Wednesday 28 October 2015

Where have all the eccentrics gone?

I’m not even sure exactly where the interest has come from, but in the last few weeks I’ve been learning more about Ernest Hemingway. He was some character. Either unlucky or careless he had some truly spectacular accidents: once going to the toilet at his flat in Paris he pulled the cord that opened the skylight instead of the toilet chain and pulled it so hard that the whole skylight fell on his head resulting in a visit to hospital. Another time, whilst in Africa, the plane he was in with his wife crashed leaving them by a waterfall surrounded by elephants. Rescued a day later he was then in a second plane crash almost immediately – and survived both.

You don’t hear such things about E L James and Dan Brown, the biggest selling authors of the last decade. The most that can be said about Brown is that he hangs upside down every morning wearing gravity boots. E L James is the most reclusive of characters. What of the other member of the Holy Trinity? JK Rowling. Writing a book in a cafĂ© and now part of cyberspace and a multi-millionaire is ordinary when compared to the writers of the past.

Ian Fleming, once a member of the Secret Service during World War II, retreated to Jamaica each year to write the Bond books. Lord Byron and Percy Shelley – renowned eccentrics and fully paid up members of the odd ball club. Barbara Cartland was a vision in pink and taffeta – although the vision would cause nightmares in many who saw her. Enid Blyton was another strange one and Agatha Christie disappeared for 10 days, with those missing days never explained – despite the strange film with Elliot Gould and Cybil Shepherd.

The point is do you have to be eccentric or even considered odd to be a writer? Poets do seem to capture this flavour of oddness or is that because they more performers than authors? The idea that they have to go out in front of people rather than the people taking them home with them, as they do with a book. (In the photo is a poet at a wedding - thanks Justin Thyme).

The irony, of course, that many of the great eccentric writers did not meet the best of ends. Hemingway shot himself, Fleming died through ill health – largely because of his Bond-like lifestyle, Shelley drowned in an accident at sea and Lord Byron died of illness whilst fighting in Greece. The question remains then. Do authors and poets have a need to be eccentric or are they odd by conventional standards? And by the standards of Hemingway, and the others, are today’s writers as ordinary as I have painted them? Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.



Yours literally

Andy Gibney
@andygibneystwitter




Wednesday 21 October 2015

Is the screen the word?

A new James Bond film is always the source of great excitement around the world and next Monday (26th October) that excitement reaches fever pitch with the launch of the latest instalment. With over a billion dollars taken for 'Skyfall' the expectation is high, but also the chances of disappointment too. Will 'Spectre' be as good? Will it take as much money and other such inane questions. The point is that Daniel Craig is in it, it has a new Aston Martin, there will be girls, fights and ultimately James Bond will save the world. When Ian Fleming sat down at his typewriter in 1952 to create the ultimate spy can he ever have imagined things would go so far?

With all this hype, and I am a Bond fan, it got me wondering about other books turned into films and the impact that the film has on a book's readership. When Harry Potter reached the cinema he already had legions of fans. My son and stepson feel that the films have never reached the levels of the books and openly scorn many of the scenes. The fans of '50 Shades of Grey' (all right calm down, they do exist) universally felt that the film wasn't better than the book - definitely damned in all circles there then. However, other films have found fans of the film rather than the book. Many whom have seen the 'Lord of the Rings' series ('The Hobbit included) have preferred the films to the books. Tolkien's wordy style does seem rather old-fashioned when viewed 60 years or so since their publication, although I still love the books and the films. 

The most filmed of all literary characters, Sherlock Holmes, has undergone great reboots with both the Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr creations attracting new audiences, but again I wonder how many turn to the source material? Shakespeare never goes out of fashion, but here I do think that people study the texts, whether as an academic exercise or for their pleasure.

Whatever the case I think it is clear that a film can breath new life into a book and that, hopefully, will encourage a viewer to become more of a reader. After I had watched 'The Notebook' I had to read the book and found the film to be better. Many years ago when I saw 'Roots' on television I also had the desire to read the book. The tv series was much better than the book, although Alex Haley's text is also of top quality. Another series I feel that are better than the original books are the Bourne series; a series so good that it forced the producers of Bond to up their game. The Inspector Morse books don't match up to the majesty of John Thaw's interpretation either - infact I didn't like Morse much as a character on the page, but I love the TV version.

