Ode on Character

The best thing about writing a story is when you know your character has developed itself and runs away from you. Many people might think this is impossible, that you always own this fictional being, but it is the simple act of the subconscious that has allowed writers this surprise when they finally realize that the character is very different to what they originally intended. It’s like reading a story yourself, but you were the one writing it all along!

After the lecture we decided to try a Character Questionnaire to see how our characters have developed and whether we noticed anything about them that we didn’t in our writing. I was blown away by the activity. I found out so much about the protagonist! She is so angry, and so depressed I didn’t realize she was thinking about certain things that happen much later until I fake interviewed her. It wasn’t like I had to think about the answers to uncover them. I just let my fingers run over the keyboard and before I knew it she was uncovered, flesh and bone right before my eyes. I understand her now as not just a character, but as a person. She was there, right in the room with me answering my questions. She became defensive at the start, angry and upset, and then, like the way she acts in the story, she becomes tired easily, sad and letting go a little each question. I kept questioning what holds their relationship together, why does she love this man, when everybody around her tells her not to? And I realized through many questions that, he is her world. Without him, she has no life, no reason and nobody left to love.

Without having a huge spoiler moment I will show you some of the answers just so you can get an idea of what kind of questions I found interesting. The Character Questionnaire I used was developed by Marcel Proust. Here is the link to both Questionnaires: http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106

I chose number 2 and keep in mind it is a draft. I just had to write. So I expect there will be errors. So here is my writing, in the beginning:

What is your current state of mind?
Anger. Annoyance. Pure and utter sadness. I’m so tired, not because I don’t sleep, but because I sleep too much to escape everything else. I have a terrible feeling that something bad will happen, that they will somehow find a way to really twist that knife in my back.

What is your most marked characteristic?
Strength. Nobody could survive a day in my shoes. Try it, I dare you, by the end of the day you would be on suicide watch.

When and where were you the happiest?
Difficult to say. I guess in my dreams, when I dream that its only us. Just him and I. I imagine all the children we could have and do have in the dreams.

What is it that you most dislike?
Me. And what makes up me.

Which living person do you most despise?
My mother.

Where would you like to live?
Anywhere that isn’t here. I don’t think there is a place on the solar system that offers that though.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
My life.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Someone that doesn’t resemble their mother

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Wanting to bring children into a life I hate

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Not trying to get to know him. Not bothering to ask. Assuming the worst before asking. Trying to make us unhappy.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Trying to fit in with everyone else. You’re all pathetic.

On what occasion do you lie?
Every day of my life

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I wish…

What are your favourite names?
I want a little girl. We were thinking of Emily. After his mother.

What is you motto?
Do, when people tell you don’t

For the writers out there I suggest you do it. I’m going to do it for the antagonist next, her mother. I’m excited, I am!

Don’t be afraid of your character. The believable characters are the ones that run when you tell them to stay

Jinx xx

P.S Next on my list is to get some images of her. What I think she should look like, dress like etc. It would definitely help with the world she lives in and how she holds herself physically. But for now, have Lust from Full Metal Alchemist!

The Jinx's Tale

I feel like you are a friend who I haven’t caught up with in ages! There is so much to tell you and yet I don’t want to bombard you with such a long post, and end up boring you to tears. It’s a little bit of silly-ness, just like jemima puddleduck, but I feel as though I have let you down somewhat by not filling you in sooner.
So, here I go, from the beginning. I hope it’s not too long but there is so much that has happened I fear that if I leave anything out, I will be like one of those authors who receive hate mail from their readers for killing off a favourite character or leaving out some important punch line. But don’t worry; I won’t kill off your favourite character. Jinx is still here, just a little late to the party!

