Just Do It by Claire Fayers

 April always brings a cluster of festivals, including my local writing festival in Abergavenny. It's always a special weekend, a chance to catch up with friends and meet new people, but this year it was extra special.

A few years ago, I was Patron of Reading at a high school in South Wales and, after I'd spent a day there talking about careers in writing, I was contacted by a student, Mckenzy Dominy, who asked me if I could give him some feedback on a novel he was writing.

It was good - way better than the stories I'd written at his age. I sent him some notes and my copy of Stephen King's ON WRITING. It was a lovely end to my year as Patron of Reading.

The story didn't end there. A year or so later, Mckenzy contacted me again to tell me he was publishing his first book, a YA supernatural thriller. And last weekend, with two books published and other exciting projects on the horizon, he joined me for an interview at the Abergavenny Writing Festival. 

He is sixteen. 

I didn't know it at the time, but he wrote his first book, Why the Good Die Young, as a way of pulling himself back together after his Mum died. When he finished writing the book, he didn't think he'd be able to publish it, but his Dad gave him some advice 'Just do it.' And so he did. 

Mckenzy is currently studying for A levels and plans to go to university, and keep writing, of course. I believe he will.

To everyone out there who is facing a challenge that feels impossible: 'Just do it.'

You can find Mckenzy on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/mckenzy.dominy

Magic in the landscape - by Lu Hersey

Sometimes, places loom like beacons on the horizon, compelling you to pause on your journey, overcome with the need to explore. Parts of the landscape so powerful, they make your heart sing.

Glastonbury Tor, Silbury Hill, Castlerigg stone circle -  just a few of the places that have surprised me, over the years, with their immediate impact. A feeling that's inexplicable, a bit like coming home after too long away. A nostalgic yearning, even though you haven't been there before.

Last week, I found another.

Burrow Mump is a small but dramatic mound that springs up from the Somerset Levels like magic -a bit like Glastonbury Tor, downsized, with the ruin of a church on the top.

Forcing my friend to stop the car as soon as I saw it (she didn't object too much, even though we had an appointment in Wellington), I bounded (OK, puffed) up through the scatter of trees to the top in a matter of minutes. There was no one else there. The view was stunning.

It's a place I'd love to go back to when there are no time constraints, perhaps to watch the sun rise up from the mists, or the starlings swirling overhead in weak winter sunlight.

Because Burrow Mump seemed to be just that kind of magical place. Once an island of higher ground in a flooded (now drained) landscape, you sense its strategic importance in the past. A quick google search tells you about Roman pottery finds, a motte and bailey castle, and the connection with King Alfred - which apparently is myth, and can't be proved. But as Joseph Campbell said, “Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.” 

Alfred was there, I feel sure of it. This area was Alfred's territory. The years he spent hiding in the marshes from the Danes, Burrow Mump would make the perfect viewing platform, where he could watch out for any approaching danger from the wetlands below. A place to sit and think. I could almost smell his burning cakes. 

Spend a few moments on the summit and you get a strong sense of this living landscape, stretching back in time. It's inspirational, a place to set stories, create art.

Or that doesn't grab you, maybe just sit awhile, and simply admire the view.

Lu Hersey

 (This post - with some modifications - is taken from my patreon site, Writing the Magic)

Songs and Stories - Alan McClure

 

I have a wee summer resolution, which is to get back to writing songs, poetry and short stories, and to leave the novels until they’re positively shrieking at me to be written. Most of us know the value of playing with different forms as a means of extending stylistic skills, sidestepping writer’s block and just generally remembering to have fun with words.

By the time I left school I’d already been persuaded that writing was A Thing I Could Do, chiefly through feedback from assignments: I could turn in a decent essay, hazard a poem - you know the type of thing.  But the first writing I did without being asked, purely out of compulsion, was song-writing. I got my first guitar at seventeen and wrote my first song after learning my second chord, and that was my obsession for the next couple of decades. I’ve played alone and in bands, recorded sixteen albums (no, you won’t have heard of them!) and written commissioned pieces for various shows and projects. It was, and remains, one the chief joys in my life and, when all’s going well, is pretty effortless. If I’ve put my 10,000 hours into anything, it’s this, and I still feel there are infinite possibilities ahead.

