I came out to my she-shed for the first time in eleven months this morning - to write. There were
Miss Havisham like cobwebs all around my desk and chair. I did battle with them
and evicted the spiders before I cleared the desk of ten months of detritus
and unread books. Yesterday a visit to my brother and his beautiful family brought me
a character –Erica Gilhooley. She is fully formed with a great back story and she
has a marvellous tale about An Extraordinary Thing that happened to her family during
2020’s Covidy Christmas. It’s a
middle grade book and it is flying out of me.
This is why I write.
This feeling - the buzz you get
when a character comes and takes you by the hand on a merry walk. There is
NO feeling like it. It’s better than
driving. Better than sex. It’s even better than chocolate! I call this feeling
freedom and I think most of us experience it when we do something we love.
Something we know we’re good at.
I
laughed out loud twice at my narrator’s cheeky sense of fun in Chapter 1 and
the love she shows for her family is second to none. I know no-one else might laugh but I'm having fun with her. This part of the writing process has nothing to do with me and
I think many writers will agree. I just sit here and give my characters
permission to arrive, to dance from my fingers to the screen. During my eleven-month
drought of words I dabbled in picture books and crap poems. My adult prose had
dried up completely. I was 35k into a novel and I hated ( understood but hated)
one of my characters for his weakness. I’m writing in various voices and writing his chapters
really depresses me. I get so angry with him. I started this novel three
years ago and I know it’s not as bad as I think it is. But neither is it as
good as I want it to be! I loved writing picture books, they are very hard to write as they are for THE most discerning audience in
the world – under 6s and their parents. I have three picture books out circling
the globe looking for the right publisher and illustrators. If they ever get to
print yiz are all invited to the book launchs!
I started
to write around the time my husband took
up golf. That is two decades ago. We both needed something to replace pints in
our lives! Writing just ‘clicked’ with me – it was liking walking into a room
and finding people who finally understood me. Jemser loves the camaraderie of
the golf course and being out in the air but he gets totally disillusioned with
his game.
‘It’s a whoor of a game’ he’ll claim after a bad back nine, tossing his golf clubs aside. This happens regularly.
I pointed out that even Rory McElroy allowed himself to cry when interviewed about The Ryder Cup 2021. He had a bad day. I bet Ann Enright, John Boyne and other brilliant writers have torn her hair out at times with their characters, having bad days. I read Liz Nugent giving out to her character recently on Twitter when she had written several thousand words and the bitch was still alive!
Writing is a whoor of a hobby. I genuinely feel for published professional authors -each book they launch has to be as good as their previous book. Nothing else (barring kids) has given me so much pleasure and so much frustrated pain. Like The Jemser with his golfclubs I throw writing that isn’t working (I have four half written novels) along with my laptop, pencils, and blank creamy paper aside and wander off to pastures new.
Mind you it would
help if I finished things!
Losing heart in a project and procrastination are
as much a part of writing as rewriting is. It’s certainly true for me. I’m a
bit like the Mayo GAA team. At my core I don’t believe in myself – and I HAVE
to. If I don’t like what I write then neither could anyone else. The boredom
will show on the page. The moments of inspiration and euphoria are brief (and
exhausting) and do not replace hard work and application to the craft. I’m
easily distracted too and the WorldWideWeb is a curse. I go to research something
and end up down a rabbit hole with shag all on the page to show for my day.
So. I’m setting myself targets on this middle grade novel – a minimum of 6000 words a week. If I can do that I will have a first draft in six weeks. Then it’ll go into a drawer. Then rewritten by me and sent to an editor. I use purplecrayonediting for my children’s work and Storyline Literary Agency for adult prose. Both editors are excellent and I highly recommend them.
To aspiring writers -it is worth paying to have your MS edited by a professional before you start submitting. There are millions of books already in the world and every story must earn its place. When I write Erica Gilhooley's world I will read mainly middle grade or YA fiction. It taps into the work. Close reading of the genre you are writing is essential as is reading widely. I have two middle-grade novels on the go at the moment – reading one and listening to another. Reading poetry helps me with the rhythm of sentences and paragraphs. Reading crime is great for plot. Reading other well-written fiction takes my mind off my own characters once I have my word count for the day done. Writers learn from other writers and most importantly from readers. Forget about the market. Write passionately in the voice of your characters. See 'Shuggy Bain', 'Iron Annie' and 'The Catcher in The Rye' for brilliant narrators.
Above all never ever give up. BELIEVE!!