I will start with the weeks I was part of the Melbourne Writers Festival volunteer program. Totally owned my soul, but in a good way! I learnt so much about why lots of people love to read and why publishing something can brighten up someone’s life or even day. And people love a good read, even if it’s the free Age newspaper. I was in Box Office, Information Booth and Ushering, and I have to say; hands down ushering was my favourite. I was on from 9am in the morning to 1pm and I was dying to feel the buzz of other people in the book world. I craved that special feeling of children and adults getting excited to hear someone have a say. Ushering is the place to be! It was the schools program so lots of kids were there to join in the fun. I collected tickets from smiling faces, settled late comers in their seats, was able to sit in for free and made sure everyone filed out of the ACMI theatre orderly and nicely. Funny story, I told one of the kids not to run up the stairs in the theatre so he doesn’t hurt himself, and was totally called a bitch. Well ok, you can fall next time! In my shock of being called that I was saved by the head usher of the ACMI theatre (those awesome nice people that have walkie talkies and Japanese looking uniforms that say ACMI) who yelled to the kid “HEY!” and pretty sure scared the shit out of him. Those uniforms are dark so he probably didn’t notice a male was in the theatre. Not so tough now! If you ever get a chance to volunteer next year for the Writers Festival I advise ushering. You are doing so much more and the people are lovely. The box office was cold and confusing because we were outside in a portable unit, and the computer system could only be worked if you knew even slightly what to do (which, even with directions, I did not.) But I did meet Magda Szubanski! The information booth was cold as well because it was in the Atrium so therefore no escape from the coldness that is the gushing wind inside, but I did manage to read a fair way through my book The Handmaid’s Tale (picture above) which was amazing and the only reason I got through catching the train into the city every day. Before I started my shift I was also able to meet one of my favourite young adult writers Cath Crowley. I am a massive fan of her book Chasing Charlie Duskin and became a starstruck fan once again when telling her how much I enjoyed Charlies character. I did hear that she is re-writing the book in America and I think Canada so now the new story is able to fill in the gaps for me. Although I enjoyed reading it at the time, as I read more books in that genre and even just broaden my reading in general I did think it needed something more. I would be terribly excited to re-write something knowing that yourself! I envy her excitement. The new title is A Little Wanting Song, and yes Book Depository will be the next website page I open (picture of me and Cath Crowley to the right.)

I did realize one thing while working at the Melbourne Writers Festival. It seems that in a way authors have become big celebrities! But not so much that we will see them down the red carpet, or on the news for holding illegal drugs (or a banned book.) I saw a lot of work going into sneaking the authors into the venues so they didn’t have to walk past the audience. And I totally get that, because as the ushers waited for the arrival of Morris Gleitzman, and then all of a sudden he appeared behind these hidden doors inside the theatre, I remember the story John Boyne told us at a talk at Deakin Library last year that while he was walking to a venue he had to have a bodyguard with him as someone came running at him screaming obsenities and wanting to physically hurt him. But because reading will never be as popular as Brad Pitt, I could be approached by Magda and know exactly who she is, but be approached by an author and half the time I couldn’t tell you who they were or if they even were an author. I had to get a friend to point out who Cath Crowley was because although I’ve read her book, I couldn’t tell you what she looked like! Not every author has a picture of themselves next to their biography. I was approached by an author in the Greenroom and I mistook them for a volunteer. After proceeding to talk themselves down pointing out how unimportant they must be if I don’t recall their name, I suddenly clicked and felt horrible. She was “only a scriptwriter for Nickelodeon!” On a lighter note; I was able to point her in the right direction to ACMI cinema 1!

And so next is the book list I have read so far since I have finished the Montmorency series and because there is not that much space left only a little write up of a review. NOTE: Eleanor Updale is rumoured to be writing the 5th book in the Montmorency Series. I have to say; a little disappointed, I didn’t think she needed to write anything more. But I will never complain about reading another tale with Montmorency in it!

The first was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I am in love with her writing, and the story made me understand depression more and how people see the world and why. I have never felt so sad that I wanted to hurt myself, I don’t ever want to feel that way but I want to understand it, so I can understand the people around me in this world a little more. So I read this book having that idea and although it was confronting, very sad and bold, I enjoyed it thoroughly. So much so, that I ordered Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes (Sylvia Plath’s husband) and now trying to track down the movie The Bell Jar and the movie Sylvia that stars Gwyneth Paltrow. Picture on the left.

