Cupcakes and book trailers

March 18, 2013 Leave a comment

cupcakeOne might read the title of this post and wonder how cupcakes and book trailers could be connected. After a successful launch for young adult novel Fake Profile, it seems that the star of the show was not the book—though we sold about 50 copies on the night— nor the trailer for the book, though people enjoyed that too. No, the most commented on aspect of the book launch party, was the cupcake phenomenon.

Why? Because it was through the cupcakes that people got to view the trailer. The cupcakes were iced with a special rice paper icing sheet that had a QR code printed onto it using black food colouring. People then were able to scan the QR code with  an app downloaded free from the app store and watch the trailer on their Smartphones or tablet computers.

I’d considered organising a data projector to show the trailer, but I didn’t have one and it seemed like quite a bit of fuss to play a 50-second clip. The cupcake scanning was a fabulous novelty for the mostly adult audience. And though the technology barely raised an eyebrow among the teenage participants, even they were happy to watch the trailer before scoffing the cupcake.

The fact that people wanted to watch the trailer was very good news. These days a book trailer is fairly standard when organising publicity for a novel. It’s a necessary means of promoting the work through social media outlets. And short is good, especially in the young adult market where attention spans have adapted to the immediacy of online info via YouTube and other forms of social media.

Check it out! Scan the photo with your iPhone or iPad (or Smartphone or Android tablet). You’ll need a QR scanner, which you can download free from the App store. Hold the scanner steady over the cupcake and when it loads, watch the trailer!

If you’d like to watch the trailer on your computer screen without scanning the QR code, you can see it here. Let me know what you think.

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Writing is my lifeblood

March 1, 2013 2 Comments

IMG_3581After four years, three versions, two editions, one name change, multiple rewrites and much stress, my novel Fake Profile is about to launch. I am relieved and excited and just a wee bit scared. Terrified actually! Writing this novel has taken me on a roller coaster of a journey unlike anything I have experienced in my professional life.

I’ve felt the highs and lows with equal intensity. From the exhilaration of winning an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship Award for the raw manuscript in 2010, to the crushing disappointment of having a publishing contract offer withdrawn because I unwittingly uploaded an e-version and elected to retain the Digital Management Rights for the manuscript.

I’ve felt the warmth and enthusiasm of a supportive writing community and the harsh cold reality of a publishing industry fighting for its life in a changing world. A few times I stuffed the manuscript deep inside a folder hidden on my computer, vowing to throw in the towel , only to drag it back out and rewrite the whole thing again.

And through the whole process, I learnt much about myself—the most important of which is: I am a writer. I can’t ignore the fact. It doesn’t matter how disillusioned I become, or how harsh the critics are, I can’t not write. It’s as necessary to me as breathing. It’s difficult to explain how much a part of my being is dependent upon my writing. If I don’t write for any length of time, I feel the life force begin to drain. I become weaker and sadder and this influences every other aspect of my life. My teaching suffers, my friendships suffer, my connection to myself suffers, the way I view the world is affected.

I love being a writer. I thrive on the solitude it requires. I love the writing community. They get it. When I talk about the voices in my head, they know exactly what it means. My writing colleagues can follow my chaotic thought processes from manuscript to manuscript and character to character without blinking an eye.

I had barely finished Fake Profile before starting the next novel, Say Nothing. And the first draft of Say Nothing was complete before I began the long, slow and laborious road to publication for Fake Profile (and that itself, is a post for another day). Now I’m almost finished the first draft of my third, and while that is happening the first of a trilogy is incubating.

It’s been a very long time coming. I’ve been writing since I was very young, but it’s only been the last ten years or so (I have earlier manuscripts sitting in drawers that have never seen the light of day), that I began to take my writing seriously enough to recognise it is my lifeblood. I have no choice. I have to write. It is as simple as that.

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Motivation and procrastination: the swings and roundabouts of being a writer

June 25, 2012 2 Comments

They say there’s no rest for the wicked. I don’t really know what that means, but if I were to interpret it literally, I might wish I were wicked. Maybe then, I wouldn’t be battling procrastination for the second time this year.

