write before you sit in your writing chair. Otherwise you'll end up staring at the screen as though you're looking into the great empty eyes of Cthulhu before it devours you.
• Do not beat yourself up if you don't actually write 50,000 words in the time frame; the point of this challenge is to get into the habit of writing, and prove to yourself you can churn out the words when you need to. Think of it like exercise: you may not be able to run the whole marathon and get to the end drawing on your hands and knees, but just getting over that finish line is proof that you are a super-amazing wonder-person who may not be able to fly, but it is not through a want of trying. And you have the broken bones to prove it.

If you want to be as geeky as me I really recommend some kind of spreadsheet too. Not only does it allow you to track how you're doing it also means you can make really nifty graphs and stuff to show your good and bad days, or if you add it, your best times of day to write. And then, when you see the fruits of your labours in those pretty charts you can give yourself a pat on the back, and proudly say, "I am a geeky writer".

Victory hedgehog believes in you!

Not Quitting

This is my "don't know what to write about but I'm gonna make something up" post. Not too much is happening right now in my life and for that I am hugely grateful; while moving at the speed of light can be exciting it is also utterly exhausting.

I was involved in a little launch of a new/old service that can now be found on a certain e-tailer that is loved and hated in (sometimes) equal measure. At times it felt like we were never going to get there, but we all kept our heads down and kept trucking on. Two weeks on since launch and the trials are still pouring in but at least it feels like I've reached the end of a very long road and can again start thinking about the future and where I want to be in 6 months/1 year/5 years. The good thing is that my mini goals I set myself for the first 12 weeks of the year are still very doable and in progress. It's been nice to have a chance to reboot the determination.

I am now writing more;  however the short story is fighting me at every turn. No matter what direction I try to take it the story just doesn't flow. The characters stand about, sighing a lot and looking at me expectantly. This is not the first time this has happened to me but it is the first time that I haven't given up. Rather than abandon this thorn-ridden, rage inducing tale in favour of a shiny new idea, I'm struggling on. This in turn has brought me to experiences I have not had so far when writing stories. The act of giving up has prevented me from reaching this awareness before and I could kick myself for being so easily dissuaded from the rocky road.

I am now at the point where I have recognised the core problem, and it isn't the story. It's me. No, not in a "I'm rubbish and will never be good at this" kind of way, but in a "huh, I'm trying to write something that really is not me". I've been trying to shoehorn this thing into a genre that I like but that does not reflect me in any real way. So the story is soulless and without direction.

To fix this I'm rejigging the whole plot and changing a lot of features of the main character to bring more of me into the story. This may also involve bringing in a fair amount of creepy spookiness that was not otherwise in the straight laced Science Fiction idea I had originally. I'm thinking of it as embracing the darkness, and it's taught me to not set out to write a particular style but to stick with what feels natural to me. It's much the same as trying to find your 'voice'; you can search everywhere but ultimately it's just you and your words. They can only ever be your words, and there's your voice.

I think I may have found my voice. Turns out, it's a lot more twisted than I thought it was.

To anyone else struggling with creative endeavours I highly recommend not giving up. Keep at that project that's driving you insane and that you're starting to hate. You might be surprised what you find out about yourself in the process.

A Would Be Writer's Thoughts on Time Management

With my day job turning into one of those drawn out, nail-pullingly frustrating, not to mention stressful, experiences (ah, the joys of project launches) I'm sad to say I haven't been getting a lot of story-writing done. Having competed a draft with Kaiju sized narrative problems smashing everything in sight, I have to admit inspiration is a bit thin on the ground. One thing I've realised is I still haven't committed to a schedule for writing, and that's a major part of the problem. In comparison, my "must get healthier in 2014" decision is going really well, exactly because I have stuck to a schedule of going to the gym the same three days every week and planning my meals for every single day. The mantra has been "Don't be lazy", but it only seems to be spurring me on with the fitness plan and not a lot else. That whole getting up early to write thing has not lasted, as sleepiness has won the day in the mornings.

