Extract from Life-Writes:

Innermost Thoughts

“Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does or music.  If you are born knowing them, fine.  If not, learn them.  Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.”  

                                                                                                                                  Truman Capote.

It was Marcel Proust who said that the voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes with which to view them.  It was a former tutor of mine, Bob Clay-Egerton, who introduced the concept of the ‘mystical mug’ into his teachings to demonstrate how we ‘see’ things:

Pick up an ordinary drinking mug.  Imagine that the mug is floating in front of you at eye level, the handle standing out to the left.  Imagine now that you are describing exactly what you see to a blind person. What do you actually see?   Assume you have never seen a mug before; it is a strange and wonderful phenomena.  You would have to say you saw a roughly square or rectangular object but perhaps tapering slightly towards the base.  It appears to be convex towards you.  Standing out to the left is a curved projection, joining the main body just below the top and about two thirds of the way down the body.  You describe the colour and decorative pattern if any. Sex?  If it has any it must be male, because of the projection.

The blind person then has the mug described to him by someone seeing it from 90 degrees to the right of the first observer.  Same general shape, colour, texture and pattern but no projection.  It must be similar but not the same.  Sex?  No projection, so it can’t be male.  No hollows, so it can’t be female.  It might, therefore, be neuter. The next description comes from someone viewing the mug directly from above.  The basic shape is now circular, either tubular or cylindrical, and flat at the end.  A single stem projection juts out from the main body as the top of the handle covers the rest from view.  Same colour but no decorative pattern.  It cannot be related to the first or second object at all.  Sex? Projection indicates male, hollow cylinder indicates female; might be hermaphroditic. 

If several people viewing the mug from the top, bottom and four sides (let alone at oblique angles) gave a description, the blind person would assume they were all seeing different objects, some of which may, or may not be related.  If each viewer described what he saw to an outsider who had not seen the mug, none of them would believe the others had only described a different view of the same object.  Someone familiar with a mug might realise what it was, but even then, the description, if it could be evaluated by those who had never seen one, would not convey what it was made from, how it was constructed, fired, decorated, glazed — or even what its purpose was.

We use for this example of selective angles of viewpoint - a simple mug.   Imagine how complicated it would have been to describe, from different angles, an old-fashioned typewriter!   The more complex the subject, the harder it is to imagine its nature and purpose.  Yet many writers (and some tutors) approach writing from a limited standpoint … that black is black, and white is white. Never stopping to think that there might be forty shades of grey in between the various different ways a subject might be viewed or written about.  There are innumerable planes of existence on different levels, in many dimensions of time and space.   Mankind exists, physically, in one dimension … mentally he can penetrate other levels … spiritually he can reach even more … it’s all a matter of perspective.

So … in all aspects of our writing we need to develop the ability to see things from all angles.  The successful writer ‘sees’ everything from every angle and viewpoint, and weighs this in the balance before committing themselves to action.  For the purpose of Life-Writes, we will substitute our readers for the blind person of the exercise.   They can only ‘see’ from our writing what we want them to see.  If our characterisation (in terms of empathy and/or human interest) gives the opposite impression to what we originally intended, then the picture has become distorted and the creative dynamic of the plot or narrative is lost.  And if a writer complains that an editor or competition judges has ‘missed the point’ of a story, then it’s probably because it wasn’t made clear in the first place. 

Ø  Always keep the lesson of the ‘mystical mug’ in mind!

The latest extract from Life-Writes …

People Watching

Nothing we take on board during our daily routine is ever wasted if we are writers, although this doesn’t always mean things that happen to us personally, because few of us live life in the fast lane. Quite a large number of those ‘happenings’ that are of use to us will have involved other people and so we have to learn to become an avid people-watcher – in other words, a snoop! We watch, listen, spy and eavesdrop in order to collect ideas to convert into the written word. Just as we learnt to take notice of everything that happens on our patch, so we extend our awareness to people, what they do, how they react, body language, etc. Whenever we leave the house and travel to work each day, we have plenty of opportunity for people watching but what happens if we happen to be house-bound, or work from home? In that case we watch life by proxy.

All serious writers should take a daily newspaper because this, more often than not, will stimulate the creative processes on a mundane level. Newspaper stories and articles will give you the true human angle, because these are the real-life dramas that sell newspapers. And what better gauge of public interest than the daily scandal-rags or broadsheets?