All of which leads me to the question asked by fans of books and film versions of characters. Which is better? Your own imagination, aided by the author, or what you see on the screen in a cinema or at home? Usually I have heard that the book will 'always' be better than the film (or TV version). I would dispute that, as my examples have shown, but a lot of time this is true. It is the level of character development that a book can provide that makes the book the winner in most cases. It is also true that without the book the film would never have been made, In the case of 'Lord of the Rings' the books were so rich in imagery that it took the film industry 50 years to catch up before they could be effectively tackled. The cartoon version was rubbish. 

Which brings me to the end of this little discussion, but I hope it encourages you want to add your voice as well, which you can do in the comments below. I'd love to know which books you think are better than the films or the other way round and also, which books have been filmed that should never have been touched at all? 

Yours literally

Andy Gibney
@andygibneystwitter



Have something to say?  Please comment below, all feedback welcome.




Sunday 18 October 2015

My Writing Process


This week I thought I'd do something a little different. Many of you may be writers yourselves, or you may just be curious of a writers process. Well, this week, I'll be giving you a bit of an insight into mine!
WRITING SPACE:

I don’t exactly have a particular space I only go to write. My writing space is basically my space for just about everything, but just look at it:




This is the single, most comfortable armchair I’ve ever sat in, in my entire life. It is just brilliant and so cosy. I just sit back and relax while I go about my writing. This is probably one of the most important things when it comes to writing. Finding that spot you’re most comfortable in.
Some people need a room to themselves where they’re away from any distractions or noise, which, if you live with others or still with your parents, is most likely going to be your bedroom.
For me however, I’ve become so accustomed to the TV noise and my parents talking that it barely affects me anymore. I feel most comfortable and ready to write when I’m sitting in my armchair in my living room. The room can be full of noise or completely silent and I’ll be able to get the job done.
The problem occurs when my parents are watching something I’m interested in, this is where I get hugely distracted and end up spending an hour and a half watching the TV without realising. In this case, I usually put my headphones on and blast some music. This sends me right back into writing mode and I completely forget about the world around me.
Technically there is another place I write quite frequently. And if you don’t mind finding out a little too much about me I’ll tell you.
The bath. Yes, the bath.
I don’t know what it is about being in the bath that makes me suddenly so inspired to write but for some reason it does and you know what, I just go with it, because any time inspiration hits you, you should milk it for all it’s worth. It doesn’t come along very often.

NOTES:

Are you like me? Do you have five thousand word documents open at once while you write?

One thing I’ve been doing recently is hooking my monitor up to my laptop (and yes that’s Rocky wallpaper – I’ll get to that in a minute). I move all my notes onto the monitor screen so I can see everything at once without flicking through document after document to find the bit of information I need.

It is a good idea to have a system like this. Even if you just have something that you put sticky notes on (shout out to my friend Jess). It will make your life a hundred times easier while writing.

IDEAS THAT OCCUR WHEN I’M NOWHERE NEAR MY LAPTOP:

This used to present a problem for me, because I never had a decent enough phone to write and store things. At first I used to write my ideas in a text message and save it to my draft folder. Then I’d later write it up on my laptop.
Problem: By the time I was anywhere near my laptop, I’d completely forget I ever had an idea, and therefore my phone would collect around 30 draft text messages before I realised and would have to type them all up one by one.
These days though, I have a much better phone, which allows me to write a document and save it directly to the folder I want it in on Dropbox as a word document. There’s no messing about, no writing things up later, it is simple and so quick to do.

FUEL:
Most people generally go down the coffee or energy drink or alcohol route when they spend extensive amounts of time writing.
Me? I’m a little different. Tea is my fix.
Tea is a necessity. Tea is life. I cannot physically or mentally function without a cup of tea and this is why I constantly have a giant mug beside me while I write. This does usually mean a break every ten minutes to make a new cup, but it’s good to have breaks.
Whatever your fix is, make sure you have it on hand when writing. It will make your life incredibly easier.
P.s. Just don’t go down the Coleridge route. Opium (more commonly known as heroin) is going a little too far.

INSPIRATION:
On those days where nothing is going your way, or you feel like giving up writing altogether, I like to remind myself of my favourite quote to help me keep going.


This picture (as you saw earlier) is my desktop wallpaper, so it’s always there to remind me push through whatever writers block or troubles or worries I have at the time. I’m seriously considering getting this tattooed on my arm.
It’s always good to have a pick-me-up close by when you’re feeling down in the dumps. Every time I read this quote I immediately feel better and strive to push through the hard times.
I hope you enjoyed this post. As I said, it is a little different from what I've posted in the past. If you would like more posts like this, then don't hesitate to let me know.