When motivation is the dominant paradigm with which I work, I write anywhere between one and three thousand words a day. Every day. But when the drive wanes and the procrastination demon appears on my shoulder and starts whispering in my ear about being tired, or cleaning the house, washing the car, making that phone call, or Twitter and Facebook, or any of the myriad of other misnomers it uses to tempt me away from writing, I can do nought but despair.

I need to start THAT manuscript, you know the one—it’d been incubating right the way through writing the last one. I’d kept it on the back-burner lest it detract from the one I’d actually been writing. But now that that one is finished, a terrible thing has happened. Even though I’ve written the synopsis, developed the plot, created and matured both the protagonist and the antagonist, I haven’t written a word. Not a single word.

I’m familiar enough with my own writing habits to realise that, for whatever reason, procrastination usually occurs for me as I’m nearing the end of a manuscript, and if not addressed judiciously it can develop and harden into a full-on writers’ block. And that, my friends, is a whole other ball game.

But this time, I’m at the beginning of a manuscript that has been incubating one way or another for a very long time. I’m ready. Ben and Olivia (my main characters) are ready.

Everything is in place. I’m keen and enthusiastic, even excited about it. So what’s the problem?

Perhaps it’s that the next project has begun the process of inception before I’ve penned the beginnings of this one. It’s a dilemma. Both are the beginnings of series, both are YA and both have the potential to be ongoing projects.

I write because I love writing. I love creating worlds, and scenarios, and people who then dominate my life for the year or so that each novel takes to complete. It’s a joy. There is a saying along the lines of ‘if you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life,’ and it’s true. I can (and do) spend every waking hour writing—when I’m in the zone.  Or maybe it’s just that the one I’m ‘supposed’ to be starting is the artefact for my PhD, alongside which I need to write a symbiotic exegesis. Maybe it adds a layer of pressure that is preventing me from even commencing the project. Fear of failure? Perhaps. Though I would’ve thought that might apply regardless—writers, by the very nature of what they do put themselves up for public scrutiny anyway.

But there is a flip side. And when the procrastination demon hits, or the writers’ block appears, it all comes crashing down and my bliss morphs into headache-inducing, teeth-grinding, wits-ending hard work. I can better understand (intellectually and emotionally) the procrastination that occurs nearing the end of a novel, it’s part of getting ready to farewell a project. But it’s the procrastination at the beginning of the project that has me perplexed. Words of wisdom….anyone?

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Hunger Games and Chocolate Wars: suitable reading for kids?

April 9, 2012 Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, an assistant school librarian asked me if I thought The Hunger Games trilogy was suitable reading for a ten-year-old. I couldn’t give her an opinion because at that stage I hadn’t read it. I said I’d get back to her and borrowed the books from the library to read.

I wish I hadn’t.

It’s not because the trilogy wasn’t a good read, it was. It’s an engaging, fast paced, action-packed story with characters that are flawed, and real. Suzanne Collins writes the narrative in the first person from the perspective of key character 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen.

The premise is a post-apocalyptic dystopian society where annually, each of the twelve districts of the country Panem must select two children between the ages of 12 and 18 and put them forward as tributes for reality TV program The Hunger Games. The Capitol celebrates the kids, parades them before the audience, then forces them to kill each other while the whole country watches the ‘show’ live on television.

It is violent, and terrible, and gut wrenching. Watching confused, traumatised children murder each other in a desperate bid to get home to their families is heartbreaking. And experiencing the story from a 16-year-old who volunteers to take her 12-year-old sister’s place as tribute because she thinks she has a better capacity to kill and therefore stay alive a little longer before meeting her inevitable demise, makes it all the more horrific.

My first response was to empathise with the parents’ whose children were stolen from them by the Capitol, the ‘government’ of Panem, knowing that of the 24 children taken, only one would return alive. My second thought was to wonder how young readers deal with the horrendous (though at times stylised) abuses depicted throughout the books.

