Category: writing

Argh pc fucksy grr ness etcetera.

Sara Crowley2 Comments

My pc is fucksy. It is full of wrongness. I haven’t posted much anywhere, haven’t been able to comment on my favourite blogs and so on, because at any time, without warning, crash, it chucks me off, it deletes my email/post/whatever.
Just thought I should say so…
Of course this happens when I am supposed to be really concentrating on my attempted entry to the NYP Bookseller comp. Le sigh. I can’t write direct to pc in case it snaffles it, instead I am scrawling longhand on various ripped out bits of paper, and trying to convince myself that somehow they will come together and become a cohesive and wonderful whole.
(I know, I could use any one of my gazillion notebooks, but when i sit with a book open it seems to scare my words away. I have to wait for them to rush into my head and trap them like a scurrying spider, quickly, plop, on any old paper to hand.)

Oh dear, I fear I’m writing utter shite.

Writer’s block…middle class bollocks.

Sara Crowley10 Comments

This is part of an interview with Ray Robinson that I found at

http://www.panmacmillan.com/interviews/
(The link won’t work for some reason when I insert it.)

“I have a very blue-collar approach to my work. Writing isn’t some esoteric art; I don’t sit poised, quill in hand every morning, waiting for my monkey muse to throw some peanuts of inspiration at me. Writers block is a lazy-arse middle-class excuse to read the papers or watch Tricia. Writing, like every other art form, is a craft, and all novelists are apprentices because there’s no such thing as the perfect novel. You have to write your balls (or tits) off, all of your life, and you still might be shit at it. But that’s the thing I love about novel writing, as opposed to short stories or poems; it’s that their size, the sheer amount of words they contain, permits imperfection. I can think of a handful poems and short stories that ache with near-perfection (and by perfect I mean that if you removed a single word they would collapse; think Paul Farley; think Raymond Carver), but this simply isn’t the case with a novel – it can carry exiguous or bad writing if the bulk of the narrative is strong enough.

I try to do a nine-to-five, five days a week, and I find it helps if I leave the flat. I like working at the British Library; I find the diligent atmosphere refreshing. This is always difficult because usually I wake up (mentally, creatively) about 10 p.m. I’m preternaturally nocturnal and I rarely switch off. I find everything inspiring, and like some sick, sad pervert, I have to write for life to mean anything. So no, it’s no easy process. It’s a distorted and voyeuristic way of life with no OFF button.”

I think that has made me feel quite cheerful actually.

It’s the difference that matters.

Sara Crowley5 Comments

Rather depressingly it has become apparent to me that there are a substantial number of people who are women writing competent stories. What worries me is the notion that perhaps we are possibly interchangeable but for one or two quirks of style.

That sucks.

Are we going to spend the rest of our lives submitting our tales hopefully, and sometimes being validated by a publication which will feed our aspirations to be full time writers? It may well never be enough. Why me and not them? What makes my work stand out? I am looking at my words and as far as I can see there’s nothing to get excited about. I am feeling rather upset.

I think that my novel idea is good, exciting, and different. I am also terrified that I can’t pull it off. The necessary length of it intimidates me. I’m not sure that I can sustain a story that long. I need to be braver and at least give it a really good try. I don’t know how to reach into the feelings I have and wrench them out onto the page. So often I feel like an artist who attempts a portrait but comes out with a stick drawing. I know though that when it works, and the words say what I intend them to, that there is no greater sense of fulfilment. So I carry on, word next to word and so on.

Vanessa Gebbie’s competition.

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Vanessa Gebbie has put up details of a competition that she is hosting on her site.
http://vanessagebbiesnews.blogspot.com/

“HOW TO BUILD A MAN” COMPETITION

I’ll give a £25.00 PRIZE to the best short story inspired by Alison Dunne’s poem, How to Build a Man.

It must be unpublished, your own work, and under 1250 words.

The winner will be published on here for a week or two. Then I’ll take it down if the writer wants.

Closing date: Monday 2nd April.

Post your stories here, by posting a comment. They won’t appear immediately… as I moderate the posts. But all stories posted will appear, and be readable by everyone, so long as they dont contravene any blogger rules, and so long as they seem serious entries…whenever I manage to get to a computer during the next week. You can also post comments on the stories.

You can post as many entries as you like. Those who work hardest have more chances to win. Seems fair, doesn’t it?

If you don’t like the idea of posting here, you can email the entries to me

vrgebbie AT aol DOT com

Passs the word round. Or alternatively, if you want more chances of winning, don’t pass the word round, and write twenty stories yourself.

Searching for the dazzle.

Sara Crowley6 Comments

I approach things in an optimistic fashion I think. When I pick up a book to read, or settle down to watch a film or TV show, or play music, I am hoping to be absorbed and delighted. I want it to be great, really, that’s what I am rooting for.
It seems ages since I have been dazzled. Even with the decent stuff I start out thinking ooh, this is good, which peters out into, well, it’s not so bad, before it finishes and I think, oh.
Veronica Mars ( yeah, on and on I go about VM) was great, I was impressed throughout by plot, dialogue, acting, dammit, I even liked the clothes! But that’s it. That’s the sum total of me being impressed this year so far. Sigh.
So what is that about? Am I old and jaded and way too fussy, is there a dearth of dazzle, is it my hormones?
Every book of short stories at work seem to come with some proclamation that this author is the best writer of his/her generation, and is endorsed by x, y and z authors who all agree that here is rare talent. And I flip open the book and read blah stories that leave me cold. I don’t know what I am looking for but I’ll know it when I see it. I can’t write it either, it’s what I want to write and read and watch and hear, for now it is utterly elusive.

(Actually, it probably sounds a bit like Beth Ditto, and reads like Janice Galloway’s “The trick is to keep breathing” and looks like Veronica Mars…seen it anywhere?)