I’ve been wondering whether song-writing has informed my approach to children’s writing and I thought I’d share some of the tips that have occurred to me. There’s a link to some of my songs at the bottom of this post, so you can check and see whether you think I’m someone whose tips could be of use to you!

 

1)      Language is inherently oral and musical. For me, songs are neither lyrics first nor music first – the lyrics should contain the music and be accepted specifically for their rhythm and singability. The corollary in a children’s novel seems to be, ‘if this reads well out loud you’re probably onto something’. There are so many levels to communication, but asking yourself ‘is this musical?’ will seldom lead you astray.

2)      Write for its own sake. Creating something through sheer delight in the process is always worthwhile. You may be able to make use of it in future and you may not, but the simple act of doing it strengthens your foundation every single time.

3)      Be inspired by all forms and traditions. The world of music exemplifies the value of creative cross-pollination – it would be hard to name a contemporary genre that doesn’t owe its roots to a whole number of different traditions. When you get in deep enough, the question ‘what sort of music do you play?’ becomes a bit meaningless and you feel as if you’re part of an indescribable whole. Easy genre definition is good for marketing but not, I suspect, for creative freedom – that pertains in the world of novel writing as well as songs, I think. On a similar note:

4)      Try a different instrument now and then. I’ve written most of my songs on guitar, but now and again that can feel like a bit of a rut and I fancy a crack at something different. Musical instruments just fascinate me and there’s not been one invented that I wouldn’t like a go on. As soon as I can get some kind of a melody on something it morphs into a song (that having been my habit for so long) – I’ve written songs on the piano, banjo, concertina, saxophone, glockenspiel, and they’re always notably different from the guitary ones. This compares to using different voices in fiction, whether narrative or character – a different voice should tell us something only it can tell, and the voices we use should have the capacity to surprise us.

5)      A simple idea can be framed beautifully, and a beautiful idea can be framed simply. It’s very possible to get bogged down in ornamentation and clever arrangement, and the results may be worth it, especially if the basic material is a little thin – however, there’s a particular joy in speaking to the most people possible, and that generally involves clarity and simplicity. The faster you get your ideas down, the more time there is to have new ideas: it’ll be up to you to decide which ones merit the polish and which ones have arrived fully formed.

 

I’ve no doubt most of these sound like no-brainers to most of you, but I do hope you’ll consider your creative go-to space when the long form is outside your grasp. Do you write a poem? Draw a picture? Play a round of golf? And how does it make its way onto your novels?

 Happy writing everyone, and may your procrastination be as productive as your hard work!

 You can hear a few of my songs here, if you have a notion to do so!

 https://soundcloud.com/alanmcclure70/albums

Inspiration - Nick Garlick

Much of my inspiration for writing comes from books. Reading something I enjoy makes me want to write too.

But there are other sources too, and this is one of them: this photograph of former US President Jimmy Carter, at 95, sitting on his porch and holding a guitar.

 

It’s a guitar made from the wood of a tree he planted. I don’t know when he planted it; just that he did, when he was young. But every time I look at it I’m lifted up out of the rough times we’re currently living through, and reminded that it’s good to keep going, to persevere.

It's that simple really.

A picture of a man on a porch with a guitar, made from the wood of a tree he planted himself.

 

Where do we go from here? By Dawn Finch

The only writing some of us have managed

I noticed a thing yesterday. I was chatting in the market and someone said, “we had a lovely time here last year”, but they didn’t mean last year. They, like many of us, had simply eradicated a year from their thoughts. It got me thinking about where we go from here. I have been working on a manuscript for adults and I started writing it in November 2019. It is set in a mobile library in the present day and it was going well right up until March 2020 when everything changed. My novel set in the present day suddenly had an unwelcome new character – Covid 19.

I know I’m not alone in wondering what we do with Covid 19 and our fiction. The Pandemic occupied almost all our thoughts and conversations for well over a year and that is going to leave an indelible mark our memories, but do we want that mark on our fiction too?

I had a chat to some bookseller and library friends and asked what they thought about the Pandemic and fiction. The consensus is that people are split between those who want to read books centering on the disastrous impact of the virus, and those (like my market friends) who want to simply skip 2020 and not think about it.