Yours weekly,
Jennie Byrne
@mustbejlb (on Instagram and Twitter)


Please comment below, all feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Running your rituals


All writers have their rituals, their ways of helping the ideas flow. I am constantly reminded that writer’s block does not exist, that it is an excuse used by the lazy or fearful to commit words to paper, or ether. Stephen King once said that “Writer’s block only exists in the amateur, the professional just does the work.” Not wanting to be an amateur I do the work. Except on days when I’m just lazy and I admit to it as such. In my creative times  I must sit at my keyboard, or as I type this today, at my asthmatic laptop wheezing away in the background as the words flow from my brain, through my fingers to the tapping sound of the keys to produce words that now sit inside your brain.

I remember reading about the disciplined way that Dan Brown writes. He will rise at 4am each day and type 2000 words a day and finish around 6am ready to move on having done the ‘work’. To help his ideas flow he will hang upside down in his gravity boots, suspended from the ceiling or a door frame; I can’t say this would work for me, but I haven’t sold 200 million books either. It always amazed me that JK Rowling could write ‘the Philosopher’s Stone’ in a busy Edinburgh cafĂ©; I once visited the Elephant CafĂ© where Harry Potter came to life and I was astonished at the volume of noise and how dear Joanne managed to write the words that would change her life.

Personally I need silence to write; I’ve tried classical music in the background, but I found it annoying. As I find all noise annoying, when I have to let my brain function at its most creative. Fortunately I live in a very quiet part of the world and the whirring breathlessness of this laptop is bearable. How I look forward to the return of my PC at the weekend. So, if it is quiet that I need to let the words flow where do most of my ideas form?

It is out on the roads of Northamptonshire, not in a car, usually anyway, but from the padding of the streets and roads as I run. I never understand why people run with headphones, listening to music, although I suppose we all have our different ways of finding Zen. For me it is about getting out into the air and creating the flow of serotonin; of leaving all worries behind and pushing myself – and that’s true whether the run is easy or tough. Something happens in the fresh air, and it feels different from when I run than if I walk in the woods and the fields. My best ideas have always come either out on the road or in the shower after, as the water bounces off the top of my head or runs rivulets over me and into the plughole. In the peace, in the quiet, my brain ticks over and pulls random thoughts from my mind and from the creative gods of the unknown.

The act of running does two things: creates serotonin and helps me feel I’m alive. If I have a good run, I feel at my best; if I have a tough run I have overcome a hurdle. If, as it is so often, I just run then I still get the twin benefits, but the value is in what the experience gives me. Ideas, peace, direction, health and a place I know I can always retreat. I use running to help me overcome emotional pain by feeling physical pain. I run when I’m happy, I run when I’m sad and I run when it just has to be done. I can also talk myself out of a run with alarming ease. Mostly though, I just run. I keep it simple. I discipline myself in the same way with my writing; by writing at regular times, when my mind is most active I get the best out of myself. If there is writer’s block, then there is runner’s block and as there is neither I know I just have to get on with the ‘work’.




Yours breathlessly
Andy Gibney
@andygibneystwitter




Friday 9 October 2015

Interviewing Rodge Glass On ‘The Jim Hangovers’ And The ‘Being Dad’ Anthology


It is a surreal moment when you are approached about interviewing an author, but to interview two authors and meet one of them in person is a whole other kettle of fish.
During the interview Rodge told me I am the third person to read his short story. The first person is the editor of the collection Dan Coxon and the second person is Victoria Briggs who also interviewed him. This was a bizarre moment. Not only was I reading a story before it was even published, but I was also the third person to read it. Mind-blowing.
So there I was in Rodge’s office, this established writer looking to me to begin the interview as I fumble through documents on my laptop to find my list of questions. My mouth immediately goes dry and I’m taking sips of water every ten seconds. I’m also begging the God’s that I could type as fast as he could talk.
Then, I begin. Immediately I was put at ease, though an established writer, he seemed very down to earth, which I admired about him.