So I asked them. Adults who had read the books expressed concern about the violence and told me they wouldn’t allow their younger teens to read them. They didn’t want them exposed to concepts and emotions they weren’t ready to deal with. But kids had a different view. I had the first book with me when I visited a primary school. One of the Year 6 kids (11-year-old) asked me what I thought; I told him I thought it was awful. He responded with a shrug and a dismissive “yeah, but people are awful to each other,” and then went on to chat enthusiastically about a particular plot twist in the second book of the trilogy Catching Fire.

I was stunned. The school is in a middle class area in the northern suburbs of Sydney and I pondered on the casual acceptance of violence and abuse in the experience of this little boy. I put it to the kids at the high school I was at the next day. And I was very interested to find a similar analysis of those who had read the books.

These kids were the target demographic of 13+ readers. They acknowledged its violence and the ‘awfulness’ of the plot and confirmed the acceptance of the 11-year-old about people being awful to each other.

“Didn’t you watch Kony?” One kid asked.

I did. And then I realised. In the global technological context of our current society, these kids know that such atrocities actually do occur. In other parts of the world kids their age do get stolen from their families, and are forced to murder other innocents, or be murdered themselves. They’re maligned and abused and have to do terrible things to stay alive. And governments do little to stop it.  And families grieve.

They get it. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. I guess kids don’t hold on to innocence as long as they used to.

Years ago at uni, we had a similar discussion about The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. The Chocolate War is still banned from some school libraries in the States because of its explicit and violent content. It is a graphic depiction about bullying in the context of a Catholic Boys School. It too, is real and haunting. It’s about a targeted campaign of bullying against a boy who refuses to take part in the school’s chocolate drive. The characters are flawed and real and there is nothing stylised about the violence and abuse depicted.

The adults are too preoccupied or too focused on personal gain and promotion to challenge the status quo and the victimised boy suffers endlessly and needlessly, powerless to protect himself. The book was first published in 1974 and was a real wake-up call to educators and parents about the nature of bullying. It sparked, and continues to do so, many discussions and debates, not only about the nature of bullying but also about whether or not children should have access to such reading material, particularly at school.

The Hunger Games discussions are reminiscent of these. I think that as adults we underestimate the capacity of children to process what they read. Whether or not we want to accept it, many children are aware—some experience personally—the reality of violence and crime. And stories such as these reflect that awareness and give it a context for which adults can then generate discussion with them about the hows and whys of such things.

So the answer I would give the librarian who asked me? It depends of the maturity of the child reader and the capacity they have to process concepts of which they may or may not have awareness. I would suggest a parent or other adult read the books first so that they might have an understanding of the premise and concepts, and keep the discussion going as the child progresses through the books.

I don’t agree with censorship, I do believe in the value of discussion.

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Who do you write for?

March 9, 2012 1 Comment

Writing —like reading— is a very subjective pursuit. People write and/or read for a myriad of reasons, ranging from catharsis to leisure, as a profession, a boredom buster or in pursuit of knowledge. To achieve success in the field a writer needs to first develop an understanding of why they themselves write, then get to know why people read, and develop an understanding of the readership for which they write.

Sound daunting? It can be. But if you are serious about being a writer and you dream about making a living out of your writing, it’s important to understand every aspect of what makes a successful writer, apart from the obvious—having the ability to write! Rightly or wrongly, some of the most successful writers (particularly eAuthors) are not necessarily the ones with the best writing ability.

So how do you make sure that you are successful in attracting a readership to your book? As I mentioned before, thinking about why you write, what you write, and for whom you write is imperative. Understanding your target audience can mean the difference between your book collecting dust on a shelf (physical or electronic) or being consistently downloaded and read.

Writing for yourself is a fabulous thing to do, but don’t be surprised if others don’t engage with it at the rate you’d like them to. Of course, it doesn’t really matter whether or not anyone reads your work if building a readership is not your focus. What is meaningful and enjoyable to you personally may not necessarily be what appeals to others.

An experienced and successful author once told me that the road to success was to select a genre and stick to it. At the time, I dismissed this advice as being unnecessarily pejorative. But now, a few years down the track, I understand what she meant. An enormous amount of time and energy goes into building an audience, so it is more productive and effective to focus your energies on one particular demographic.

