Nowhere to Hide

Sometimes I want to hide.

It all started when I was invited by a lovely fellow writer from the town where I live, to join other writers at her house. It would be a chance to listen to each others work. "Lovely," I hear you say and of course you would be right: evenings like this are lovely... unless you are me!

So what is the problem?

Well to start with, I don't particularly like groups. I love meeting up with two, three or even four people, and will often be the one to instigate such events, but more than that and the pleasure subsides and dread slips in. If I don't know anyone, then that is even worse.

I love writing and I love my work being read... in a magazine, in someone else's head, in the privacy of their own home. Reading my own work? That's a different matter.

Patsy Collins asked what it is that makes me so nervous at the thought of reading my work out and I found it easy to answer. Firstly, I can't get over the feeling that reading something you've written might be viewed as showing off - which of course is stupid, if you've been asked to do it. The main problem, though, is I'm not a limelight person, which is why I like to sing in an 80 strong choir and only ever dream of singing a solo; or why I love dancing in a sea of other dancers but if the spotlight fell on me... ooh er!

Also, I'm quite a perfectionist - if I can't do something to the best of my ability (sing, dance, write) then I'd rather not do it at all. If I read out my work and stutter, stumble and lose my place then, in my eyes, I've failed.

So what did I do last night? Well, I could easily have made an excuse and stayed at home but I didn't - I made myself go. Writing buddy Tracy Fells collected me from my house and when the time came, I didn't chicken out but volunteered to read second (better that waiting the whole evening getting more and more nervous).

And did I muck it up? Luckily no - after all I've had 20 years experience of reading to a class of children - but I think my tomato red face clashed with the walls!

Of course, it was a lovely evening, with an interesting variety of prose and poetry and some wonderful cakes. I could so easily have missed out.

If I'm asked again, I shall be happy to read something else and I know that each time it will be easier. By the time I have to do author readings in Waterstones it will be a doddle... but I might have to duck the flying pigs first :)

Kick Self-doubt into Touch

I had a lovely email from a lady called Nicola recently telling me that she liked one of my stories in Fiction Feast (always a lovely thing to read). It's great to have correspondence with people who have found my blog useful or inspirational and so I was pleased to hear how a recent assignment of hers has been deemed ready for publication. Despite this success, though, Nicola told me she had been hitting walls of self doubt and asked for some advice.

The odd thing was that while thinking about my reply I saw a Facebook post that was so inspirational in itself that I just had to ask the owner of that quote, Tim Bowler, if I could use it on my blog - to help others who are grappling with their gremlins.

Here it is:

I've always found self-doubt a strange nomadic creature: a kind of hobo who pitches his tent outside the back door and never quite moves on. Even when the muse turns up on time, he's whittling a stick nearby, yet I'm deeply fond of him and always have been. He may be a little unwashed and he certainly eats too much of my food, but he has virtues. He grounds me, challenges me, makes me fight for my story. So, welcome, friend, stay as long as you want. You make me stronger.

Although Tim is a Facebook Friend, I didn't know anything about him as a writer but his words were so powerful that I knew he must be good so I popped over to his website to find out more about him only to find this:

Tim has written twenty books for teenagers and won fifteen awards, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal. He has been described by the Sunday Telegraph as ‘the master of the psychological thriller’ and by the Independent as ‘one of the truly individual voices in British teenage fiction’. His books have sold over a million copies worldwide.

So now I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't know who he was... Sorry Tim!

But your words have hopefully helped Nicola and they'll certainly help me next time self doubt creeps in.

Why Everyone Needs a Writing Buddy

You know how it is when someone asks what you do and, when you tell them, you get a variation on these answers:

"Have you written a novel yet?"
"How much money do you make?"
"I suppose you'll be writing your own Fifty Shades then."

That's people you don't know.

Your friends might ask a few polite questions such as, "So how's the writing going?" but if you answer more than, "Fine," you can see their eyes start to glaze over.

Of course I can't blame them. If I ask my husband how his day has been, I'm more interested in whether Nigel has seen the badger in his garden again or whether Tom has managed to sell his house yet than whether the new flow meter is working properly. I have to remember that not everyone is interested in writing in the same way that not everyone is interested in engineering.