Do you have a specific place you like to write? Or do you just write wherever and whenever inspiration hits?
Rodge admits he used to write wherever and whenever inspiration hit. Interestingly, his first novel was written mostly under the stairs. With his second novel he upgraded to writing in a cupboard. Yes, it made me laugh too. I thought I was the only person who chose interesting spots to write. These days, after the birth of his daughter, it became impossible to write at home while having a baby daughter to look after; therefore he took to writing in his office at Edge Hill University where he works as a Senior Creative Writing lecturer. He also uses train journeys as time he can use to write.

How organised are you?
Rodge’s organisation used to be very scattered, though he is now very OCD with his work. He believes if you’re not organised then you will get nothing done. Rodge is an editor for Freight Books, which is one of the reasons he’s had to become obsessively organised.

What made you choose to be a part of this anthology?
Rodge saw a call-out via Twitter for writers to be part of this anthology. Rodge hardly ever enters things like writing competitions; however after having just become a father himself, he believed it would be a great opportunity to get involved with. He wrote the story for himself, but believed it would fit into the anthology perfectly and if it didn’t happen, then he would use it for something else. Rodge believes Dan Coxon, the editor, knew of his work and after enquiring about the anthology, Dan encouraged him to submit a story to the anthology.

Is it a true story? If not, are there any elements of your real life in there?
All of Rodge’s stories have one element that is absolutely true. He then takes this element and expands it, adding in fiction. He doesn’t generally write about himself, he uses something from his life (no matter how small) and uses it for more unorthodox angles. Unlike in the narrator in the story, Rodge was never a big drinker, he’s never lived in London and he’s never known anyone called Jim, however what he has experienced is friendships fading and realising you don’t quite see the world in the same way afterwards.
When Rodge’s daughter finished breastfeeding and moved onto food, he used to be up in the middle of the night feeding her. It was a special moment for him because he was finally able to feed his daughter. He realised it was at this time of the night where your mind wanders like you’re still in dream mode. This was another element from his life he decided to include in his story.

How did the anthology come about being made?
It was Dan Coxon’s enthusiasm for the concept of being a father. There was a kick-starter campaign for the anthology, once Dan had collected enough writers. There are so many stories out there about being a mother, but not many about being a father and this was another reason Dan was so determined to make this anthology happen.

How long did your story take to write?
It took Rodge three or four months to write. He’s much more fragmented now his writing time. He writes a couple of pages and then comes back to it later. In the first draft, the story was more about friendship, then when he came back to it, he layered the story with references back to the narrators father and his relationship with his son.

Describe your story in one sentence.
‘A man feeds his child at sunrise, while reminiscing.’

What was your motivation/inspiration for this piece? Were there any writers that inspired you for this?
As an undergraduate, Rodge was majorly influenced by his lecturer and writer, Robert Alan Jamieson who he used to give his stories to, to give him advice on. Robert really helped him develop as a writer and whenever Rodge heard him say “you know what, that’s not awful” was what spurred him onto writing even more. It was his goal to impress others like Robert.
Another major influence was writer and artist Alasdair Gray, who he spent a lot of time with as he wrote his biography. Alasdair is old fashioned, dictated his words and he learnt from him. Rodge considers him his main mentor. He was so important to him, he dedicated knew he had to dedicate a whole book towards him.

At times it seemed Jim is the narrator’s father, other times he sounds like his brother and then his best friend, was this intentional?
It was intentional. Rodge believes a good short story only works if the writer is thinking all the time. Who are these characters? What are they doing? Why are they in this piece? He thought it would be intriguing having this ambiguity over Jim’s character.

Talk a little about how you structured your story.
A lot of Rodge’s stories have a scene he focuses on, but he cuts in and out of that scene. In this story, he’s having breakfast with his son, it is very much fragmented, as his mind begins to wander. He intentionally begins and ends the story with Jim. He doesn’t worry too much about the structure in the middle of the story.

I thought it was brilliant the way you set up the story as if a father is talking to a baby. It almost felt like the reader was the child. Was there any particular reason you decided to do this?
Yes, this was exactly his intention. Putting the reader in an interesting position. A baby can’t speak, and neither can the reader, so it became the perfect parallel. The reader can’t interrupt and express their views, just as a baby can’t. This wasn’t something he was consciously aware of when he first wrote it, it was something he later realised and played on this. He began writing the story almost as if the baby is listening and understanding the story, which obviously isn’t the case.

