1984 the stage play: Angst und Zeitgeist

1984 presents a vivid, scary, dystopian view of the present. 

The Party sees, hears and knows everything people do through a system of screens, cameras and paid informers. People willingly submit to this invasion of privacy because of Project Fear: 

the country is at war

 terrorism threatens 

the collapse of civilisation is imminent

  'There is no alternative'  

Michael Billington's review 
The illusion is maintained through constant repetition and sinks into the world view of everyone. Though I found the play melodramatic and the scenes of torture unbearable, it did make me think about the narrative that national governments like to foster.

There is the narrative of Great Britain: the 'golden years' of a benevolent empire founded on profits from slavery and naval aggression. A transient lead in technology has endowed Brits with the illusion of supremacy, hints of which were heard in the run-up to the Brexit vote. 

It's convenient to forget that Britain is sinking into a morass of corruption and inequality; taking its place as a small nation on the edge of Europe.
In a way, our present state resembles the book group who debate Winston Smith's diary: the myths and illusions of our present day Zeitgeist are invisible to us because we all want to believe a cosy narrative.

The British Empire gave a lift-up to nations that hadn't experienced bureaucracy or prejudice on the grounds of sexual orientation. Missionaries civilised primitive peoples and their illegitimate children, rebellions, torture and starvation are not a part of this story.

O, to be in England... Robert Browning

Robert Browning, like Charles Dickens, was in Italy in the spring of 1845 when he wrote this poem

Home-thoughts, from Abroad

In 1845 Robert met the love of his life: Elizabeth Barrett Browning [EBB] 

But he had admired EBB from afar after reading her newly-published poems and had written his first letter to her on 10th January 1845 which began: 

'I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett' 

So he must surely have been thinking of Elizabeth, immobilised as she was by an unexplained illness when he wrote these lines. But he didn't meet EBB until May 1845. You can see how he imagines a person being in England and seeing and hearing the spring developing and growing. His verse in May is loaded with sensual imagery:

O, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the Elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England-now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge-
That's the wise thrush; he sings his song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

The final week, access all areas

With only six days of November left, it's time to try out all strategies in order to finish the editing this month. 

These are the strategies I'm using [perhaps you have better ones]

Set goals: 

dividing my remaining task into five with 30 pages to go; that's six pages a day. On good days I'll try to exceed that.

Keep the journal: 

I [sometimes] write in my journal before going to sleep. it reminds me which scene I've been working on and shows me how far I've come in the last week. I need to see how close I come each day to my goal; the end is practically in sight.

Book train journeys

Make sure you have the hard copy or laptop to edit on the way. I have a two hour journey planned tomorrow. Trains are great for creating the illusion that there's no escaping the task. Journey times flash by when you're revising. I have another journey on the final day of the month so [if it's not overcrowded for Christmas] I can binge edit and hopefully reach the final page.

Stay away. 

Often a hotel can have the same effect as a journey, giving me nothing to do but write. I'm staying away for two nights this week. I think of it as a writing retreat. At this stage I need to trick myself with strategies like this.

Be kind to yourself. 

Obstacles often rear up at the last moment and we can't ignore the needs of work, familes and friends. This month I've had a domestic emergency: leaking pipe, workshop duties, busy weekends everything to disrupt my intent to finish editing the novel this month. It's 45,000 words long so it's not as long as some adult novels; it should be easy, no?

Bake.

It may be counterintuitive but baking helps me write because each time my dough is proving I have time to revise a few more lines of the book. The smell of baking raises my mood.Also writing increases my appetite and I have no time to shop for food.

More suggestions invited...

How to finish the novel in the drawer

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could bring an unfinished novel out of the drawer, edit and submit it? 

So why don't we?

I'm assuming you're an accomplished writer who has benefitted from critiques by other writers whose work you admire. Perhaps you've completed a course an evening class, belong to a writing group or maybe you've completed an MA. It doesn't matter, we're all in the same boat.