After The Bell Jar I decided to try Margaret Attwoods The Handmaids Tale. My uni friend called me eclectic which I beamed at, thinking what a wonderful compliment that is (thanks Kellie!) I finished the book within a couple of weeks thanks to many train rides and quiet times volunteering but thought how wonderful a writer Margaret Attwood is. I would really love to meet her one day because the book was one of those tales that change the way you think, not in a feminist way or anything, and not in a submissive way either. But it was just such an intriguing idea about a certain type of future. The only thing I was disappointed in was Lukes character. Full of so much, and talked of all the time, he seemed like such an important character and yet, I feel as if I don’t know him at all and I’m wondering why I found out everyone else’s fate, except his.

The book I am reading at the moment is Paddy Clarke HA HA HA by Roddy Doyle. Seriously, that’s the title, not even kidding. So far, I’m really enjoying the original storyline and I’m really feeling for each character. Spoken in the point of view of a 10 year old irish boy, I was worried I would feel removed from all the other characters, but I see their world so vividly. Each character individually is written so well. The only thing that irks me, and I hate to be a fuss pot, but I’m struggling with the lack of chapters. I need a stop and start rhythm happening. My brain keeps going to rest, and my fingers flick through a couple of pages as if to check a break is on the way, but I am forever disappointed. The flow is rough, like how I imagine his accent, and although its original and literary, just give me a paragraph break, or a page break even with the three little stars in the middle of the page, something to help my mind stop, breath and take in the story a little better. Will let you know how I go. Picture on left.

Next on the list is either tearing through the Tomorrow When the War Began series as I saw the movie last night and love love love love loved it! Or the last two Harry Potter books *ducks from rotten oranges being thrown* yes, I know I’m bad for not finishing the series, but at least I plan to!

Exciting things are happening for the intern at Express Media now that the submissions are closed for the John Marsden Prize! Judges are madly reading the manuscripts and two days ago when I was signing them onto the database we hit the 400 mark!! I predict around 500 in total, maybe more!

Well I think I have covered it all! I hope I didn’t bore you and if you have come this far then I applaud and thank you for taking the time out to hear what I have been doing, and how I feel about what I’ve seen and felt.

And now I go back to my writing, as I am 4000 words behind…but that is only because I had to start all over again. So you know exactly how I felt, I understand COMPLETELY how Scott Westerfeld’s felt when he decided to change the point of view of the character in Extras and therefore had to *select all* *delete* and *cry*
Though I did not write 16,000 words! Thank god!

Here is the post for some reminiscing and information grabber. So you know exactly what I'm jabbering on about! (http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2007/01/tale-of-quasi-woe/)

There, I am actually leaving now, I promise!

Exhaustingly Yours,

Jinx xx

Montmorency is the Message

If there is any merchandise out there to do with the Montmorency series, do not, I repeat do not show me! I will be poor collecting everything from posters to a Fox Selwyn t-shirt. A lot of people know me to be a hoarder, or at least hang on to things that might appear to be obsessive to an outsider’s point of view; but I swear, if you were an author, you would certainly adore me! I promise!

I have a soft spot for anything that is set in the 19^th century and it all really kicked off when I read the first book in the series many years ago and catapulted when I read Sherlock Holmes. I couldn’t fathom the amazing language of the writing, so modern and yet written in a time that I couldn’t imagine. I am very fond of reading books that capture my imagination, as I’m sure all readers are, but somehow with the 19^th century, it feels interesting on a completely different level.

But even if you are not usually a fan of the 19^th century you should still pick up the series. Eleanor Updale, author of Montmorency, has written in such an advanced way I still can’t believe it is marked as a young adult book. In the first it talks of lies, deceit and theft. In the second it talks of drugs and implies sex. In the third it really screams sex and murder, and the last; revenge. I do wish the story never ended but I think it finishes quite beautifully; most people would disagree completely and argue that ties weren’t knotted and a longer series would have been more well liked than only four books. However, I can’t see what she could have continued further with. All my ties were tied, but I say nothing more about that so I don’t spoil it for you because I do think you should read it for yourself, I do!

