Sigh
Yes, sigh. I know I’m not supposed to open a blog post with ‘sigh’, let alone entitle the post that way – but then I’m not supposed to tweet about what I ate for lunch and I do – so you know….at this stage of the proceedings I’m not exactly going to worry about it. Which brings us full circle to … sigh. (more…)
Get ready to jump
As I write this, TMoTH and Mr 13 are watching I Shouldn’t Be Alive. I was going to go upstairs to my desk but both were reluctant for me to leave; I’m not especially sure why but it had something to do with wanting to spend time with ‘their girl’, which is worryingly sweet…. That however is not the point of this post.
On the screen, a team of men on their way to rescue some sailors find themselves in the middle of a perfect storm – and their helicopter is about to crash into the middle of the ocean.
“Get ready to jump,” one of them yells and within minutes they are in freezing cold seas battling hypothermia, major injury, and massive waves. They were cold, frightened, in pain and had no idea if they would be rescued.
I was struck by what an amazing analogy the situation presented for those moments in life when we take a risk or make a determination and have nothing to cling to except our faith and will power. Not for one second do I want to compare a career situation to what those men went through; it was more a recognition that if they could survive that massive storm, I sure as hell can survive my minor one.
I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to commit to my life as a writer – in whatever form that takes, be it fiction, no-fiction, reviewing, blogging – or I needed to walk away. As a the wonderful Kate Alexander once suggested “piss or get off the pot” (those words tend to strike a note when you hear them from someone as elegant and dignified as Kate – trust me). That moment was my moment of ‘getting ready to jump’.
The jump came when I set about committing – and yes there is an obvious joke here but how about we all ignore it. For now. I joined blogging communities, I joined writers communities, I increased my social media presence, I put my hand up to host book tours, I began reading more, I began reviewing more, and yes, I got the manuscript out, blew the metaphorical dust off it ( if only all the dust in the house was metaphorical too) and began typing more.
At times it feels as though I am indeed in icy seas waiting for the next wave to come crashing down on me and that what appears to be rescue lights in the distance is nothing more than my imagination. Then something happens. A review is well received by readers or I pick up an editing client. My badge appears on someone else’s blog or a publishing firm confirms a virtual book tour. I work out the next stage of my novel – or what to do with that non-fiction project that lurking at the back of my mind. My amazing sister surprises me with a beautiful teapot and a canister of my very favorite cinnamon and plum tea – hey life rafts come in a variety of styles…..
I suspect I may have to spend a bit longer in the water and there may be a few more waves to endure yet before I’m back on dry ground but I’m not worried. Well, not too worried – my life rafts are pretty sturdy.
We’ll get back to port …sooner or later.
Innovative Online Book Tours
{EAV:1b7b8ffe500d4ad3}I am thrilled to announce that I have just been accepted, over on Just Heard, Just Read, Just Seen as a Online Book Tour Host (yes those are Winnie The Pooh capitals, no I’m not correcting them – move on) for Innovative Online Book Tours.
I’m really excited about this as I’ve been working really hard to grow my blogs over the past few weeks. I’ve overhauled how they look, I’ve updated them, I’ve tweeted them, I’ve Facebooked (oh look I know it’s not a word but it’s late so for tonight – just move along, nothing to see here) them and I have joined what feels like a million blog communities. In fact, girls and boys, I’m starting to feel like I’m something of a social media tart. But I swear I’m not a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of community member, I’ve been logging in faithfully every night to each of them. In fact by the time I’ve visited each of them there’s no time left to write or blog. Ooooops.
So, I am very excited to see it starting to pay off in small ways. My traffic is increasing, my book review requests are increasing ( hmm those who can, write – those who can’t, review? Let’s not go there…), and of course becoming Online Book Tour Host (oh look Winnie strikes again).
For those of you who don’t know, basically publishers organise for blog owners to ‘host’ an author and/or book during its release. This can mean an interview, a review, an excerpt, a give away, or a guest blog from the author. It’s an all around win situation – the author gets exposure, the blogger gets exposure and readers get great material.
