Confessions of a Goal Orientated Writer

by Paula Harrison

Cover art of my first published book by a very talented fan

I've been wondering for a while what makes me happy as a writer.

It's clear to me that my approach to work satisfaction has changed quite a bit over the past seven years since I was first published. I know - I know - if you're reading this as a pre-published writer you are probably yelling at the screen: WHAT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY IS TO BE PUBLISHED, SO STOP TALKING RIGHT NOW! And you'd be right of course, but whether you're published yet or not, there are decisions we all make about what to write, how much time to spend writing, how much to listen to professional and peer opinions about our work and how much attention we pay to what publishers and agents are looking for right now, and I'm here to tell you that those decisions and compromises don't alter once you become published. They become even more multi-layered.

JUST WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE...

Well, yes. Clearly if you loathe and despise reading detective fiction you shouldn't go there as a writer either, but most children's authors have a range of age groups that they could write in and a number of different interests so you're still making a decision about where to start. This can be influenced by what you like reading, what your children (if you have them) like reading or just what you think might prove popular.

DON'T TRY TO WRITE FOR THE MARKET...

I've seen this advice on so many writing blogs and in so many writing books that I'm not even sure which source to credit. The reasoning is that if, by some chance, you notice that books about handsome vampires are very popular in teen fiction right now, then by the time you've written your own and submitted it and it's ready for publication, the trend will have moved on to something else. This can be true. Except that it's more complicated than that. I HAVE seen people make a success of writing in an area that is selling well by entering that genre or age group with their own unique idea.

MONEY, FAME OR REVIEWS AND RECOGNITION?

You may be laughing at this point. So, do children's authors ever achieve good money and fame unless they are part of the tiny handful of household names? Well, maybe not fame. But it is possible to earn good money if you are lucky and your books sell well overseas, for example, but the authors who achieve this aren't necessarily the same ones getting great reviews in the Sunday Times. So would you rather earn well or have people praising your book? If you had to choose what would you do?
Interestingly, I recently began reading The Happy Brain by Dean Burnett, in which he talks about how important it is to us to have the approval of other human beings. I'm paraphrasing here, but he talks of peer approval having a similar effect on the brain as earning money. So we see approval as a very real gain. I think that's relevant to us as writers. Part of the reason we want to be published, to have the big book launch, the great reviews, the praise on twitter, is because we're wired to want it. We all do it. But is that what writing's really about?

WRITING AS A JOB VS WRITING AS A PASSION

Here's the crux of my change in attitudes over the last seven years as a published writer. Writing became my bread and butter, and with that came the realisation of what is actually possible. As a goal orientated person I probably started off with ALL the possible goals: money, reviews and recognition. Yes, please - that would be great!! But being an author can be a difficult and uncertain business and that reality sets in quite quickly for most people.

BUT WHERE IS YOUR PASSION, PAULA?

Don't worry - I haven't lost it! I often write a book that I'm passionate about in between something that will give me a more guaranteed chance at a contract and writing income. This way I can try to balance personal satisfaction with things that will enable me to buy groceries. Sometimes a safer, more commercial project will become the project of passion - taking a turn that brings fan letters from all around the world.
When this happens the readers become the goal. If we're helping children to learn to read, to discover the power of their imaginations, to see themselves in books, then isn't that the best goal of all?


Paula's new series KITTY, featuring a superhero-in-training with cat-like superpowers will be published by OUP in September and is illustrated by Jenny Lovelie.  https://paulaharrison.jimdo.com/kitty-s-midnight-adventures/

The Dreamers of Dreams

The Dreamers of Dreams by Addy Farmer 

We are the dreamers of dreams - Roald Dahl

My grandmother used to tell me that I was dizzy-dolly-daydream. She said it quite a lot and I began to wonder if this was a good thing, so I finally asked her what it meant.

She said that me being in my own funny little world was a bit frustrating for her; however, she thought that that dreamers were important. The important bit made me feel ten feet tall but with little idea of what she was on about since most of my mental meanderings were to do with going to Sweety Land where I could eat everything in sight or jumping into a puddle which took me to the seaside or rescuing a sad donkey/mouse/rabbit from certain doom.

A real donkey being rescued! Don't worry - he was fine and happy

Then Granny being the pragmatic woman she was, added, 'But you do need to do something with your dreams, dear.' Thanks, Granny.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. Terry Pratchett

We can range free in our daydreams, slip the surly bonds of earth and all that, though we are strangely constrained by some inner logic in our night-dreams and nightmares. Whatever they are - daydreams, night-dreams, nightmares - maybe the stuff that dreams are made of can make a story ... and turn the insubstantial into substance. You must have had dreams you remember? I have had dreams in which I'm falling off a tall building, only to land on a squashy car (I've had this at least three times) and the embarrassing dream in which I find myself swimming in a public pool with no costume on (please do not analyse). I have also had dreams which rehearse an important event and woken with a sense of security about what's to come (quite useful but uncontrollable).

