Graduation

Eight months after the tears, sweat and anguish that is dissertation hand-in I finally graduated with a Masters in Creative and Professional Writing today.

My 11 year old daughter was at the ceremony waving continually from her place in the crowd. Afterwards she told me she felt tearful when the speaker thanked family members for helping graduates along the way. She said "Mummy I feel really proud of you".

I had my daughter when I was still a teenager and I remember how surprised people were when I applied to university to take my undergraduate degree. People do not expect much of a teenage mum although those that know me would have expected nothing less.

Graduation was made all the more special because I saw five of my very dear friends. We initially became friends through our shared love of writing and reading, later we found we loved each other outside of those confines. Now I would be lost without them. I would not write as much and I certainly would not laugh or smile as much. If nothing else had come from my course meeting the girls would have been worth the fees alone.

So, as we stood with our families in the freezing cold March wind and threw our hats high into the air I felt nothing but thanks for all I've achieved, for my friends and for my family. Simply put, I felt happy.

My novel

I've kept something from you. I haven't talked about my writing. I've talked around it, discussed events, authors etc however I have yet to touch upon my own work. Perhaps I feel shy because it's new. Although the idea had been whirring in my head for some time before I put pen to paper or, more accurately, fingers to keyboard.

So here goes. The novel I am working on is a childrens novel aimed at eight to twelve year olds. It's a fantasy and it's set in a famous London landmark. I've been researching it for some months now although if I counted all my visits to the place I would say I've been researching it since I was two. I'm not going to divulge the place yet because the work is not finished and I still may change it. So for now all I'll say is I'll keep you posted.

Literary Girl

February Book Slam

I went to Book Slam last week. For those of you who don't know it Book Slam is 'London's Best Literary Nightclub' according to the blurb. Its moved to the Tabernacle in Notting Hill and whilst I'm still debating if I prefer the cleaner, more theatrical and grand looking venue to its dark, dirty predecessor there's no doubt that Book Slam still rocks.

Thursday saw readings from poet Robin Robertson and author Joshua Ferris. Music came from the talented Tawiah.

Robin Robertson's Scottish drawl and dry wit had me captivated. He started with "Most of my poems are about drink, sex and death. It's vital they're kept in that order." Beat. "For legal reasons." Robin lived up to his word with a poem about an artichoke which was a barely disguised euphemism for, well a "stub root" as he affectionately called it.

Patrick Neate, the brainchild behind the night and occasional, host took to the stage in his usual non-style. Clutching at a can of beer he barely concealed his discomfort at having to stand in the spotlight. This familiar style is endearing (he'd probably hate that) and was particularly so when he mentioned that he was doing a book signing. He cringed and muttered and finished by saying "I hate myself a little now." Still I don't think anyone else felt the same way. I for one miss him when he gets a professional to take to the stage.

Anyway after Robin came Joshua Ferris reading from his new novel, The Unnamed, a novel about a man, Tim Farnsworth, with a psychological disorder that causes him to walk. This compulsion to walk can strike at any time and he has no power to stop it. Joshua read from the start of the novel in which Tim has been to see another doctor who has suggested a new cure.
Certainly the premise was interesting and I came away wondering whether Tim was ever going to be cured of his malady however I'm not sure I'm going to buy it... I'll keep you posted.

10 rules for writing fiction

I've just finished reading the Guardian's article Ten Rules for Writing fiction in which famous writers such as Roddy Doyle, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman and many more share their personal rules for writing fiction.

Some took a more tongue in cheek approach to the exercise such as Doyle who wrote "do not place a photograph of your ­favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide." Colm Tóibín conveyed the importance of reading about ones peers, "If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane." Elmore Leonard took a more serious approach and focused on form and the pitfalls of using adverbs, exclamation marks and regional dialogue.

Some of the rules seemed more like rules for life than writing. 'Don't take any shit if you can possibly help it' and the more arbitrary 'don't have children'.

To save you trawling through I've picked out my top 10 and added the authors who suggested them in brackets.

1) Read, read everything you can lay your hands on (Michael Moorcock, Ian Rankin, Will Self (he actually says you should stop reading but only because you have read enough already), Zadie Smith (although she says you should read when still a child so this might mean inventing a time machine), PD James)

2) Don't just plan to write – write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style. (PD James)

3) Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments. (Roddy Doyle)

4) Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea. (Richard Ford) N.B. This one assumes that you want to get married at all. If not ignore completely.

5) Keep a diary. The biggest regret of my writing life is that I have never kept a journal or a diary. (Geoff Dyer)

6) Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something. (Geoff Dyer)

7)The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page. (Anne Enright) This is similar to rule number 1 but written in slightly different way so I don't think it's cheating.

8) You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up. (Margaret Atwood)

9) Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted. (PD James)

10) Read all of Neil Gaiman's rules because that man is a genius. See his list below. (Literary girl)

1 Write.

2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3 Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you've never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8 The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

So what did I learn from an article about rules? Write as you wish, just make sure you turn off the Internet.

On children

Paulo Coelho just posted this poem on his blog. It touched me so I wanted to share it.

On Children

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran

The Queen of Procrastination

I indulge in procrastination on a daily basis. So married am I to the cause that I can spend all day NOT writing a single thing. Instead I stare blankly at clothes I can't afford or read news I have read many times before. I stare at meaningless images of celebrities and read banal stories that have no consequence for me or anyone else other than to our waste precious time.

Someone once declared me the Queen of Procrastination. How nice, I thought, to have been bestowed a title for my work, or lack thereof. I thought it was important to recognise that writers need time to think, to dwell, to wonder: my weak argument for the word count refusing to budge. It wasn't until my friends had written the fourth or fifth draft of their novels, while I was still dwindling on my first, that I began to see my title as a cause for concern.

I needed a way to climb out of the procrastination time warp. So what did I do? What would help me finish my novel? Well I created this blog.

literary

lit·er·ar·y 
–adjective
1.pertaining to or of the nature of books and writings, esp. those classed as literature: literary history.

2.pertaining to authorship: literary style.

3.versed in or acquainted with literature; well-read.

4.engaged in or having the profession of literature or writing: a literary man.

5.characterized by an excessive or affected display of learning; stilted; pedantic.

6.preferring books to actual experience; bookish