Of course, all of this means I need to order – let me think – oh another 24 hours in a day should just about do it. Reading, reviewing, editing, blogging, posting, tweeting *pant, pant* – and that’s all before I head downstairs to make breakfast for The Offspring, put on my suit and head to the day job, or kiss The Man of The House good morning.
Am I super woman? Hell, no. I’m nuts is what I am.
Seriously though – there is method in my madness. I love to write, I love to connect with people, and I love the cyber world. It seemed to make sense to start building my writing career in a way that worked with those components. While I admit it would be nice to be making more money at it - used to have a guitar teacher in France, who used to roll his eyes and mutter “Angelique, your problem is you want the moon and you want it yesterday, which should tell you something about my patience level – I have to say that I’m feeling creatively quite satisfied with myself.
In other news, we’ve had a sad couple of months here at The New Beach House. Both our darling old slobradogs have left us for the doggy playground on high – Fitzy in January and Barney just a couple of months ago. While it was very sad, having to say goodbye to them it was a comfort knowing they had good lives, were very much loved and brought much love to everyone.
The Terrible Twins and Rosie now have full run of the place. The Twins spend a lot of time curled up at my feet at my desk while I write. My writing desk is upstairs in our bedroom, looking out over the water – and as the chimney runs up through our room, it’s lovely and cosy on blustery day (sigh, NZ winter is looming, dammit).
The Offspring are all settled in school for the year and doing really well. Master 19 – and I’m sorry but no he is NOT turning 20 in September, I don’t care what he says – is doing brilliantly in his third year at music school and has a lovely girlfriend named Sammi, who we all adore. Master 13 is enjoying being a high school student (I think) and has taken up parkour – aka free running, aka driving your mother’s blood pressure through the ceiling. Miss 11 is loving being in the senior grades at primary school and to the horror of all the men in her life, turned into a teenager while they weren’t looking. The cute little girl is gone and a rather formidable (not to mention beautiful) young woman is emerging – look out world is all I can say.
Next week is my one year anniversary of my sleeve surgery – I’m trying to think of something special to do to celebrate it both in the real world and something to share here with readers. Especially as over the past year I’ve lost a little over 50kg….I am literally half the person I used to be. Stay tuned.
See you a little further on up the road guys.
Please…get an editor
It doesn’t matter who you are, what genre you write, how old you are, whether you are aspiring, published, or still hiding under your desk quivering at the thought of writing. You need an editor.
I realize that for some readers, this post will sound dreadfully self-serving – me being an editor and all – but honestly boys and girls, I don’t care who you get to edit your manuscript, just get someone.
You see, in addition to writing, editing, blogging, listening to Bruce, chanting, and being bossed around by the resident Cat People, I also review books. Over on Just Heard, Just Read, Just Seen I review (mainly) mainstream books from mainstream publishers, On A Far Away Bookshelf I concentrate on Young Adults (YA), and on the soon to be live Incredible Indies the focus will be Indie authors. In other words, I read a lot. Let me say that again: I read A LOT.
Today, I want to talk to those of you who are Indie and/or self published writers. No, Virginia they are not necessarily the same thing. Some Indies will be published by small, indie publishing houses, while others will take the self publishing route. What’s more, I am a big fan of Indie writers – there are some amazing authors out there who are just not getting the exposure they deserve because of some silly notion that to be a ‘real’ writer, let alone a good one, you must be published by one of the big mainstream publishers. But I digress.
Every day I get books across my desk – the real one and the cyber one – from authors and indie publishing houses asking for reviews. I add the book to my list, load it up on my e-reader/fold back the cover and settle in to read. Let me tell you, boys and girls, there are some very talented writers out there, with some very cool stories to tell. Invariably, though, there comes a point when I think “uh-oh…”
These ‘uh-oh’ moments are generally editing issues. Issues the writer has not noticed for a variety of reasons, the most common of which is knowing the story too well. As writers, we know what is happening and is going to happen, we know what we mean, and we know every little detail about our character and plot. After months of working on the project, we forget other people don’t know those details. We also don’t notice we have used the word ‘angry’ in every sentence on an entire page, or that we have consistently misspelled a word or that our formatting is inconsistent.