This is why we all need a writing buddy. I'm not talking about someone who will share and critique your work (although many writing buddies like to do this) but someone who knows where you're coming from; who understands the joys of a sale or competition win along with the frustration of the rejection; who you can share writing news and information with you and talk about all those things that would bore other people silly.

I'm lucky in that I've got Tracy. We met first through our blogs and then in 'real life' a year ago for teacakes in our local café. We've met up every month since for writerly chat.

This morning we talked about our last month's writing goals and whether we've achieved them, the merits (or not) of writing holidays, writers on Facebook, competitions, loss of writing confidence, experiences of womags, merits (or not) of Scrivener, whether it's possible to write a novel without a plan......
 
We also set new targets for this month.

The two hours we spend in the café are invaluable... and the teacakes delicious!

I urge everyone to get themselves a writing buddy if they haven't already got one.

Welcome to my Blog Chain Thingy!

How exciting to be part of a blog chain thingy!

Patsy Collins asked whether I would like to be one of her victims and who was I to refuse such a kindly request.

Here are the questions that I have to answer:

What am I currently working on?

At the moment I am not working on anything as I am trying to give myself some 'White Space' (see post last week) but when I start up again after Christmas, I shall be concentrating as usual on my womag stories. I shall also be working on the third and final instalment of my serial for The Peoples Friend and I have an idea for an article that I want to start.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

That's a difficult one and probably one that only regular readers of the three magazines I write for can answer. What I will say, is that I am not afraid to push the boundaries: for example I have written first person stories to magazines that generally prefer third, stories from a male POV to ones that usually like female protagonists and have covered many sensitive subjects such as bereavement, disabilities and illness.

Why do I write what I do?

Because I haven't had the 'big idea' yet that would make me want to write anything longer. I like the immediate gratification you get at the end of the relatively short length of time it takes to write a short story and the thrill every time one is in print. I'm probably too impatient to have to wait a year or so to complete a project.

How does my writing process work?

It's all very random and sporadic. I set myself the task of writing at least one story a week - if I write two it's a bonus. I don't have set times or days when I write - I tend to fit it around other things I am doing. I edit as I go along and then give the story to my husband for a final check and it is his job to tell me that Jim has turned into Tom halfway through the story.

The three lovely people below will be the next link in the blog chain thingy and will be posting their answers to these questions on 30 December, so please pop over to their blogs next week for a peek.

Keith Havers is a former engineer who is now a student supervisor and writer. His work has appeared in various publications in the U.K. and Australia. Keith's blog is called Dream It, Then Do It

Amanda Brittany writes short stories for magazines. Her stories have been published in magazines in the UK, Australia and Sweden. Amanda's blog is called Writing Allsorts

Tracy Fells writes short stories, flash fiction, the occasional article and drama for theatre and radio. Her stories have appeared in Take-a-Break Fiction Feast, People's Friend, The Yellow Room, The New Writer and Writing Magazine. Tracy's blog is called The Literary Pig

Finally, my I take this opportunity to wish all you lovely readers a very Happy Christmas and I'll be back for a round up at the end of the year.

Trying to Find the White Space

"Are you going to have a break from writing this Christmas?"
Tracy and I are sharing a coffee and a teacake in our local café.
"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it." I say.
I actually haven't, and if I'm honest, the mere idea of not producing any writing for a couple of weeks sends me into a panic.
"If you were in a different job, you'd have time off, though, wouldn't you?" Tracy says wisely.

It makes me think.

If I'm perfectly honest, my reaction to her suggestion has shocked me - after all, I have set my own weekly goals, no one else has. Maybe I should ask myself for permission to have a proper break.

Once I make the decision to wind down a bit, I feel quite excited at the prospect. I think of all the things I can do:  see my grandsons in their Christmas plays, last minute shopping, zumba classes without wondering if I could use the Columbian instructor as a male lead character, walks with Bonnie without the need to rush home to get a story finished. The fact that I make myself write two stories and an article that week, to feel I deserve my non-writing time, I can live with.

So far so good.Then comes the tricky part - turning off the ideas part of my brain. Of course, to see potential stories in everything you do is a blessing but when you have decided you want 'time out', it is nothing but an irritation. In her article in Writing Magazine on planning for 2014, Margaret James quoted novelists Rachel Louise Dove and Phillipa Ashley as saying that in order not to neglect our family and friends (not just at this time of year) we should all 'Try to let some white space into our lives'. What a lovely peaceful image - white space... if only my active brain will allow me to find some.