In terms of fiction, it is a difficult decision to make. Do we reference the Pandemic in our books set in the Real World, or do we not? Do we move our books either backwards to the Time Before, or forward to the Time After? How can we possibly write a book set in the time of the Pandemic that is not a Pandemic novel?

I think that it is an exceptionally fine balancing act and I’ll be interested to see how people manage to adapt. The first Pandemic novels were already on our shelves last summer and booksellers reported a huge upsurge in people seeking out books set in times of socially isolation and virus outbreaks, but will that continue? We have no way of knowing, but there is a long and solid history of disaster and disease fiction and there’s no reason that popularity won’t continue.

John Christopher's children's novel about a world where a virus kills thousands of adults but leaves children largely unaffected. Published over 40 years ago this excellent work received some well deserved extra interest in 2020

That said, if our books are specifically set in the last year or so we can’t NOT reference the virus for fear of our Real-World fiction feeling less…well… real. It isn’t possible to ignore it completely – or is it? Is it possible to write a Real-World novel that makes no reference to the Pandemic at all? I have recently read a few brand-new YA novels and I didn’t find it jarring at all to not see references to the virus, my brain simply slipped into a pre-covid mindset. In fact, I found it comforting to dwell for a while in a place where the virus hadn’t shaped every conversation and social interaction.

I wondered what the bookselling world thought and had a chat with an agent friend. She said there was a “current hunger” in the commercial industry for virus books, but she was very cautious. We agreed that we’d both seen the industry obsessively seek out specific genre or theme books before. We've all seen how the publishing world gets hooked on a thing and snaps up everything they can, floods the market, eventually drowns it and then moves on. She says that no matter what the trends and fashions are in publishing what really matters is “the strength and quality of the story and the writing”.

Okay, so maybe there is no way we can set a novel specifically in 2020 without mentioning the Pandemic, but people shouldn’t feel as if they have to reference it. Perhaps we shouldn’t rush to write THE Covid novel. The pace of publishing is so slow it’s positively glacial and if you are writing a novel now even with everything lined up (contract and deadline already in place etc), the chances are that you are not going to see it on the shelves until 2022. Who knows where we’ll be in 2022!

Write your story. Let the story unfold just as it should. If it is a Pandemic story then there is a good chance that there may be even more of an appetite for them the further down the line we get. If it is not a Pandemic novel, don’t feel as if you have to change your whole plot to incorporate virus references. Just write the thing and if you need to add references later to ground the novel in a certain period, so be it.

For writers we are in yet another period of uncertainty - but that's nothing new for authors! Frankly, I’m impressed anyone has managed to write anything in the last 18 months so you've already impressed me if you have. We have no choice but to go with the flow and I’m very optimistic about the future and looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Dawn Finch is the current chair of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors. She is currently hoping for enough brain-space to do some actual writing.

Notes on Inspiration by Vanessa Harbour

Finding inspiration
Family photo

 I was recently asked what do I do when I am stuck for inspiration. Makes a change from ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ It did make me think though as inspiration is such a tricky thing. How do you describe inspiration for a start? Some definitions are:

The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative; 

       or

      A sudden brilliant or timely idea.

          But let’s be honest, inspiration is like trying to pin down smoke or early morning mist. It’s there for a moment, floats by, and then it’s gone. It’s down to you to make something from that glimmer as it passes.

I don’t know about you, but I find that inspiration doesn’t come by command, that’s why I always carry a notebook, so I can note down those brief ideas (or these days put them on my phone maybe). I can then go back to them at a later date to see if I think they have legs.

Pablo Picasso - Getty Images

There is the often touted, including by myself, quote by Pablo Picasso who supposedly said ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’ This sounds great and I can see the point, but I often find inspiration comes to me when I least expect it and not when I am staring at a blank page. Yes, you do need to get into the habit of writing and there is no point in waiting for inspiration. There are times when you need to just get on and write. It is a job for a lot of us. However, sometimes when you have a knotty plot issue you need to give your brain headspace in order for inspiration to come along and solve the problem. Staring at it, in my experience, won’t help.