So the first thing I have to do is come up with a plan on when I do writing and making sure it's achievable. And what use is a blog if you don't get to use it as an idea board for these kind of things. Who knows - maybe it will help some other poor would-be-writer one day to do the same. My ego can dream.

Writing Trials: How Long Is a Piece Of String?

I've been wondering lately how authors know how long the thing they are about to write will be. Or even if they try to. How do they set out to write a short story, or a novelette, or a full-blown novel?

This came up because of the story I'm plodding along with which has not turned out how I expected . It seemed to be a 5000 - 8000 word story in the initial idea stages, even when I started plotting it out. Now? It's looking more like a 20,000 word story, or even longer. I'm about three scenes in and I'm already at 6000 words with about ten more scenes to go. Assuming I don't come up with any more whizzy dizzy ideas for it...

This has told me one thing: I am rubbish at working out how long a story is likely to be before I start writing it. This shouldn't really be a problem, as a story needs to be what it will be and I fully embrace that. But I want to write more short stories (5000 - 8000 words), so I can send them out and get feedback (read: rejection slips) before I finally manage to sell one or two to short story markets. This is very difficult to do when you continually end up writing longer pieces. Not to mention frustrating.

I've found the planning tools in Scrivener has helped me see when a story is likely to be on the longer side, but it doesn't really cover the fact that I come up with most of my good ideas during the writing process itself. I pull a scene here, add another there and before you know it: *POOF* I have a novel on my screen. I've seen a lot of advice on various blogs and sites saying that new authors should write some short stories, and to keep novel length on the shorter side for the first go. But none that I've found have explained how you can predict how long your story is going to be or techniques to try to limit yourself to working on shorter stories.

I suspect I'm thinking the wrong way about this; if a story needs to be 5000, 10,000 or 50,000 words than it needs to be that length. The one thing I can say I have learned is not to give up - I've left the detritus of a couple of tales lying in my files because they were taking too long to finish and I ended up lost in a quagmire. But this story I'm working on now; nuh uh. Not giving up. I'm enjoying it too much and despite the surprise over the word count I still know where it's going and can't wait to get there.

Maybe that's all the trick is; keep writing, don't give up and eventually you'll have a whole bunch of stories of varying length to send out into the big ugly. Something is better than nothing after all.

How Not To Do A Sci-Fi Story; After Earth Review

Something a bit different to my usual film reviews; I've decided to do an examination of things you should not to do when you're creating a science-fiction story, through the focus of the film "After Earth". As you may have guessed I wasn't impressed; though it had a few moments that were visually stunning or interesting, overall the film falls completely flat, thanks in large part to the humongous problems with the science bit of the science-fiction setting. If you have nothing better to watch it's a reasonably diverting 100 minutes, but it isn't worth the price of a cinema ticket.

I will be talking about major plot points in the below, so if you do want to see the film I suggest you stop reading here. *Spoilers ahead*

Raindance Before the Snowfall

Britain has been hit by cold weather again, which despite the country being in the Northern hemisphere, always seems to surprise and upset those of us who live here. I'm tired of it already and it's only been a couple of days - I'm purposely listening to music whenever I'm outside just to keep the inside of my ears warm.

Just as the weather was turning I actually managed to have a productive weekend. Rather than sit about watching multiple episodes of Castle and/or Battlestar Galactica I fuelled the ol' creative juices and went to a one day Screenwriting course run by the friendly folks of Raindance Film Festival. I got the deal via Groupon, so it was extra good to have only paid £30 or so for it, instead of the usual £100+, and it was worth every penny. I learned loads about the screenwriting process and writing in general so if anyone reading this is thinking about doing it my honest opinion is: fantastic for newbies, or for those who have a script and want to learn more about the pitching process. If you can afford the usual price (i.e. it doesn't make your sphincter clench at the thought of spending that much money on a one day course) then go for it. If your budget is a little more like mine, than look out for deals on Groupon - they do them on a pretty regular basis. It's presented by the founder of Raindance, Elliot Grove, and he's very easy to listen to.

