Sunday, February 26, 2006

At last - Writing Talk!

This is supposed to be a writer’s blog so I think it’s about time I did some writing about writing. It’s a good time for this as I’ve finally got back to some concentrated work after the compulsory 3 weeks recuperation and pacing my recovery from the second cataract operation.

Thinking about writing makes me remember that I never mentioned anything about last weekend.

Last weekend I was in Norwich with the lovely
Kate Hardy. The BM & I stayed with her and her family because the two Kates were giving a talk on writing romances with special reference to creating heroes in the Millenium Library there as part of their It’s A Love Thing celebration of love and romance. The talk went well – after hearing that only two people had actually booked ahead of time, it was a little nerve-wracking wondering if anyone would turn up. But plenty of people did and not only did they seems to enjoy the event, they stayed for an hour after the designated closing time talking and asking questions.

Talking about writing is always a fascinating experience for me. There’s always something new to learn, always a question that really makes you think. But for me the most interesting part of the weekend was seeing another writer in her ‘natural habitat’ – her office.

Kate H has just had a brand new, purpose built office added to her home. A physical sign of how well her career is going – for those that don’t know, Kate’s book Where the Heart Is, is nominated for the RNA’s Romance Prize this year – and a much needed ‘room of her own’ in a house that is busy with husband, 2 children and a lovely, if soppy, dog. This office has a wall lined with bookcases – shelves of which are devoted to Kate’s own publications . There is the obvious desk, computer screen, keyboard. All the necessary office equipment – printer, phone, fax, filing cabinet. So far, so much like my own office. There’s even a bed for Byron the springer spaniel where I have bed(s) for the felines.

But – and here’s the scary bit – it was tidy. And organised. Not like my office which is full of what the BM described, in his comment to my first blog, as ‘purposeful mess’ - and a lot of totally unpurposeful stuff that is just plain mess.

Kate H has ‘things to do’ lists printed out and on her walls. She plans her books in detail, submits proposals and maps out their progress on spreadsheets. She researches in detail (you need to do this in Medicals as you must get the facts right) and she sits down, gets on with it – and writes.

Me? I procrastinate. I get an idea in my head and I let it brew. It brews until it is so strong and powerful that if it was a pot of tea it would take the glaze off the china and scour its way down your throat if you tried to drink it. I let it steep into my subconscious until that’s soaked with it and then it has to rise to my conscious mind- saturating it until there’s no chance of avoiding it any more. I have to write. I have to get the thought down in words I have to tell the story of the two people who are driving my insane (well – okay – more insane than usual – by their constant presence in my thoughts, their demands that I tell their story and that I do it now.

And then I start. Sometimes I have a fairly detailed idea of where I’m going. Sometimes I have a vital scene in my head that sparks things off and that I know I have to start with, or work towards, or end with -and I set out hopefully into the mist, hoping and praying that my characters will take me by the hand and lead me on to the right path and take me with them to their happy ever after ending. They always have done up to now – but there’s always that edge of fear that maybe this time I’m going to lose them or they’ll lead me the wrong way and we’ll end up in some place that just doesn’t work at all and I’ll never be able to find a way out of. I don’t do proposals or synopses. If my editor asks what I’m working on, I mutter something about ‘A Sicilian’ or ‘A Spaniard’ and retreat back into my writing cave.

Because the truth is that more often that not, I don’t know what I’m writing about until – if I’m lucky – I’m halfway there – or even until I reach the end and look back and say ‘Oh so that’s what this story is about! How interesting!’

In the same way that my office is messy, undisciplined, chaotic, I’m a messy, undisciplined, chaotic writer. And that is probably reflected in the books I write – not that they are necessarily messy, undisciplined and chaotic. Once I actually start writing, I’m suddenly disciplined. I know who my characters are and I work with them to tell their story to the best of my ability. But the stories I write, the emotions that I deal in, the situations and conflicts that my characters get themselves into, they’re messy and complicated and chaotic. They’re the emotional problems that throw all sorts of spanners in the works and keep people who should be with one another apart until they can learn to see each other properly and end up where they should be – facing a future together, for life.