Editing a book, however long, is a big task, too big, needing changes to dialogue, names, and even plot. Dialogue and names are easy but changes to the plot are serious because then you'll need to alter every other chapter to be consistent.

I can't get back into that space; my life is different now. I can't read all those sources that I took ages to find. If I do they don't seem as inspiring.
I have too many other things to do.

So what is the answer?

Not having time is just an excuse. Do you feel alive when you're being creative.? To rejig your priorities, you need a pattern interrupt:

Go on a writing retreat with other aspiring writers. Their enthusiasm and determination will rub off on you. 

If you need the visual prompts, take a scrap book of images and cuttings with you, some people use Pinterest.

I can't afford an Arvon course.

Persuade your writing friends to share the cost of a weekend break. Take your partner as long as they leave you in peace for a   few hours every day.

When you return home you could have that sense of needing to find a little time every day to keep the novel ticking over in your mind. If so, set a simple goal for the following month such as revising just two pages a day.  Trick yourself by starting before the first of the month. Take the novel manuscript printed out or on a laptop on the train. As long as you can sit down on a train you can usually get something useful done. Visit distant relatives by train. Do everything to maximise editing time.
Complete the first edit. The next step is for the next blog...

Truly creative writing, attribution and mindfulness

There are many books for writers that are designed to inspire you to write and to write well. 

For me, the best books are the ones that you have to put down because you feel: "I have to write now; it can't wait"

Writers often offer insights into their inspirations at literary festivals but the best advice I ever received was from Julia Green , children's writer and tutor at Bath Spa University. 

It has stayed with me and I often return to those five words:

"Get close to your character"

Whenever my writing diverts off into my own thoughts and favourite places or when I feel it's not resonating it's because I've lost that inkling of my character's feelings and thoughts. 

This is particularly likely to happen when I write in the third person. "She" feels a long way away and I need to remind myself that a novel perpetuates an untruth that we all act for a reason.

In real life I believe our actions and mediated by all kinds of random events to do with brain and body chemistry, day of the week and unplanned accidents.  Perhaps that's what a post-modern novel is designed to convey but it makes for heavy reading.

We live at the the Age of the 'Crisis of Attribution'; for most of us, natural disasters are not 'Acts of God' as they were in medieval times but random events which challenge a belief in a plan or an organising consciousness. 
In my best moments I believe in a spiritual realm but mostly I bumble along like everyone else, beset by regrets and ruminations.
In novels, A follows B which causes C in a believable and inevitable consequence of a character's actions. 
The challenge for the writer is to simulate free choice; to persuade readers that decisions and actions have consequences. It is conventional for puzzles to be solved, for evil doers to suffer consequences except in the case of lovable rogues and antiheroes. 
There's a great hunger for uplifting stories to be true and it's so strong that Governments employ storytellers to explain away setbacks and ugly inconveniences.
So my conclusion is to 'be in the zone' I need to become mindful and to imagine each of my characters is meeting the consequences of his or her actions.

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

I love the title which alludes to Jeanette Winterson's book: ".. when you could be normal" It's well researched with a heart-warming final scene, Trans deserves to be written about. Lisa portrays some of the anger, confusion and bullying in and around people who question their gender. So why do I feel let down? Alternating first person narrators are great for a YA romance [see Ann Turnbull's No Shame no Fear]but when both voices [spoiler alert] are transgender it can create confusion especially if one voice, Kate's, is less convincing. Secondly, the plot shifted between locating absent Dad and coming out. Some scenes were written to 'create a realist feel' rather than advancing the plot. There's a big difference between M2F and F2M transition; Kate and Leo's experiences differ enormously. This difference is borne out in a recent autobiography of transition: Professor Maxim Februari's The Making of a Man: Notes on Transsexuality. Maxim explains the effects he has noted while taking testosterone which has a gradual effect on emotions and strength.