I’m loving the distinction between the narrators father being the complete opposite of the narrator and Jim’s mother. Was this done purposefully to make his father seem all the more terrible?
It wasn’t about making the narrator’s father look bad at all, just that he wasn’t a fan of the narrator’s mother. As a child this is something that affects your world and your view on things, which has made the narrator himself want to be different and be a better father than his was. Rodge discovered it was more of a challenge to represent a family that’s functional than a family that isn’t functional during the writing process.

Despite the narrator seeming not to have the best relationship with Jim, I found it interesting how they always used to go drinking together, what was your reason for this?
Some friendships are like this, they share a purpose in each other’s lives. For certain people, they want somebody to talk to, others want friends to go on wild adventures with. These days people don’t seem to expect too much out of friendships. Of course, the narrator is massively irritated by Jim, he believes he’s selfish, but Jim enables the narrator to drink. That is Jim’s purpose to him.

The narrator and Jim drank a lot. Like a lot. I’m guessing this means they were both alcoholics?
They were definitely alcoholics. Rodge mentions how he included anniversary dates in the story as an excuse for them to get drunk together. “Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway (November 27th, 1582) celebrated.” They never cared about the actual events; it was just something to justify drinking in the day.
Edge Hill University provides diaries, at the bottom of each page are anniversary dates. Rodge flicked through each page and chose the dates he thought would work best with the story.

Why was there no mention of the narrator’s mother?
Rodge did mention the mother, but only in relation to the father. It’s a short story and therefore he doesn’t believe the mother needs to be mentioned. Furthermore it’s a story about fatherhood therefore only featuring men.

The narrator seems a little cynical when he mentions him and Jim were stuck in bad jobs and then says to his child, he will inevitably have a bad job too. Is this a character trait you intended?
It wasn’t a character trait he intended for; he also doesn’t see this comment as being cynical. Rodge imagined the father to be sending his child out to work from a young age, even something as simple as a paper round. Ask anybody, they will most likely have had a bad job sometime in their life. It’s just something people will go through and this is all Rodge intended this comment to mean. Rodge himself has been working since the age of thirteen. Though he did state the beauty of writing is the reader seeing something in the writing the author didn’t intend.

I absolutely loved the ending. By the way the narrator was talking I assumed it was Jim who stopped talking to him or they just lost contact, but to read he actually ditched him in a pub was pretty shocking. Why did you decide to end at this point?
Rodge decided to end at this point as a metaphor for Jim outliving his usefulness as a friend. The narrator at this point has realised he’s had enough of Jim. He’s not totally sure if Jim even realises he’s there while he talks. The narrator enables Jim’s rambling, which is the reason he is useful to Jim. By leaving, this is where his life really begins, when he can put his life back together. He gets a wife, has a child and he stops drinking.

Is there anything else I haven’t asked you, that you think should be included?
Recently Rodge has been reading a lot of Roberto Bolaño’s work for his next novel. The novel is about Chile, which is where Bolaño was born. In The Jim Hangovers the narrator mentions Jim saw himself as a young Roberto Bolaño (a great artist in the making) when in reality he’s somebody sitting around talking about it, when the reader knows they’ll never get around to actually doing anything.

And thus concludes my interview with the wonderful Rodge Glass.
Hope you enjoyed this insight to the writing process of ‘The Jim Hangovers’.

ABOUT RODGE:

Rodge Glass is a novelist, short story writer and editor who was born in Manchester. He was educated at the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow, where he obtained his PhD.
He has published three novels, a literary biography which won a Somerset Maugham Award, a graphic novel and has edited two short story collections.
Rodge now works as a Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing at Edge Hill University. He regularly appears at literary festivals and events.

Yours weekly,
Jennie Byrne
@mustbejlb (on Instagram and Twitter)