Apart from learning that I know more about screenwriting (and indeed storytelling in general) than I thought I did, here are some of the highlights of the day, without ruining the point of going along for yourself:

What Disney's Paperman Taught Me About Story

The Oscars have been and gone, with plenty of worthy winners and notable moments. Jennifer Lawrence has earned a place in many people's hearts after her little trip on the way to the podium (though for me her reaction to meeting Jack Nicholson was the highlight of the night). But rather than run through the films that got nominated and those that won, I want to cover just one: Disney's Paperman, which won the best animated short award.

Improving your writing by reading

A strange thing happens when I'm reading fiction now. I used to become absorbed in the story, part of the characters and world, but now I seem to read them in the same way I imagine a god of Olympus would watch humanity; sometimes joining in but also looking down from above and seeing the bigger picture. This particularly happens when there's a problem with what I'm reading. It's normal for that to cause a jolt that bumps you out of the fictional world, but I used to ignore it and keep going. Now I stop, and reread the section until I can work out what went wrong. A recent book I read had me doing this a lot; Darkness Falling by Peter Crowther.

Creativity and Ninjas

I've not been much in the mood to create anything lately, which has included blog posts. We will blame it on the grumpy monkey on my back. He's a miserable git, and tells me to sit and watch TV rather than do anything because, you know, what's the point? Despite him I have been getting some ideas and just had one today that is either amazing, or absolutely awful. But I like it, so will probably pursue it. Even a rubbish idea can turn out great once you get a bit of depth to the story. And to share my crazy process, here's how this idea came about.

The Trickiness of Endings

Last week I at long last read a Stephen King story that I'd wanted to read for years; The Mist. I saw the film for the first time in 2008 and despite loving it I didn't seek out the King original story it was based on at the time. Now, with the wonder that is the Kindle, I got the collected short story volume The Skeleton Crew and settled down to read it through. But having watched the interview between director Frank Darabont and Mr. King I knew the ending was different to the film. And not necessarily for the better. This got me thinking about my own troubles with endings and why there's hope for us mere mortals if even the writing gods like Stephen King can get it wrong sometimes.

*Here Be Festooned With Spoilers - Fairly Warned, You Be*

Sexing up the Classics

After a lull in the bloggage, I thought I'd share my take (you mean rant surely? ed.) on the news that some classic works of fiction are getting sexed up in the wake of the brainwashing juggernaut that is the Fifty Shades books. Up front I'll say I haven't read the Fifty Shades books - I got the original fan-fic and nearly wet myself with laughter trying to read some of the worst prose I've ever seen; "I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror." (Who the hell else would you be scowling at while looking in a mirror?), "I gasp and all the muscles deep in my belly clench... my inner goddess is doing the dance of seven veils" (Mwa ha ha ha ha!) . But they're selling like hot cakes, with free handcuffs, so it's no surprise someones come along and thought of a way to jump on the rumpypumpy-wagon. Enter "Total-E-Bound Publishing", who intend to release erotic versions of classic pieces of literature, including Wuthering Heights, Northanger Abbey, and A Study in Scarlet. Claire Siemaszkiewiczm, the founder of Total-E-Bound Publishing, says, "We're not rewriting the classics. We're keeping the original prose and the author's voice. We're not changing any of that."

Oh, that's alright then. Because, if you rewrote the whole thing, that would be more insulting then shoehorning in a sex scene where none previously existed. And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it would also be a lot harder for your "writers" to rewrite a whole book from scratch...

20 Tips on Mugging Your Muse

After my success last week I've been trying to come up with some more short story ideas. The hope is to have a couple finished in the coming months and then send them out to earn their keep, or at the very least get a rejection slip with some constructive feedback. This confronted me with the bane of many a writer's life; coming up with ideas. One of the most common questions for storytellers is "where do you get your ideas," which is actually a coded way of asking "how can I get me some of those ideas?" It's a very hard question to answer, and I don't think there are many people who do anything creative who can honestly explain where or how they get their ideas. They just seem to happen. But I do know there are some techniques I use to get and develop inspiration so thought I'd share them below, along with some truths about the idea process. They may help, they may not. But they're worth a go if your muse is being particularly stubborn. Please to enjoy.

