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A question for the writers who hang around on the board

  
  

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deuce
17:18 / 12.12.03
The initial work is usually done the same way, whether I'm writing lyrics or the beginning outline for a new book: Napkins. Either at a bar or a coffeeshop, or wherever. I sit and think things out while scratching my notes out on napkins. If I like what I'm writing, I tuck the napkin in my pocket and transcribe it at home. If not, it's gone with a crumble.

It's very freeing in a way, actually. Keeps the ideas fresh.
 
 
griffle
18:45 / 12.12.03
What are the rules for writing a novel?

My English Teacher at school used to say 'write about somthing you know'. However whenever i write about the things that matter to me being gay, being bullied, mental illness and sex it usually ends up being at least semi-autobiographical (which someone else on here has criticized).

Thanks, griffle
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
21:31 / 12.12.03
A point: 'write what you know' isn't the same thing as 'write what you've lived'. The two cross over, but I think that in terms of writing, the concept of research, of getting a handle on your subject matter (be it beekeeping in Siberia or tap-dancing monarchs through history) is important. I think the instruction is largely construed as a call to autobiography, which is a bit ropey.

As for writing? Computer, basically. I keep scribbles in a journal-sized book, but find that a lot of the time they don't make the transition well. I prefer the speed with which I can get something down on the computer, though writing with fountain pens is a lovely thing. (I wouldn't write song lyrics or poems on the computer say - feels too sterile.) In terms of editing, I like to think I'm pretty good at wrangling text by now - I do it every day for work - so I tend to write as I go and revise very little. I'll reread and remove any glaring fuck-ups or inelegant sections that don't flow, but largely it's a case of what comes out, stays out.

Planning pieces is a much different matter - I'm not as good at that as I'd like. Or, rather, I don't feel as accomplished there as I do in other parts of my writing. For shorter pieces, I'll put a series of narrative keywords down the page in order to prompt myself to fill out the pieces as I come to them.

Example:

Beginning. (Rain. Hampstead. Bus.)

Bit with the alien. (Herrmann strings in a Prada suit.)

Umbrella? (Avoid ET-tech wank.)

Ticket. (Please?)

TULPAS!

Accountancy.

Stop.

Woofle-dust.

Fin!

It doesn't make much sense, but it encapsulates the heart of a story and can be expanded into a whole novel, if need be - you just perform the same process for each of the keywords again, deeper down.
 
 
griffle
21:43 / 12.12.03
Ive come up with an idea. I noticed many people described having an idea that developed into a story in their minds over months or possibly years. I immediatley thought back to my teenage years when i spent most of my time inventing huge dynastic-sagas in my mind about mythical civilisations cast-away in space. I have always been obsessed with cities and urbanisation, so many of my fantasies revolved around crumbling babylon like cities, often just floating in space and not on any actual planet. Although these cultures had often mastered space flight and inter-galactic communication the rest of their technology was somewhere around the turn of the 20th century, sort of Victorian. Another long running thought was about a collosal and luxurious space ship which crashed onto an ocean planet and sinks. Im sure these ideas have already been used before. I am also a bit squirmy about sci-fi. When i re-shelve sci-fi books at work i often read the precis and they are usually just full of hyperbole 'the Magellan civilisation had been in decline for 10 billion years. The high empress Delana sends her envoy Ro-josh 29 trillion light years away to the slum-planet tixteth to find the lore-master jigak. Only he has the other half of the love heart from argos that can bring order and stability back to the imperium. Can Ro-josh find jigak before the last bastion of humanity collapses. who knows?'
 
 
griffle
21:52 / 12.12.03
the slightly worrying thing is that i dont seem to have this narrative stream running through my head anymore.

