Authors Electric

  A few years ago, I joined a writing group on Facebook run by a famous author. I often wonder if he personally runs the group or if it is a team behind him. Regardless of the group mechanics, there are days I find myself intrigued by this group. I must admit, I am not always as active as I should be, at least not active enough to have earned a star as a top contributor. But I find it interesting on the days I do join. It occurred to me a while ago that there is much to be gained from passing interest. Even in the things that seem mundane, things you don’t think you pay attention to, but you do. For example, one of the regular occurrences in this group is a random picture that can be anything anything from children to space and we are asked to write a story about the picture in SEVEN WORDS.  As someone who is yet to perfect the fine art of blogging, as someone who even struggles to articulate anything meaningful in 500 words or less, please know that I quickly skip past the ...

That was what my partner asked me.  ‘Do you have writer’s block?’ A couple of weeks ago. After I told him I’d not written a word on my work-in-progress since early May. And before that, not since February. My instinct was to say, ‘No, of course not.’ And so I did. But I wondered. Did I? No. Not at all. When I sat down to write in February, the words flowed. Plenty of them. A virtual torrent. The same in May. On the train back from a family and football weekend (the best kind, I find). Having safely finished the talk I’d set out to write on the train down to London two days before. And that’s the problem. I only really write when I have no distractions (no chores, no Internet, no family concerns, nothing to plan), which tends to be when I’m away from home – on train journeys (what a blessing the quiet carriage is!), on holidays. But even then, only when I don’t have a talk to write, an event to prepare for, when I’m prepared… ‘Distractions’. I guess that’s really shor...

Lili Kraus Right now (taking advantage of the alternative time lines allowed by cyberspace), I'm enraptured by a  1965 recording of the great Lili Kraus performing Mozart's sublime "Jenamy" Piano Concerto No. 9, in E-flat major, K. 271. I should be writing this post, which I have let languish as I dithered over ideas until barely ten hours before post time. Now, I don't mean letting Wolfie's magic soothe me as I go about my work. I have a specific, compelling reason for playing Mozart concertos at the moment, about which I will explain shortly. In any event, however, I can never do Mozart as background. Too much undertow for me; besides, coming from a musical family, lack of attentiveness feels vaguely disrespectful. If the elevator plays so much as  Rondo Alla Turca ,  I may not be able to get off until it's finished. That's why I despise all piped-in music, but that too is another story. Let's distract from my distractions for a while an...

So. I hope you’ll notice how on-trend this is. It is the latest thing, to begin a statement or an answer with ‘So.’ It’s peculiar, but with any luck it will supersede the idiotic ‘like’, which Alexander Armstrong twitted so nicely in a sketch set in (I think) 18 th century: ‘I fear the speech of the young has fallen off sadly of late; I can remember when they would commonly use as many as six similes in a single sentence: I was like, and he was like, then we were like...’ etc.   I can’t remember the exact words so this is an approximation.  Why bother about these things at all, I hear you ask. Because I’m at a loose end, that’s why. Bad case of the dreaded Writer’s Block. Too much time on my hands in which to nitpick and grump. The garden has been too sodden to do anything much. I’ve tried taking up knitting and I’m very proud of the sweater shown here, made of leftover yarns and bits and pieces. Not as proud as I would be if I didn’t know about all the mistakes, but...

Lynne Garner’s blog post on the use of the senses struck a chord with me, as I’ve just been writing up my ‘tip sheet’ for the writing class I run on a Monday evening, which is all about using the senses in writing. I was thinking about calling it: Making Your Characters Smell. It’s always good to start off with a bit of a laugh! Lynne’s link to the sounds of wildlife was really useful, and I’m sure I’ll be looking at that again and again. It’s funny the sort of websites you need to look at in the course of a day’s work. I’ve been writing thrillers recently and have been trying to check out security levels at MI5’s Thames House. As Big Brother is no doubt keeping tabs on what everyone is looking at on-line, I’m wondering if I’ll have the men in black knocking on my door one of these fine days.   I even came across a site that listed the Top 10 Spy Sites in London which was quite interesting, and probably quite inspirational if anyone is looking to write so...

As the picture says Words can be a powerful thing. I use the capital of the word deliberately because this is particularly important when you are a writer. But I've come to realise lately that they can also be slippery little blighters. Especially when there is a deadline looming. Who it comes to writing my novels I have no trouble finding the right words. or ideas. Ideas are mainly what I am talking about today, rather than words per se. Again ideas for my novels flow thick and fast and I find the words come along with them. If I should get any measure of writers block it is usually an idea I need. Once I brainstorm a few scenarios the words coming flooding back. Slippery creatures they may be but they don't stay hidden for long. Lately, when it comes to ideas for anything shorter my words seem to get up and take a holiday. So I decided that my blog post today would give ideas for blog posts and short stories. The focus will be on ideas for writers as this blog is, aft...

In 2015 I did NaNoWriMo, the writing challenge that encourages you to complete a 50,000 word first draft within the month of November. I needed a bit of motivation for my new science fiction novel, and I believed that the 1700 words (approximately) required per day would not be beyond me, since I often write (or used to write – see below) around 1500-2000 words a day anyway. NaNo seemed like a good way of making sure I kept to that, while enabling me to finish my first draft just in time to start my Christmas shopping. It proved to be a lot harder than I’d expected. What I’d forgotten was that, although I often wrote as much as 2000 words a day, I generally allowed myself at least one day off a week – sometimes two. I’d even give myself an extra day or so if I was travelling, babysitting, or feeling under the weather. NaNo permits no such luxuries. Or rather, it does, but you have to catch up on any time lost and the whole thing soon gets away from you. It was a tough month a...