Share your thoughts below. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

‘The Jim Hangovers’ Review


The Jim Hangovers is a short story by author Rodge Glass. It is part of an anthology of short stories, by many writers, set to come out early next year.
Under the Fable was given an exclusive look at a selection of the short stories going to be in the anthology. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to read two of the short stories to review. As you can see, I will be reviewing The Jim Hangovers in this post.
First of all: Brilliant title. I think it sets up the story perfect.
The narrator is a new parent, who, while feeding his son in the early hours of the morning, reflects on his friendship with Jim, a man he hasn’t seen in over eight years. We are shown that his friendship with Jim mostly consisted of nights out drinking, hence the brilliance of the title.
It took me a while to grasp who exactly Jim was to the narrator. For most of it I believed Jim was his father, until it is mentioned Jim could possibly be a father himself now. I kind of liked this ambiguity for most of the piece, as it made the story more exciting wondering just exactly who is Jim and how much are we going to find out about his character?
My absolute favourite part of this story is when the narrator reveals he and Jim used any occasion they could to drink. “The publication of Alice in Wonderland (2nd August, 1865) celebrated I can’t remember where.” I burst out laughing when reading this part; I just thought it was brilliant.
The ending of this story was shocking to me. The narrator explains how he and Jim were in a pub talking, though that was mostly Jim and the narrator gets up to go to the toilets but abruptly leaves the pub and Jim behind. This was the last time they saw each other. I was floored at this point. I totally believed it would be Jim who would cut all contact, but when this happened it gave a whole new perspective to the narrator and how he dumped Jim as soon as he got fed up of him.
In general, I believe this is an accurate representation of parenthood. I think everybody has witnessed the difficulty of being a new parent at some point in their lives. Even without children, it can be so easy to lose contact with people you consider your best friends, but when you have to work and look after a child, it becomes increasingly more difficult.
Though this anthology is about fatherhood, I believe this story in particular will resonate with everyone, not just fathers as everyone will have experienced losing contact with a friend or in some cases have been ditched by one.
I would definitely recommend The Jim Hangovers short story from this collection. It is outstandingly written and developed. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Hats off to Rodge Glass for writing a short story I actually enjoyed. That doesn’t happen a lot.

Yours weekly,
Jennie Byrne
@mustbejlb (on Instagram and Twitter)

Share your thoughts below. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Tolkien did it and so should you


Last Friday was a unique day for me. I was helping a group of authors bring their books to fruition; it was a training course put on by a business development organisation I’m part of and you might think that business people writing books would be a dry, sombre experience. It wasn’t; it just wasn’t. What it was was a riot of laughter, creativity, bawdy humour and excellent biscuits. Poets may be mad, artists liable to cut off parts of their body and sculptors dangerous with knives, but last Friday showed that wherever authors gather so creativity and laughter will follow.

There were revelations, when talking about people to write the foreword for the book one of those gathered said “I know Jeff Beck, but does anyone know him?” Those sitting around the table looked on incredulously (if you are young and this needs explaining Jeff Beck is one of the best guitarists of his generation), but our speaker wasn’t finished. “Or there’s always David I suppose.” We ask “David?” “Yes, Bowie, David Bowie.” If I have to explain that one I am speaking to the wrong audience.

There were surprises. A book on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse by a survival expert (I’m hoping this title turns up at the ‘Walker Stalker’ convention next February). There was also a book on how to be green and leave a low carbon footprint from someone who leases cars and there was a book on how to run a successful coffee shop by people who are running successful coffee shops. Ok, I confess that wasn’t a surprise, but I’m loving the title, “The Daily Grind”.

There were a couple of exercises that authors and other wordsmiths out there might like to try. The first is to give your book, poem or prose to someone you don’t know, let them read it for five minutes and then tell you what they think the piece is about. An excellent way of knowing if what you think you are saying is being picked up by your readership. Another great exercise was the ‘on the BBC couch’ role play. This is where you have to do an interview, no longer than three minutes, and in that time get your message across about your book. This crystalises your thinking and helps you get to the essence of your meaning; for those of us prone to waffle and an illuminating process to go through.

All of this may be of interest, but what I really want to leave you with is the idea of what bringing creative people together does. We would freely acknowledge that we sit at our keyboards or with pen and paper in hand pouring forth thoughts, ideas and literary pictures in a solitary existence. Usually the only place that I meet those who peddle words is at festivals and open mic nights, but I urge you to find a collective of authors, poets and storytellers and spend a day together. Exchange ideas, swop new words, push each other harder and find better ways to express your thoughts. Do it all in the spirit of the ‘Inklings’ (Tolkien, CS Lewis et al) and find common ground, behave in an outrageous fashion and form deeper friendships and camaraderie. Your writing will be all the better for it.




Yours flowingly

Andy Gibney
@andygibneystwitter



                                       Have something to say?  Please comment below, all feedback 

Sunday 4 October 2015

Writing That Killer First Line


There is nothing better than coming up with a new story idea and writing that brilliant first line to draw your audience in. Let’s look at a few examples:

“I’m pretty much fucked.”   
      -  The Martian by Andy Weir 


“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

 

Both of these first lines immediately draw in the audience. We want to know why the narrator is fucked! We want to know how the hell somebody can be born twice and know about it!