We simply don’t see those things. Our friends and beta readers might pick up some of them, but chances are high they will assume they are issues you intend to sort out anyway. A good editor will assume nothing. A good editor will cover your beloved manuscript with all kinds of red marks and comments that will make you wonder why you bothered starting the project in the first place. And a good editor will explain to you that in fact you started because it’s a good story, you are a good writer, and if you just put down the heavy object you are about to throw in her direction you’ll see why.
Correcting grammar, spelling and formatting issues will give your book a better chance of a good reception with readers and publishers – and should be the first thing you address. If you get an editor to look at nothing else, get them to check for these things. It’s not about writing like Shakespeare, it’s about keeping your reader engaged.
Trust me, even the worst spellers out there will notice something wrong with “the cat’s pause were covered in butter” ( I kid you not).
Oh and repeat after me: “I will not rely on spell check”.
When it comes to plot, character, style, genre think of your editor, not as a Big Bad Witch but as your cheerleader. Remember it’s going to look good on her portfolio too – especially if it turns out you really are the next J K Rowling.
Any issues your editor identifies are an opportunity for you to take your writing from good to great. If you have used the same adjective fifty times on one page, maybe you do need to go back and think about what you were trying to get across. Maybe you could expand on a description or perhaps the reader doesn’t need to know every little detail of your character’s morning routine if it doesn’t advance the story.
An editor who just looked at the first 1,000 words of my current WIP had an issue with a joke I had included. She didn’t get it. When I reread it, with that comment in mind, I realized two things: first, most people would be like my editor and not get the joke and secondly, it didn’t add anything to my story anyway. I deleted it.
Sometimes your editor will be wrong, but in examining why you are including the paragraph she wants to kill, you will gain a better understanding of your story and your potential reader.
Nearly every ‘uh-oh’ moment in a book I am reviewing could be resolved with a little judicious editing.
Indie authors are less likely to have access to an ‘in-house editing team’ provided by a publisher, so they need to take matters into their own hands. Start by asking in your writing group for names. Remember google is your friend. Do your homework until you have found someone who is a good fit for you – someone who will be strong enough to tell you the truth but who isn’t going to bully you. Editors are just as susceptible to being wrong as anyone else (but if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it).
Remember the greatest marketing your book will get is not the review I give it or the press release your publishing house sends out; the greatest marketing your book will get is the way readers are talking about it. So, please, do as much as you can to get them talking about your story and not your spelling.
Everyone’s an expert
Like most people, I want to be successful at what I do and I’m always on the look out for better ways to do that (for the sake of the argument let’s just call it writing – the medium is immaterial in this conversation). So over the past week I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and books about being a successful writer, with a particular focus on blogging.
While I picked up some very useful tips – yes, yes I’ll share in another blog post – the thing that stood out the most was just how many experts I found. In particular experts who were more than willing to relieve me of some cash in order to show me how great their expertise is.
I’m sure you know the kind of thing I mean: ‘Make millions blogging TODAY’, ‘How to become a successful blogger OVERNIGHT’, ‘Break into Fiction,’ ‘How to Write Shop’
It all became a little overwhelming to be honest.
Now don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against people sharing their expertise or making money from it. In fact, I think it’s great. As long as they are in fact an expert and are not expecting to retire to Bora Bora by taking advantage of your desire to break into writing.
With that in mind, I made myself some guidelines to apply to the expert sites I visit before I sign up for, or more importantly, pay for anything on offer.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
The first two blogs I mentioned above – ‘Make millions blogging TODAY’, ‘How to become a successful author OVERNIGHT’ – don’t exist, but I’m sure, you’ve seen zillions of sites making those same promises. I know I have.