Language was so thorough and the history so interesting, I found Eleanor Updale a new author to mark as a special place on my bookshelf. I was thinking about the history of the stories in all four books the past two Monday classes, as we were talking about technology in our society today and how it shapes our understanding of the world. In week two of my classes we looked at the spirituality of technology and how we thought about communicating with the dead in a very scientific way, using copper, zinc and other materials that draw energy. All this was done in the 19^th century, a world described as a “whispering gallery”, everyone will see and hear everyone else. As we draw further into the mind as a computer I realize how much my world is shaped into technology. The clothing I wear, the tools I use to get through every day life. Of course, it wasn’t roman times in the 1800’s but I still appreciate the difficulty of having no phone to contact someone, like it was shown in the books in many cases. To me, in my world the medium really is the message. The phone itself is a message of what makes up me, and the way I live my life.

Next time I pick up my phone, which will probably be in the next five minutes, it is something I will think about. Though I promise I won’t get too obsessed with the idea!

Technically yours,

Jinx xx

Things I Didn't See Coming

It has been flat out around here! I have started my first week back at NMIT and already different sorts of things have fallen into place for me very nicely. You have missed out on much literary stuff, you have! So now that I am back at school, it’s time to let you into my literary world again, my unfinished book of my world inside the books, writing and ideas.

Let’s rap!

Over the past semester I found that NMIT weren’t getting much luck with finding contracts with publishing houses for placement, which put me into a panic only I could fix by emailing EVERY publishing house I knew begging for a chance. I even emailed Scott Westerfeld asking his advice on where I should go and what I should do. Believe me, I was crazy!

Only Scott Westerfeld and one publishing house wrote back…and now I am currently doing an intern at Express Media at The Wheeler Centre. But wait, there’s more! The intern is for The John Marsden Prize. Terribly excited, so once a week I will be there. I might see you there, yes?

Once I organised that for myself I started to concentrate on getting my work out there and have polished off some pieces I am quite proud of and hold close to my heart. One special story I finished while on holiday in Narooma and learnt that the gender of a cow can stuff up your story massively. Mysterious, I know, but that is all I’m giving away! And thanks to Benny for pointing it out to me!

So, next on the list is my novel, which I have now decided to turn into a novella (longer short story, but not as large as a novel) the word count will hopefully reach around 12,000 words, but we shall see how we go. The challenge for the project is 1000 words a week, but we only have an hour in the class to write. Tricky, very tricky; but I love a challenge!
With the timeline set out I am still stuck with the big question I was trying to answer through research that wasn’t working out that well for me, until I learnt about Transhumanism.
Created by Julian Huxley in 1957 it’s the theory of “man remaining man but transcending into other” by looking at technology as ideas of superior intelligence that we otherwise could not achieve ourselves. Like Marshall Mcluhan’s Medium is the Massage (pictured, and no it's not a typo) with the quote I love “this book…is an extension of the eye” meaning the book is a technology for the eye to read and look at. Without the book, the eye wouldn’t read and otherwise wouldn’t use that technology. Beautiful, don’t you agree? I do like the theory; it interests me on many levels and helped me realize a key element to my new novella. Now I just have to tackle the smaller question under the big umbrella question I just figured out. Sigh!

But while I’ve been flying through my first week of Uni, we already had two guest speakers that I thoroughly enjoyed; Steven Amsterdam who wrote the book Things We Didn’t See Coming (also pictured) and his publisher from Sleepers Louise Swinn. Louise was so lovely and I talked to her about the course and what she is involved in so easily. She was quite impressed with us so that was a chest-puffer for sure! Already excited by her arrival I was even more so about Steven who bought in his new puppy, Wiley (cutest puppy I’ve ever seen) and told us about his experiences with critique workshops, his early writing days and being published by a small independent place. It was such a great experience and if they ever do read this, thanks again!
We even get the privilege of getting Steven back to teach our fiction class which I am pumped for. I hope he likes my stuff without me sounding like a desperate try hard!

And so ends a first week back into the literary world. It’s going to get busy, particularly in August because I’m also volunteering for the Melbourne Writers Festival which I will keep you posted about as well so they will almost certainly own my soul.

I feel flat out already, but in a kind of satisfying way!

Cursive Scripts submissions open again soon too, so watch this space for updates!