Kate keeps a log of her male puberty changes and as she says: 'time is running out' while Leo can effectively pass as male. Overall I thoroughly recommend the book, Lisa Williamson is a talent to look out for and I hope to see more inclusive stories like this.

How to keep readers reading

Best advice for novel writers: READ MORE

It's vital that writers to understand the conventions that readers are familiar with, in order to avoid cliche or worse: incoherence. 

Breaking the rules invites ambiguity

So what are the rules about keeping readers motivated to read on?

Plot comes first. However convoluted the plot, it can fit into one sentence. 
Tell your friends no more than that one sentence and remind yourself of it every day.
Keeping the plot sentence in mind helps writers write a continuous story and also helps agents and readers decide whether to buy. Knowing the plot keeps you away from sub-plots and irrelevant episodes.

Beware any changes in plot after your first draft; every change will have consequences on each page which will be tiresome to correct. By all means change the characters' names, gender, dialogue as much as you like but plot is sacred from the start.
Plot provides the motivation for your main character and it changes in a special way through the story. and yes, keep to one main charcater and maintain their point of view throughout.
[established writers ignore this but for first novels a rambling point of view puts people off] 

So what is a plot?

Stories open with stasis: the kingdom is in neglect, doom-laden, or everything seems fine but the king is ageing, rumours of dragons abound. Whether you start with action or dialogue, your novel informs the reader of the characters, the place and time and underlying this: the genre [thriller, mystery, horror, historical, romance] Concentrate on your favourite examples of your favourite genre and you will have a repertoire of clever plot twists. 
You can introduce the rules of your fictional world through action, narration or dialogue. If there is magic or paranormal events they are bound by certain rules such as: having a wand made of a particular wood, or having telepathy only with those you love.
Then comes the trigger, the call to action for our hero or heroine. A significant event brings the character to life [eg a beautiful princess is entranced and sleeps for a hundred years]
Ther character sets out on a quest. The object of his quest is often a symbol rather than anything especially valuable. Readers are asked to suspend disbelief, the wrtiter and the character believe that only this one object will bring happiness, relief, safety or survival.
Surprises happen. 
A good writer constantly reaffirms and contradicts readers' expectations. Stories that are entirely predicatable are boring so plan a surprise for every chapter ending. A surprise is an unexpected plausible obstacle or help to the character's quest. She meets antagonists and protagonists, a wise woman or a cruel tyrant.
Then she is faced with a critical choice which demonstartes free will. Things could go either way. She decides to follow a path which is fraught with danger.
This leads to the climax in which she confronts her greatest adversary: time, dragons, a torturer or an arranged marriage and a tense conflict plays out resulting in a reversal: now the character has changed in some way, become more resourceful or lost the battle and accepts defeat. Finally we have the resolution: the new stasis in which the world of the novel is altered following the climax.
So what has kept the reader turning each page?

Surprises and rising stakes. As the story proceeds the character rsks more and more until she stakes her whole life on the outcome. 

I haven't made these rules up, if they sound dogmatic, they can be traced in most films and books and talked about in plot advice to authors since the time of the Greeks. 

In my view, plot awareness is the author's best friend.

You can print paperbacks for free

You can print paperbacks for free

there must be a drawback, or is there?

Amazon's Create Space site enables you to transfer an e-book into a tree book free of charge. You don't have to be a computer wizard. The only costs are for an ISBN which is not essential and a book cover which you can make yourself. 

ISBN

I chose to buy an ISBN from Nielsen because I wanted to link my e-book to the paperback on Amazon. I also intend to publish several novels as e-books and in paperback, so I bought ten ISBN's. As you can see on the Nielsen site, the cost is £13.20 for each ISBN. 

I wanted my book to appear on Nielsen's Pub Web site so it can be found by book buyers and librarians anywhere in the world.

Book cover

If you have experience of using Photoshop you easily mock up a paperback cover. Create Space offer some tools to make the task easier, including advice on font size, spine width and content of blurb at the back. 