I have lots of friends who are writers and we all work in our own individual ways. Kate H plans and plots and organises (and she’s the sort of powerhouse of a writer that exhausts me just to watch her). My dear friend
Anne McAllister studies psychology and spends time detailing her character’s’ pasts and family relationships and the way those affect them in the present. (When I first wrote this I wrote that she detailed her characters’ pastas – and she probably does that too). Another friend, Michelle Reid, works more like me – she ‘sees’ a scene that sets her imagination going and grabs at the characters, getting down words about them and learning about them as she puts those words on a page. Some writers work in 1000 words a day bursts – I just couldn’t leave my characters after 1000 words and I’ve been known to slam down 8 -10,000 words in a white-heat of glorious inspiration.

So what does this tell me? Horses for courses obviously,. We all write the way that suits us. I couldn’t write the way Kate H or Anne McA write – and they would shudder at the thought of winging it in the way I do. Which just goes to show that there’s no ‘right’ way to write – you just have to sit down and get on with it in the way that works for you.

Which is what I shall have to do from tomorrow morning – that tea bag of ideas that has been steeping away in my subconscious has reached saturation point and the characters are nagging at my conscious mind.

It’s time for those two terrifying words - CHAPTER ONE

7 comments:

Julie Cohen said...

What an inspirational post. Thanks, Kate.

Julie, who's got a tea bag of her own brewing right now.

Anne McAllister said...

I don't 'detail' pasts at all -- I just know what happens in them because it has formed who they are and I can't write about them if I don't know who they are. But they have to tell me. It is never something I 'make up.' So, like you, I 'grope' my way to a story. Bits and pieces come together -- and there are always more bits and pieces than I ever think I'll need and I have no idea what some of them are there for until maybe the end when I realize something vital has been omitted -- and the piece I need to make it work has been there (lurking) all the time. It's an amazing process, isn't it?

Parenthetically, I don't know what you would know about strong cups of tea since what you consider a cuppa has only a fleeting acquaintance with a tea bag!

Enjoy the new story -- I look forward to emails about heroes standing in halls for three days unable to cross the room and about multi-function dining room tables. And, of course, emails about Sid.

Anonymous said...

Oh, you lucky woman - my favourite bit of the book! 'Chapter One'... bliss.

You're dead right about horses for courses and writing the way that suits you. Pantstering scares the life out of me: I need to know where I'm going.

LOL about my tidy office. Only because I had two sets of proofs and didn't want to lose them among the usual deritritus on my desk! Today it's... messy, because I skived off to go to the beach instead of tidying up.

Lovely having you to stay last week. Let's hope it won't be long before we do it again!

Kate Walker said...

Julie - I'm glad it inspired you. Good luck with the tea brewing!

Ah, Anne - I should have known better than to try the tea bag image with you! You look at those pasts more than I do when you're groping your way - or perhaps I mean that you look at them in a different way and we both grope our ways to understanding! You always have some facinating bits and pieces that don't always end up in the books. I know just what you mean about the way something doesn't seem to have a place until you suddenly see that it falls into just the right spot.
- I'll let you know how the new hero shapes up and any dining tables or halls involved - and of course how Sid's doing.


Kate H - we're going to have to agree to differ. I don't see that 'Chapter One' as bliss - I see it more in terms of 'Tell me why I do this, again.' I jusy wish there was some way I cold downlaod what's in my head onto the screen without having to use my hands in between. And my office is still messy - even though I stayed at home today.


Kate

Nell Dixon said...

I'm a scrambler too, your office sounds like mine, Kate!

Michelle Styles said...

As I have just finished my latest, I think I like the analogy of tea brewing.
I am probably somewhere between you and Kate H. I have to be able to write towards scenes, but at some point I do have to write out a synopsis.

Kate Walker said...

Nell, my office is a little better now but as I'm starting the new book it will soon be in a mess again.

Michelle - good luck with your latest -I hate writing a synopsis - i always think 'I've told you this!' when it comes to writing the actual book

Kate just going to make a mug of tea(the real stuff) and start back to work

 

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