Most of them tell you the only thing required from you is a few bucks and they will deliver the secret to an easy, and very wealthy, writing future.
Newsflash: Writing (and blogging) is hard work and like most things in life, success is not over night. The Rowlings, the Gilberts, and the Kings, not to mention all the successful bloggers you are in awe of, put in a lot of time, energy, and effort into their work.
It might seem like they were an overnight success, but trust me, it wasn’t.
There are no shortcuts to success so don’t be taken in.
If it looks like a bunny, hops like a bunny, smells like a bunny ….chances are the thing is a bunny
In other words, if it looks like a scam, it probably is a scam. Don’t just hand your credit card details over without checking it out. You wouldn’t walk into a store, close your eyes, hand the sales girl your card and say “give me the most beautiful shoes in the shop, I don’t need to try them on, I don’t need to see them, just put ‘em in a box and charge me for ‘em” (if you would, well maybe this isn’t the blog you need to be reading…) so don’t do it when looking for advice and support for your writing either.
Equally don’t assume that because the blog owner/expert wants you to pay for their services, they are out to fleece you. The two sites mentioned above: ‘Break into Fiction,’ ‘How to Write Shop’ are genuine sites, with great services and products on offer to help you with your writing career.
Expertise or Opinion?
There is I admit a thin line between the two, but before you start typing in your credit card details, it’s a good idea to be work out whether you are getting expertise (Break Into Fiction) or opinion (this blog) and if the price tag reflects the value of what you are buying. In fact it’s probably a good idea to establish which of the two you are looking for before you start. Are you just looking to see what others think or are you searching for training? Do they have testimonials from clients supporting their claims? Are they able to show some proof of their expertise or back up their claims with solid examples?
Rules are made to be broken
Keep in mind there are very few rules set entirely in stone. The ones that are, you will probably recognise instantly(grammar, spelling, and the likes);for the others it is, in my experience, a case of using some common sense. Trust your instincts; if something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. And just because someone else has said it’s a rule, don’t feel you can’t challenge that rule. Writing is a creative exercise so be creative with the rules as well - who knows what you might achieve.
My two cents on…..good story or good writing?
Like all writers I love to read. Like all writers I read a lot. In fact it would be fair to say I would probably get a lot more writing done if I read a lot less (and stayed away from all forms of social media but hey – a girl has to get a life where she can right?)
There has always been a lot of discussion around what makes a book/story good and whether a lot of popular fiction really deserves the attention it receives. Even the best of friends can be brought to blows over the likes of Harry Potter, Twilight, and anything published by a company specializing in Romance (complete with capital R).
I recently read an article by James Hall in which Hall talks about how he used to avoid popular fiction, deeming it not good enough to waste time on. Now, he teaches a class in why we should read popular fiction. I posted the link to my Facebook page, knowing full well it would trigger some debate (it did, though not as much as I expected) and was fascinated to see how passionate (gosh how tactful was that?) people get about the subject.
I have read several classics, that, had an unknown writer today pitched them to a critique group, let alone a publisher, would be rejected for too many adverbs, incorrect sentence construction, messing with convention in literature, defying popular or accepted theory behind a particular story line. Chances are, when they were first published, they were chastised. But somebody thought the story was worthwhile…and now with hindsight, they are applauded.
It is interesting to note that a lot of the arguments against popular fiction are also used against independent and self published fiction – and I do find that worrying.
There seems to be a trend toward deciding that just because something is not literary or is not published by a mainstream publisher, it will either be dreadful writing (otherwise a mainstream author would have published it right?) or it will be pulp nonsense.
As a reviewer and an editor, I read a lot of fiction and non fiction. Some of it is bad. Some of it is Very Bad. A lot of it, however, is good. And some of it is Extremely Good.
Popular fiction is not always good writing. Good writing is not always popular. That is a given. Some classics – and I know I am going to have a price on my head for saying this out loud – for want of a better word, suck.