In her blog post this week, Sally Jenkins says that she finds it difficult to read a book without looking at it through the eyes of a writer. I am starting to find the same with everything I do.

In reply to her post, I commented that when I was an education officer at a nature reserve it took me two years after leaving my job to be able to go on a walk and enjoy it for what it was (rather than trying to analyse every animal track or identify every wild flower). Happily, the part of my brain that was locked into work mode, whenever I was in the countryside, eventually gave up and now I barely give a flower a second glance except to think, 'That's pretty."

... If only I could do the same now I am a writer.

Any tips on how to enjoy my two weeks of 'white space' will be gratefully received.

Guest Post - Becca's Back and Showing Her Emotions!

 I’m b-a-a-a-ack! And rather than drag things out, I’m just going to pick up where I left off. In my last post, I explained why telling is usually not the best way to go and why showing is preferred. Now we're going to talk about applying this information—how to find those pesky telling parts and show them instead.

 

How Do I Identify Telling in my own Writing?

1.      Look for emotional words: angry, sad, terrified, jealous. In most cases, when these words are written out, they've been used to tell the reader how a character feels instead of showing the emotion.

2.      Be conscious of places where something has been explained. In my writing, this is almost always a short sentence that gives a concise summary. Looking at your writing in this way takes practice; when Angela and I crit each others' work, we're always reminding each other to RUE (Resist the Urge to Explain)—a term we unapologetically stole from Browne & King's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. It may take time, but when you edit with an eye for places where things have been explained, you’ll start to recognize those spots in your writing.

3.      Check longer narrative passages to see if something is being told rather than shown. This usually happens when an author is explaining a unique element that the reader is unfamiliar with (such as in sci-fi or fantasy), or when giving background information that affects the current story.

 

How Do I Show Instead of Tell?

Once you identify the telling places in your story, rewrite them so the information is shown:

1.      Try to get your information across within the context of the present-time story. Instead of stopping to explain that a character has issues with her father, show their dysfunction over breakfast or a heated phone call. This will show the reader that the two characters don't get along without you having to say it and without interrupting the flow of the story.

2.      Use sensory details to draw the reader in. For example: Nerien ran down the hall, his feet stinging as they struck the cold stone floor. In the dark, he misjudged the stairway and jammed his toes into the bottom step. Glass shattered in the darkness above. He barely heard it over Ma, screaming for him now. He hurtled out of the stairway and into her room. Here, I could have simply said that he ran upstairs. But I wanted the reader to be sucked in, to feel his fear and take the journey with him. Note the details that involve the reader's senses: the cold floor, his toes jamming into the step, shattering glass, screaming. Whenever possible, use sensory descriptors to make the scene come alive for the reader.

3.      Use specific words that lend themselves to the exact mood you're trying to set. In the above example, glass didn't break, it shattered; Nerien didn't enter the room, he hurtled into it; his feet didn't hurt, they stung.

4.      Include comparisons that are specific to the character. In the earlier example of Dara on the bridge, the branch parallels Dara's feeling of being trapped and choking. The bridge and river are everyday elements in Dara's life, specific to her. Find the comparisons that are specific to your character and they'll be believable to the reader.

 

Granted, there are times when telling is appropriate, like when you need to state something without going into great detail—something that maybe needs to be said but isn't of monumental importance to the story. Telling can also be used for effect: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And of course, if your character's voice calls for short, snappy, telling sentences, then by all means, tell away. Just be sure that if you do choose not to show, you've got a solid reason for doing so.

So there you have it. Show-Don’t-Tell, in a nutshell. It may sound abstract and vague at first, but the more you study and search out those spots in your writing, the easier it will get. Need more resources? Check out Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (Browne & King) and The First Five Pages (Lukeman). Keep at it, and happy writing!

 

A big thank you to Becca from me at Wendy's Writing Now and all my blog readers.

***

BIO:

Becca Puglisi is one half of The Bookshelf Muse blogging duo, and co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression. Listing the body language, visceral reactions and thoughts associated with 75 different emotions, this brainstorming guide is a valuable tool for showing, not telling, emotion. The Emotion Thesaurus is available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords, and the PDF can be purchased directly from her blog.