It was all a dream ...

I have also dreamed of the dead. I have done this twice. In my dreams I talked to those lost ones, forgetting that they were dead until waking when the memory of loss returned with the most crushing sadness. So my dreams are rubbish for plotting but they have on occasion been wonderful for feeling.

And then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again. Caliban, The Tempest, Shakespeare

Back to Granny. When I was about eight I had an incredible experience. I so loved being with Granny at her house and I would frequently dream about being there. One night, I dreamed about my bedroom in that house - the perfumey scent, the sunshine on the bed, the creaking wardrobe door. I woke up and for a glorious few seconds I was there - in that bed, in my granny's house and my happiness was like sunshine. It lasted no time and I woke up again, confused and with a terrible weight of disappointment and a fierce yearning to be back there. Sometimes, I think that this it is what being a ghost might feel like - a tremendous yearning to get back to life. I haven't knowingly used this experience in my work but I recognise it in other stories.

Don't let her in, you fool

Like Cathy's ghost in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand. The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, "Let me in—let me in!"

Set on the wild and windy moors, Bronte’s Victorian classic has lots of dream-like qualities. There are several occasions when characters are guided by their dreams. The character Lockwood has an unsettling dream about a brawl at an endless church sermon while staying at Wuthering Heights, while Catherine accepts a marriage proposal from Edgar after connecting a dream about going to heaven with their union.

‘I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. And this is one: I’m going to tell it – but take care not to smile at any part of it.’ the Housekeeper

There are those books which deal directly with dreams like one of my favourites, 'Marianne Dreams' by Catherine Storr.

Ill and bored with having to stay in bed, Marianne picks up a pencil and starts doodling - a house, a garden, a boy at the window. That night she has an extraordinary dream whereby she is transported into her own picture, and as she explores further she soon realises she is not alone. The boy at the window is called Mark, and his every movement is guarded by the menacing stone watchers that surround the solitary house. This story is creepy, disturbing and I realised that it echoed one of my own childhood nightmares where a witch lived in the house next door and I had to devise lots of ways to escape her attentions. 

Soooooo atmospheric and dreamlike in quality

How about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror?

 

As with Agamemnon’s dreams, courtesy of Zeus (I've waited a long time to reveal that nugget of knowledge), Harry is also led astray by subconscious thoughts implanted by a villain. 

I love a spooky door

And, as if you ever needed an affirmation of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore’s wisdom, he also has something to say about dreams:

I cannot write about dreams without referring to Alice in Wonderland by the peerless Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll really took full advantage of the limitless possibilities of writing within a dream setting. The 19th century author used Alice’s ability to get lost in the dream state and make connections and observations in her real life – much like we all actually do when dreaming.

‘Yes, that’s it! Said the Hatter with a sigh, it’s always tea time.’

Then there's, Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein

With a head full of an evening’s talk of reanimation and galvanism, Mary Godwin did not sleep well: “My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie?.I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out?” She realized she had found her “ghost story.” “What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.”

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

In June of 2003, suburban Arizona mother Stephenie Meyer woke up from an intense dream in which two young lovers were lying together in a meadow, discussing why their love could never work. On her website, Meyers says, “One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately.”

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

His horror classic also sprang into existence because of its writer’s graphic nightmares. In this case, a “fine bogey tale” tormenting him as he slept grew into one of the most famous and genuinely scary English-language novels ever penned — most especially considering its all-too-human antagonist and protagonist.

"In the small hours of the morning," says Mrs Stevenson, "I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare, I woke him. He said angrily, 'Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.' I had awakened him at the first transformation scene ..."

Stuart Little by E.B. White:

One of the most memorable and beloved characters from children’s literature entered into E.B. White’s subconscious in the 1920s, though he didn’t transition from notes to novel until over two decades later. From there, the tiny boy with the face and fur of a mouse became a classic.

Dream on, dreamers! (And thanks, Granny)

Lost Landscapes - Finding Stories

I recently finished the latest Alan Garner book, Boneland.

Great Expectations - the SCBWI Winchester Conference and Candy Gourlay

by Addy Farmer & all the rest of the Slushpile gang, except one: surprise, Candy!!

Stand up for the outstanding Candy Gourlay!

