It's not because I'm desperate to get published. It's not even because I'm desperate to get read. It's because I'm desperate to write. It may seem strange, but it's just to get stories on paper. Stories that are already there somewhere and just need writing down. Like the sculptor faced with a block of stone; he knows there's a figure in the middle of it, all he has to do is uncover it.
I want the stories to be neat, tidy, smooth, and as readable as I can make them, and when I feel I've more or less done that, I put them in a folder in a drawer, sit back and smile contentedly. Until another story floats in and off we go again. Am I crazy?
The bug to write something comes and goes, it's not a constant, I go long periods when I don't even think about writing. Over the years I've accumulated quite a few stories like that, but only a small part of them are what I call finished. A novella, (70,000 words - is that a novella?), about ten shorter stories varying in length up to about 7,000 words, and a few non-fiction pieces. Unfinished are two novels, 2 more novellas, some odds and sods, and I've just started another novel. Am I typical or am I strange?

I happened to say on a forum just now that I'd much rather see a beginner's manuscript which is very over-written, than very under-written, since being drunk on words is a very honourable state for an apprentice writer. From the teacher's point of view it's not so hard to teach why wearing one diamond necklace is actually more effective than wearing three, and how to choose which one to leave on. Whereas a beginner's manuscript which is just bald, 'Then he did this, then I did that', over and over again, is usually a sign of someone who for whom words will never really be a workable medium of expression. Either that, or someone who mistakenly thinks that Hemingway is God. Too often the talk among writers assumes that the opposite of 'spare' writing is 'purple'. (Hemingway is a relevant name-check here, because the talk among such is so often busy covering up a terror of emotional engagement, with a neurotic machismo.) You could equally well say that the opposite of 'rich' writing is 'impoverished'. What's really going on with a successful spare writer is that they've learn to use the richness of individual words to their full extent, by being in very close control of the setting of each jewel, including a sharp ear for what will be read in the spaces between all the elements. But that takes a kind of mastery which is exceedingly rare in a beginner. Equally rare in a beginner is the mastery which can use a huge palate, filled to overflowing of colours and substances, in such a way that they enhance each other rather than cancelling each other out: a lavish richness which is controlled.

On that forum, someone disagreed with what I'd said, on the grounds that being drunk on words is the same as loving the sound of your own voice. But I don't think it is at all.

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When someone asks me what I do, and I say I'm a writer, they're usually mildly interested. When we've established that I'm not a journalist but write novels, they're slightly taken aback and slightly impressed, and though of course that's slightly gratifying, I still find it more than slightly odd. The thing is, while I recognise that not everyone wants to or can sit down and write novels for as long as it takes to learn how to do it, telling stories is obviously as fundamental a part of human nature as bringing up children, or hunting and gathering, or searching for meaning beyond the visible. And while the novel is only one manifestation of that narrative nature, my writing (anyone's writing) is simply a rather strenuous effort at something that every storied creature needs done for them, and most do in some way.

According to Marriott, psychotherapists believe that 'narrative competence' is a hallmark of mental health: "If one can tell the 'story' of one's own life in a way that makes sense of one's fears and anxieties, this will in itself make life's difficulties seem less opaque and frightening." The novel is a form born out of the need to "make sense" of the reader's individual world, by spinning new narratives out of individual lives, because the Renaissance and its offspring, peace, print, Protestantism, and the scientific revolution, had altered the relationship God to individual humans.

Yes, 120,000 words of plausible invention takes a bit of inventing.

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Everyone who has ever written something and asked another person to read it – whether it be husband, friend, agent or publisher – knows that the worst thing about writing is not the lardy bum from too much sitting, or the neck and back ache. It’s not even the writer’s block.

It’s the waiting.

Writerly waiting is a whole other ballgame from waiting, say, in a bank queue, or for the gas engineer who said he’d be there between 8am and 6pm and it’s now 10pm. I’m not saying these irritations aren’t enough in themselves to make you want to claw your own eyes out if you’re naturally impatient, as I am.

But when you’re waiting in a bus queue, your only concern is that your time is being wasted. When you’re waiting to hear an important decision about your writing, your entire ego and self worth are being suspended by gossamer threads over a tank of sharks. You might say I’m exaggerating here. I say, you haven’t met me and are therefore not aware of the fragility of my ego and ludicrous emptiness of my self worth tank.


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A friend of mine has an annoying habbit. She constantly refers to everything as "delicious", "lush" or "perfection".
"Nice day?"
"Delicious" is the reply.
or...
"You look delicious" she says.
or...
"My day has been perfection"
"The weather is lush"
"Ah, I have had a delicious evening"....

Now my initial thoughts were - Oh, you are so annoying with these repetitive words, but then I started to think. . . She is happy, outgoing, and has an infectious laugh and smile - Maybe it's just me thats grumpy! and its probably the latter!
Have your friends got any annoying or happy phrases?

Inspiration comes in many forms, and in many ways - How do you find your best inspiration? I find that I am at my most creative when I am walking the dog in the woods - just me, the dog and nature - Its lush!

If you don't write, then read. If you do write, then read more!