Good writing does not a good story make; a good story does not good writing make. That’s a given. And you can enjoy one and not the other. Also a given. But to assume that a good story or a modern story or a best selling story – or an independently published story – is automatically badly written is an unfair judgement.
And while we are at it – if you are going to critique, judge, and/or condemn a book, please at least read it first. Don’t just assume, that because you do not like the genre or would not read it, that the author is a bad writer.
One genre that gets a really hard time of it by people who don’t even read it is romance. Yes, there are some awful romance novels out there. There are some shocking writers. But there are also a lot of brilliant books, beautifully written, by excellent writers.
There are also many, many great stories with moderate to good writing – that bring a lot of joy to a lot of people. There is nothing wrong with that.
Twilight springs to mind. Many, many, many of my writer friends loathe Twilight with a passion normally reserved for dictators and torturers. A lot of their arguments are sound – I don’t think the books are particularly well written, although I enjoyed the first one. I spent a lot of time mentally editing it, but I did like the story.
I didn’t enjoy the sequels because I didn’t feel the storytelling made up for the awful writing.
As to the sparkle of Edward and his family – it didn’t bother me in the slightest. Nor did it bother me that the vampire story line didn’t follow the traditional rules – and I’ve been reading horror since I was 12. You see, I never thought of Twilight as being a horror story or even a paranormal story. It was always, for me, a teenage love story, so I didn’t care about the rest.
Sue me. Take away my membership to the Stephen King fan club.
If writers (and song writers and painters and poets and architects and…well you get my point) always did what everybody did because that was the rule, there would be no evolution within the craft. No invention, no advance.
Many people worry that books like Twilight will lower the standards and tastes of our young people and that it’s better they read nothing than read this type of book. I disagree. I actually would prefer they read Twilight or Harry Potter or Mickey Mouse comics than not read.
I don’t care if they read on a Kindle, from a borrowed library book, or online. I care that they read. Once you have a child reading, it is up to adults to then provide the variety and the alternatives and the education so children can begin to make a critical choice. And to accept they may not ever like anything more than Mickey Mouse comics. So what?
My daughter was not interested in reading, in part because she is dyslexic, until she discovered Twilight. She was captivated by it and found that reading was worth the hassle. Reading the series improved her general reading so much, she went from being in the lower portion of the class to the upper portion. Was it the sparkly vampires? Of course not – it was the realisation not only that she could read, but it could be enjoyable. Suddenly, she liked school and reading. In fact she liked reading so much she began looking around for other books to read. Today she loves YA novels like Twilight- but she’s also tackled, among others, Jane Eyre and adored it – whereas I loathed the thing.
Would she have found Bronte of her own accord? Probably not. I made it available (and this is where I should point out, she read it on my eReader, which probably makes me a complete heathen for many)for her and encouraged her to read it. It’s up to me to give her a variety to choose from, teach her the tools to decide what is good or bad writing, and the confidence to decide what she thinks is a good or bad story.
If nobody teaches kids these, we can’t blame them if they don’t learn how to do it.
One very dear friend of mine – a talented writer – did make the following comment: ”read what you like and screw other people but don’t try to elevate poor writing because you feel guilty about reading trash.”
Now this is interesting for two reasons. Firstly because she’s right. Absolutely right. I read what I want to read and I don’t care if anyone else likes it, approves of it, or agrees with it. The second reason it interests me though is because I have never felt guilty about reading popular fiction. I loved Harry Potter for example. I didn’t find it great writing but I loved the story; I believe Rowling is a much better story teller than she is a writer (mind you what would I know – she’s the one with the millions….) and I never felt guilty about liking it. I’ve never felt guilty about loving romance. I can read King over and over and over and still love it.
I have often had to defend myself – never to Shoshana who isn’t the kind of person to judge you based on what you read, write, or judge but she raised the point so I’d like to answer it – to many people who have felt I shouldn’t read this stuff because “you shouldn’t read bad writing.”
Why not?
