Trevor's Writing

Rules of writing

No Comments »31st August, 2014; Category: Articles, Master of Arts course, Quotes, The Writer's Life, Writers

Books about writing

Over the years I have read a growing number of books and articles about writing. I still have quite a pile to finish; some I haven’t even started. Funny thing is that the pile never seems to diminish. When I was doing my Master of Arts (creative writing) degree I devoured many quite wonderful books about writing. Here and there I picked up little gems of wisdom from great practitioners of the craft.

The key to success

Over the last decade I have also trolled the internet for that magic bullet, a priceless pearl of wisdom, or the key to open the door to success as a writer. I am still looking. I am slowly coming to realise that I should have looked in the dictionary first. Work – hard work – is the only real key to success.

That is not to play down the importance of reading about the craft of writing in books and on the internet. Much can be learned from these sources. Every now and then I come across a sentence, or a paragraph and even a whole chapter or article which makes an immediate impact. Putting that wisdom into practice is the hard part.

Lists, lists and more lists

One thing I have noticed about internet and blog articles in particular is the love of lists. It seems like hundreds, maybe even thousands, of writers are making lists. 10 ways to be a better writer. 7 sure ways of getting published. 9 methods of securing an agent. The ‘list’ could go on and on.

No; I am not going to write a list. (Confession: I have been known to – see here.)

Instead, I am going to reflect on a list I read a few days ago. The article is called Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing. I will comment on just a couple of them.

Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won’t make your writing any better than it is.

I understand what the she is trying to say. Sometimes a group of fellow writers can muddy the water, and they will make suggestions which are not only not helpful, but are downright harmful. An example occurred with one of degree supervisors; she didn’t understand the climate of the country where my novel was set. Generally however, I find that belonging to a writers’ group can be very beneficial. Many of my reasons are included in articles here and here and here and here.

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

Guilty as charged.

I spend – often it is waste – too much time checking and reading my email, Facebook updates and Twitter feeds. I guess I should regard that wasted time as lost income from writing.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Dealing with this one is far more difficult for me. While my wife encourages me by giving me the time and space to write, most other people regard me as retired. Sure, 10 years ago I retired from classroom teaching. Now I try to be a full time writer. That has been very difficult over the last few years when my wife was caring full time for her mother and left me to deal with the housework. We were also without a pastor at church, so I was spending 10 – 15 hours or more running the church. Both of those situations have now changed, so I am without excuse.

Further reading:

The photo below has nothing to do with this article. I just think it’s a lovely flower.

Grevillea flower

The benefits of writing short stories

No Comments »29th August, 2014; Category: Articles, Fiction, Master of Arts course, Novels, Quotes, Short Stories

This morning a friend posted on Facebook a quote from another writer, inviting comments in response. The quote went:

Writing 20 short stories of 5,000 words each will teach you more about writing fiction than writing a 100,000 word novel. And they’ll make more money for you too.

The quote is from an article “Writing short stories: 3 tips for creating characters readers love“

I certainly agree with this statement.

Instead of one set of characters and one setting in a novel, you will have multiple settings, you can experiment with different voices and points of view, and include various types of characters in 20 or so stories (unless the stories are in a series written about one character).

Dealing with a diverse range of characters, settings and so on would certainly hone one’s writing skills. For beginner or emerging writers this would be particularly helpful. And to those writers my advice would be “Just write” – anything and everything. The more you practice any skill, the better you should become. Of course, mentoring and getting advice from experienced writers helps too; that’s why I did a Master of Arts (Creative Writing) a few years ago. I would also encourage the devouring of as many books and articles about writing as time allows.

Ray Bradbury (Science fiction writer) once told an aspiring writer to go away and write a million words – then come back and he’d mentor him. Malcolm Gladwell (“Outliers“) says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to develop expertise in any field of endeavour.

I never had much published until I had passed both of those marks. Once a writer has achieved those benchmarks, THEN it is time to tackle that 100,000 word novel – if that is what you want to do. By then you will know how to write, how to develop a character, how to plot and have a fairly good grasp of what it takes to be a writer. As an aside, I spent 35 years in elementary classroom teaching; it was only in the last few years that I caught myself saying that “now I know what this teaching thing is all about.”

By the way – later this year I should pass the 3 million word mark and next year the 20,000 hour mark. Despite this I have so much more yet to write about, and the more I write, the more I discover and imagine to write about.

