I AM HAVING TROUBLES WITH THIS autobiog' of mine - my drugs hell memoirs are starting to create hell of their own.
1. I feel desperately uninspired
2. I would say "I don't know where to start" except I do. (Basically with a rewrite of my From Depressed Acorns Miserable Oak Trees Grow post.)
What I'm 3. worried about most is how to turn this tawdry story of mine into a full length book ie at least 150 pages (bare minimum) at 400 words to the page = 60,000 words... 200 pages 80,000 words would be better.
What separates writers from wannabe writers is one simple characteristic: the ability, having planned and envisioned your work actually to put it down on paper no matter what your personal feelings of the moment would rather you do. I do speak from experience. When I wrote before I forced the writing out of me... if you wait for "inspiration" to strike, chances are it'll never get done. Trust me.
Baby Itchy Roborovski seems to be proper perturbed by Satchmo's trumpeteering... he just done a massive ping off my arm and into a toilet roll tube I had thoughtfully provided (what would the domesticated hamster population of the world do without cardboard toilet tubes?? They'd be utterly confounded.)
Yeah so as I was saying about books it's all down to me which makes things doubly depressing... would you want me in charge of YOUR life??
Just as with any job you do you just gotta show up and do it however discoraged you feel. And tell yourself what a feast the book buyers of the world will be missing if this never gets scrawled down.
I suppose....
Clips:
Nina Simone: For All We Know
Sinead O'Connor: Rebel Song Live
Sinead: I'm No Man's Woman
If you click on the last two simultaneously, watch No Man's Woman to the Soundtrack of Rebel Song... perfection (try it; you'll see what I mean!)
***
The Saturday Play
Our Man in Jamaica, by Marcy Kahan, set in Jamaica in 1962. Noel Coward's neighbour Ian Fleming is determined that Noel should resume his wartime activity as a spy.
Click for BBC Radio 4's Listen Again and select the above for a fantastic glamour romp through 1950s Carribbean with Noel Coward in the company of Marlene Dietrich, Ian Fleming and Jamaica's very own Doctor Evil!
While you're there, why not select Just a Minute: the legendary panel game where a topic must be discussed for a mere sixty seconds with strictly no hesitation, deviation or repetition!
You seem to have no trouble blurting your thoughts out here, perhaps if you wrote your book as if it were a blog diary. Set up a private blog that only you could access, then just go there everyday, write the first things that come to mind, and don't look back. Edit when you are finished. Just a thought. I do my best writing first thing in the morning before my brain knows what's happening and never know what I'm saying until I'm done.
ReplyDeleteOops, I did it again.Cheers!
Note to Self Mostly: Recommend this play on BBC Listen Again... The Saturday Play
ReplyDeleteOur Man in Jamaica, by Marcy Kahan, set in Jamaica in 1962. Noel Coward's neighbour Ian Fleming is determined that Noel should resume his wartime activity as a spy.
Jim Dandy: Are you one of the people who's blog I hopped into out of Kahshe's the other day? If so... well I found some really good stuff then... In answer to your point about my blog... yeah but when I've printed little bits out into cold type - MAN! - how scrappy the writing is... it's like having an operatic voice and using it to hum in the bath... harldy fulfilling my potential - if I DO say so myself!! Seriously though I just tap things out here, barely read any of it back... I know there are some rather good bits but I know I'm capable of so much more... Strange what you say about the private blog... I was actually minded to do someting of that ilk myself... How very odd!
ReplyDeleteYour first thing in the morning point is rather interesting tho I shall bare that in mind... maybe I can squeeze this thing out of me like a long overdue constipation log SOON AT LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LAST!!
wow, that Rebel Song really gave me shivers...I love it. I think it'll be one of those "stuck in my head" songs.
ReplyDeleteI think Jim Dandy has a great idea....just "jot" it and then put the bits and pieces together. That way it's not so overwheming.
What separates writers from wannabe writers is one simple characteristic: the ability...to put it down on paper no matter what... I do speak from experience. When I wrote before I forced the writing out of me... if you wait for "inspiration" to strike, chances are it'll never get done...
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with this statement. Stephen talks about it in his book with regards to muses.
Two things I can offer up:
1.) Grab a copy of Stephen King's, On Writing. It's a great novel that profiles how he manages to churn out the page lengths he does. It offers a little bit of his bio/history. And he gives specifics on how he tackles writing. (Granted, criticism against the book is mainly on how his method isn't universally conducive to everyone else writes. But there will always be critics, right. I know this from experience, being a standup comedienne.)
(You can get a copy from the local library if you don't feel like buying it, as well as the audio tapes/Cds if you don't have time to read it.)
He recommends writing 2000 words a day, and never take more than a day's break. Tough, tough standards he adhere's to.
2.) Have you thought about entering the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest? I do believe it starts in November which will give you plenty of time to "outline" your novel and then let 'er rip when the contest begins. Great motivator, no?
