Writer's Cramp

Moss on a dry stone wall in North Yorkshire

I love writing, but I'm hopeless at it and have little motivation most of the time. I guess life gets in the way. I've often wondered what makes a good writer; is it the 'can't put it down' factor, is it the riveting argument, the quaint prose, the subject matter, the satisfying beginning, middle and end?

I also suppose it's what you write too. Novels are hard for me, firstly because time is not easy to come by to sit down for a couple of hours a day and get my teeth into one. I read books at school age of course, Captain WE Johns Biggles books mostly, for pleasure and I read books for professional reasons, for education and advancement, but apart from the odd autobiography of my favourite stars, there it stopped for many years. 

I was working away from home in 1984 for two weeks and I was bored to tears and I asked a colleague in desperation if he had anything to read and he loaned me a Stephen King novel 'Christine.' Not only had I never heard of Stephen King, but a horror/thriller too? 

I was hooked, I couldn't put it down, a scrap car restoring itself and its odometer going backwards and taking revenge on people? What a load of rubbish, but it was in fact an extraordinary read full of emotion and atmosphere and I went on from there. 

Do novels inspire me to write, no not really, but along with writing press releases for a few years, penning strategic level reports at work now, I like to make my writing clear and easy to understand without being patronising. I used to tell colleagues that you should write to the audience or recipient as if they were an intelligent 14 year old and leave no ambiguities and you should be okay. It seemed to work.

Writing a blog is no less difficult and yet it caters for a wide audience, many of whom just click in randomly and it has to be interesting, varied and often writ. That is my downfall, my life is sufficiently unexciting that I can only find things to write about every now and then when something happens or I do something different or exciting.

My writing in my personal life is on esoteric subjects relating to my interests in spirituality and psychic study, so my development group get papers from me regularly on a wide variety of subject matter. This is itself difficult to write because it's researched based. How much do I put it, more importantly, what do I leave out? I can't write a novel, just a couple of pages maximum on each subject to whet the appetite, to encourage further research on the part of the reader. I think this is one of the keys. How do I make this sufficiently interesting to inspire further reading?

 

A lonely barge at low tide rests in the River Hull

The internet is an interesting subject in itself, but how much of this influences how we write? I can recall the days when the internet gurus said that every novel would only be read on the screen via the internet, the book is dead, long live the book. The truth is that writing for the book and magazine is as popular as ever and my local bookshop is always packed full of people browsing through the tens of thousands of book available on every conceivable subject. Much of what is written on the internet is interesting but some of it badly put and after a minute reading, it's easy just to switch to another site, or in some cases, better to go and make a cuppa.

There is a novel in everyone, but perhaps wisely, author, the late Christopher Hitchens also said, “Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay.”

So I am not minded to write a book - just yet. I do have an ambition to write a book, but it's not fiction, it's about life, my life and its journey. Who is it for? Anyone, no-one. So what is the point - it's a lot of effort for a cathartic exercise, but there will be men out there and perhaps a few women who might relate to a life story of an ordinary person who has faced some difficulties, still faces difficulties but where the light at the end of the tunnel has been finally spotted.

So I follow a couple of blogs of writers, Diane Parkin and Paula RC Readman, not necessarily just because they are writers, more for their personality and interesting blogs, but writing something substantial does hold that fascination and who knows - one day.

I hope you are thinking about keeping warm as the autumnal weather starts to take hold.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

I'm Back!

My son gently and tactfully reminded me that I hadn't written a blog for sometime by pointing out the number of posts were falling. An old friend Bryan once quoted on his blog a Mark Twain witticism: "I you have nothing to say, say nothing." I guess I have plenty to say, the issue is, would it be of interest to anyone else! Then - everything happens at once!

Great blogger and writer Paula Readman has had a short story published on a site called CafeLit titled  'Cold Calling' - it's a stunning short -  read it and be chilled!!!Read her blog here.

I was at a friends last night having returned in thick falling snow from the cinema in Hull from seeing Les Miserables. I hadn't been particularly interested in seeing the film because the trailers showed it to be - well - miserable: revolutionary, dark, wet, people crying and dying in poverty, something wonderful to lift the spirit!

In fact this was a super cinematic production of popular theatre culture. I knew nothing of the story and had never been to see the stage production but the film was an absolute delight with all the emotions coming into play at one time or another. The ensemble cast were excellent and the singing was great, even from Russell Crowe (of whom one critic said, he couldn't sing.) If Hugh Jackman as the lead Jean Valjean  doesn't win award after award for his performance, I would be very surprised and disappointed.

The singing was done 'live' on film rather than being dubbed, I don't know what the technical term for this is but it's a rare technique in musical film and the resulting emotions the actors gave to their parts whilst singing was very moving indeed.  Rated at 12A, thoroughly recommended.

There was one spoiler and that wasn't on the screen, it was two young women sat behind us a few rows back who were talking and giggling throughout the film. Anger got the best of me at the end as the closing credits began to roll and people were getting ready to go, I stood up, looked directly at them and in a voice loud enough for several rows to hear I told them what I thought of them (no swearing - remain dignified at all times) and perhaps the cartoon in the next cinema would be more suitable for them. Needless to say they hurriedly exited heads down before everyone else. Fortunately, I had several murmurings of support.

Leaving my friends house around two a.m. this morning, a fox slowly trotted by along the footpath in the thick snow as I exited the door. Nothing unusual in that you may think and I've seen many foxes in that area, but it almost immediately sat down in the middle of the footpath and curled up. I had my trusty point and shoot Lumix and took a few pictures of it. It allowed me to get within ten feet of it before sauntering off a few yards and curling up once more. I saw lots of other foxes on my way home foraging for food and I think this one I saw close to had probably been breeding and was too tired to run off!

I have no cliche photographs of the snow - decided not to take any unless I saw something unusual. We've had our first major dollop of snow as mentioned above and today, most of it is still around although it's wet. The main danger comes from ice and freezing that goes with it. The next lot is forecast for Sunday night, just in time for the commute to work on Monday morning, hey ho.

Chat soon

Ta-ra