Firstly, you need to identify the genre in which you most enjoy writing. For me it’s young adult fiction. Probably because I spend a lot of time around this demographic. I am familiar with their vernacular, their behaviours, their hopes and fears and dreams. And their realities — harsh and unjust as they sometimes are. The old adage ‘write what you know’ works for me here. This doesn’t mean you (or I) will be stuck with the same genre forever, but it is a good idea to establish yourself first. When you become better known, you’ll be able to diversify, and carry your readership with you.

Once you have identified your genre (and sub-genre), you need to refine your target readership. Will it be gender specific? The novel I am writing now is a young adult crime fiction. The readership I am targeting is boys aged between thirteen and fifteen.  Typically with young adult fiction, boys won’t read ‘books for girls’ but girls will read everything, so targeting this narrowly will enable me to capture of broader audience than my focus.

The next step is to think about the components necessary to draw this group in. Of course, I am speaking very generally here, but boys of this age typically prefer fast-paced, action-packed narrative that is outcomes based. They also prefer series. How do I know this? Apart from the anecdotal information I pick up working in a high school as a writer-in-residence, I did my research.

Local libraries are a great resource for info about reading behaviour. So too, are bookshops (those left standing). Pick a less busy time to visit either and ask those who work there about popular titles, plots, and demographics. I’ve had some fabulous conversations of this nature with people for whom books are a passion. Arts sections of newspapers commonly run features about book trends, bestseller lists are indicative of genres that are popular and will reflect local as well as national or international trends.

Another important thing to think about is matching content, plot and storyline, to the demographic. There is no point targeting 30-35 year old men for your readership if you are writing romance—they won’t read it. Now, I’m sure there are probably men in this age group who love reading romance (but may never admit it); there are always exceptions. But I’m speaking generally; you need to consider ‘the group’ you are targeting, rather than individuals within it.

And don’t underestimate the power of sourcing information word-of-mouth. Find other readers. If you are a writer, then you will be a reader and know other readers. Ask them. If you write for adults, join a book club where you get to hear and participate in discussions about books. You’ll learn the likes, dislikes and preferences of other readers. And seek out and talk to people in the demographic for which you want to write. If you can write narrative with plots that people want to read, there is a higher probability that well-written books will sell. Consultation is invaluable in developing plot. Knowing where to find and how to target your chosen readership to promote your work is for another post.

 ”Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.” Sylvia Plath

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Who are you? Personal vs professional branding

February 20, 2012 Leave a comment

I am a writer. And I’m good at it. I’ve spent a lifetime developing my skills and honing my craft. I’ve worked as an employee for more years than I care to acknowledge, I’ve earned multiple formal qualifications and much valuable experience in my area of expertise. Now I run an eLiteracy consultancy, teaching creative writing and eLiteracy skills to kids. And I write fiction. I am living my dream supporting myself with my writing. I’ve worked hard for it. And it’s been a long time coming. I love what I do and I’m very happy doing it.

But there’s another side to me that’s a little less professional. Most Friday nights I sit in front of the telly with fish & chips, drinking beer and watching Glee. Sometimes on weekends, after a few bottles (or more) of red wine with friends, we jump around the lounge room like decrepit 80s rock star has-beens, playing SingStar on PlayStation. It’s not pretty (nor necessarily melodic) but it’s always fun. And occasionally I’ll go out with friends and we don’t make it home in quite the same state we were in when we left.

But this is my personal life. And during this time with close friends—in my inner sanctum—photos are taken. Photos are, after all, about creating memories with friends, and for acting as stimuli for discussion later that may or may not be restricted to facts. But these are private memories—not for public consumption. No scrutiny by strangers allowed. The world does not have a right know how or with whom I spend my leisure. Nor should it be public knowledge if occasionally I drink too much, or if I wear underwear around the house, or sweep the dust under the refrigerator instead of picking it up. Some things are just not meant to be broadcast around the world.

People are critical creatures. Every one of us. We can’t help it; it’s built into our DNA. We make snap judgements based on superficial criterion without even realising we are doing it. About everyone. All the time. And social media sites like Facebook and Twitter take this to the extreme in ways most people can’t even begin to fathom.