A friend of my mother’s love bodice rippers. They are the only kind of book she reads. And when I say bodice rippers, I do mean the variety that receives prizes for ‘purple prose’. She’s an intelligent, successful business woman and she says when she reads, she simply wants to get lost in the story and not think – and this type of book does that for her. She has tried other “better written, more acceptable genres” and gets no joy from them. Not once have I ever heard her suggest to anybody they should join her and read what she reads. Nor does she judge what others read. Yet, over and over I hear her friends tell her to ‘stop reading that rubbish’.
She never feels guilty but she does have to defend her choice.
It’s a bit like tattoos - people without tattoos are often very vocal about why one would have one, the type of person who gets them, what will happen later. People with tattoos don’t care if you have one or not.
So I’m with Shoshana on this – read what you want and never mind other people. Don’t try to defend yourself. Just say “I read it because I like it”. It’s their problem if they have a problem with what you read.
As a writer, I would love to write something that has the mass appeal of a Twilight, Hunger Games, or Harry Potter. Not because of the money (okay not only because of the money) but because I would love to think my work might bring pleasure to that many people. I would like to hope I can write well enough to be considered a good writer – but the truth is if I had to choose between being a great story teller and a good writer – I’d rather be a great story teller.
And that’s my two cents worth…..
Every now and then…
The first thing I discovered is that I’m extremely hard on myself and one of the side effects is a paralyzing self sabotage. At least I recognize it now and am doing something about it – namely writing.
Then tonight I came across a wee gem that really resonated with me; perhaps because it echos Liz Gilbert’s TED presentation. Or perhaps I
needed a reminder to not take myself so seriously….
I don’t have to be perfect,
All I have to do is show up
and
enjoy the messy, imperfect, and beautiful journey of my life.
It’s a trip more wonderful than I could have imagined.
- Kerry Washington
One day my office will who my imperfect and beautiful journey too...
It’s the same f****in’ riff
It’s 1.47am and I can’t sleep. TMoTH is away at a family wedding. The Offspring are asleep. Even the critters are asleep. Only I am still awake – and really I shouldn’t be, since I need to be up in a few hours for boxing training…..
I didn’t intend to still be awake at this time. I watched DVDs with The Offspring then came to bed thinking I would check my email and turn out the light. Then I remembered I hadn’t watched the keynote speech from SXSW . Why would I want to watch that you ask? Well, because the speaker was Bruce Springsteen.
The key note speech is amazing - it’s funny, it’s touching, it’s smart – and so much more. In it Springsteen talks about the things that influenced him, the things that made him want to do what he does. He talks about hearing The Animals and how, when he listened to them, he wanted to do what they did. He wanted to make people feel the way they were making him feel.
I sat here in bed, listening to the wind drive leaves around our front lawn, my mouth open in amazement. You see I’ve heard those words before – except usually I’m the one saying them and I’m talking about Springsteen.
When I was 12 we lived on a farm in a fairly remote area of the east coast of the north Island of New Zealand. My father had died the year before and my mother was working every hour of daylight to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table while lawyers do whatever it is lawyers do with wills and estates.
We had no television and our nearest neighbour was about two miles away. We did however have a radio and every Sunday afternoon I would sit at the table with my ear pressed to the radio listening to Casey Kasem’s Top 40.
This particular Sunday, not long before my 13th birthday, Kasem announced a new song from some guy I had never heard of. As the song began to play I remember very clearly being mesmerised and forgetting completely about my French homework.
The singer was Springsteen and the album was The River. Springsteen wasn’t big in New Zealand at the time and I was only 12 – too young to really understand the themes in his music – so it’s not surprising I didn’t really know who he was. But I loved what I was hearing and by the time Fade Away was released I did know two things: a) whoever he was, I was hooked and b)I wanted to do what he did: I wanted to write things that made people see images in their head and feel something they didn’t know they felt.
That was 33 years ago – and today I feel exactly the same way. There is a joke in my family that Springsteen is ‘the other man’ in my life and luckily for me my partner Dennis is as big a fan as I am – although he does have a rule that there are to be no pictures in the bedroom. I have no idea why….
