11.13.11
Posted in Writing at 5:13 pm by Natalie
Okay, I’m going to get a bit existential here, but do you ever wonder why we want so much stuff? Every day we get catalogues pimping lost of shiny, colourful new stuff, and we bring bags of it into our houses, bought both on-line and in person. Our houses are overflowing with stuff, but we still need more.
Don’t you wonder if maybe, just maybe, what we actually have is an emotional gap that needs filling? And because we are so time poor or so stressed we try to plug that gap with stuff instead of substance.
I wonder if I spent more time writing and less time trawling websites to get the right price for that vital stuff that I need, then perhaps I wouldn’t actually need so much stuff?
After all, the stuff of today is generally the landfill-clogging waste of tomorrow, but I know my words will be cherished, even if only by me.
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11.06.11
Posted in Writing at 8:27 pm by Natalie
This is not the blog post I was going to write. To write that one I needed to read a story I have had published previously, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
That got me thinking about why I didn’t want to re-read it. It is a bit of a no-brainer; as the author you will always find something you want to change, and once it is published it is too late to do so.
But the explanation is not that simple, because I don’t like to re-read my story when it comes back to me before it is published as a proof. That is the time when it can be changed, indeed you need to find the errors, so you are forced to read it. So with gritted teeth I always look through it, trying to put as much distance between me and the work, after all, by the time the story has got to proof status it is very annoying for the publisher to change it, so semantics are not well tolerated.
I also hate re-reading my stories before I send them out for consideration. Again, this is another must. You need to make sure that if there is anything a reader might stumble over, you identify it and fix it before you send it out. So again with the gritted teeth (and often out loud) the re-read begrudgingly occurs.
Post final-edit is also a pain for me. I’ve already read it what feels like a million times (and some paragraphs surely do come close to that), so once I get to the end I don’t want to look at a word of it again. But you have to. Gritted teeth…
Pretty much the only time I’m happy to do the re-read is after the first draft is completed and you write those magic words ‘The End’. Probably because at the end of every first draft I’m convinced I’ve just finished the best piece I’ve ever written.
The first re-read usually cures me of that misconception.
Maybe that’s why I don’t like re-reads?
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10.23.11
Posted in Writing at 11:57 am by Natalie
That’s how long it just took for one of my stories to be rejected. I had actually assumed it was rejected three months ago when I had not heard from them within their rough guide of when they would be making their decision, so it was not with disappointment that I received this email, but surprise.
It was a form letter rejection, so I’m not sure if my story got close to being picked or if it was just lost in the back-log for all that time. The thing that did really surprise me was the invitation to submit again next year. Forgive me if I sound bitter, and I do appreciate that in the scheme of things in the writing world I am at the bottom of the food chain (and I’m okay with that), but waiting nearly eight months to reject a piece of flash fiction, in a flash fiction anthology where most of the stories submitted are around 1,000 words is just too long!
The disappointing thing is that I know a lot of the people who put these anthologies together are writers themselves, so surely they know the disappointment you feel when you have had a story locked up for nearly a year while someone makes a decision about it. Even if they sent a generic update email at the four-month mark I’d not be quite so miffed.
It makes it very hard to write a ‘cutting-edge’ piece of science fiction, because if the first person you sub it to doesn’t take it, then it is old hat by the time it gets sent to the second potential publishing opportunity.
I know there is no solution. This is just how it is. It really is no wonder that people are turning more and more to self-publishing as a first option for their work. I’m not there yet, but I do not hold it against those who do choose that path.
Yes, I guess it turns out I am a bit bitter 
and I must concede that it could be something about that particular story, because the last place held onto it for over a year before they rejected it.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Ugh.
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10.16.11
Posted in Writing at 7:54 pm by Natalie
I’m growing some garlic at the moment. What I didn’t realise when I put it in the ground nearly four months ago is that it can take up to nine months to get to maturity. This means the plot sits there for a long time not doing anything. A little bit like most of my manuscripts.