Research

I visited libraries and bookshops and studied the covers of books that had similar themes to mine. I tried to read the meaning of each cover. I opted for a face-on half portrait because it said: 'personal story of a young girl' [Lauren] and left space for the title.

I prefer drawings to photographs; they seem more personal.

I chose to distort my title using perspective like a yellow painted sign on the road; Lauren's van parks in a disabled bay outside school. I didn't want a wheelchair on the  cover because I thought it would put readers off. Lauren is a feisty young woman who happens to be on wheels. 

I made a collage and photographed it. The cut out letters against the tarmac give a striking adolescent feel to the cover.

The result was quite raw so I smartened it up and added a subtitle and author name using Create Space's editor. It took a number of tries to get the picture right but it wasn't technically difficult. Here's the finished result as it appears on Amazon:

I chose quotes from the text for the back cover and used the same design in the background. You can see how basic my drawing was using only 'Paint'. I wanted the drawing to look like as if it had been done by a teenager.

The heart is important. My book is a romance and I noticed that romances invariably have pink hearts on them. I chose to give my heart a rough, distressed look, the road to love isn't smooth.

You can read an extract from my book here.

In later blogs I'll tell you my experience of pricing, promotion and marketing.

Tolkien on Fairy Tales

What's special about Fairy Tales?

Professor JRR Tolkien writes in 'Tree and Leaf':

 Fairy Tales are not moral tales [Bunyan] or animal fables [Aesop] or dreams [Alice] or travellers' tales or allegories [Orwell] or satires [Swift] They have an ancient origin with elements of the 

• mystical [supernatural like religion] 
• magical [through observation of Nature] and 
• a mirror [reflecting the nature of human beings]

Fairy tales often explore what is prohibited; what is behind the locked door? Forbidden love, for instance.A spell is both a story told and a charm with power over people.Fairy tales are not simple yarns that appeal to children, in fact not all children enjoy them. 

Fairy Tales can be a literary genre which explores the depths of space and time, the ability to communicate with other living beings, They are presented and read as 'true'.

 Andrew Lang, a collector and writer of Fairy Tales says they require:

'a willing suspension of disbelief'

Tolkien disagrees, 

  He states that the best Fairy Tales enchant,that is they create a secondary world, with its own rules that draws the reader in.

Special Needs for communication

A Guardian article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett why special needs matter got me thinking about inclusion. Rhiannon's brother is severely autistic.  

She remembers a speech therapist saying: 'no point in teaching him to speak because he'd only talk rubbish.' Ignorant attitudes like this harm our young children and prevent them reaching their full potential. and he was mocked in school. Jamie Oliver tells a similar story of being labelled as having special needs.

Rhiannon's family had to fight hard to get training for her brother; not everyone is able to take social workers to court as her family did.

Mainstream schools could do more to discover the potential of young people who don't fit the normal pattern. We need 'special schools' but can't we link them closely with neighbouring schools to allow joint lessons interchange and enable people with special needs to take GCSE's.

In researching my novel Speak to Me I visited special schools in Nottingham and Bath. In one case, I discovered that no special needs pupils were enrolled in GCSE's even though the students included children with hemiplegia, cerebral palsy and autism which are often associated with islands of ability or even high intellectual abilities.

The Prince's Trust quotes research that reveals the effect of low expectations: young people with poorer GCSE results were often depressed and felt rejected, many turned to alcohol or drugs.

To find out more about inclusion in schools, contact

All together now

Parents for inclusion

Allfie

or read my book: 

Speak to me: Mute, witty and dangerous 

now available on Kindle and in paperback.

Top Ten Best Reads of 2013

My Top Ten reads of 2013

10. The Curtain Maker of Beirut by Teresa Thornhill

A unique mix of eyewitness account and travel journal, a moving portrait of a country at a postwar crossroads when it was possible to hear the voices of Sunni, Shi'a, Maronite Christian, Druze and Palestinian veterans and civilians. Well-written dialogue and background with extra relevance in the present conflict in Syria.