My narrative in my head is somthing like

AM, must find glasses, fuck where are they. Coffee, mmmm, Coffee, mmmm. Fuck work!, shower, hair, coat, keys, walking, i want to be a writer/have sex with a beautiful man/ (Bus), money (eeek!), doodle doodle, men!, mmm, nice ass, hi, hi, hi, mmmm, coffee, work ok, ok, nice, how can i help you, yes! ill print that out for you, let me just make a few enquiries, eeek! shelving, boring boring, mmm coffee, how can i help you, are these going out or coming back, are these going out or coming back, ok bye, see you later, men mmm!, mmmm!, must do some writing, i wanna go somewhere, mmm dinner, im off out bye!, come home, locks jammed again, check e-mails, sex would be nice, better brush teeth, night.

I have lots of vague ideas to write a gay-romance maybe set in an exotic location, or somthing about bullying, but it all gets too autobiographical

Do i need to start some fictional narrative running, im just a bit worried it will be sci-fi which i dont like much. I feel a bit stilted
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:05 / 13.12.03
Okay, griffle, stop. Just stop right there.

Stop drinking too much coffee. It doesn't help, it just increases the speed at which you write crap.

Now, stop worrying about the how, the tools, the narrative flow, and all the rest of it. All that is pointless. You need an idea. The rest will take care of itself. One way to start thinking is to pick a place and a character (e.g. a desert, an accountant) and work out what the hell is going on. The original scene will probably not be part of your story, but you'll get an idea out of it. Otherwise, there's always Cobralingus - there are threads in the Creation all about it.

Now, get used to the idea that this is going to take a while.
 
 
griffle
09:32 / 13.12.03
Ok, cool. Ive bought a really cool pilot pen with a just-audible scratchiness that is very cosy-sounding. Ive seen some cool notebooks at Muji, but might also check out paperchase too before making my selection. Im gonna choose a character and location and then do some research on it. The main thing is im gonna try and see it thru to completion. I chose to do a short story because i think that is more manageable. I think if a short story is 10% of a novel i should set myself about 6 weeks to reserach, write and edit it. Then send it off to a short story competition, win wads of cash, get recognised as the new cool writer dood, go on late-review with tom paulin and criticise bad american plays.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
15:38 / 13.12.03
'the Magellan civilisation had been in decline for 10 billion years. The high empress Delana sends her envoy Ro-josh 29 trillion light years away to the slum-planet tixteth to find the lore-master jigak. Only he has the other half of the love heart from argos that can bring order and stability back to the imperium. Can Ro-josh find jigak before the last bastion of humanity collapses. who knows?'

Hur hur hur ... that's very accurate space-opera blurb actually. And see, already you've come up with a story, even if it's a bit b-movie. I especially like the love-heart from Argos detail.

Re: short stories, the yet more bad news is that the ONLY person who has ever "broken" with a book of short stories (in recent memory anyway) is Will Self, and he's got a whole persona to go with it - he's a great performer and reader, (and was a journalist for ages) which really helps.

But go for the competitions, really do. At the very least you might win some money. The Bridport (June? deadline) and the Fish (deadline just gone, alas) are the two big payers, but there's lots of others (real writers, New Writer, lots of local ones) you can enter and any win looks good on the old CV.

Warning: any short story comp that is free to enter is very suspect, and usually American (so postage alone will be £££). Maybe find magazines you like and send off to them first? It's free ...
 
 
Whisky Priestess
15:41 / 13.12.03
ps in terms of length a short story is usually more like 5% of a novel (5000 words of a novel average 100,000) - you can obviously write a 10,000 word ss but it will be hard to place except maybe in a sci-fi magazine - most magazines and competitions have an upper limit of 5000w.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
16:21 / 13.12.03
Here you go:

The Gay Read
Organiser: The Gay Read and www.laurahird.com
Deadline: Sat 20 Dec 2003

send to:
Trevor Taylor
Editor
The Gay Read
20 Lupin Crescent
Ilford
Essex
IG1 2JRUK

www.laurahird.com
www.thegayread.com

DESCRIPTION
The Gay Read Inaugural Short Story Competition
In association with www.laurahird.com

1st Prize - £100
2nd Prize - £50
3rd Prize - £25
Stories up to 1500 words with a gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender theme.