Today I decided to tackle the most recent weed infestation and it got me thinking about how much weeding is like editing. You have the ‘good’ bits, which you know are good, and you know you need to pull out the ‘bad’ bits to give the good bits the best chance they can get, but it is not as easy as it sounds.
For starters the bad bits have big root systems, and they can rip out the good bits if you pull them out without enough consideration and care. Also, especially when you start from seed, sometimes it is not easy to recognise which are the desired ‘plants’ and which are the ‘weeds’ when they first burst through the soil. You might think you are giving love and sunlight to your garlic, but it actually turns out to be onion weed.
Finally, when you have no idea, and you are doing all this for the first time, you don’t know exactly when you should harvest your plants. Too early and they will be tasteless and mediocre, too late and they will be woody and overburdened with pulp.
I guess that is why it is so important to make sure you seek advice from a gardener who has been there before, someone who has made all those same planting mistakes before you. It is always wise to seek some guidance and can save you from a ruined crop.
I really miss my writers group 
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10.09.11
Posted in Writing at 5:38 pm by Natalie
A friend of mine is a big Biggles fan and recently lent me a couple of books to read. The language is wonderful, and I love the way the author paints a picture, but there are some things about the writing style that really date the books.
The first thing that struck me was how long the sentences were. I was forgetting what we were talking about by the time we got to the end of them in some instances. This just shows how lazy I’ve become with my reading, so I was glad to get some practice in.
The next thing that struck me was how politically incorrect the books were, on more levels than I want to get into here. So we’ll just leave that alone.
The third thing to strike me, and strangely enough not until I was some time into the book, was how rarely the word ‘said’ was used. In the first three pages people chipped, returned, added, answered, stated, inquired, whispered, queried, ejaculated, muttered and even averred (I had to look that one up), but no one ‘said’ anything until page 12. Page 12!!!!
One of the early ‘rules’ of writing that I learned was you should try to use ‘said’ as much as possible because all the other options just get in the way of otherwise good prose, and the eye easily slips over the word ‘said’. I diligently went through all my stories and axed my answered’s and quelled my queries, replacing all with a nice soft ‘said’.
So did it irritate me when I was reading Biggles? Yes, a bit, but not as much as when I’m reading a modern story and someone does exactly the same thing. I guess it was just the style of the day to replace ‘said’ whenever possible and I was being more understanding, but when did that style change? More importantly –why?
Why was it determined that said was bad once and good later? Who decides on all of these rule?
‘It makes me want to break the rules,’ declared Natalie.
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10.02.11
Posted in Journal, Writing at 4:44 pm by Natalie
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I didn’t post on Wednesday. I’d like to say it was a planned thing, but the truth was I was so sick that after I had crawled over to the wall to turn the power on to the modem, I lay down, exhausted, and fell asleep on the floor. More accurately, a step. The poor cat thought I was dead.
Anyway, today there is no hint of my malaise of mid-week, but my missed post did get me thinking. My online presence is important to me, and I really do value being a part of the community, but my offline writing is, was and always will be paramount. So I’m axing the Wednesday post in favour of Wednesday writing. The slot is nicely booked out in my calendar for the rest of the year already, so I will just change its use.
That will also allow me to do random koala and pet photo posts any time outside of standard post time, instead of waiting for Wednesday. And an update; I am still working on the cat photos for those who asked, hope to have something soon.
I’m also going to change the nature of my blog a little. I’m going to cut back on the advice –after all, what can I claim to know about writing? Perhaps when I’ve got my third novel out or my Pulitzer, then I might have something worth listening to, but until then I’m just going to share what I can claim to know well; the struggles of a writer trying to get her work out into the world.
So thank you for your support so far, and I look forward to sharing a lot more of my journey with you in the coming months!
