Category Archives: planning

Do you have a Creative Vision?

The Wild Donkeys: A Strategy for Choosing a Creative Project

‘So, how’s the writing going?’

This from a man who is one of the Blessed Few. A writer whose work was picked up by an agent straight from the much garlanded MA in Creative Writing at the Unversity of East Anglia. Alumni include Ian McEwan, Rose Tremain, Hanif Kureshi, Tracey Chevalier and, well, you get the picture. He is in glittering company.

He is also a really lovely man and a dear friend who takes a genuine interest in my work, so I rein in the envy monster and give him the polite and honest answer.

‘Fine. Well, actually, I’m a bit stuck.’

‘Creative block?’

‘No, too many ideas. I don’t know where to start.’

‘You should be writing a novel, you know. I read some of your Sherlock stuff the other day. It’s really good.’

‘Thank you. I’ve written seven novels so far. Writing a novel isn’t the hard part. Its choosing which one to write that’s difficult.’

‘Well, just pick one and start.’

I love men. Everything seems so easy to them. And they are so good at handing out really practical advice. (You’ll also notice that I don’t ask him how his novel is going. That’s because I know. I recognise that pained look. I’ve seen it in the mirror too many times.)

OK, I know its good advice. The right advice.

As Leonie Dawson puts it, I need to choose a wild donkey and ride the shit out of it till its done.

Every writer has a place where they habitually get stuck. A psychological Marianas Trench on the road to getting their work into the readers’ hands, one that they tumble into every time. For some it is grinding the words out, which for them is like sweating blood. For others, it is coming up with the idea in the first place. Some worry when they get to the middle because that’s always where they get bogged down, and some will spend ten years writing the first page. We all have our Achilles’ heel.

For me, its choosing which idea to stick with.

So I have decided to take September off. Not from writing; quite the opposite, in fact. No, I’m taking the month off from worrying which novel to concentrate on. I’m in a physically stuck place right now, and I need to concentrate on my health, on getting my body moving again after a summer of boom and bust energy. I’m looking to create a smooth, even flow in my life, in my health, and my art. I have faith that if I can manage to attain a relative level of consistency in my body, the answer will come to me. Yes, maybe that sounds mad, but its just how my creative process works.

And in the meantime, I’m refreshing my theory knowledge, reading, working on my notebooking, and bashing out some major fanfiction. I’m easily distracted, and having short stories and novellas on the go is a great way to handle that. But sooner or later, I want to create something major. Something big. Something that shows both me and you, dear Reader, what I can really do.

Happy creating,

On Process: Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

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Usually creative people complain about creative block. I don’t. For the most part, I have the opposite problem. Too many ideas. Not enough time to execute them. I have this constant fear that I shall die suddenly without sharing all the pictures in my head. That would be a great incentive to work if it weren’t for the fact that my poor health is a huge brake on my capacity to work.

And then there is the fact that I have the mind of a butterfly.

The Buddhist masters often refer to the concept of ‘Monkey Mind’. This is what your mind does when you try to meditate, and your thoughts bounce around like gibbons, and feel impossible to control.

Welcome to my world.

Actually, that is not entirely true. I can be deeply committed to one idea for a short period of time. The most I can normally manage is about three months. Then I bounce off to find another sparkly thing. Most of the time, I come back. Occasionally, I manage to actually finish something. Occasionally it gets shelved for good, or the idea gets incorporated into something new, because its too good to waste.

I’ve been socialising a lot this summer, and people have repeatedly asked me the same questions:

‘How’s the writing going? What are you working on at the moment?’

Below is the honest answer (i.e. the one I don’t give nice people at parties because its too complicated to explain, especially if they’ve never met me before.)

The things I am currently working on:

A series of short stories about John and Sherlock in a stable relationship

Finishing a work about Sherlock’s pursuit of public sexual humiliation because of his guilt about his faked suicide.

The second part of my ‘CuddleVerse’ story, ‘Three Weddings and an Explosion’

A novella about a Viking Princess

My novel about Victorian sexuality, currently titled ‘The Butler Did It’ (Please could somebody suggest a better title, I’m getting desperate!)

My journaling ebook

Other ideas I have churning about in my head include:

A possible novella about a young man getting over the death of his male lover in a road accident

A short story based on a line from a deliciously naughty Johnlock fanfic I read the other day, The Red Box by Cleo2012

The third Evenlode novel (vampire gangsters ahoy!)

A Loki fanfic set after the end of Thor 1

A possible sequel/continuation of the fanfic I am currently publishing, A Shadow of His Former Self.