Building a professional brand is important to promoting your work and building your reputation. But protecting it is critical to maintaining your credibility. These days, using social media to build your brand is an essential component. Writers (like other sole traders) typically work alone, and boundaries between professional and personal branding are often blurred. Or overlooked altogether.

Everything you post online says something about you, as a person and as a professional. Every photo you upload, or are tagged in, every status update, every check-in, every link and every tweet. Every. Single. Thing. It all paints a picture of you as a person. And sometimes, you won’t like the colour or texture used because the picture is not an accurate representation.

Back in the old days when you showed someone a photo, it was a Polaroid or some such paper, and afterwards you’d put it away. You might have a laugh at the crazed expression and dilated pupils or ‘panda’ eyes as you hang between two of your friends who are propping you up, but it would remain between you and your friends. Fast forward a few years, and that photo now on Facebook becomes a permanent record. Viewers will not realise that it was the only time you’ve ever been drunk, or that you reacted badly to the two drinks you had because of your sinus medication. They won’t know that the event might’ve been years ago when you were young and now you are a respected business owner (or writer, lawyer, doctor, teacher, etc).

Similarly, once upon a time when you made an offhand or flippant comment to someone just because the thought occurred you, it would be gone and forgotten in minutes. But when you say that same thing as a tweet or status update, it becomes a permanent record that may come back to haunt you years from now. Because people make judgements, especially when they have no context. And judgements can be devastating to your reputation.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have an online personal life. It does mean that you have to be very clear (and aware) about what and how much you do share. You can maintain a personal Facebook profile safely if you understand the security settings and the ‘sharing’ and ‘subscription’ functions. And only add people you know personally. You wouldn’t invite complete strangers into your home and let them go through your personal effects, but this is exactly what you are doing when you add people you don’t know as friends on Facebook. To build your professional profile, use the Facebook fan page, or better still, LinkedIn. And don’t use social media outlets to vent. Ever!

All the work you put into building your professionalism can be completely undone by mixing your personal and professional online presence. And the damage it can do to your business is immeasurable.

In case you missed it — everything you post online says something about you, as a person and as a professional. EVERY. SINGLE. THING.

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When does a manuscript become a book?

January 22, 2012 3 Comments

The other day a bloke came to build an additional doorjamb and install a screen door. Conversationally he asked me what I did for a living.

“I’m a writer,” I said.

“Oh cool,” he seemed impressed. “What do you write?”

“Fiction mostly,” I told him. “I write fiction books for young adults.”

“Oh,” he looked at me and scratched his head. “Yeah, I could do that. It’s just making stuff up right? I always wanted to write a book.”

I left him to his doorjamb.

Back in front of my computer, I continued work on the manuscript I have been writing, editing and rewriting for the past fourteen months. Yep, FOURTEEN months. That’s over a year of living with these characters in my head. A year of plotting and sub-plotting, drafting and redrafting; of worrying about character development and voice, making sure they are ‘growing up’ right; of being concerned with consistency, ensuring all questions are answered and all loose ends tied. Then writing and rewriting it all over again. I worked on it three days a week. Every week.  Over a year. For one book.

My last novel was the same. By the time it was ready for publication it had taken about a year to write and edit. Before that, I spent two years completing a Master of Creative Writing to develop and hone my writing skills. And that’s without mentioning the hundreds of thousands of hours over a lifetime spent reading, or the years before and since my degree spent writing in a variety of genres for a variety of purposes —all for the purpose of developing and refining my craft.

So could anyone do it? Well, sure. I guess. If they had the time and tenacity. But unless they intend to have their book read, why would they bother? When does a manuscript become a book? Is it when you finish writing it? When you receive the completed draft back from the printer and put it on a bookshelf? Or is it when you format and upload it as an eBook? Maybe it’s not until you sign a contract with a publisher. Or is it when someone actually engages with your work and reads it?