Listen to conversations going on in public places and jot down what you hear. This is a great source of one-liners, even if the rest of the conversation is missed, or contains nothing of interest. Just as importantly, listen to how people say things and express themselves, because this can provide added depth to your character without resorting to long, wordy descriptions. Colloquialisms and similes, especially those of a regional or localised nature can convey volumes if used in the correct context and dispense with the urge to attempt to write in dialect.

 People watching is the writer’s fuel for good ideas.

Body Language & Gestures

What we generally refer to as ‘body language’ is someone’s unconscious reaction to a situation or person. People watching adds a whole new dimension to the way individuals react to one another and, like a picture, can easily convert into 1,000 words of narrative. The married couple who do and say all the right things, and yet their body language may give off conflicting signals at variance with the outward show of domestic bliss. Or the pretty, well-turned out child that does not appear relaxed in the company of a step-parent. Or the dog that refuses to respond to a particular visitor’s overtures. Each reaction can be detected in body language.

Gestures also tend to be an unconscious reaction to situations or people, and usually involve making some symbolic movement of the hand. Some are comparatively modern, while others can be traced back hundreds of years, but as Desmond Morris points out in his book, Gestures, this is a form of visual slang and just as slang words go out of fashion, so can gestures. Body language and gestures can be used as a ‘conflict’ device so essential to fiction writing, as a cause of misunderstanding, or the give-away in a thriller.

The observation that too many people go through life never looking around at what’s actually going on in their immediately vicinity. A writer needs to realise the importance of taking the ‘time to stand and stare’ because this is the only way to add to the inner retrieval system of our cerebral ‘zip file’. We must learn to observe in order to be able to record what we see and to be able to retrieve this information when we sit down to write. Because there really is a story, article or poem behind everything we encounter during our daily routine.

·         Accept the fact that writers are, without a doubt, vampiric creatures, in that they can only exist by sucking the life out of any situation or encounter, and it using to further their own writing careers.

Handy Hint:

People-watching provides us with additional material to use to develop characterisation and the obvious expert on the subject is undoubtedly Desmond Morris. His books, The Human Zoo, The Naked Ape, Manwatching, Intimate Behaviour and Gestures not only provide hours of entertainment but also plenty of background information about human body language. At least one of these titles should be among a writer’s reference collection but they should not be used as substitutes for the real thing, i.e. personal observation. Second hand copies are usually readily available on www.ABE-Books.com

Try This Exercise:

Take a copy of your regular daily national newspaper and mark each of the items that arouse your interest. Cut them out and keep them in files, together with any comments/ideas you might have for future writing projects. As the collection builds you will find that certain subjects occur more and more frequently; others were just a passing whim. Go through this collection every couple of months to stimulate ideas if you’re feeling uninspired. Throw away any clippings that no longer interest you. Use this opportunity to jot down ideas for:

• A short story

• An article

• A poem

"The antiques trade hasn't been this much fun since Lovejoy left"
Carys Llewellyn - author and reviewer

The Hugo Braithwaite Mysteries are set in the shadowy world of antiques and fine art, where villains rub shoulders with millionaires in grand country houses and seedy back streets.  Hugo Braithwaite is an antiques dealer and acknowledged authority on British watercolours, a talent which often throws him into the limelight of popular television to help sate the public’s thirst for discovering valuable family heirlooms and treasures in the attic.  On the down side, it is also a murky realm of fakes, forgeries, felony ... and the occasional murder.

Looking From All Angles

“Research, like writing, is an individual, creative process. It cannot be ‘taught’. In his quest for original material – and who does not dream of stumbling upon a cache of hitherto unknown, unpublished papers or the answer to a problem that has baffled scholars for generations? – the writer never ceases to learn.”

Ann Hoffman, Research for Writers

Many budding writers lack the confidence to take the first step into the commercial market place because they feel it is impossible to produce something completely new that no one else has ever thought of before. But as we’ve already observed : there is no such thing as a new idea. Most creative ideas have been used before, over and over again. What we are looking for are innovative ideas, so let us return to the dictionary definition to find that innovation means: To introduce alterations; to put forward novelties. To alter or change by the introduction of something new.