Veronica Mars.

Sara Crowley4 Comments

Just about the only thing bringing me joy right now is Veronica Mars. Living have been repeating series 1 and 2 daily for the last few weeks, and it is ultra delicious. The writing is uber snappy and funny, but there are also those quiet vulnerable moments too. I think the actors are doing a really good job, and yeah, I want to be Veronica and snog Logan, sigh. The great thing about the show is the way it has an amazingly complex story arc, and it doesn’t fuck up with it ever. I am a huge Buffy and Angel fan, Joss is my man, I came to VM with a huge amount of scepticism. I thought it would be Buffy lite and I’d hate it. But no, I LOVE it. I read today that Joss Whedon said it was the ” Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I’ve never gotten more wrapped up in a show I wasn’t making, and maybe even more than those. Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion, I mean BIG, and charismatic actors and I was just DYING from the mystery and the relationships and PAIN” (caps all his.)
So now I feel vindicated in my adoration. In fact JW guest starred in the episode I watched last night, and I didn’t realise until afterwards.
Anyhoo, I have been finding books fairly disappointing recently, I haven’t reviewed what I have read because I don’t want to just slag off somebody’s hard work. I’m working to the adage if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing so I’m keeping schtum about my feelings towards several current hot novels. They were all dull. If only one could transfer some of that VM magic onto paper, whoo, that’d be ace. But how hard is it to write characters as complicated as Logan? I honestly don’t know if it is possible. All I can say is that amidst my pile of notes for my novel is a line saying “VM and the year long story arc.”

Book tokens competition.

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I read about this over at Danuta Kean’s blog (link on right).

National Book Tokens launch Not Yet Published, a literary prize exclusively for booksellers. The Not Yet Published prize celebrates National Book Tokens 75th anniversary and long association with the book trade. Inspired by Man Booker nominees Sarah Waters and David Mitchell, who were both booksellers before becoming bestselling authors, National Book Tokens is offering others in the book trade the opportunity to be published. First time authors are requested to submit an extract from the work, a proposal, an outline or a synopsis of no more than 10,000 words of either fiction or non-fiction. The winning bookseller author will receive a book publishing contract with Faber & Faber.Stuart Mathews, Managing Director of National Book Tokens comments:“National Book Tokens has been hugely supported by thousands of individual booksellers over the years, this prize acknowledges their expertise and commitment.”The prize is open to all booksellers from the UK and Republic of Ireland employed as of 1st February 2007, whether they work for a chain or an independent. The shortlist of authors will be announced in September and the winner announcement will be made on 14th November, to coincide to the day with National Book Tokens’ 75th anniversary.The judges are, Lee Brackstone, Editorial Director for Fiction at Faber, Julian Loose, Editorial Director for Non-fiction at Faber, Alex Clark, Deputy Literary Editor of the Observer, independent bookseller Patrick Neale, and authors Adele Parks and Francis Spufford.National Book Tokens continue to be a highly successful part of the books industry, with sales in excess of £30 million p.a. With the launch of an electronic book token scheduled for later this year, plans are underway for delivering sales well into the future.More information on the Not Yet Published prize, including the rules and conditions, can be found in the bookseller zone at www.nationalbooktokens.co.uk

Seems like a good thing. The only thing I don’t understand is that you can send an extract or synopsis, wouldn’t one want to submit both so that the extract makes sense. Sigh. I am so out of the loop when it comes to knowing such things.

Oh for fucks sake…

Sara Crowley3 Comments

There was an article in yesterday’s Independent by Frances Wilson entitled “True romance – private lives of the lady novelists.” It begins with the line “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in pursuit of a literary career will never find happiness with a husband, particularly if she writes about love.”
Per-lease.
The next sentence is “Consider the list: Sylvia Plath, left by Ted Hughes for another woman, penning her last desperate poems before putting her head in the oven…” She continues by mentioning Mary Wollstonecraft, Jean Rhys, Collette, Mrs Gaskell, The Bronte sisters and Jane Austen, and states “It is a subject that is increasingly fascinating us, the readers.”
Hmmm. Is that true? Is any of it true?
It smacks to me of page filling, essay making bollocks.
Switch the title to “Private lives of the male poets” and state that it is a universal truth that male poets never find happiness with their spouses. let’s site Ted Hughes as an example shall we, after all he married Sylvia but was unable to remain faithful and content, he left her for Assia Weevil and both of those unfortunate women gassed themselves. To lose one wife in that way is sad, to lose two is surely suspect. Let’s discuss Dylan Thomas’s alcoholism and abuse of the ladies, Charles Bukowski too. There we go, proof that it is not possible to be male, poetic and lucky in lurve. What utter piffle.
It makes me so cross to see misinformation set out as fact. What about the many happily married female authors? It is possible, of course. The first line is the one that bothers me so much “It is a truth universally acknowledged” by whom?

Grrr, and yeah, argh too.

What is the point?

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I have several short story ideas bubbling around. Plus of course, my novel is always in my head (never on the page, such fear!) The two email fiction things I did have broken my inertia a little. I sat down yesterday to write, and instead of one of the story ideas I have been brewing something entirely different came out. Or at least, half of a story came out. I have no clue what to do with it, the whole thing seems rather pointless, not in a woe is me what is the point way, more a what the fuck is the story then way? Hmmm. I have a character, who has a flirtation with a work colleague that we follow over the course of a few work do’s. My title is so far “Six work do’s” although that’s a guess. So far we have had 3 of the do’s. I know that there has to be at least a fourth and fifth. And I can’t think of any climax at all. Ho hum, I suppose it’s a writing exercise and at least I am pulling words out of somewhere and sticking them down.