I would suggest the latter. Writing (like reading) is a very subjective thing, but the common factor experienced by every successful writer is this. People read the book. That’s it. That’s all it takes. The thing is, readers are not a particularly charitable bunch. I know this because I am one. As a reader, I have no tolerance for bad writing. I won’t persevere with a badly written piece. And like most avid readers, I can tell from the first paragraph (sometimes even from the blurb) whether the writing is any good, or more importantly—whether it’s readable.

Now I’m not talking about the abject quality of any particular writer, that’s a discussion for another post (writers of literary fiction versus writers of commercial fiction for example), I’m talking about whether or not a piece of written work can be easily read and understood. If the technical aspect of writing is there, if the characters are authentic, the dialogue genuine, the plot believable (whether or not it is fantasy), then someone will read it. And it becomes a book.

There are thousands (perhaps even millions) of writers across the globe, all vying for readers’ attention. And in this age of electronic publishing, the ‘keepers’ of the book are no longer there. There is no middleman. It’s more cut-and-dried than ever before. And with all that choice, readers are less inclined to persevere with reading something they have to work at.

The bottom line is that unless you are prepared to learn the craft of writing, are committed to improving and are prepared to put long hours for many years into it, there is little point to ‘writing a book’ at all.

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Farewell my friends, it’s been great…

November 16, 2011 4 Comments

They say the second novel is harder to finish than the first. I’m not sure about that. My second novel, the one I’m writing now, is coming along just fine. At least it was until I reached the climax— it was only then that it came to a grinding halt. But the same thing happened during my first novel. I began writing the climax where something major happened to one or other of the main characters, and then it all stopped. It wasn’t that the inspiration or plot ideas dried up because I knew what was going to happen, what needed to happen. Nor was it the normal run-of-the-mill procrastination or busyness of life. No ― it was more of a mind-numbing, hair-tearing, fear inducing, writing catatonia that lasted for months.  And now it has happened again. Aaargh!

I don’t know why. At least I didn’t until I chatted to some of my writerly colleagues. Apparently, it seems to be a little more common that one would think. There are a few theories floating around about why writers may suddenly find themselves staring forlornly at the screen wondering what happened to their muse. Probably the most common of these is the attachment we feel to the characters we create.

A writer typically spends quite a long time with these characters inside their heads. Conversations happen at all hours of the day and night for months (sometimes years) at a time. To write effective narrative, characters must be authentic and to be able to communicate this authenticity it is imperative that an author knows their characters inside out and back to front. We have to know their likes and dislikes, what sets them off, what calms them down, how they might react in any given situation; we have to know all the nuances of their personalities. We need to know the type of person they’re attracted to, or repulsed by, where their soft spot is, what makes them jealous, what excites them. And to get to know them we talk to them. Often. And everywhere. They come with us in the car and on the bus or train. They’re with us when we walk the dog and when we’re having a shower. They come to work with us and accompany us shopping and visiting. They are there, in our heads, all the time. Is it any wonder then that we find it difficult to write trauma into their lives?  Or to let them go?

During the drafting process of my first novel I wrote and rewrote the last few chapters so many times it was ridiculous. I spent more time on the final three or four chapters than I had done on the preceding twenty. After many a sleepless night I finally gave in to the distress caused by the experience one of my characters, and wrote the trauma into another character’s story-line. I slept well after that and it was then that I could write the ending satisfactorily. But it took months of angst.

This time round, I am facing a similar dilemma. Not so much the reluctance to write trauma, but to progress the story-line beyond the climax. Something is yet to be resolved. I just don’t know what. I know how it ends. My kids (aka my four YA characters) are with me constantly but, as happened last time, now they are waiting patiently for me to finish with them. Maybe it’s because I need to adjust the plot line a little, maybe I have to be far more disciplined with them and just tell them how it’s going to be, or maybe I need to be patient and wait for them to tell me how they think it should end. Or maybe it’s because  I’m just not quite ready to let them go yet.

How do you farewell your characters?

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Heartbreak and hope of a young writer

October 17, 2011 4 Comments

I wear a few hats as a writer. As well as spending a couple of days a week on my current novel, I also work as an eLiteracy Consultant, and a Writer-in-Residence in high school. But it is the latter of these that I’m finding the most rewarding.

