Shouts From Down Under

Voting for a future Bestseller writer...yourself.

This may sound self-centred, (thanks spell check but I'm Australia) but I think when you write, let it be yourself.

You don't have to apologise for being you.

That's where the voice will come from, not from other people's pressure or their views. They may influence you, but I think this should be your choice.

Some peer pressure is ok up to a point. There was a time I hated peer pressure with a passion. All it meant to me was that unless I played Rugby League, watched television and knew all the latest shows, unless I was up with all the latest stuff people said and did, then I was a nobody.

Being a nobody suited me fine in younger years. We lived out in the sticks where I didn't have to pretend, where I could be myself and do fun stuff, exciting things, original activities that often failed but were my own ideas.

For some years I had the company of cousins, one in particular of similar age, and we had many pleasurable days spent roaming the Australian bushland, digging holes, building cubby houses out of old bits of corrugated iron and fencing wire, dragging logs to use for a frame, getting bitten with ants and mosquitoes, dodging the occasional goanna, and sometimes getting into trouble for unthinking problems we caused to people and property.

I could probably bore you with the details of these adventures, but they were mostly children's level games of the imagination.

I think our very young years are what builds the writer's voice within. That's where I feel it comes from, and while good practical writing skills are essential, our passion, our style, our pizzaz, our quirky-ness, our originality, our inherent talent for writing a gripping story, our engagement of the reader; a lot of this comes from those years when we explored life.



As I've grown older, and faced experiences not so pleasant, grown grey hairs over things that happen in life, not just mine, then I think I've relaxed a lot more about peer pressure.

Today, I'm more likely to recognise that mostly, peers, even the angry nasty ones, are trying to interact with us somehow. That has to be a good thing, even if it appears to be less than positive, on the surface.

When your blog starts to sound boring even to yourself, then it's time to stop.

And get back to editing. Or just GET to editing...

If I eventually get published, and come out the other end smiling, then I can look back on all my whinging about the rules, editing and that stuff and go, "yeah, I always knew I had to conform. Get over it people. Your turn's coming. Stop moaning and just do it!"

So, I hereby project myself into a future fantasy, just like I did as a kid, and imagine I've already won the election. I've already been published, and now people recognise me in the street, want my autograph when they make my cappuccino's and serve me custard tarts.

The only thing left to do, after this magical pep talk from the future, is to make myself the sole voter for this famous writer, who will be the president / Prime Minister of this future success.

I Vote 1. Me.

Selfish?

Well, no one else can do it, is going to do it, has a right to do it, or can be bothered to do it. That's politicians.

And that's writing elections. Only you can vote yourself into the top spot.



Incidentally, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have seen the Hospital I had for sale? Well, it hasn't sold yet, and I also have a Hotel on the Sparky Realty books.

Be quick for this one. It would make an ideal backpackers, at the foot of the Warrumbungle Ranges, within shouting distance of some very interesting sandstone caves (that are closed over Christmas due to eagles nesting), and is on the main Melbourne to Brisbane bus and truck routes. Lot's of potential clients. Truckies, students, tourists and even locals who need urgent accomodation when they can't manage to find their own, or the taxi needed to transport them to it.




Sparky