Thoughts on Writing 

Norman Mailer called it “The Spooky Art” and I’m inclined to agree with him.  Those times when you feel yourself the channel and not the source.  I know many of you understand what I mean.  Sitting at the edge of the blank page and two hours later, having it filled.  You didn’t know what you were going to write about but somehow it all just worked.  I’m very grateful for this something that I don’t understand.

On writing in general, I have some thoughts rather than advice.  The single most important thing you need to do is find your own voice.  Because it’s in there somewhere, even though you doubt its existence at times.  It may be small.  It may be quiet.  It may be less audible than a dog whistle.  But it’s there.  It took me five novels and the best part of a decade to find mine and still it’s only new to me.  Yet to mature.  It’s unmistakable once your hear it.  And once you do, you can’t stop listening.  You wonder what strange woman/man has been talking on your behalf for all these years -  masquerading as you.  And now you’ve finally become authentic.  This is the part of yourself that you need to write from, and hopefully live from to.

Remember its your own voice you want to hear and no one else’s.  So be wary of imitation and, above all, comparison.  Comparing yourself with another writer is like comparing an orangutan with a brick and just as pointless.  Worse than pointless. It is insidious.  Chipping away at your confidence and drowning out that authentic voice that you’ve strained so hard to hear.

Of all the qualities you need to be a writer, king above them all is persistence.  Grit, determination, perserverence, backbone.  Whatever you like to call it.  How else are you going to deal with those almost inevitable rejection letters?  Or get to the end of your novel when you’ve hit a brick wall half way through?  Persistence is key.  Without it, talent will get you nowhere.  If you’ve got the two, you’re laughing.

And while we’re on the thorny subject of those rejection letters, a quick word about sensitivity.  Sensitivity is something that writers have in abundance.  This is good.  This is vital.  However, it is a quality that can turn you into a quivering wreck when those literary doors are slammed in your face.  Or when you’ve attained the holy grail – you have a published book – and then you get a bad review!  You feel as if you’ve been personally attacked.  How dare they?  How could they?  They’re obviously jealous.  Or they just don’t get it.  But the longer you’re in this game, the more you realize how subjective it all is.  What a nonsense it all is.  And that all you can do is write the best book you can possibly write and let it go.  Sometimes they really won’t get it. 

This website is only in its infancy.  As more thoughts come to me, I will share them with you.  In the meantime, the best of luck to each and every one of you with all of your writing endeavours.