This is what will give our work that spark of originality. In all honesty, even the most block-busting novel is only a variation on a familiar theme rather than ground-breakingly new. For an example: in an earlier creative writing book, From An Editor’s Desk, I threw in the Polti Theory, which maintained that there were only 36 dramatic situations on which the writer of fiction can draw. By using single situations or several combinations, the basic theme of every story (long or short) ever told, written or devised can be summed up in the following list:

Supplication

Deliverance

Crime pursued by vengeance

Vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred

Pursuit

Disaster

Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune

Revolt

Daring enterprise

Abduction

The enigma

Obtaining

Enmity of kinsmen

Rivalry of kinsmen

Murderous adultery

Madness

Fatal imprudence

Involuntary crimes of love

Slaying of a kinsman unrecognised

Self-sacrifice for an ideal

Self sacrifice for kindred

All sacrificed for passion

Necessity of sacrificing loved ones

Rivalry of superior and inferior

Adultery

Crimes of love

Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one

Obstacles to love

An enemy loved

Ambition

Conflict with God

Mistaken jealousy

Erroneous judgement

Remorse

Recovery of a lost one

Loss of a loved one

Twenty years later and retired from editing creative writing magazines, I would add that most non-fiction and poetry submissions probably  fall into those categories, too.  If you don’t believe me, check out the theme of the major features or stories in any selection of magazines or newspapers and you’ll find most of them are loosely based on one or more of the above. If we remove the smokescreen of exotic locations or glamorous lifestyle, we will find that most of the plots used by our favourite writers are telling the same old stories, over and over again. The basic theme of murder, intrigue, adultery and chivalry are all there – they just have an innovative backdrop.

Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse introduced us to the esoteric world of academe by casting his novels amongst the traditions and dreamy spires of Oxford University life; while

Simon Raven did the same for Cambridge. Dick Francis came up with his own original formula set amongst the racing fraternity where wealth frequently rubs shoulders with the lower echelons of society. Jilly Cooper moved from Wimbledon Common to the equestrian set, before turning her attentions on the international orchestral and art worlds, and has since moved on to horse racing. Ellis Peters went back to medieval Britain. While in the fantasy department, Tolkien created Middle Earth and J K Rowling, Hogwort’s … and more recently Maureen Carter solves her crimes in gritty Birmingham; David Hewson stages his Nic Costa series in Rome, while Andrea Camilleri utilises his knowledge of Sicily to great effect in his highly entertaining series of novels featuring Commissario Montalbano

Nevertheless, strip away the mystery, glitz and the glamour and you’ll find that nearly every single piece of writing, fiction or non-fiction, will be loosely based on those themes given in the Polti Theory.

Rather than waste time trying to buck the system by coming up with original thought – go for an innovative approach.

The next extract from Life-Writes: Where do writers get their ideas from?

On Your Own Patch

To become a truly creative writer we have to start to notice and register the world around us from different angles and perspectives. It may be that our own particular patch has become so familiar that we no longer register what is going on there on a day-to-day basis. Make time to walk a familiar route and take notice of:

• what is growing in front gardens;

• new building developments;

• people standing at the bus stop;

• trees in the park;

• changes in shop window displays

Make a conscious effort to register these gradual changes as flowers begin to bloom; the buildings near completion; different people stand at the bus stop at certain times of the day; the trees in the

park altering their appearance through the seasons; and window displays rarely remain the same for very long.

Think about where you live now. Is it the same place where you grew up? If so, how has it changed?  For better or worse? Did you move away from your childhood or teenage stomping ground? Try to define the differences. What we need to remember, of course, is that memory is deceitful and illusionary, so what we think we can recall, may be almost as fictional as the novel we’re trying to write. How many times have you argued with an old friend or sibling over the way you both remember things from the past.

Train yourself to become more observant about the common everyday things that go on around you. Recall to mind the words of William Henry Davies’s Leisure:

“What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?”

As writers, we owe it to ourselves to make time to stand and stare; even if it’s only to study the dress code, mannerisms and body language of fellow travellers on the subway, train or bus to work.

REMEMBER:  Always be on the look-out for useable ideas

Handy Hint:

Always keep a small notepad handy for jotting ‘things’

down. Ideally have a couple on the go that fit easily into a

bag or pocket. Don’t delay in making a note of snippets of

conversation, ideas for future investigation or character

sketches – we think we can recall them later but we lose

that spontaneous reaction and the ‘thing’ becomes stale.

EXTRACT FROM

LIFE-WRITES: Start an Ideas Book

In order to begin searching for the key to accessing these new ideas, we need to start on a practical level by keeping an Ideas Book. As Secret Step One tells us, there are more ideas locked away in our unconscious minds than we could ever write about in a whole lifetime. What we must discover is how they can influence our short stories, novels, poetry or non-fiction to the very best of our ability.  Instead of relying on memory, the Ideas Book should be used to record snippets of conversation, great one-liners, quotations, reference books, locations and characters.

