Shouts From Down Under

Blog under pressure...writing at gunpoint...

I'm new and green to this world of writing. There, I said it. Perhaps Blimprider has called my bluff. (Although I've never claimed otherwise, I do get carried away advising people)

Anyway, enough of that self depreciation stuff. I am who I am and don't need to justify myself. This blog is evidence of having an Aussie crack at it; having a go mate.

I'm not sure where the following blog / article came to my notice, but it caught my eye. Holding novels hostage? Firearms? Aimed at people's heads, at books, barrels pointed in a threatening manner with the business end unsafely and deliberately angled at our story? Woah. What?

Not only this scenario, but we are doing it ourselves? A very novel concept, to use, and abuse, a worn out and flogged phrase.

http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/are-you-holding-your-novel-hostage

“I'm not going to do anymore marketing until I see some sales.” was the gem someone said.

Someone uncomfortably like me. Hmm and the bit about never submitting because of the aim for perfection.

That's not like me. That is me.

And the opposite of this, as Sunny says. Lack of confidence can be another submission killer.

I'm wondering about confidence, how it weakens, how it strengthens and why we don't know, can't tell if someone is honest or not. The most decent looking people can turn out to have a black heart of deceit.

Then the most loyal backside out of their pants honest person can look frighteningly nasty.

How does this relate to our writing, and the perception the reader has of our story.

For me, the biggest thing I lack confidence with, is accurate details, particularly foreign places, or with settings I'm unfamiliar.

The second item is social situations. I bluff a lot with dialogue and when I try to get to the motivating factor of the scene, the conflict or whatever, I fly by rough calculations, a pencil stub on a bit of Weetbix box, rather than knowing for sure that I'm on the right heading.

Perhaps I'm better off letting this be the worry of editors and publishers, than stopping me from submitting.

I mean, isn't editing the biggest thing said about submitting? Don't bother sending in lazy or crappy first chapters. Seems common sense you'd think.

But, then I'm keen to perfect the rest of it, when I may be told there is not a market for that stuff. the theme won't sell, forget it and go back to finding shorted wiring in cars or why my son's cruise control wont work in his Holden Commodore Ute.

There is an atmosphere you can generate in your novel isn't there, that spans across the gulf of confidence or perfectionism. You know it's there. You know.

Like this song by Mark Seymour called Don't you know me?

I never knew or understood the lyrics, like a lot of songs I hear, except for a few snippets, or unless I happen to read the lyrics now on YouTube with the song.
But without even knowing the lyrics, or meaning, I can still feel the atmosphere the writer and singer is trying to get across. Sadness. Loss. Whatever.



It would be a boring day for all of us writers, and the readers, if we wrote everything so that everyone automatically understood it, and immediately.

That's what deeper thinking is all about, isn't it? Like a Rubik's cube or some other puzzle. You enjoy sitting and patiently nutting out the angles, making mistakes, but knowing it's all working towards a reward of sorts. A clear, satisfying ending to the conundrum.

Let's face it, if our work has the pizzazz from the beginning, the reader is going to gladly give their permission to be led astray, to be led into our story, to be tricked, to be immersed, to be carried, intrigued, amazed and...changed.

It was good what Elle - on hiatus said about writing books geared to gifted kids who are able, and enjoy, those longer worded, more complex themed books.

But I remember when our teenagers first read a few pages or heard me read them, of my first novel that's still on ice.

They said "It reads like a dictionary" or "It's very heavy reading".

I realised that perhaps I needed to break it up more with interesting stuff, with action / what people would do, particularly the reader, but at the same time, keep a balance.

I think people do have a capacity to think for themselves, People can work things out, and way beyond what we assume.

Even teenagers on their iPhones. I'm hearing what you are saying Blimprider, and it does irritate, the rudeness, but to a lot of them, I think it's not rudeness they think they are doing, but they have already moved on. Seriously, it's not deliberate provocation or disobedience etc. Not necessarily.

And this phenomenon can come from us older ones too, the poking at touchphones even while someone is talking. It's that oh so urgent text, that email from the Bank Manager we were waiting on, the...ahhhh...the emails from people / friends on writing dot com! .

Come on! I'm not the only one surely?

But I do agree with Blimprider on the rudeness. I've done it myself. I'm guilty. The world is changing and with some things, not for the better. I probably worry about things enough for twenty people, the state of things.

It's best though to make our reality a bit like submitting a novel. Just do it. Forget how bad everything is, or how rude people are. Forget the mistakes we'll definitely make tomorrow, if not tonight. Forget the dumkopf thing you may do and be laughed at by your work "mates".

Forget that your blog may be considered stoopid.

Just do it.

What did Sunny say after I emailed her, thanking her for that blog she'd written?

They do you no good sitting there. Just let them go and get on to other ventures. You have many more books in you!

Thanks Sunny.

And thanks for reading to here.

Sparky