I convene a writers’ group. It’s not your ordinary run-of-the-mill sort of writers’ group where authors work together to develop their manuscripts.  This particular group comprises a dozen disengaged young men, in lieu of their usual year ten classes.

Regular readers of this blog will remember the post I wrote after my first session with the group. I came away that day wondering what on earth I’d gotten myself into. I’d wondered if I’d be able to manage their behaviours, or if I’d want to. Then after another few sessions, I’d wondered if it was even worth their while attending the group, given that their literacy levels were pretty basic and at this stage of their schooling they probably weren’t going to improve much.

A few months on and this twice-weekly writers’ group—though no less challenging, has been the most insightful, rewarding and beneficial experience a writer of young adult fiction could have.  I’ve seen past their macho boofiness and into the souls of boys pretending (but not quite managing) to be men, so I’m not frightened or intimidated by them as I was that first day. I was wrong to think that they would not benefit from the group or that I would be wasting my time working with them. So wrong.

The boys are writing. The technical aspects of their writing are not there; they can barely spell, have a limited understanding of grammar, have never read a complete book, and have little concept of narrative. But they are—as I am—learning so much more about constructing text than where to put the comma or how to match the verb and antecedent.

They are writing about life and truth as they know it. For me, a writer of young adult fiction, it’s a fabulous glimpse into the psyche of a teenage boy, in very real terms. Something seems to happen in the space between the swearing and rough-housing and noise and bluster, to when they actually put pen to paper. They write about their thoughts and feelings, and their perceptions of the world as they know it. And it’s honest. And real. And it takes my breath away.

It makes me laugh, and sometimes cry. It always gives me an insight into how these boys interpret the world around them. And today it hurt. Today a sixteen-year-old boy, previously drowning in sullen resentment and repressed anger, wrote about the loss of his mate to suicide. He wrote about regret and guilt and what he could’ve, should’ve, would’ve done if he hadn’t been so selfish in the friendship. He wrote about an argument they’d had “over trivial bullshit,” after which they had not talked for two weeks before the mate died. And he wrote about how bad it made him feel and how easily he thought he could’ve stopped it.

This young man’s life has been changed. Irrevocably. In a few short weeks he grew from boy to man. Tragic circumstances were the catalyst that reinforced his own mortality, that made him recognise and dismiss the banalities of life; writers’ group the space in which he chose to share his thoughts and feelings about it. He had told no one. He didn’t want to talk about it. But he wrote about it. In writers’ group.

And I’m glad he did. Because it created the space for him to be told that it wasn’t his fault, that his friend had been depressed, that he’d been dealing with demons from his past, and that it’s completely normal for friends to argue and that it doesn’t normally result in suicide.

Writing had provided this young man with an effective means of communicating his pain when he couldn’t get the words out any other way. And it didn’t matter one bit about the spelling and grammar.
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Are you ‘in the zone’?

October 5, 2011 4 Comments

I’m in the zone. And I’m loving it! A fabulous five thousand words down today.

For the uninitiated being ‘in the zone’ is a condition for which all writers yearn. It is often elusive, and sometimes hidden behind a solid wall, impossible to conjure. It’s that time when inspiration, motivation, and circumstance all converge to create a synergy so powerful that it drives the manuscript forward using the writer merely as a conduit.

It’s an awesome space to be in. Ideas flow through the fingers to the keyboard like water over a waterfall and everything else falls into insignificance. It becomes all that there is in that time, that place. When I’m in that space hours pass as easily as minutes and if it were not for the physical requirement to take in and release food and drink, and eventually sleep, I’d sit in front of my computer indefinitely.

Being in the zone this time around comes after months of writing through a thick fog. Every word extracted through a veil of frustration.  I’d write a hundred words and delete ninety-nine. Rewrite and delete again. Edit, delete, rewrite, over and over and over again. It was painful.

I was lucky to write one thousand words a month these past few months, so to sit down today and pen five thousand words in one day (as well as write two book reviews) is wonderful. I want to yell to the world, ‘I’m ba-ack!’ But I’ll just settle for this blog post.

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