Frydmania

A trip to the library yesterday, and the discovery of new children’s books. I think I’ve read 90% of the children’s book stock in the local library, but new ones do come in, which is always welcome.

I thought I would share the haul with you, partly because I love children’s books, and partly because I’ve always heard you need to read a lot to write. I may not manage it on some of the genres I want to write, but I believe I can on children’s books : )

Here we go:

– Skeleton Pirate – illustration style familiar, though haven’t yet worked out what else the illustrator has done. Slightly Punch and Judy type pictures with an infusion of Maurice Sendak about them. (LOVE Maurice Sendak – Where the Wild Things Are, among others.) Favoured theme: pirates. ‘Nuf said.

– Where’s Asterix? – a Where’s Wally style but with Asterix, popular at the moment. And unlike some of the puzzle books where you have to find things, not too fiendish.

– Asterix and the Magic Carpet – this is where I have to dig deeper and remember which Asterix books we’ve got at home, and try to find one we don’t. (The maternal brain is full of such lists of haves and have nots.)

– A junior science book about the body, with experiments to try at home, but which don’t need too much equipment. Think string and tin cans type stuff. I fancy the one where you suspend a fork on a string, strike the fork on an object, and then put each end of string up to your ears.

– New David McKee book, The Invisible Watch. David McKee did Mr Benn, Elmer, and an increasing stream of interesting picture books. Love the illustration style.

– Dr Seuss that I haven’t come across before, O Say Can You Say? I know the title, but haven’t seen the book before. It turns out to be lots of shorter nonsense poem type bits.

Those were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. What does it tell me?

I do tend to go back to authors I know and like. I also go on visual recognition, important for children’s picture books. I plump for favourite themes, to see how it’s handled this time, and hopefully enjoy a new take on them. I generally pick fiction but I have improved on appreciating the merits of a well-written factual book too.

Separate post for the ones I couldn’t remember straight off. How do you choose your books, library or purchased?

You know the Kevin Bacon game – think of a famous actor or actress (probably film-related, but not exclusively). How many links does it take until you connect them with Kevin Bacon? Oracleofbacon.org can help or you can play it as a party game for film aficionados. (Yes, you can tell your boss it’s research, can’t you? I know I’ve just given you a great excuse not to work for a bit.)

It’s become such a familiar concept that actors can now be said to have a Bacon number: how few links does it take to the great Kev? I was thinking of this in relation to reading other people’s blogs – how many steps will you go through from blog to blog until you find one that really stands out?

I’m sure it’s something that I should think about in my day job of how to keep people reading online. But it’s interesting to see the number of new blogs I’m coming across through reading other people’s blogs. And how many I want to come back to…because the writing is good. Honest. Beautiful, at times.

I wondered to what extend the process is the same for coming up with the writing ideas in the first place. Do they just spring out? JK Rowling talks of Harry Potter walking into her mind, as it were, fully formed, on a train journey. But I’m sure that there is a process of discovery for many stories, many characters, as well as those moments when they are not so much discovered as encountered.

In the meantime, given that I’m keen to explore rather than plan my way there, it’s like being a detective, keeping my eyes and ears open, and being prepared to hail a cab at the moment that an interesting thought or character emerges…follow that thought! Because who knows what plot lines will be uncovered when we do just that.

The run of bright sunny mornings has stopped, for now. So much easier to be inspired when the day is bright, no? No wonder they put Silicon Valley and Pixar and all of those creative industries in sunny places. Without all those lovely rays, we might have less beautiful computers and middling animated films.

I digress. What do you write about on the mornings when you don’t know what to write about?

I made a rule for myself for Facebook. When there wasn’t anything to say that I thought I could face reading again, I just wouldn’t put anything on. Fair enough. But what if you are trying to encourage yourself to keep writing in general, including for enjoyment, and then you reach an impasse?

I think the answer is probably: you keep writing.

I had a couple of notions up my sleeve, when I started this 31 days, for what to write about writing. So here’s one. The principle of 10 000 hours of practice, as mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. The notion is that it takes all this practice to become really good at something e.g. all the gig practice the Beatles had in Germany before coming to fame, learning their craft and getting better.

I haven’t read the actual book. Some like it, some find it overly simple. But it did make me stop and wonder what areas in our lives we are likely to be able to get that much practice. And it does give permission to the idea of keeping going, again and again, understanding that it takes a long time to get really good.

I also realised that much of what I want to write is actually deceptively simple stuff. It’s not the big overblown novel, it’s the jewel-like pieces I enjoy reading myself. I like novels too, but the feeling of reading a good short story: it can take your breath away.

I have spent many a year ‘hiding’ from writing from writing by myself. I’m sure I’ve counted up to 20 by now. Time to set out and look for those words – ready or not.

You know what they say when you’re thinking about doing something, but don’t know if you’ll do it?

Tell someone. So I did.

I told Dan there wasn’t really a reason for me not to write. So I need to keep going. I don’t quite know how much, how often, but I know that I need it, that I enjoy it, and I hope that it will come to be helpful, entertaining maybe.

What I want to write now is much the same as before, but with some additions. Short stories. Travel writing. Science fiction. Poetry – possibly. Picture books for children (with someone else doing the pictures). I’m including in that list some food writing, and some ‘topics to help’ others blogging. Facebook is no doubt still in the mix, too.

Looking at the list this morning, it feels more daunting. But I figure I only need one project at a time, and I can see where it goes.

Trying to think of a title for this post, I had the notion of someone playing solitaire, turning over the cards one by one. Face up is both agreeing to face writing, and turning over the first card to see what it is. Then it begins.

And hopefully, in time, there may even be similarities between the cards; a pattern across the whole. For now, I am willing myself not to worry about that, but to turn the card, and start to write.

Yesterday’s post was one where I surprised myself through writing. That’s generally a good thing. We know that writing can help clear our heads, but sometimes it’s good to get the proof. Particularly when we’re discovering something along the way.

What is a writer anyway? Someone who devotes a lot of time to writing, I suppose. Perhaps someone who gets published. Still, there is a level of expectation about the word that a) it’s about getting paid for it, making it your job and b) that it’s serious, or worthy – or maybe just something that gets you the right kind of attention.

There are plenty of people who write for a living, where what they do is partly about how well they handle words, but we have different terminology for their jobs. Journalist. Copywriter. Academic. Researcher. These days, we probably have to add in blogger, and I’m sure there would be others.

But there is a cachet to being a writer. It’s why there are literary festivals. Book readings. Book signings. Author tours. That kind of thing. With the best writers, we fall in love with them at least a little when we read what they have to say. As a result, they are no longer allowed to remain in their garrets – they have to meet the public, press the flesh, and so on.

Luckily, these days, it’s not just the fiction writers that get invited to the festivals. There’s a range of writing styles and subjects on display. It’s not just about the novel – it’s a lot broader. I may not actually go to the festivals, but I read the programmes, and do a bit of name checking, and maybe even read a couple of authors’ websites along the way.

So why is it so hard to call oneself a writer? To poke your head above the parapet? Even as I write those words, I know – because going public with your writing means allowing for criticism. And that’s probably what I’m hiding from. Writing is then not just about wrapping yourself up in words, or rolling them out to enjoy how they fit together – it’s about whether others think it’s good enough.

Maybe I’ll retreat a little for now from that internal debate. I also like the term wordsmith. It’s not new, but it says something of craft, of labouring, of heating things in the fire and seeing them changed into something wholly new. And I do know that it takes a lot of craft before the art shows through.