I love the anecdote – which may be true or not – of the American singer-songwriter, Tom Waits, who apparently, while driving one day had an idea for a new song float into his head, and promptly shouted at the sky: ‘Can’t you see I am driving?’ I can empathise with this though. How often does it happen when you have a tricky plot situation that you can’t see your way out of for the solution to appear at the most inconvenient moment: in the shower, while driving, out walking, while cooking/cleaning, in the middle of the night. I have been known to pull the car over and dictate my ideas into the phone there and then so I don’t forget them.

I have learnt after many years that if I am struggling to walk away from my manuscript and let the latent processing do its thing. I do mindless and repetitive activities such as ironing or gardening or go for a walk. Anything that gives the brain the space to work its way through the knotty plot issue. Inevitably, it will come up with the solution along with several other ideas, which all make the manuscript better. Reminding me that writing is definitely not a sprint, it is a marathon.

Latent processing

I remember as a beginner writer I was always terrified that I’d never get another idea and used to try and force them. I now know that does not work. You have to trust your brain and let it do its work. But you also have to feed it. This nourishment allows you to ‘dwell in possibilities’ as suggested by Emily Dickinson thereby finding those inspirations and creating ideas.

I feel I need to confess a little here. Lockdown proved to be a huge bonus for feeding the grey matter. There were so many wonderful opportunities. I got to see events such as Zoonation performing The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, I saw Hamilton, plus various other theatre productions that I’d never normally be able to see due to either financial or physical constraints. I wandered virtually around numerous museums from around the world including going behind the scenes. Seeing incredible art and artefacts. I got to attend incredible author talks at the Hay Festival and Edinburgh Book Festival. Both places I have dreamt of going to. This year I was there. I was part of it and it was amazing. 

All of it inspirational, giving my creativity life. 

What do you do to feed your brain and help your inspiration?

 Dr Vanessa Harbour

@VanessaHarbour

www.vanessaharbour.co.uk

http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.com

Learning from the other arts - Alex English

I'm a sucker for writing books and like many other ABBA bloggers (Rowena springs to mind!) I have shelves full of guides. Recently, I've tried looking further afield to other art forms to see what I can learn and whether I can apply it to writing. Here's what I've found:

Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash

Screenwriting

There are multitudes of screenwriting books that many novelists use already. Screenwriters are by necessity very strong on structure due to the huge budgets and fixed time-constraints of the screen. In this sense, a screenplay is very similar to a picture book. You can't overrun an episode of EastEnders by ten minutes any more than you can stretch out a picture book story to 17 spreads.

Key takeaways: read about screenwriting if you want to get your head around plot and structure

Recommended reads: Story by Robert McKee, Into the Woods by John Yorke, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder (just to get you started, there are many, many more).

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

Songwriting

I somehow stumbled upon reading Pat Pattison's songwriting tips, and I've found them very helpful for writing rhyming picture books. While poetry books often focus on blank verse, songwriting looks more closely at rhyme and rhythm, which is just what's needed for a picture book. I've never really learned how to write in rhyme, and most picture book writing guides don't cover it thoroughly.

Key takeaways: Chapter 4 has a guide to building a 'worksheet' – in brief a sort of brainstorm-on-paper of ideas and rhymes associated with the themes of the song you are writing. I tend to write my story in prose before turning it into rhyme, and now I'm going to try including a rhyme worksheet as a middle step in my process.


Recommended reads: Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison

Photo by Doug Maloney on Unsplash

Cartooning
I recently took a cartooning course with Neil Kerber, which has been great fun to practise with the kids. Drawing was supposed to be a hobby, but it's actually proved incredibly handy to be able to sketch characters and props for my work in progress. It also saves hours searching around Pinterest for that elusive image in my head.

Key takeaways: Keep it loose. Draw and see what comes out. It doesn't have to be perfect. Have fun!


Recommended reads: Comics: Easy as ABC! by Ivan Brunetti

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

Dance

I know nothing about dance, but I recently read The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, an acclaimed choreographer. She talks about her creative process, how she researches a dance piece (fascinating!) and how she actively develops her career. She talks about the importance of teaching/mentoring others to solidify your own knowledge. What would you teach yourself six months ago?

Key takeaways: There's a lot in this book, but I love the way Tharp uses a big box to gather her project material. I've started keeping a dedicated notebook for each project (previously I had a trillion notebooks with notes from different things scattered throughout), but a file box might work even better to collate random scraps of information and objects related to a book.