Guest Post - Becca Puglisi from the Bookshelf Muse is Showing Not Telling

First of all a big welcome to Becca Puglisi from The Bookshelf Muse, (click here to view her fantastic blog) who has kindly agreed to do a guest post for me today and again on Wednesday 30th. Anyone who has visited her blog or read The Emotion Thesaurus will understand why I am excited to read her words of wisdom!
Today Becca (all the way from sunny from Florida) will be talking to us about 'Showing Not Telling'.

Over to you, Becca.

 

What's Telling and What's Wrong With It?

Simply put, "telling" is telling the reader something. The country was in turmoil. My sister has no manners. Angela is a lunatic. You have to get these things across in the story, so what's wrong with just telling the reader?

Telling usually explains everything right off the bat. There are certain venues where you want people to explain things as simply as possible: when they're giving directions or explaining a calculus lesson; when you're on the phone with your neighbor who never stops talking and The Walking Dead starts in 30 seconds. But in fiction, telling is a form of talking down to the reader; it doesn't give him/her any credit. At worst, repeated telling says to the audience, "I'm not entirely sure that you're capable of getting the point if I write it with any subtlety, so let me make it really simple." At best, it's a sign that you’re unsure of your own ability to make yourself understood without using the simplest of words. Neither message is one you want to send.

2.      Telling oftentimes interrupts the flow of the story. Consider one of the statements from above: Angela is a lunatic. If the author has to explain this in so many words, she has probably stopped telling the story to do so. When she's done, the story will commence, but in the meantime, the pace has jerked to a stop, taking the reader's attention with it. Another something that you want to avoid.

3.      Telling doesn't usually draw the reader in because it doesn't include details, emotion, or anything unique. Do you know someone who's a really good storyteller? My husband tells great stories; granted, they're usually embellished for effect, but that's what makes them so interesting—lots of emotion and hand-waving and little details, smattered with weird vocabulary to give it his own personal flair. When he tells a story, people get totally into it. This is what we want to achieve with our writing.

 

What's Showing and Why Is It Preferred?

The alternative to telling is showing, which conveys your point to readers in a way that pulls them in and is far more interesting than simply stating a fact. It usually gets more information across, too. Here are a few examples contrasting showing and telling, pulled from my own writing not because I'm convinced of my literary genius, but because, sadly, I have ample telling examples to choose from.

 
Example 1:

·         Telling: Nerien was frustrated.

·         Showing: Nerien jerked upright in bed and reached out, but only felt crumpled blankets and the heave of his own chest. He fell back and groaned into his pillow. Why? Why did he always wake up before the dream ended?

 

In this example, I could have told the reader that Nerien was frustrated.
But saying it doesn't evoke that emotion; it merely states it. Instead, showing his state of mind draws the readers in, helps them to feel the character's frustration via the sensation of jerking upright, the feel of crumpled sheets in one’s fist, and the heaving of the chest. Showing is also more active and immediate.

 

Example 2:

·         Telling: It was a noisy river.

·         Showing:

      The sturdy stone bridge had no railing. Dara stood at the edge, watching the gentle Supine River turn crazy and wild where the river from Frost Berth joined it. It was particularly loud just below, where a branch had become tangled in the grasses near the pillars. The water gurgled and choked around it. Or was it the branch that was choking?

      Dara touched the soft scars that marred her upper arm. She felt a certain kinship with that branch. She was often choking these days, but it wasn't water that squeezed her.

 

As this example illustrates, showing isn't used only for emotion. It really could be used in all areas of description, from describing settings and characters to explaining relationship dynamics to strengthening dialogue.

 

Okay. So that’s telling and showing. But how do you identify the telling parts of your story and show them instead? Since this post is getting a little long, these questions will be answered in part two.

 Thanks for having me, Wendy! 

You're welcome, Becca. Look forward to reading part two on Wednesday.

 

My (hopefully) Useful Writing Resource Will Soon be on My Blog

The river near my house where I walk Bonnie every day - Lucky me!

Sorry it's been a while since I tantalised you with what will hopefully be a useful writing resource. Click here to see my previous post. I haven't forgotten - we've just been tinkering with it to make it as simple to use as possible.

I will post some instructions with it for those of you who (like me) aren't particularly tech savvy.