Springsteen’s lyrics inspired me- and still inspire me – to start writing. My dream is to one day interview him – if only to get the chance to thank him for all the joy his music has brought me over the years. So it felt a little surreal to hear him say the very things I’ve been feeling all these years.
Many of Springsteen’s songs have inspired in me ideas for stories – both short and long – but I have never had the courage or the confidence to write them down. They are, afer all, his songs. His stories. I have this weird, unwritten rule that while his music and lyrics are possibly the greatest influence on my creative writing, I can not use them as a spring board for that writing. Why? Who knows?
So, when he went on to not only explain, but demonstrate, how “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “Badlands” were (and I quote) “the same fuckin’ riff, listen up, youngsters — this is how successful theft is accomplished.” I, unlike everyone else, did not just laugh.
I got excited.
Not that kind of excited – get your minds out of the gutters. Okay maybe a little but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
I got excited because Bruce Springsteen gave me a green light to use all these characters who have been living in my head all this time; he may not have looked up and said “hey, the loopy red head down there in New Zealand, get over it, it’s just the same fuckin’ riff, write it already” - but he may as well have.
It’s funny, his new album Wrecking Ball makes me feel that same breathless wonder I felt when I was 12 and hearing him for the first time. I sit and listen to it, sometimes (often) in tears, and I wonder “how does he DO that? I want to do that.”
My next thought is invariably “I am so grateful he does that.”
For so many years, his music has held my hand and my heart, and played the background music to my life. Like I say, since the age of 12 I’ve wanted to interview him - partly so I could say thank you for all his music has brought to me.
But maybe the way I say thank you is to use that riff…
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2012/03/sxsw_springsteens_keynote_addr.html
What’s in a name?
Something tells me I’m hardly the first writer to head up a blog post with that title. But hey at least I resisted the urge to use a rose as a pic….And trust me it wasn’t easy coming up with an alternative; I nearly bowed to the cliche but I digress. Yes I know, I do that a lot.
What was I talking about? Oh yes – names. I like to think of myself as being fairly smart; my family suggests that in fact this is a delusion and that I bear more than a passing resemblance to Dory from Disney’s Finding Nemo, but what would they know? I’m not even blue and I don’t sound anything like Ellen DeGeneres. Hmm? Oh right – names.
Oh zat ees not a very common name, hein?
I’m one of those rare people who actually like their name. I don’t know whether I fell in love with France and things French because of my name or if would have happened anyway, but my slightly unusual name in all its forms has never bothered me. Although when I first moved to Paris I did assume I would for the first time ever have an ordinary, garden variety name. HA! People still commented on it everywhere I went – they simply did it French. Go figure.
A name for everything…
So when I started writing, I wasn’t especially interested in pseudonyms. My name would be just fine thank you very much. Right up until I hit a whole other bunch of names – the names of genres. Romance. Horror. Erotica. Sci-fi. Chick Lit. If you think about it each of those labels or names carries with it a resonance and image of what it represents – just the same way our own name does.
Of course what often happens is if a writer begins writing to one of those genres, they become pigeon holed to that genre. Now, there is nothing wrong with that at all. If your passion is romance or sci-fi or chick lit or whatever, then get out there and write, baby, write.
What about me?
What happens though if, like yours truly, you tend to be a little hyperactive (okay maybe a lot) and you don’t know what genre you’re passionate about because you just love words and writing? Then what?
I’ll tell you what – you end up in the middle of a metaphorical snarled fishing line of massive proportions. It is scary how many story ideas I have sitting in folders in Dropbox that have stalled because I’ve woken up one morning either dying to try a different genre or I’ve been paralysed by the fear of actually writing something good, selling it, and never being able to write in a different genre again. Yes there are massive holes in this theory – not the least being that I’m assuming I’ll write something that will be picked up and published – but fear does not care about holes in theory. Fear is just fear.