Closing date: 20 December 2003

Laura Hird says, 'Welcome to The Gay Read's Inaugural Short Story Competition - hopefully the first of many. Was delighted when Gay Read editor, Trev Taylor asked me to judge the contest. As you know, I'm passionate about short stories and new writing and love all the showcased work I've read on the site, so really looking forward to getting my teeth into your entries. There's cash up for grabs, so get scribbling and get winning. Closing date 20 December 2003.'

The Gay Read is the first website specifically for gay literature in the UK that concentrates solely on reviews and showcasing new talent, thus allowing for feedback and interaction between gay writers and their audience. The site provides an open playing field whereby UK talent can be showcased along with writers from all over the world, along with probing author interviews, guest reviewers, regular competitions and a great resource of GLBT interest writing sites.

Please send entry(ies) and payment to:
Trevor Taylor, Editor, The Gay Read, 20 Lupin Crescent, Ilford, Essex, IG1 2JR, England, UK

For entry form, visit Laura Hird's website.

rules & conditions

1. There must be a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual theme and/or a GLBT character, any genre

2. Stories must be double-spaced on one side of white A4 paper, secured with a staple or paper clip only

3. Entries must be prose fiction

4. Maximum word count is 1500

5. Each entry should be accompanied by payment of £3 (sterling), cheques/postal order made
payable to T Taylor

6. You may submit as many entries as you wish, include fee of £3 for each entry

7. Prizes are: £100 1st prize; £50 2nd prize; £25 3rd prize

8. Winners will be featured on www.thegayread.com and www.laurahird.com

9. Manuscripts will not be returned

10. The judge's decision is final

11. Closing date is 20 December 2003. Winners notified on or before 1 February 03

12. You may include a stamped, self addressed postcard for confirmation of receipt of entry(ies)

13. You must print out, complete and send this form with your submission/s. Do not include your details on your story pages as judging is done anonymously.

14. The judge is Laura Hird

15. You may submit previously published work (though not work which has appeared on www.thegayread.com or www.laurahird.com)

16. Open to residents of the UK only

17. By entering, you are agreeing to these terms and conditions and that the work submitted is your own

18. You must be 18 or over to enter

19. Copyright remains with the author

20. Failure to comply with these terms and conditions may result in stories not being accepted. Entry fee is non refundable.

For further details, check out Laura Hird's website or the Gay Read.


More competitions on www.saveourshortstory.org
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
21:18 / 13.12.03
And one word for the struggling short story writer: w-e-b-z-i-n-e-s, kids. Massive market, getting bigger every day, every damn genre under the sun. And you can submit by email-- saves on postage, yo!
 
 
griffle
10:18 / 14.12.03
Ok, thanks! Im gonna enter that gay writing competition. Ive started writing a story about two teenage boys who meet at the swimming baths. Its partly autobiographical. Hopefully i can get it in before the deadline!
 
 
Disco is My Class War
06:37 / 15.12.03
griffle, I think you can do autobiographical novels if you want to. Read Michelle Tea's books Valencia and The Passionate Mistakes and True Adventures of One Girl in America. Queer zinestyle rambly story-telling, and it works totally. I don't how many of the people she wrote about are still her friends, but maybe she doesn't care.

The other thing is, if you're gonna write sci-fi or any genre, learn the genre's conventions well enough so that when you break the rules, you break them for a good reason.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:48 / 15.12.03
I wasn't forbidding autobiography, I was just saying that it's easier to screw up than some other things. Autobiography requires even more self-discipline than other forms, and given that griffle's confessed to a certain amount of writer's ADD, my reaction is "Why make things harder than they have to be?"
 
 
griffle
19:24 / 16.12.03
Ok, cool. My short-story for the gay-read competition is ready to be sent away to face its final-hour. Its about two gay teens who meet on a wet weekend in the swimming baths. Anyone who would like to read it is welcome, if they PM me their e-mail address. Time for criticism/grammar/spelling corrections is past as it has to go Tommorow!

ok, hast luego, Liam!
 
  

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