(And this is before I have even begun to tell you about the paintings I want to make…)

I was explaining this smorgasbord to a friend, and she said ‘How on earth do you handle all that?’

The answer is, ‘I have no idea.’

I suppose I have a good memory, but the older I get, the more I am going to need to employ my writing notebooks to record all this. The truth is that ideas are far easier to come by for me than the wherewithal to execute them. And there just isn’t enough time in my day to get all this done, and execute my duties as wife, friend, aunt, guidemother, part-time carer to elderly, sick in-laws etc etc. and still protect my health.

Triage is necessary.

I just have to grab one sparkly thing and run with it for as long as I can. I have to choose the most important thing to me at the time.

Most creative people complain about creative block, but the other side of the coin is equally disabling, and I know for a fact I am not the only one who experiences this problem. Choosing which is the best idea to work on.

If you have any ideas on how best to deal with idea overspill, please let me know in the Replies section. I’d love to know what you do.

Happy Creating,

On Cabbages and Trombones – Making Language Strange

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The expression ‘cabbages and trombones’ was one used by the poet Ian Macmillan at a recording of a poetry radio show which I went to see with a friend a while back, and the phrase stuck with me. He was talking about how poets seek to make language strange and startling, how they seek to use it to weave a rich tapestry of image and idea. That, after all, is the purpose of poetry, to enrich our experience of life with pattern and syllable.

The concept chimed with me again when my husband was wrestling with a writing problem of his own. Besides being an academic, he runs an online whisky company, and occasionally works as a whisky writer. He had been asked to contribute reviews of a variety of whiskies for this book. Little bottles duly began to arrive in the post every morning, and off he went at a rate of three or so per evening. Everything was fine for the first thirty tests or so. But then he began to run out of descriptors. Just how many new adjectives can you come up with when you’ve got 60 whiskies to review? They can’t all taste of TCP or green jelly babies. Can each review really be different from the last?

And today, as I busy myself with planning my new writing schedule, and working on new stories, it has come back again.

Experts say those with a college education generally have about 12,000-17,000 words in their vocabulary, but as writers we need to have far more and we need to use them in unusual and riveting ways. I realise that I have dropped into the habit of reading very little but fanfiction, and if you are a fanfiction reader yourself, you will know that there are a lot of linguistic ruts involved. Favourite words include laving, ravishing, carding (of luxuriant hair), trembling and so on. No fanfic is complete without somebody emitting ‘ragged breath’. If you have read enough of these, you begin to spot the clichés. If you read too many, they scream out of the screen at you. (I hold my hands up and say I am as guilty as any of falling into this trap!)

The trouble is that if you don’t read more widely than just what other people write on the internet, your vocabulary stays static. This is what mine has been doing. Now I am writing again on a daily basis, I have realised how stagnant my linguistic skills have become. Of course, its not just words, but metaphors and similes. I need to polish up my style, make it strange and new. I need to expand my consumption, and open my mind.

WARNING: Incoming Master Plan for Expanding Lingustic Skills:

I’m taking a two-pronged attack:

Widen my reading
Use my notebook at all times

I’ve been reading just fanfics and nonfiction all summer, and its been a long time since I actually finished a proper novel. You can’t be a writer if you don’t read. Mostly I just read at bed time, a few paragraphs to help me drift off. But I need to take Stephen King’s sage advice:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

Stephen King, “On Writing”,

Hodder and Stoughton (2000) p164

Of course, I’ve got a whole pile of books lying around, waiting to be ploughed through. Top of the pile are ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern, and ‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan. I don’t especially like McEwan, but I am determined not to let this bloody book defeat me. It’s the third time I’ve tried to read it, after all, and I refuse to be beaten!

I have also decided to follow Ian Macmillan’s advice. Poetry is the way to go. I’m not a reader of poetry – I’ve barely read any since my degree – but if you want to know about making language strange, go to the experts. I went to the library yesterday and got out two collections, one of Ted Hughes, and one of Simon Armitage, because I had heard of them. I’ll let you know if it works.

The second prong (I love that word, don’t you?) is more nebulous. Out comes my little red Moleskine. I need to think about how I am going to get the ball rolling on this particular aspect, but just jotting down a few ideas on what the weather feels like, smells like, tastes like, or overheard conversations, or the colours of shadows, might be a good start. Again, I’ll let you know how I get on.

In the meantime, here’s to cabbages and trombones. And whisky that tastes of TCP and green jelly babies. Both of which have taught me a lot about writing.