Inspiration at Home

I decided to take this week away from work to focus on the writing, as well as to recharge the batteries a bit for the year ahead. If the last one was anything to go by I'm going to need it; where does the time go? Before tucking into my own stories I spent yesterday learning more about the tales and life of Charles Dickens, at the Museum of London's exhibition "Dickens and London". Though it's more about the man and the city he inhabited, it reveals where his stories, characters and settings came from. It turns out the best inspiration can be just outside your own door.

How To Destroy Your Writing Career - The Writer Responds

Some weeks ago I posted about Quentin Rowan and the plagiarism scandal he was caught up in. Well, he has responded in the last couple of weeks, the most interesting (and exhaustive) being on the blog of the man who revealed his deception. It makes for fascinating reading, if you're interested in the mind of someone who does an act that seems totally nonsensical to everyone else. 

To give him credit he doesn't try to deny it, or make out that it was okay. But he does try to excuse it (I think) by suggesting it was some kind of compulsion, or addiction if you will, that drove him to take more and more risks instead of stopping and writing something from scratch. Some may find his arguments convincing, but I think there's a lot of self-justification going on in his replies. Like the rioters who here in the UK have recently voiced their "reasons" for looting, burning and generally acting like arseholes, I suspect that Rowan's reasons have more in common with his own vision of what happened, rather than reality. It's a very human response to not take the full blame for our actions and instead try to explain them in a rational way, that paints us in a more positive light. I was particularly struck with his admission that he didn't copy and paste - he actually typed out by hand the lines from other people's books! He certainly has the patience of a writer; it's just a pity he had to write other people's words and pretend they were his own.

What really came through to me though was a sad picture of a wannabe writer who lost his way. He chose the easy way, because of a lack of belief in himself, as well as a desire to succeed quickly. He didn't want to work at his craft, largely due to fear; fear of not being good enough straightaway, fear of working hard and still not succeeding, fear of discovering he just wasn't cut out for writing.

There are a lot of lessons for all us wannabe's in Rowan's experience: do not doubt your voice, do not damn your work as pointless or mediocre when you only just started. Writing is a skill that can be worked on and improved - and most of all, don't be afraid of trying and failing. 

I believe the path to success is full of potholes and we have to fall into them, climb out and fall in many more before we get to Camelot. And you know what? It's half the fun of this crazy thing called writing. I hope Mr. Rowan can one day see that and experience it for himself.

How To Destory Your Writing Career

Plagiarism. The big no no of writing, whether that's a mid-term essay, a song or a story, nicking someone else's work and pretending it's your own is a sure fire way to get admitted into the fiery pit of condemnation. Odd then that it appears to have pulled off for one writer until a few days after his novel was published, when intrepid readers got more than a strong sense of deja vu. Q.R. Markham (real name Quentin Rowan), saw his spy novel "Assassin of Secrets" recently published in America, with much acclaim and positive comments from reviewers and the publisher Little, Brown & Company. On Tuesday the book was pulled by that same publisher when it came to light that parts of the book were copied verbatim from other spy and thriller novels. Things got even worse today, as the scale of the plagiarism is becoming clear, and even earlier works from this same author have now been found to be plagiarised versions of other people's work. If you thought you were having a bad day, Mr. Rowan is having a far worse one.

Top 10 Things I Learned Writing a First Draft

I've been busy plotting out the second draft of "Where Wolves Run Free", and a big part of the process is reading over what I covered in the first draft (Draft 0) and seeing where improvements can be made. The plot has undergone some extreme revisions, though funnily enough the core events still happen, just in a different way. I also thought about the things I've learned for the next time I do a first draft of a novel (or any story really) and thought I'd share my top ten lessons from completing my first draft ever;