Highly recommended

9.  The Reason I jump by Naoki Higashida

The title promises more than it delivers but a fascinating insight for parents and friends into what it feels like to be autistic with advice about how to behave around an autistic person. An easy read with a question and answer format. Raises many questions with incomplete answers. 'Why?' is the hardest question of all to answer, 

A brave attempt.

8. Shine by Candy Gourlay

A cross-cultural allegory about growing up with a secret and despised blemish. How 'civilised' society alienates anyone different and how inclusive traditional spirituality can be. Mutual support from a fellow sufferer. Well written and original from a promising young writer, one to watch.

7. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

What it's like to grow up as a teenager, brain-washed in a remote and isolated cult. Tense and pacey. The redeeming impact of books from the outside.Available here

6. More Than This by Patrick Ness

Slow-burning page turner exploring the currently popular theme of  reincarnation in a YA novel. A hopeful book by a great story teller with striking characters. Worth persevering with. 

discounted here.

5. Microcosm: E coli and the new science of life by Carl Zimmer

This amazing book takes you to the frontiers of science about a bacterium which we know more about than any other organism. As well as causing life-threatening multi-organ damage, E coli saves lives by making insulin and growth hormone for us. 

So much I didn't know, it's embarrassing.

 Microcosm

4. Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

Deep in the English countryside, a story of a village community that spreads far and wide by one of my all-time favourite writers. Masterful narration and unmistakeable characters. 

Bargain prices here

3. Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver.

Orange Prize-winning doorstop book with a surprise twist on every page. Humorous, irreverent, insightful, feminine, everything I love. As good as Barbara's superlative Poisonwood Bible. 

Don't miss out.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I would never have believed that a book about teenage terminal illness would make me laugh and cry on the train...

Unmissable

1. Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff

Read my review here

A superlative book with expert narrative, characters and setting, I love it.

My full book reviews are available here

S a new book looking like a library book

Books that weren't meant to be read.

A new book that appears to be a library book with annotations on it.

It's a piece of dissembling but could it be a trend?

S  reviewed by Mark Lawson in the Guardian here

Maybe this is a reaction to the ebook revolution, which has done away with the hard copy of a book and created a double for practically any book you can buy and hold.People have said that the packaging of books will become more startling as a response to all this cyber-reality.

Mark Lawson refers to AS Bayatt's Possession, for which the author made up poetry that purports to have been written by a poet who is being researched by one of the characters.  
What other documents could be released which are ambiguous about their origins?

• A book marked TOP SECRET that appears to have been smuggled out of GCHQ.  Perhaps we have that already.
• A coach's notes on every member of a cricket team with strategies about how to exploit the weaknesses of each player [of interest to enthusiasts, probably sadistic]
• A book of texts, [yes, it's been done]

Laurence Stern's Tristram Shandy is perhaps the best example of this genre, a rambling comic novel which reveals much while interrupting itself repeatedly and dispensing almost entirely with plot.

     Feigned invitations and letters are an regular part of the realist novel and are used in  Gothic novels to set the scene before wandering off into more fantastical realms.  Mary Shelley employs this technique,  switching between narrators: the creature, Dr Frankenstein and a sea captain.

   There is a whole genre of epistolic novels which include non fiction titles such as Priscilla Wakefield's An Introduction to Botany from the 1830's in which Felicia guides her sister through the orders of plants in a series of letters.  A modern equivalent is Lionel Shriver's We need to talk about Kevin which is constructed entirely of fictitious letters.

    It all goes to show that dissimulation is at the centre of the writer's art.

Children's writers- advice from an editor

1/5 books make 4/5 of the profit for publishers.  The FInkler Question won the Man Booker in 2010 and had the biggest boost ever: 200,000 books; meanwhile Jordan's biography sold 300,000 in 6 weeks.  Big successes fund the many failures.  

Mills and Boon are the most successful publishers, they sell 130m books a year.  Their success is based on  a promise to readers. An attractive young woman will meet a dashing virile man.  Every genre promises its readers something, eg Beast Quest.