I’ve only covered on small quote from the article my friend found. It has far more to say, especially about turning those short stories into e-books to make more money than a novel might ever produce.

Thanks to Jade for the inspiration to write this post.

Good writing.

Writing prompt: close encounters

1 Comment »26th July, 2014; Category: Blogging, Poetry, Writing Hints, Writing prompts

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Lane Cove National Park

Earlier this week my wife and I had a few hours free from grand-children caring duties. We drove the short distance from our son’s home where we are staying. About 15 minutes later we were in the Lane Cove National Park, just a short distance north of the CBD of Sydney.

In the national park there are numerous delightful picnic areas next to the Lane Cove River. We choose one of them to have our lunch (see photo below).

Our picnic area in the Lane Cove National Park

As my wife starting eating her lunch she had a close encounter with a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (see photo below). I didn’t manage a close-up photo because I was about 50 metres away taking photos of other birds. The cockatoo decided that my wife’s lunch was worthy of investigating, and landed on the table next to her. My wife quickly covered up her sandwiches!

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo on our picnic table

Later I was able to catch up with the cockatoo and another one as they were also having lunch on some nearby flowers (see photo at the top of this post).

Writing prompts: close encounters with birds:

Write about a close encounter you had with a bird.
Describe a time a bird snatched food from your picnic table.
Write a poem about the pet bird or wild birds in your life.
Do some research about the birds in your local area. Write an article about your discoveries and observations and submit it to a local newspaper.
Take some photos of birds in your garden and write a caption for each.
If you write a blog, write about your close encounters and include photos of the birds seen.
Write about time you had a sudden, unexpected or frightening experience of a close encounter with a bird.
Have you ever found an injured or dead bird? Write about your feelings. Tell how you helped the injured bird. What happened to the dead bird?

Good writing.

Writing prompt: To sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream

No Comments »23rd July, 2014; Category: Writer's block, Writing Hints, Writing prompts

Koala asleep in the Australian Reptile Park

As the years encroach I find that more and more frequently I am in need of sleep. I can be reading a book and I slip off into noddy land; it doesn’t matter how interesting the book is either.

Or I can be working at my computer hammering out my latest best-seller, er… make that my first best-seller as I haven’t had one yet, and I will nod off into slumberland.

Trying to watch the news of some other interesting show on television is often fatal too, because sleep often creeps in and I don’t see the end of the show.

It can be quite frustrating. In all seriousness, my wife tells me that I frequently have a sleep apnoea problem. On advice from my doctor I have an appointment at a sleep clinic in a few weeks’ time and I hope that will indicate what needs to be done to solve this problem.

But I digress.

The koala in the picture above shows a koala enjoying a nap. Koalas often sleep for 18 to 20 hours a day. Bliss. I think I’ll become a koala, but the downside is that I would get very little writing and reading done. Perhaps I would finish off a few writing projects if I reversed the koala’s sleep regime: sleep for 4 – 6 hours and write for 18 – 20 hours a day.

Writing prompts:

Write a story about a koala’s dreams.
Write a story based on one of your dreams.
Write a story about a dream you would like to have.
Write a poem in praise of sleep.
Research the sleep patterns of your favourite animals or birds and write an article based on your research.
Write a story in which animals feature in your dreams.
Write a limerick about someone who can’t sleep.
Write a story in which you cannot sleep for months on end. What do you do to fill in the time?
Write a story about two fictitious characters who only meet in your dreams. You can be a part of the dream too.
Describe the places you find it easy to fall asleep.
Describe the routines you include in your day to help get a good night’s sleep.

Good writing, good sleeping and goodnight.

Writing prompt: rudeness

No Comments »20th July, 2014; Category: Writing prompts

Laughing Kookaburra

Some people can be incredibly ruse at times. Others can be rude all the time. Yet other people are accidentally rude – like the Laughing Kookaburra shown in the photo above. He turned his back on my camera while I was recently visiting the Australian Reptile Park just north of Sydney.

Writing prompt:

Write about the rudest person you have ever met. Describe what they do, how they are rude to you – and others – and how it makes you feel. Write it out on scrap paper or print it on used paper – then burn it. If you only screw it up and throw it in the bin, make sure the person’s name isn’t on the paper – especially if they live in the same house! It could come back to bite you.

Admission:

The Laughing Kookaburra in the photo wasn’t really all that rude. A moment after taking the photo he did turn around and look at me. Trouble is, the second photo I took was all blurry and I’m too ashamed to show it here.

Good writing.