Eureka
After struggling with this for several years now, two days ago I found the solution. I realised two things in that moment – the first was that the next year is going to be incredibly busy and the second was that maybe my family is right and I’m more like Dory than I thought.
The solution is pseudonyms. You see, I’m one of those people who takes on the identity of the genre they’re writing in. If I’m writing romance, I tend to become floral and romantic. If I’m working on my post-apocalypse piece I get very Sarah Connor – ish. If I’m writing erotica – well, anyway you get the idea. All I need to do is give those identities a name.
Meet the family
So I did. Lily writes romance, Georgia writes erotica, and I write general fiction and YA. And believe it or not – though by now I’m picking you’ll believe it – I have found myself dressing to the identity. Jeans and tee for me, soft pastel, feminine flowy skirt for Lily, leather and lace for Georgia.
The kids just shrugged – they’re used to their mother being weird. The Man of The House is starting to realise there could be definite advantages to this set up. The cats are not impressed. As for me, I’m just looking at the names (and their personas) as another set of tools in my writing kit. It’s all just a case of finding the right one (tool/name) for the job.
By the way…
In case you’re wondering why I chose jellyfish….it’s because although we call them jelly fish their real name is Scyphozoa. If you’re Dory, of course it’s Squishy (I shall call you Squishy and you shall be mine). What’s more, you would be amazed at how many sites exist dedicated to jelly fish – who knew? I got the pic from a funky site called Jellyfish Facts which while cool, has a vaguely disturbing tab labelled Pet Jellyfish……
And so it begins….
So what begins, I hear you ask. Sure you did, it was in between the sip of coffee, the bite of sandwich, and the turn of the page of your book. I heard it clear as a bell.
What begins, girls and boys, is the long, hard slog that is the road to turning things around. Having banished the word but ( I can say it when I’m talking about the banishment – sheesh, you guys are a tough audience) I’ve set about trying to work out exactly how to achieve my goals.
What is the issue?
You see the goals are not the issue. The issue is the strategy for achieving them. For me there are two strategies – the strategy of The Lotus Sutra and the action strategy. The strategy of The Lotus Sutra, which we’re not going to discuss tonight but will discuss later in the week, but can be summed up as faith – although there is a bit more to it than that which is why we’ll come back to it (I’d like to be clear the order is not indicative of the importance – simply of the time I have available for blogging and faith requires a lot more than I have this evening).
Action Strategy
My action strategy is going a bit like this: get up, make tea, turn on laptop, do gongyo (that’s part of the other strategy), go to work, appreciate being at work, appreciate the people I work with, leave work, come home, make dinner, spend some time being Mama,research/ blog/write/actively promote both blogs and work, do gongyo again, go to bed. Maybe, if I’m lucky, spend some quality ‘nice’ time with the man I share my bed with. Or if I’m too late for that (he doesn’t really do late nights), read.
It works
Sound boring? You might be surprised to learn that not only is it not boring – it’s not only helping, it’s actually working. Ha! I knew that would get your attention. First of all actually making the effort to do gongyo is giving my day rhythm, routine and a strong foundation. Doing all the mama stuff, is making me feel happy because I LOVE doing stuff with my kids.
I’m actually engaged in my work. At this stage I’d like to just take a moment to say my issues with my job are less to do with the job and more to do with my frustration with life in general – and in particular with my apparent inability to advance my personal writing career. I’m not sure I can say I enjoy my job – and again this is about me, not about the job or the company – but I am engaged. And that is a very good start, because when I leave at night, I feel quite comfortable dedicating my evening writing time to my own writing.
The result of that, has been surprising. Obviously my word count is increasing (hmmm, spend more time on writing project, see output increase – I could be on to something here….). More importantly I have A Plan (complete with Pooh Bear capitals). I have a clearer – thought not quite sparkly, crystal clear – idea of my work and where I want it to go.
Counting down
All of this is a good sign since I have five weeks left of my deadline – and am beginning to feel as though I may just have found my way off the dreaded merry go round of “I would if I could bu……”
Stay tuned, folks, stay tuned.