Thanks to Kathy Evans for the pic!

That's what we did in a packed conference hall - we stood and applauded Candy as she was awarded the Crystal Kite Member Choice Award which is given by the SCBWI to recognise great books from around the world.It is chosen by other children's book writers and illustrators and is a testament to Candy's fizzing creativity, her warm and generous spirit and that great thing she has, stickability.

Musings on Muses

By Addy Farmer
Guest Blogger

Who does it for YOU?

Muse wise, I mean. Maybe you already have one lolling about somewhere? Maybe you scoff at the very idea of a Muse or perhaps you are already a daughter of Zeus and can do your own musing thank you very much.

The necessity for one of these divine creatures may well depend on the sort of writer you are. There are those who splurge out words until they faint through word excess and then there are those who creak out one sentence at a time. To paraphrase Pam Johnson, the former are 'churners' and the latter are, 'tooth pullers'.

I lean towards the tooth pulling variety.

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead Gene Fowler

 Just relax, this won't hurt a bit

So, I try to imagine a being whose only desire is to inspire my writing.

Gone would be the walking, the vacuuming, toilet cleaning, useless note taking, hair tearing, blood letting – all those things which take up my thinking time when I should be churning out my story. I'm thinking, a Muse could be jolly efficient, like a literary short cut. Cut out the angst - just feed me the story, sister.

And I'm not the only one who thinks a Muse could be a good idea. Quite a few famous writers wanted them. Like Shakespeare:

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention

Alright, calm down Shakespeare, It's not like the Muse didn't visit you once or twice, unless the rumours are true and it wasn't you … but no, moving swiftly on!

Jonathan Swift definitely had one:

Then, rising with Aurora's light, The Muse invoked, sit down to write; Blot out, correct, insert, refine, enlarge, diminish, interline

Brilliant. Jonathan clearly had a direct line although I couldn't be doing with Aurora's light because that particular Goddess is just a tad too early for my brain. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be keen on a Muse of fire which sounds a little bit … hot.

Damn you for waking me so early!

But look! Here is the Literary Muse. What poise, what elegance, what's she saying to that bloke? Whispering in his ear, no doubt feeding him juicy bits of inspiration all the time. That's got to be useful. I hope he can remember it all, that he doesn't get distracted by all that poise and elegance.

Psst, have you heard the one about …?

I'm not sure I want a daughter of Zeus lookalike though. I reckon radiant physical beauty in a Muse would cause me problems. However, in the interests of science I would be willing to give the following people a Muse try out:

The bloke from Being Human

Gregory Peck

Chris Pine

Even now I suspect that the loveliness of these lovelies would prove too much for my tiny head. I would come over all unnecessary and zero writing would be done. In time, I'd be forced to reconsider the shape of my Muse.

What to do? Well, maybe get away from the whole Muse in human form and turn to the animal world. I mean, I like the look of hairy guinea pigs with their eighties hair dos. Long feathered chickens have the same effect, certain breeds of sheep and to a lesser degree, Highland cattle. Amusing, for sure, and no doubt many hilarious stories would follow but this Muse lacks a certain gravitas or actually any gravitas at all.

What's not to love?

Okay, so maybe something totally non animal will do the job. Clouds, wandering lonely, ephemeral; chap in a bowler hat one moment, performing flea circus the next. Who cannot watch the sky without seeing story in its shapes? Not me!

Take a summer's day, a velvet green hill, lie back on the picnic blanket and let the fluffy Muse do her work. Lovely. Except for when it's not summer and there are ants and the fluffy Muse starts to rain … No, I need a Muse I can rely on.

Clearly, this picnic is seriously out of control.
Photo from Flickr by Joanne and Matt

Different tack then. Perhaps it's best to let the the Muse find you. I suggest the following:

• Play hard to get. 'Muse, me? Oh no, I didn't want one of those,' laugh airily and walk away. She'll come running.
• A blood sacrifice may entice. Use your own blood.
• Tempt her with chocolate, wine, chicken and chips – whatever you know she fancies. Obviously eat them yourself, it's all part of the plan.

And if none of this works? Just believe you have a muse who's waiting to reveal herself to you, in other words – have faith and look in the mirror. Blimey, she was there all along, arguing and sacrificing and eating the good stuff.

Looking good!

Turns out I will have to be content with amusing myself. Oh look, a cloud shaped like David Beckham! I can see him – can you?

Can you see?

Photo from Flickr by Keo 101

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Addy will be running story making sessions at the Lincoln Book Festival. Together with children's illustrator, Carol Daniel, she will attempt to inspire children with fun ideas for writing and drawing.