Happily Tired and Yours,

Jinx xx

Writing For Revenge

My teacher calls it bravery, I call it stupidity. There comes a time in writing where it’s very hard to create something from nothing. Often in art, whether it’s from someone very famous, or a first timer, friends of authors/artists will see some traits of themselves in characters or having a situation they recognise as something very similar to their reality. Whether they take this lightly or not I realized today in Non-Fiction class that there is a very fine line to creativeness in writing when it comes to defamation of a character.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is why can’t authors just be particularly more careful with people’s feelings in both fiction and non-fiction? Sometimes all it takes is a change of hair style, change of what they do for a living, even background information that is just completely unnecessary to the piece. Perhaps, as my teacher pointed out, it stems from authors writing for revenge, a type of stab at people they’ve hated in the past, and getting it off their chest in writing, the only way they can truly express themselves. But what about the people you care for that you write about? Sometimes I find it hard to insert the truth in there, so afraid that it hurts too much. Writers might find it so difficult, that its often hard not too, if you feel that passionate about the piece. But in some examples I’ve seen in writing, there has got to be a time when enough is really enough.

I’ve had similar problems in my writing in both my fiction pieces and my non fiction pieces. There are three examples off the top of my head and how I have dealt with them so far:

The first is from last year when I wrote a joint piece on how my Dad felt in an uncomfortable situation and linked that to how I felt when I was bullied in year 11. If I ever published these two pieces, SOMEONE would have recognised who they were, and not because I said it was my Dad, but because of the way I portrayed him, the way I explained his looks, demeanour and even some of the things he is likely to say in that situation. Likewise with the girls who bullied my group. If one of them were to read it, although I took a stab at their looks, personality and the way they held themselves as people there is no doubt that they would recognise themselves purely because of the quotations and the fact that they were in the situation themselves. I guess this was my form of writing for revenge, but I don’t think it would have helped if I ended up publishing it. This was for my assignment and only seen by two other students and my teacher (so, no emotional connection to me or the people mentioned) and the reason why I didn’t publish it was not because I wasn’t brave, but because I was smart. I knew it would get back to those girls if I ever did publish it, and because I painted them in a cruel light, from it being in my perspective, I would have gotten into trouble for writing what I perceived was truth. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to, but I’m no Helen Garner, I can’t reveal my life and other peoples in such a way to offend, no matter what they did to me in the first place.

The second case is writing my fiction novel. Now, to fully explain myself, the Mother character is everything opposite in what a Mother should be. She’s unloving, cruel, cynical etc. However, I do know that it’s very hard to create something from nothing. So from all the times I’ve been upset with my own Mum, even when the situation was completely different, I was able to describe how the Mother feels in the story and how her daughter feels. The way she would stand and hold herself, the accusing facial expressions and finally the body language that dismisses the daughter in such a way that the Mother was framed as a completely difficult person to live with.
To stress even more, my Mum is not like this at all. She is my female hero and I love her. But as I read back on some of the paragraphs involving the Mother I couldn’t help but wonder, would people see traits of my Mums behaviour in the character? Or worse, would my Mum see it herself? When the only example of a Mother figure is my own biological Mother, how can I explain this woman if I only have a single view of one?

The third example is another Non-Fiction piece that I wrote this year which I am trying to get published. The person I am writing about is from Geelong and I’m capturing how she feels at her age living there and I compare that to how she lives in Melbourne. In no way did I expect her to view herself as ‘whiny’ and ‘immature’. Of course, it was never my intention to frame her in that light at all and in fact I was complimenting her, but I did find it difficult to let this thought go. Although everyone else who read and critiqued it didn’t think she was framed in that way, the fact that SOMEONE interpreted the wrong meaning made me want to change the whole thing; because someone is enough, and worse than no one. She still very much wants me to publish it, admits she was just being protective of herself, and was only questioning whether people could see it that way and not necessarily what she thinks, but it makes you wonder, how careful you have to be with words. One word can skew the meaning in a completely different light even when you don’t intentionally make it so.

It is definitely a challenge to think about when writing.