In the meantime, I would like to point you in the direction of Julie Phillips' blog - Julie's Quest. This week she set a challenge for writers to write in a different format, style or genre - to maybe take them out of their comfort zone - e.g. If you're a novelist, try writing a poem or if you are a short story writer, try writing an article.

I hadn't planned to take up the challenge but a seed was sown and while walking my step-dog Bonnie yesterday, I created a poem in my head which I then raced back to write down. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it and was pleased with the result - so much so, that I've entered it into a competition. Thanks Julie for helping me to think outside my box!

How about having a go yourselves.

A Piece of My Writing

This is a piece of writing I did in my writing class writingclasses.co.uk that is very different in style to my magazine stories. It is a description of a foster child's bedroom and was runner up in a flash fiction competition. The illustration is by my niece, Hannah.

Eyes Wide Open

 

 

 

However much they are tugged, the curtains, with their sailing boats making endless voyages across the billowing seas of cloth, spring apart where the tracks do not quite meet in the middle. A street light casts its crazy neon spell across the duvet. Only hands pressed hard against eye balls can shut out the light.

Pick, pick. A finger finds its way through the much washed fabric of the cover to delve deeply into the yielding guts of the duvet. After two days, its boy smell is encouraging. It offers soft comfort that Blankie can no longer give. Cramped between the wall and bed, Blankie has been discarded - a laundry fresh betrayal.

Damp pyjamas, still warm, hide beneath the privacy of the turned mattress. Alongside lies a holdall, its zippered grin revealing two small pairs of socks and pants, a grey sweater and a much washed t-shirt, ‘Welcome to the Jurassic coast’ still visible above the spiral of an ammonite. Inside its soft folds lurk treasures of other places – other lives: a plastic stegosaurus, a photograph - its myriad of creases aging the smiling face of young woman; a ring, its solitaire eye unblinking in the dark.

Books, carefully chosen, wait to be opened on the shelf. A shelf too high for a small boy to reach except on tiptoe- made in another time for another boy. ‘Welcome!’ says the card balanced on top of ‘Harry Potter’ – but no one is listening.

Shadows shift – phantoms of a childish memory. In this room, the fetid air is not fuggy with sweet smoke and the menace of stale whispered conversation. There is only clean emptiness and always the silence. In a corner, the solitary bed with its cocoon of duvet at last offers sleep.

Eyes wide open. As morning sun creeps tentatively around the edges of the curtain and diffuses through that stubborn chink, boats bob. Muffled morning sounds creep under the door – a voice singing discordantly to Madonna, a dog’s impatient bark. A dog!

The carpet is soft under a small boy’s feet, worn lino a fading memory. Hands reach for ‘Harry Potter’. The card floats down……. ‘Welcome!'

It is picked up and wrapped in the soft folds of the ammonite.

Two Authors Writing as One

 

Nothing to do with my post. This is one of the beautiful bouquets that arrive every month - last year's Christmas present from my mother.

 

I am fascinated by the idea of two people writing a book together as one author, as in the novel ‘The Hypnotist’ by Lars Keppler (which my husband is reading) – in which a Stockholm family is brutally murdered. The investigators of the case decide to hypnotise the family's teenage son, who is critically ill, in the hopes of leading him to provide clues as to the identity of the murderer.

I recently found out that Lars Keppler is a pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.

It's fascinating to hear how they work. Apparently, they sit side by side at a desk with two computers. Each writes a scene and then after about twenty minutes they email each other their writing which they then add to and edit. This happens over and over again until they forget who’s written what.

A fascinating interview with them can be watched on the  Richard and Judy Reading Groups for Everyone site.

 

I asked my husband if he could imagine writing a book with me this way and his reply was:

'No, because you would edit and cut everything I wrote, whereas I wouldn't dare change anything you'd written.'

 

How well he knows me!

 

 

Creativity and Dreams

Do creative people dream more often or more vividly?

I dream every night - most of these dreams I can remember when I wake up. Most are good dreams but not all. A recurring dream I have, involves being lost in a city with no mobile and no address book. I can't remember the name of the hotel I am staying in and I feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

My mother, who is very creative,  has always had a lot of dreams and they are are exciting and often involve travel. My husband, on the other hand, who works in the engineering industry, never dreams at all  (or never remembers them). Is this significant I wonder?