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09.25.11
Posted in Writing at 3:44 pm by Natalie
I opened a blank piece of paper, intending to draft my Sunday blog post, and a story I have been flirting with for the better part of 12 months nearly knocked me over with its opening scene. I watched in my head as the beginning of the story unfurled (fortunately my fingers had enough sense to type what I was seeing) and next thing I knew I had nearly seven hundred words on the page and almost no conscious memory of putting them there.
Inspiration does not strike often, but when it does it is a beautiful thing. I don’t put a lot of stock in inspiration, it is a bit like love after the age of 30; ephemeral and cloudy, and upon reflection you see the dark smudges you were blind to in the moment. Having said that, when it does hit, there is nothing wrong with giving in and letting it rule you for a little while.
So now I have my piece to come back to each night and try to build on. It is my tale to ponder when I’m on the bus, waiting at the check-out, or in a boring meeting – and it feels wonderful to have one of these again. I have been away from my stories for too long, I guess my brain just needed the break.
Might be time for a personal WriMoFoFo?
Happy writing!
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09.21.11
Posted in Writing at 10:42 pm by Natalie
We are going through the change of seasons at the moment from a wet, cold winter to a (no doubt) hot, dry summer. Some days are warm with balmy evenings, others so cold as to inspire you to light the fire. This has underscored a fallacy of mine which I have secretly suspected, but have now been forced to face.
There is no such thing as writing weather.
In summer I delude myself into thinking that in the cooler season I’ll be more likely to nurse the warm laptop and tap out the opus. In winter, shivering under my blanket, I think about how much freer I’ll be to type without having to worry about opening a gap in my tepee when I write in summer. Really, it’s all just bollocks.
When summer and winter come on top of each other in two concurrent days, as they have just recently, you are forced to face the fact that the writing either happens, or it doesn’t and the weather has absolutely no bearing on that whatsoever.
So instead of planning my writing calendar by the weather report I’ll just force myself to sit down and write every day. EVERY DAY! And if things work out, I shouldn’t even know what the weather is doing.
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09.14.11
Posted in Writing at 10:54 pm by Natalie
I tried to slip verisimilitude into a sentence today, and as much as I do know how to use it in a sentence, and I know what it means, it just doesn’t sound right. So if I won’t use a word in my speech, should I use it in a novel (even non-speech parts of novels)?
At what point does a big word nail the meaning, perfectly portraying the feeling you were going for, compared to when it just makes you sound like you are trying to be clever by sending the rest of us off to check the dictionary? I guess this all comes back, again, to the reader.
For me, I like it when you can gather what a word means by its usage (and I will check the dictionary just to make sure I’ve understood it correctly), which also shows if the author really does know what it means. I also think that if you haven’t collected one new word from a novel, then you have been a little cheated.
So bring on the wankey words, we need to keep them alive! But please don’t let me drown in them when I’m reading your story, or else I’ll find I’ve made my way further into the Macquarie than I have into your book!
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09.11.11
Posted in Journal, Writing at 6:42 pm by Natalie
I had a long, hard look the published writers in my writers group, and published authors in general, and I think I have cracked the key to their success.
Sure, there’s the long hours spent at the keyboard, writing, editing, writing, starting again and writing more. There’s the invaluable (and sometimes painful) advice they listen to from their writers group/ editor/ agent/ next door neighbour, and we shouldn’t pooh-pooh their never give up attitude in the face of insult and indifference.
But that is not it.
For the most part they are cat owners. Yes, those slinky (or chunky) fluffy muses pad the path to publication, and bring their owners with them. And now I am lucky enough to have one of my own!
My intention was to put up a photo of her here, but she is still a little timid and not terribly fond of the strange black monster with the one glassy eye that clicks when I press a button, so most of the pictures were just blue-grey blurs. Never fear, little miss is quite the artist and she has rendered a startlingly accurate likeness to the fluffy blue one, so I will share that instead.
Naturally I expect my productivity to blossom. Watch this space and we can test out my theory.
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