There is nothing worse than opening a book to the first page and seeing: “My name’s Emma Brooks, I’m 19 years old, I live in London with my mum and dad.” That really just makes me want to blow my brains out. Of course, details like this are important to finding out information about our protagonist, but the way we find these things out should be through something like speech, usually iterated by another character. “Emma…we’re moving.” See, it moves the plot along while also informing the reader the name of our protagonist.

But, we’re getting off course now.  

That first line is important. It can be the difference between somebody giving your novel a chance, or putting it back on the shelf because it doesn’t grab their attention. The more generic the first line, the harder it will be to prove yourself to your readers. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve read a novel where the first incident that grabbed my attention happened on page 115.

Be careful. There’s always the risk your first line will set up too much expectation for the rest of the story and you face the problem of ensuring the story meets those high expectations.

That killer first line usually pops into your head once in a blue moon, no matter how complex or simple, it usually happens when least expected. Typically during a time you can’t write it down!

I’ve learnt that instead of obsessing over the first line, I just simply start the story. I start at the beginning and write till the end. Then I go back. By now I know the story inside out, I know the characters really well and the world I’ve created. Usually it’s much easier to edit that first line and come up with something that will really grab the reader’s attention. So just tell your story. The right first line will come to you eventually.

For my dissertation module this year I have currently written 1,500 words of it and I love my first line. My tutor loves my first line, and I deem this an epic start to a story and it reads as follows: ‘Ask anyone to describe Kyle Davies in one word, they’d all say the same thing. Cunt.’

This is a little exclusive for you. Congratulations. I’m sure it’s made your day.

I think immediately this will shock people. I hope it’s shocked you. Shocking people usually makes them interested to read a little more…and then a little more. I believe I have the definition of a killer first line, and if you tell me wrong, I will ignore you. Just kidding…
 

Yours weekly,

Jennie Byrne

@mustbejlb (on Instagram and Twitter)
 


Share your thoughts below. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thursday 1 October 2015

When magic pours into your eyes


What is it about the magic of books? Those of us who love them find ourselves transported to imaginary lands, we get inside people’s heads and they get inside ours. We learn from them, we are fascinated by them, those of us who are true book geeks love the feel of certain books and others are so a part of us that they are like old friends.

Where does your book love come from? A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the Ladybird books story. Since then I’ve bought 7 of them from a local bookshop; they range in age from 1956 to 1973 and what is surprising is the quality of these books. Not just the quality of the secondhand copies that I bought, but the quality of the writing and the quality of the artwork. As I browsed through my new/old purchases something magical happened; memories were stirred. Memories so real and yet not thought of for many, many years. One of the books was on cowboys and I remembered a cowboy toy I had as a child, not a Woody from ‘Toy Story’, but an Action man like figure and what reminded me of this was one picture in the Ladybird book. It was a book that I had devoured as a child and now, more than 40 years later, I was transported back in time. It took me totally by surprise.

It has continued. I remembered reading ‘Lord of the Rings’ when I worked in warehouses in the early 1980’s; I remembered sitting on a train in London reading James Clavell’s ‘Shogun’; another memory was laughing out loud on a tube train to Bill Cosby’s book on fatherhood. Or reading ‘Watch My Back’ by Geoff Thompson and thinking I couldn’t keep reading this as I had to go back to work, then realising I was self-employed and now reading was part of ‘work’.

At the moment I’m reading ‘Careless Love’ the second part of Peter Guralnick’s masterpiece on the life of Elvis Presley and I’m reminded of Jerry Hopkins biography that I read as a child so much that the spine fell off. Books, books and more books. I thumb through my shelves and see the works of Ian Fleming, Malcom Gladwell, William Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I see my friend’s books: ‘Madam’ by Becky Adams, ‘The Botty Rules’ by Nigel Botterill, ‘The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment’ by Isabel Losada and I am reminded that every one of these encouraged me to become a writer. To let my words flow from my head and onto a piece of paper that someone, somewhere would be just like me. Moved by the written word, to think “I can do this, I can write a book.” I might not be Stephen King or Dan Brown or Carlos Castenada, but my words might move someone, might affect someone, might make them laugh or make them cry.

Words are all we have and yet they are everything we need. Read more, write more, express yourself more and do it through the love of the written word.

Yours lovingly

Andy Gibney
@andygibneystwitter





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