The aim of Life-Writes is to encourage you to open your ears and eyes, to view things differently with your mind and heart. In other words, to free the inner voice so that you’re not afraid to trust your imagination and take a few risks with your writing. Become an observer and develop a willingness to see people and the world around you in a completely different light. By expanding those powers of observation, you will continuously build on the entries in your Ideas Book, which in turn will help you re-explore existing plots and themes, and generate new ones. Try to be honest but above all, do not be afraid to push against any restrictions imposed by current thinking or political correctness. No one is going to see your Ideas Book – its contents are for your eyes only.

To set the ball rolling, the first entry will be to give five examples of what you consider to be ‘things that arouse a fond memory of the past’ and here we need to reflect on why we consider them to be ‘fond memories’. The items on my list will probably be far removed from those on yours, while you will probably be completely unmoved by those ‘things’ that are important to me. What we also need to consider is the way that language has been devalued and how some words can take on a completely different emphasis when used in contemporary conversation. We are talking about perspective or viewpoint, and this is where we begin to access those ideas that are locked away in our unconscious minds. So let’s begin with …

A collection of old family photographs

Images of a life-style that can never come again because the people from that time, and who made it worth remembering, are all dead. The family home, long since demolished to make

way for a ring road. Childhood recollections of summer holidays, and family mealtimes. Pet dogs. Days at the beach. Haymaking and harvest. A childhood friend with whom we still keep in contact.

Many of these ‘fond memories’ will re-surface throughout this book because we are writing from Life, and drawing on happenings that are unique to one person. Your first collection of ‘things’ will probably prompt some rather serious thoughts but even these can be extended and expanded to encourage you to plumb the depths of your own ‘ideas’ and explore their possibilities. Keeping a record of your own ‘things’ in your own Ideas Book should eventually lead to dozens of ideas for fiction, articles or poetry but first we need to explore ways of making them exciting before turning them into submissions. On a day-to- day basis, our conscious brain registers the ‘facts’ or the most obvious impressions about a situation; for creative writing it is necessary to dig deep into the subconscious to locate the ideas that have been compressed into the brain’s equivalent of a

computerised ‘zip-file’.

Remember:  Our past is a mine of good ideas for future use.

LIFE-WRITES: Freeing the writer’s inner voice

Because Life-Writes is about drawing on submerged inner resources, it means that I’ve chosen to share many of my own private thoughts and family memories to illustrate many of the points made in the text. As a result, this has become a very personal book, because the examples, stories and anecdotes are real-life revelations, not fictional ones. Drawing on our inner reserves means that we have to be honest with ourselves about how much we are actually willing to give, or reveal, to a general readership in order to further our writing career. Where, we must ask ourselves, does reality end and creative writing begin?

The original idea for my book, Creative Pathways: Freeing the Writer’s Inner Voice, came after reading The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, a sort of personal journal of a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Emperor of Japan towards the end of the 10th century AD. Today, a pillow book refers to an illustrated manual of erotic advice but Sei’s book was a mixture of diary, gossip column and ‘commonplace’ book that showcased her literary observations off to perfection. History tells us that both her father and great-grandfather were both noted poets and scholars and, were Sei Shonagon alive today, she would probably be one of our leading literary lights. In this capacity, she can quite easily fill the role of ancestral spirit, or kami, of creative inner thought.

Unlike Julie Andrews’ ‘Favourite Things’ from The Sound of Music, however, the ‘things’ that Sei Shonagon commented upon were not always pleasing. Nevertheless it is her wide-ranging observations that set the pattern for some of the exercises for my creative writing workshops, combining Zen-like word-pictures and contemporary commercial writing ambition in order to free
the writer’s inner voice. The age-old categories were Sei Shonagon’s own – the ‘things’ in Creative Pathways were mine.
For example:

The Pillow Book:
Things that arouse a fond memory of the past

Dried hollyhock. 
The objects used during the Display of Dolls. 
To find a piece of deep violet or grape-coloured material that has been pressed between the pages of a
notebook.
It is a rainy day and one is feeling bored. To pass the time, one starts looking through some old papers. And then comes across the letters of a man one used to love.
Last year’s paper fan. 
Night with a clear moon.

Creative Pathways:
Things that arouse a fond memory of the past

A collection of old family photographs
Old theatre programmes
A particular piece of music
Wood smoke
The smell of hawthorn or bluebells in blossom

Here we have two collections of memories (or, from the writer’s perspective ‘ideas’) that immediately spark very clear images in the mind’s eye despite the fact that eleven centuries separate
them.
 
Make a note of your ‘things that arouse a fond memory of the past' in your Ideas Book