(Incidentally, you may like to know that I am currently publishing a new fanfic called ‘A Shadow of His Former Self’. You can find it here at A03, and here at Fanfiction.net. I hope it takes your fancy.)

Happy creating,

I am incubating a Cunning Plan!

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Summer opens up a world of possibilities…

Isn’t summer wonderful? The Husband is off work at the moment, enjoying a couple of well-earned weeks’ rest. My mother came to stay for the week last week (very exhausting), and the week ended with a family party, and a 6 hour long round trip to get there. You will appreciate that I am feeling just a little jaded right now. However, there is sunshine, and friends dropping by, and this morning we sat in the garden, drinking freshly pressed apple juice for breakfast, and basking, and it doesn’t get much better than that, let me tell you!

Sometimes, its good to take a breather. I’ve had a week where my thoughts have not been my own, and its made me realise how much I need to write. It is not so much a desire as a primal drive. Now I have my time (and my brain) to myself again, all I can think about is what I want to write next. My body may not be ready to get started yet – a lot of restorative time in bed will be necessary for that – but my Muse is getting her juices into gear.

And let me tell you, that feels so great!

I can feel a plan beginning to form behind my eyes about what I want to achieve in the next three months up to Christmas. (Yes, I know, I’ve started thinking about presents already, I must be a sick, sick person!) I can’t quite put my finger on the specifics of it yet, but I can’t wait to just plunge in and indulge my creative urges.

And I mean indulge! I want to do something delicious and opulent. I want to manifest an idea made of mental gold thread and velvet and jewels, something as luscious as sinking my teeth into a ripe peach. Know what I’m saying?

I want to CELEBRATE!

I promise I’ll keep you posted about what I come up with. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the summer, and raise a glass of Pimms/mint julep/mojito/insert your favourite tipple here to the joys of August and Time Out!

With love,

Outflow: What the **** am I doing?

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You may have noticed that yesterday was Wednesday and that it was eerily quiet here at Evenlode’s Friend. Oops.

Its not that I wasn’t thinking of you, believe me. Its just that, well, I won’t go into too much sordid detail here, but there are some stomach complaints that leave little room for writing blog posts. Yes, I was ill. I still am. I’ve been hit by a particularly nasty bout of IBS, and its going to take some time to settle things down again.

But of course, because I never do anything by halves, my darling husband is having a couple of days off right now and decided, for a whole bunch of really complicated reasons, that it would be a great idea for us to switch offices. Yes, while I am ill. No, he did not expect me to help move the furniture. So now he has the north-facing back room, and I have the sunny, and much larger, front room with the sofabed-futon thingey to lounge on. I suspect I may have got the best end of the deal, don’t you?

This brilliant wheeze unfortunately has its down side. Evenlode OPs Centre now looks like a cross between a bad jumble sale and the aftermath of Chernobyl. Major purge, rethink and planning are urgently required. (Shame my brain is on illness-induced sabbatical, but there we are.)

This is not entirely a bad thing, however. I need to be systematic about everything right now, and the study change is just the external materialisation of the internal mess I am in. Because it turns out that this blogging thing is much harder than it looks, and I am going to have to be a lot more organised than I thought. I can’t just fire off a post for this blog in half and hour from a standing start, as I do with my personal blog, because its not that kind of site. I want my readers to be informed, and that means my research has to be spot on and my posts thorough and thoughtful. I need to write ahead, and I haven’t worked out how I can do that and juggle my health issues and life at the same time. I think its good, on the whole, to reassess what you are doing periodically, but I’ve never been one for planning systematically how to do something, as the state of my desk drawers unvariably show.

Yes, its cosmic learning time!

So, today’s Outflow is about two things, redesigning my work area, and planning my work method. I must be mindful about what I’m going to need and the issues I am going to have to plan for, like not being well enough to write on a posting day. I’m going to need a workspace that supports me, with all the tools for writing, painting, planning and running this little endeavour within easy reach. And its got to be easy to keep tidy and organised because I am crap at being neat and perversely, as a Libran, I don’t like working in a messy, ugly space. In this way, writing a blog isn’t any different from my other creative work, my writing and painting. It just has to be more systematic and focussed.

If you keep a blog, I would love to know how you organise yourself ahead, and plan your posts. And if, like me, you are lovingly embarking on making a new creative nest for yourself, I would love to hear about that too. Please leave a reply (the tag appears at the top of each post for some reason, thats another design issue on my blog To Do list!) and maybe we can do a compendium post of all the shared ideas and wonderful ‘Rooms of Our Own’.