The article that raised this issue and made me really think about what I was putting into my writing is called Thinly Disguised by Caroline Baum from The Age Newspaper. Full article here:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/19/1058035185380.html

Thoughtfully yours,

Jinx xx

So Good, You'll Want to Vomit!

Last Thursday, was not like any other inspiring day at uni with my fiction teacher. That day was the THREE HOUR NOVELLA CHALLENGE! Now, if you didn’t read my last blog where I mentioned the before picture to how I was feeling, the link is here (http://book-unfinished.blogspot.com/2010/05/dont-kill-your-mice.html)

So now I write for you the reflection of the experience before, during and after the contest.

This story starts off the Wednesday night when I realized after being perfectly comfortable writing 4000-5000 words in three hours on my novel in the other characters point of view that as I started doing character profiles, I thought to myself
“Hang on, this character can’t do this! They just can’t be a main it’s not right!” I thought it would be pointless to write for three hours on something I didn’t think was achievable, nor worth my time. And plus, considering we couldn’t take time in the three hours to really think about the writing, I figured I should just start from scratch.

Cue the next day.

So I arrived at uni a little annoyed at myself for leaving it go this late and so I really worked hard in the allocated 10 minutes to really plan everything out, instead of wondering how I’m ever going to get through it with such a sugar high (seriously, large amount of candy!)

So, I wrote…

Sometimes, when I’m under stress and I have to write something, my mind goes into a sort of creative spasm. I like my brain for this and I guess it just goes to show that someday I could be a real writer because as I sat down and stared at my laptop I had two lovely words pop into my head

Setting
Country

And bam! That’s all it took. I finally realized I start off with setting. So long as I have the general setting I am able to write a story. It was kind of a nice feeling to find my voice, especially when I didn’t expect it.

When I finally got my setting, I started to question some things to help me gain understanding of the story I was slowly conjuring. What do you see when you think of the country? What does it smell like? How do you feel? And this is when I got words like dry grass, old fashioned small houses surrounded by nothing, cows mooing, fire and smoke.

And here emerged a character. Here are my notes written in the 10 minutes:
1. Loves: the country
2. Her school
3. Her friends. 3
4. Her mums fresh pavlova for breakfast
5. Her blue dress with the brown belt she wore to the summer dance by the lake
6. The fire her dad makes every night, even in summer so they can cook marshmallows. Oozing white and pink balls or delicious balls of joy
7. Sunday at mass
8. Painting
9. Writing
10. The Nothing

Mind you, it’s not the most grammatically correct but isn’t that the point of note taking? I find it hilarious to read back and think
“What was I thinking, delicious balls of joy? YUCK!” But once I got down what the character loved it was enough to really start to think about conflict. Something that disrupts her in the usual routine she seems to have:

1. Hates the river that circles around her house
2. The swinging rope by the river
3. Boys, especially her dead brother
4. Trees that she cant climb
5. Snakes

Also, kind of liked it when I became a bit brutal in the last few minutes of getting this down
“Hates boys…especially her dead brother…” hmmm that was random!

Cue the writing process!

It was draining, and my back ached. I kept finding excuses for taking my hands off the keyboard by grabbing another lolly even though I wasn’t even hungry. I hated my character at the start because her language was so simple and she seemed really stupid. I saw a lot of mistakes and it took all my might not to go back and edit. I crawled and bashed at the keyboard words I didn’t even know made sense in the sentence. I imagined the little man inside my head going nuts and throwing all the English knowledge I had in my brain into the giant recycle bin. I forgot how to spell the at one point, and wrote ushered instead of meaning to dismiss the person. My brain became mushy I felt I could make a dint in my head if I poked it. And suddenly I felt so tired! Like I’d run a million miles.

And then I wrote the last few words down and finished my piece, relieved I did it. It’s not perfect, and it sure doesn’t read well, but the story is there and with a big structural edit, I should be able to come out at the end with some gold! Because I do very much like the story; it’s deliciously mysterious!

Here is one piece of the gold so far which is the opening line to my piece:

The river runs all around the house, as if it’s taunting me and encircling me into the nothing…

I have to say I am quite happy with the outcome of the first line in the first draft. I thought that was a pretty good beginning, yes?

