WRITE NOW

WRITE NOW (7) – Where to Write Some writers are unable to work unless the environment is suitable, with no distractions. The desk must face a blank wall instead of the view from the window and there must be no interruptions from family or friends. On the other hand some people seem able to write anywhere, oblivious to the surroundings or even inspired by adverse conditions. When he was imprisoned in Paris during the Reign of Terror, Tom Paine did not let the threat of execution stop him writing. He went ahead and finished The Age of Reason .        There’s dedication for you! A man who can write in the shadow of the guillotine is surely an example to us all. Similarly the Letter from Birmingham Jail is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. while he was imprisoned. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather t...

The writer’s approach to life (WRITE NOW – 6) As you aspire to be a writer you should view life itself as a writer would. All experiences, whether your own or those of other people (happy, sad, frustrating, tragic) should be examined as potential material for you to use. It is valuable to note down these experiences, good and bad and all the facets of human emotions for future use. These notes should be filed in a way that makes them easy to retrieve as needed.    In order to make the most of what is happening around you try to use all your senses. Nothing should escape your keen observation and scrutiny. You should become an enquiring person. Ask yourself questions about why things are being done, the background to events, and the circumstances that surround them. And the reactions of those involved as well as observers. There are ideas for articles and stories all around if you can recognise them. Writers must train themselves to make mental notes of what untrained obs...

WRITE NOW (5) – Develop a sense of curiosity Learn to become a people-watcher and listen to conversations without staring or becoming a stalker or eavesdropping in a way that is indiscreet. A writer’s mind is hungry and so you should be interested in everything around you as fodder for your work. Keep a notebook handy at all times for recording things. I have one that fits easily into my pocket and I never put the grocery list in there (unless a grocery list is part of something I’m writing). Neither should you use it as an appointments diary. Think of it as a sacred book that contains seed thoughts.   When we are writing we tend to draw on our experience and knowledge. It is important, therefore, to broaden your experience and knowledge as much as possible.  Become an avid reader An interest in reading literature will help greatly with your writing. It will help if you have some knowledge of the classics of the English language (and classics of other languag...

Write Now (4) – Making a Start “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ) T he urge to write (novels, short-stories, poetry) comes from an inner compulsion to create, to tell a story, to understand or recreate an experience, to shape an idea etc. You don’t have to have all the details worked out before you begin but you do need to test that impulse. When I was a schoolteacher one of my pupils expressed an interest in becoming a vet. I encouraged her to get a weekend job working with animals. She found a placement in a local animal shelter for abused and abandoned animals. After three weeks she left. I asked her why and she told me she didn’t like the smell. She tested her desire and discovered that the romantic notion in her head and the reality on the ground were very different. So it is with writing, the longing must be tested not in abstract thought but in a writer’s environ...

WRITE NOW (3) – Making a Start Suppose you have made the decision but don’t know where to start, what then? You can begin with a plot outline, write a synopsis of the novel you imagine taking shape, set the scene and broadly define the characters. Or you could just begin to write and see what happens. It might be that you struggle with plot structure and this is preventing you from moving forward. Sometimes you just have to start writing and see where it leads. After a while you will begin to put shape to the work so that by the time the first chapter is written a story is forming in your mind and it is beginning to take shape on the page too. If you approach writing in this way you will soon learn that characters take on their own personas, so much so that you will feel them leading you into the narrative and dialogue. Certain characters will act and speak in ways that are in keeping with who they are becoming. This is both surprising and exciting. Are you a potential writer? Is...

Continued from part 1... A danger to avoid          It is not a good idea to slog away day and night for a weekend and then take several weeks off to compensate for work done. This leads to mental slackness and poor creativity. Better results are achieved by regular daily production. You may object that you are not a factory worker to be constrained by regular hours and continual production and that you can only work when the feeling of inspiration occurs to you. That attitude is negative and unproductive. So-called writers with that outlook on the craft will write very little of publishable standard. Excellent fiction and non-fiction has been produced by writers who sat down and dredged up ideas. Any staff newspaper journalist who tells his editor that, he is waiting to be visited by inspiration, would very quickly be told that he was in the wrong job.    Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), an enormously successful novelist and journalist, was a gr...