Recommended reads: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp   

Photo by Mika Korhonen on Unsplash

Fashion design

On a whim, I borrowed a book about fashion design research and found it a surprisingly enlightening read. Nobody really tells you how to get ideas for a novel, but fashion designers at college have to document a proper research process and show how their ideas came about.

Key takeaways: "Fashion doesn't come from fashion" (i.e. don't take your inspiration from the catwalk). Books don't (just) come from books either. It's easy to feel you have to keep completely up-to-date with reading every new book release, but as long as you have a feel for what a current book is, it can be more useful to look more widely and take creative inspiration from elsewhere, art galleries, museums and maybe even real life!

Recommended reads: Fashion Design Research by Ezinma Mbonu


How about you? Have you ever taken inspiration for your creative process from another art form?


Alex English is a graduate of Bath Spa University's MA Writing for Young People. Her new middle-grade series SKY PIRATES launches in July 2020 with Simon & Schuster. 

Her picture books Yuck said the Yak, Pirates Don't Drive Diggers and Mine Mine Mine said the Porcupine are published by Maverick Arts Publishing. More of her picture books are forthcoming in 2021/2022.
 
www.alexenglish.co.uk

Sustaining a Lifelong Creative Practice - Heather Dyer

Following a creative pursuit can sometimes be lonely and frustrating. Here are five books I’ve found particularly inspiring because they contain practical advice from other writers and artists who’ve ‘been there’:

Three Marriages: Reimagining Work,Self and Relationships by David Whyte

David Whyte is a poet. Only indirectly about creativity, this book is about integrating our work, our relationships and inner selves in order to live a fulfilled and productive life. Writers often talk about finding 'balance' between day jobs, family and creativity - but Whyte's advice seems to be to knit them all together rather than think of them as separate. He includes nice examples pulled from authors’ lives.

The Everyday Work of Art: Awakening the Extraordinary in Your Daily Life by Eric Booth

Booth explores that small ‘pull’ that makes us want to make art in the first place, and shows us how to fan those flames. This book, ‘illuminates the artistry we all practice, and it enables us to reclaim the fun and satisfaction that is already happening unnoticed right under our noses’.

Creative Quest by Questlove

This book might best be described as a riff on retaining your creativity throughout your career. Questlove is a musician. One of the things he says is that, as emerging creatives, we are hungry to be influenced by others, but as we solidify our practice we become more concerned with influencing others. Stay open to being influenced, is his advice. I also like his description of what collaboration should look like: “Collaboration isn’t about what’s there so much as what’s not there. It’s the jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing and a pile of bright pieces nearby.”

Creating a Life Worth Living: APractical Course in Career Design for Aspiring Writers, Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians and Others by Carol Lloyd

This is an accessible how-to-sustain-your-practice guide for emerging creatives. The book is described as helping the reader ‘search memory for inspiration, understand his or her individual artistic profile, explore possible futures, design a daily process and build a structure of support.’ In the past I’ve drawn from this book for exercises for an 8-week ‘Developing Your Creativity’ course.   

Creative Calling: Establish a Daily Practice, Infuse Your World with Meaning, and Succeed in Work + Life by Chase Jarvis.  

Chase Jarvis is a photographer who now runs a successful online learning portal. The book includes a lot of advice about how to find your 'tribe', network virtually and in person, and market your work. 

What all these books endorse is listening to that early intuitive pull, exploring by doing, drawing inspiration from living, creating a regular practice (however short) and staying open to flow by letting go of expectations and setting out anew, each day, into uncharted territory. If you have your own recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Heather Dyer is a consultant in writing for children. She provides writing and publishing advice through The Literary Consultancy, The Writers' Advice Centre for Children's Books, and privately. If you’re ready for feedback on your work-in-progress contact Heather at heatherdyerbooks@gmail.com. 

Heather’s children’s novel The Girl with the Broken Wing was one of Richard and Judy’s book club picks, and The Boy in the Biscuit Tin was nominated for a Galaxy Best British Children’s Book award. Heather also teaches creative writing for the University of the Creative Arts, and facilitates workshops in creative thinking techniques for creatives and academics.