I am so proud I completed the task I set for myself which was basically to finish it. I didn’t even realize how much I wrote until I clicked the recount on word and found myself staring at a whopping 4,800. That is massive to me at this stage in my writing so I was very happy; and even happier when I WON THE NOVELLA CHALLENGE!

This was my prize:

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and three fun size Mars Bars (only fun when you get three!) Not bad, eh? I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this book. My teacher thought it was a good prize because it’s one of her favourites so she thought it would be nice to pass it on to someone else. I also can’t wait to read it because as she passed it to me her exact words were
“It was so good I wanted to vomit!”


Proudly yours,

Jinx xx

Don't Kill Your Mice!

Someone once told me, that writing classes are a waste of time. If you really need to learn how to write, then you can’t be a good writer. To write, you must be good at it and work until its right, because there is no set way you can teach this.

To an extent, I believed in a small part of that opinion for a long time. I used to take it on as truth, that’s the way it was and writing classes were like a ‘hope’ course. Someone who really wants to write, but just can’t do it. I wrote stories about these people for years until I realized how depressing and utterly untrue that statement really is.

Being in a writing course is not being told how to write, nor is it to be told what to do with your writing. For me, the best advice they have given me is to find your voice. What makes you tick, and we shall help you along the way to really polish that voice into something worth reading. That is not to say that people who haven’t done a writing course cannot write as well. But maybe because we have these courses, for a lot people, such as myself, they need the hope, they need the instruction to find themselves, because humans are so fragile and at times we just can’t walk it alone.

My fiction teacher today was giving us good writing advice from all these different writers in order to help us be inspired to complete the challenge she set for us in two weeks. But, more on that later…

There were loads of things to write on, and every writer seemed to have their own way of creating a story. Which I think was really nice to hear. But the point she was really trying to make, is what kinds of authors resonate with you. What words and ways of writing do you relate to?

These authors resonated with me:

EM Forster – “’The King died, and then the Queen died’ is the story. ‘The King died, and then the Queen died, of grief’ is the plot.”

Eva Sallis – “Its very hard to imitate someone elses style well…I have this theory that everyone has a layer of crap that they have to write through before they get to the good stuff…just write, just let it rip…the only way you’ll ever find your voice.”

Anne Michaels – write with poetry of language to explore themes

Robin Hemley – “I’ve found I can be intrigued with characters without necessarily liking them…but I must feel sympathy for the character…” and “don’t kill your mice…in plainer language you might say they torture these poor mice…if I had allowed the mice to die…that would have become the story…overwhelmed the character and certainly any care the reader might have for them…I wanted to be liked…’I’m glad the mice didn’t die. If they had you would have lost me as a reader. Never kill the mice.”

Anne Lamott – ABDCE (Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending)

Allegra Goodman – “there is nothing better than listening to your characters regale you…they are all fictional characters, yet in writing they are real” let them tell the story. Be amused by them, let them come alive.

These people intrigued me because they made me think about the story I was writing and all the times I’ve had trouble with some parts that just don’t feel like they’re working, seemed so small and insignificant when I really thought about what the experts believed. Especially Robin Hemley, who told me not to kill my mice! I realized after reading his article Sympathy for the Devil: What to Do About Difficult Characters I was going to kill my mice in my own story, which is why it was failing. I had to leave my mice in the story…what the mice are…well that’s my little secret!
It really inspires you to write when you realize that authors who have their works published have sat in your exact position wondering the same thing. I hope later in my career when I’m middle aged and have written a few stories/articles that I can write my own writing story. That someone will want to know how I got through the bad days, the writers block and pick up a few pieces to put towards their puzzle.

Something to look forward to

On another note, the challenge my fiction teacher set us. Are you ready?

THE THREE HOUR NOVELLA CONTEST!

The mission? To write a 4000-5000 word narrative in 3 hours!

Wish me luck; I am craving some good chain-me-to-the-chair-writing! I am, truly! I’ve never done anything like it before!

I just need to locate my delicious bowl mug. This is going to take a large cup of tea…

Promising not to kill her mice, and always yours,

Jinx xx