Tag Archives: Elizabeth Gilbert

Stepping Into A Writer’s World

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In my recent post, A Season for Writing, I wrote about the fact that I’d started a new WIP set in California, and that I could almost feel the sunshine.

And the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that this feeling of place, of inhabiting the world where my characters live, is the way I know that my story has ‘legs.’

I don’t know about you guys, but I get story ideas all the time. Walking down the street, at the airport, in the shower. Some become stories, but others, for now, remain fragments, nothing more than a few sentences.

I’m not a plotter – I don’t sit down and write detailed plot graphs and chapter plans. I tried it once, but my characters didn’t like it and decided to run off in an entirely different direction. I knew then that it wasn’t for me. I’m envious of people who can plan their books that way – though I love the excitement of flying by the seat of my pants when writing a new story, there are moments when I have no idea what will happen next, or whether I can bring things to a speedy conclusion, and a nicely plotted graph would be very helpful. However, when I can ‘see’ my characters and their surroundings clearly, I take it as a signpost that all will be well.

Instead, when I start a new story, I take one of the little fragments – an idea, a couple of characters, a key event – and I start writing. I don’t think about it too much, because if I squeeze the idea too tightly it won’t be able to race forward, dragging me along with it. It’s quite a balancing act, caring just enough that the story knows you’re interested, but not so much it decides to quit, or run off with someone else. (If you’ve read Big Magic you’ll know what I’m talking about). And sometimes it goes nowhere – I don’t get that magic tickle in my stomach and fingers, I’m not thinking about the characters when I’m out walking. But sometimes, a world starts to spring up around me. Scenes and characters appear, almost as though they’ve been waiting for me to shout ‘Action!’, one scene linking into the next. I find myself thinking about the new story world at odd times, little snippets coming to me. And that’s when I know I’m on my way.

And so it is with this new WIP. I’ve been working on it for a little while, up to almost 10K words now, and I confess I did get slightly stuck at one point, but a chat with my critique partner (which will be another blog post) soon got things going again. And now that I can hear the surf, feel the sunshine and see the streets of the (fictional) town where my characters live, I know it’s going to be okay. That the story will unfurl for me. Because that’s how it’s always been. Whether I’m wandering the green woods of Ambeth, the beach Heaven in A Thousand Rooms, or the near-future world of The Last Raven, as long as I know where I am, I can see a way forward.

And maybe that’s how life is, sometimes, too.

How about you? How do you know when a story has ‘legs’? Are you a Planner, or a Pantser, or something in between?

Enjoyed this post? Want to read more? Find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, Under Stone (Ambeth Chronicles #4), is now available on Amazon. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.

 

Big Magic

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Double rainbow from my back garden...

I’ve finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. Literally – I just finished reading it a few minutes ago.

It’s the first day of the school holidays, the child still asleep, the husband gone to work and so I had some precious time to finally, finally address the pile of ‘to read’ books sitting next to my bed. I added the luxury of tea and toast brought up to bed, plus an extra pillow behind my head, and settled in to read the last few chapters.

I have been reading the book for a while – I purchased it on our recent trip to the Canada and US West Coast, but the pace of the vacation was such that I didn’t get as much time to read as I had thought. Then when we came back life took over as it does,  and so reading time was pushed to the bottom of the list.

However, Big Magic had already started to resonate with me. I’d recommended it to several people already, even though I hadn’t finished it, including Lucy over at Blondewritemore. I’d had several ‘wow’ moments, when the words I was reading seemed to echo and validate my own thoughts about the creative process, especially the idea of creating because it’s what you do, not for any desired end result. Just do the work and get it out there. Let it go.

I also believed in the idea of Big Magic, that ideas come from somewhere ‘beyond.’ It’s something I’ve always believed, that the stories coming to me were born somewhere else, just waiting for me to unwrap their layers and transfer them to the page.

And so now I am done. And I will say this: read this book. Whether you are a writer, an artist, a musician, a computer programmer, an avid gardener, a trainspotter, whatever. If you have an interest in your life, or if you are seeking the pathway to find what interests you, this book may well change your perspective and set you free to pursue what it is that makes you tick.

Big Magic indeed.

 

Fragments

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Words fly away. At least, that’s how it feels once I get them on the page. Until then they bounce around in my head, solid fully-formed sentences waiting to be let out. I walk home with them, go out with them, wake up with them – I have no control over when they arrive. All I can do is turn them over again and again, placating them until I can get to a place where they can be set free. Once written, they dissipate, gossamer, ethereal, and I cannot truly recall them again. Only by reading am I reminded.

I’ve been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, and in one section she talks about how it feels when you get an idea. She references a poet, Ruth Stone, who said that she could feel the ideas coming towards her, galloping across the fields, and she had to be ready to catch them and write them down. Quite magical, really. And that’s how these sentences feel when they come to me – captured ideas that I have to write down and set loose again, like unruly children bouncing around, knocking at the doors of my mind and demanding to go outside.

Another favourite author of mine is the late great Douglas Adams. His posthumous release, The Salmon Of Doubt, is a collection of writing collated from his notes over the years, including an unfinished Dirk Gently novel. Some are excellent, especially his account of two dogs he used to meet on his daily walks. Many of them are fragments. Ideas that come and demand to be written down. I have a folder of them myself – I imagine most writers do. Partially finished stories, some still holding the magic potential to grow and become fully fledged, other just bits and thoughts and dreams. All of them have one thing in common – they demanded to be written.

This blog, also, is a collection of fragments. And this is today’s.