Debs: I was trying to break everything into sections that can be about 2000 words/5 pages (as eventually printed) each ... thankfully what I begin with is my childhood... I'm going to point out that 1972 was another era with 3 channels on black and white television (well that's all we had)... 5 years since Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon... no microwaves, freezers etc in anyone's homes who my parents knew... no video recorders... different world... I thought that would at least make a fairly "arresting" opening... I want to point out that I feel more in common with the older generation than the younger one who feel BORN into a world of downloads etc (I got confused by DVDs in the record shop... as I posted the other day... seriously I thought they were film soundtracks... only so MANY of them... I feel like such an old codger!)
ReplyDeleteRebel Song.. I always used to think it was called Englishman... what I like about Sinead O'Connor's stuff is the tension between expressing inner agony... and the outward form and beauty of her music, which often has a lullaby quality so beautifully let out by her distinctive voice
Lucy: Do you know what Stephen King's On Writing... there was a copy in my local bookshop... which looked so fascinating as I blandly and distantly perused it... did NOT buy it.. now that entire branch has shut down! Such is life.... I must find an independent bookseller now from whom to order it... (don't have credit cards etc to use internet for buying books unfortunately)!
ReplyDeleteI can almost guarantee our local library will NOT have a copy anywhere in the borough... a real pet gripe of mine against our public libraries is that they stock themselves up with Sharon Osborne's autobiography and books by "celebs" who've done even less than her in their 21 years of life... and yet no life of Elizabeth I AT ALL when I wanted it!! Seriously...
The 2000 words a day is a v good idea that's what I aimed at (and did actually manage on average) last time I wrote...
This isn't a novel though... it's autobiographical... which I had MANY reservations about... until someone pointed out to me that is the vogue ... and of course requires NO RESEARCH... whahey!!
Thanks for the tips I'm definitely getting the Stephen King book... his little intros to other books when he ends up chatting about being a writer have always been fascinating.
Standup comedienne... that must have been SCARY!!
Hey I was (nearly) right about the moon landing...
ReplyDeleteApollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this famous "giant leap for mankind", Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface ("The Eagle has landed") and spent 67 hours exploring while Michael Collins orbited above.
That means man had first walked on the moon about 2 years and 9 months before my birth...
all that music is beautiful and powerful...great...thank you ...everytime i visit you i notice changes in your blog, so many changes since i know you...come on dear one, that so nice...and take your time about your book, it will come, slowly but it will...i'm already saving the money to buy it !
ReplyDeleteMousie: I got bored of the "no video screens" rule... though I still don't put them in posts, just links to them on my other blogs... I hope the publishers would give me lots of promotional copies... but knowing how stingy they can be perhaps not!
ReplyDeleteNo pressure Gleds but my order is in for your book, keep going, the private blog seems like a good idea, almost like a confirmation of something you'd considered yourself, maybe the way...
ReplyDelete'Like having an operatic voice and using it to hum in the bath' Wonderful!!!
You have a real gift with words.
Finally managed to do my random 8, thanks for tagging me...it was fun
Great choice of music, keep it coming :)
AUDS: I repleid to your comment... but lost where was it I made that opera singer in the bath metaphor/thing? I've been looking for it all over to see what I actually said but cannot FIND it!
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly right about the writing.
ReplyDeleteWhat I produce is more or less readable, and tending to jog readers' memories--but behind the technique is a nervous guy at the edge of breakdown.
Discipline, I suppose.
Ivan
I am not sure what to say. You have blasted the pages with so much it is like watching a movie in fast forward and you need to breathe before you can take it all in.
ReplyDeleteI think that is my first bit of advice, if I may offer it, breathe. Then perhaps section the book off in layers. Once that is done, see what you can take out that might fit elsewhere (i.e. another chapter)then edit again.
Writing is the easy part.. it is being objective when one goes through it again that is the hard part. I think everyone thinks that what they write sounds good or doe not need improvement. Try reading it outloud or in a recorder and then playing back to yourself, or if you do not have a recorder ask someone to read it to you. Someitmes hearing it read outloud gives you a new perspective.
I wish you good luck.
'it's like having an operatic voice and using it to hum in the bath... harldy fulfilling my potential'
ReplyDeleteSorry Gleds I was quoting from your comment to JD. It really struck me and I agreed with it, very powerful metaphor!!
Just keep writing, Gleds! Do some every day and worry about getting it into book form later. I'll have a look for the play.
ReplyDeleteSORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO REPLY TO THESE FOLKS. THAT IS BECAUSE I AM CRAP
ReplyDeleteIvan: hmmm i think you put it right there... & btw why are writers such neurotixx??
Inside: o yeah the dreaded rereading... you are right about the kind of fastforward thing bc i barely EVER read back anything i post i just press return and off it goes... i only ever edit if the prose is so dreadful it simply has to be done... otherwise things just stay as they are... when i've been writing "properly" i tend to do this "rhythm" thing... that is about capturing the rhythm not just of common speech but of dramatic English as spoken by the great orators and Shakespearean actors/ &c of our time...
Audrey: yes i will try to keep my hands on that metaphor because it is quite timely & appropriate for me!!
ReplyDeleteWelshcakes: yeah that is what i have to do... at the moment i'm writing notes... only themed by the paragraph and into a BOUND VOLUME so i cannot LOSE ANY!!
maybe because it seems too formal..but damn i can understand having trouble. just start at the most confusing place and work out from there...
ReplyDelete