What a story needs:

1. A good concept, well written.  The concept is more important than the writing.  If the concept can be summarised in five sentences it's high concept and that's your elevator pitch.
2. Practice summarising your book in 5 sentences max.
3. "But" is a useful word:  "Like Stephanie Meyer but with more heart."
4. A strong main character, male for young boys, female for teen novels.  Strong means aspirational, honest, cool, slightly older than the intended readers.
5. Younger boys prefer books about external conflict [eg dealing with monsters] which are usually written in the 3rd person
6. Girls prefer internal conflicts, written in the first person.
7. The inciting incident occurs in the first chapter.  Don't worry if it's confusing, readers can read on to find out what's happening.
8. Write short chapters [eg 200 words] and finish each one with a cliffhanger.
9. Word count: 5-7 4-8,000   8-10 8-10,000 10-13 10-50,000 13+ 30-80,000 words picture books, under 500 words.
10. Always have more ideas in outline form.

With Thanks to Lil Chase.

Free lesson plan: writing a love poem

LESSON PLAN: WRiting a love poem

for aspiring adult writers and teenagers, exploring romance and commitment through poetry.

Could be adapted for younger age groups

	Groups, timing	content	A/V aids
Introduction	5 minutes	In this hour we will 1. Read two poems 2. Discuss their meaning 3. Write a few lines 4. Share a little	Aims projected overhead
First poem	2 minutes	Wedding by Alice Oswald	Handout: Wedding
Impressions	5 minutes	What strikes you first of all?
Rereading	In pairs, 5 minutes	Read the poem to a partner and talk about its meaning.
Deeper thoughts	silently, 5 minutes	It's quite an intimate poem, write down some ideas; what does the poem evoke for you?	Paper and pens
Second poem	2 minutes	If I could tell you by WH Auden	Handout: If I could tell you
Impressions	5 minutes	Seek to include people who haven't spoken up.
Rereading.	In pairs, 5 minutes	Read the poem to a partner and talk about its meaning.
Writing	silently, 10 minutes	Write creatively borrowing an idea or a rhythm from the poems.
Sharing	10 minutes	Talk about what you've learnt or read your writing aloud
Feedback	5 minutes	Comments on today's task
Summary	1 minute	Well done, today we've done some creative thinking and writing.

Handout, page set-up: landscape, two columns cut to A5 size

If I Could Tell You

Time will say nothing but I told you so
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be sold, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know. 

WH Auden

Wedding

From time to time our love is like a sail
and when the sail begins to alternate
from tack to tack, it's like a swallowtail
and when the swallow flies it's like a coat;
and if the coat is yours, it has a tear
like a wide mouth and when the mouth begins
to draw the wind, it's like a trumpeter
and when the trumpet blows, it blows like millions . . .
and this, my love, when millions come and go
beyond the need of us, is like a trick;
and when the trick begins, it's like a toe
tip-toeing on a rope, which is like luck;
and when the luck begins, it's like a wedding,
which is like love, which is like everything.

 Alice Oswald

Why I wrote Speak to Me: mute witty and dangerous

In Speak to Me: mute witty and dangerous Lauren aged 14 starts school, only, she can't speak, she needs help to point at letters on a board.  

Lauren's nerves are on edge after overhearing comments as she comes in to the classroom. She wants to learn enough to get to university and also she's like to get to know the boys. Classmate Anthony learns how to help Lauren speak and after a series of misunderstandings Anthony gets called into the head's office with a serious charge that could affect his schooling forever.

I wrote Speak to Me while studying for an MA at Bath Spa University. I found few novels for teenagers explored the drama of life in a wheelchair.  It's a page-turning story that makes you think.  It is possible to be inside the head of someone who can't speak without help and there's plenty of drama on all sides.

Speak to me is available as an ebook on KIndle here:  Speak to Me and it will soon be released in paperback.