A few notes on writing, what I've noticed so far anyway.
Writers are lazy
Lets face it, writers are lazy. If we had our way we would spend the day mooning around the house, waiting for the post to come and/or avoiding the phone.
Good writers have a combination of a mathematical mind and a strong emotional depth, which is kind of why writers are antisocial. We, writers know that the odds are stacked against things working out well in social company but our mathematical mind thinks that we can beat the odds and make it as a writer. That is why you don't often see great writers such as Harper Lee or JD Salinger on newsreels talking about their craft in an engaging way.
Poets are like cabinet makers or prisoners?
Some very good poets, are essentially no different from cabinet makers, who spend years honing their craft and become embittered in the task so that they are dedicated, perfectionists. Poets end up relating to other poets in the same way that writers relate to other writers or people in prison relate to others who have been in prison. There is a kind of grudging acceptance of the other. The friendships though are real and the depth of the passions cannot be measured, even in words.
The craft of writing
As a writer I say to myself on a daily basis, how can I say it better, and what can I take out of what I just said that does not make sense? Writing is not like being a human being, on a human level, with vulnerabilities and weaknesses and humility and a need to adapt in a social setting to meet the social needs. Writing is about being in charge and telling how things are, taking the voice and directing the story where you want it to go.
Writers write as much from sitting in stillness as they do banging on the keyboards. I am certain that the best thoughts come when you are alone and have had time to digest everything that is going on around you. Some tips for writers block from me, at this point in my life, without any great successes as a novelist, though some success as a poet on film.
Tips for writers
1. Characters: Move 'Em. Either your characters or yourself
If you are getting bored with your characters, chances are that your audience is ready to close the book as well for good. If you are looking for inspiration, move em, i.e get your characters moving and talking and engaged. Or move yourself. A quick jog, swim or even a walk in the park will get your brain walking again.
2. Try doing some labouring or manual work
Many people scoff at manual work as being for people who aren't clever enough to get real jobs but real work on building sites or in the orchard will get your mind the independence you need and likely get you a few stories as well. People tell the best stories when they are relaxed, convey the best emotion in these environments. This intimate setting is similar to what the novelist must recreate in their fictional accounts with words.
3. Try painting or DIY in your house
A few strokes of the brush in the kitchen will get you into a good rhythm and before long you may come up with the plot twist that you'd been stumped by, in a day at the office, watching the clock and fending of nosy questions from prying co-workers. That is not to say there is not a story in the office too, but you have more freedom to be yourself painting your house. And if you are married you will stay in the wife's good books as well!
4. Take a passage of Shakespearean prose and dissect it
I quote from memory, a University play, but this is an idea.
Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet:
BENVOLIO:
Here comes Romeo! here comes Romeo!
MERCUTIO:
Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh,
how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that
Petrarch flowed in. Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen
wench (marry, she had a better love to berhyme her),
Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, Helen and Hero hildings
and harlots, Thisbe a gray eye or so, but not to the
purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! There's a French salutation
to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit
fairly last night.
Each word in this passage has a hidden meaning and can identify more meaning in the text and the circumstances in which it was written. As the play is written in Elizabethan England in a time of the Renaissance then the historical figures and that period's obsession with the past come into play. For example, the passage indicates the role of women in the play, and the historical figures are clearly noted, not just Roman but Greek historical figures as well. What are the words 'hilding' and 'thisbe' and how to they relate to the text? Is this a good passage to convey word play and double meaning?
5. Consider working in finance.
Some of the greatest figures in world literature had some history of working in accounts. Robert "Bob" Cratchit toiled for Ebeneezer in bookkeeping, Kafka worked in an office, with his nose in the figures.
Working adding up sums and making the figures balance to the last penny is just as merciless as you will need to be in writing. If you are looking to get the right words on the page, balancing books will not hurt; you will learn detail and number crunching, which will help your writing. After all it is the quality of the novel that will sell eventually, no matter how hard the marketers push. And if a bad novel does sell, a good novel will give you satisfaction and also provide inspiration to other writers coming up the ranks.
Good novel writing is just about conveyance of emotion as well as economy of words. Mathematical skill is also important as the story much have a shape and form and, if just for these illustration purposes, a beginning, middle and end.
6. Trip to the library.
The library is a source of the history of writers since the beginning of the written word. Therefore the words of those who have written before are worth a look. At the moment, there is an exhibit at the British library about the evolution of the British language; from the 'Angles' to Olde English to Chaucer's influence on Middle English and the effect of the French language on speaking patterns, so that if you listen clearly you can understand Chaucer's Canterbury Tales the way they are read. At the moment, there is a recorded history of speeches given by the greats, among them Mahatma Ghandi, Cassius Clay and with the help of an English playwright, Margaret Thatcher.
"There is order in the universe. God and the law giver are one." Mahatma Ghandi
"I am the Greatest." Muhammed Ali.
'The lady's not for turning." Margaret Thatcher.
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