My novel in my mind and on paper is moving forwards. I am really keen to get a first draft done of this novel, and then start rewriting. I am reading The Dirty Beat, by Venero Armanno. A great book full of beauty, empathy and strong characters.
There is something mysterious in art, a piece of work that takes people to a different place, like the Heart of Darkness did to me when I was a teenager, transported me, mesmerised me, and like the Snows of Kilamanjaro did to me at university and the Unbearable Lightness of Being, Cry the Beloved Country and many other books. They draw you in and change you. They affect you and remain with you for the rest of your life. Well that's what good books do to me, profound books. Not just a book that is enjoyable but ones that affect you for the rest of your life.
Some books I enjoy their style and structure and I admire the way the novel is written but there are other books that remain forever dear to me, close to me, intimate friends. Music can be the same, intimate. I would love to create something close to this.
23 Sept 2007
20 Sept 2007
Novel is moving
This morning I am so pleased and thankful that my novel is moving forward. Some great themes and plot and character developments are forming, in my head anyway. I have also decided (thanks to some of my friends in YON) that I am going to set myself a deadline of February for a complete draft of the novel. There has been a cloud over this novel for a little while now and I am grateful that it is lifting. Just keep going until the draft done and then be prepared for many revisions.
Veny said in the last YON class about how Peter Carey wrote ten versions of the Ned Kelly book in different points of view until he completed the one he was happy with. I can understand starting from scratch because sometimes it is hard to just move words around, sometimes you need to totally reconstruct the scenes and action etc. Anyway, that's sometimes how I feel.
I am just going to keep moving forwards. Work, life and doing things for other people in our lives take up a lot of our time so when the creative flow starts to move, we should hold on tight and ride it like a white water rapid, until we reach the end of river.
Veny said in the last YON class about how Peter Carey wrote ten versions of the Ned Kelly book in different points of view until he completed the one he was happy with. I can understand starting from scratch because sometimes it is hard to just move words around, sometimes you need to totally reconstruct the scenes and action etc. Anyway, that's sometimes how I feel.
I am just going to keep moving forwards. Work, life and doing things for other people in our lives take up a lot of our time so when the creative flow starts to move, we should hold on tight and ride it like a white water rapid, until we reach the end of river.
17 Sept 2007
Reading, writing and inspiration
Once again I have quiet for a few days. Last week was noisy, but nice. I revel in quiet in my house. In fact, I feel the need to keep working rapidly because I know this time may not last forever.
I am reading Veny's book The Dirty Beat. It is rivoting. I am half way through and I only started yesterday. It is great to read something that I can't put down, some books I find exceedingly difficult to read. I went to the book launch of The Dirty Beat the other night, that was enjoyable.
I thought I would post up a picture of the forest in my backyard - because as it is getting warmer I am going to write more of my novel from my back veranda which looks out over this beautiful forest with black cockatoos cawing and wallabies standing to attention in gaps in the foliage.
5 Sept 2007
Silence, listening, reading...
This post is going to be a little rambling, as sometimes my posts are. I have not had silence for weeks and maybe months and most people in their daily lives do not have a lot of silence. I think writers need more silent times than other people. These are the times when we are thinking, creating, dreaming and hearing the voices of our characters or seeing our characters lounging on their couches, or arguing with their partners, or crying or laughing, basically, and weirdly, they are living.
I love this quote from Kate Eltham from the QWC (I am loving what she writes on the covering letter every month, I never used to read them and now I always read her musings.) which says:
"... writers who understand. They understand that I'm staring vacantly out the window because I'm thinking about my story, and not because I am a bit funny in the head. They understand that it is normal to have conversations (out loud) with my characters when I'm driving to work. They understand because they, too, are writers." (July QWC Newsletter).
Hemingway talks about listening to Gertrude Stein rant and rave about other authors and writing, even though he didn't agree with her. He just listened anyway. Listening is a lost art, I think. People exchanging ideas and politely listening until others have finished.
An inheritance that I hate the most from television, videos, games, music, modern culture is the way we don't listen to each other anymore. It's like our attention span is zero! That is what I notice about the current situation. However, there are people who listen well and these people are less exhausting to be around. I like to hear about other people's lives and stories. We will not learn anything if we lose this art altogether. It will just be about our own opinions and views on the world and there is not exchange of relationship or ideas. There is nothing interchanged between the people in conversation unless they both listen at some point to one another.
I had a great trip to Brisbane on Monday, in which I met with my friend Jenni Messina. We chatted about writing our novels, our occasional impatience with the process and our writing styles. It was wonderful to be with another person who feels the same as me and listen to her experiences and finding they were similar to mine. This is always good.
As a side point: I was extremely chuffed by Veny's comment about my chapter from my novel that it was: "extremely evocative."
I love this quote from Kate Eltham from the QWC (I am loving what she writes on the covering letter every month, I never used to read them and now I always read her musings.) which says:
"... writers who understand. They understand that I'm staring vacantly out the window because I'm thinking about my story, and not because I am a bit funny in the head. They understand that it is normal to have conversations (out loud) with my characters when I'm driving to work. They understand because they, too, are writers." (July QWC Newsletter).
Hemingway talks about listening to Gertrude Stein rant and rave about other authors and writing, even though he didn't agree with her. He just listened anyway. Listening is a lost art, I think. People exchanging ideas and politely listening until others have finished.
An inheritance that I hate the most from television, videos, games, music, modern culture is the way we don't listen to each other anymore. It's like our attention span is zero! That is what I notice about the current situation. However, there are people who listen well and these people are less exhausting to be around. I like to hear about other people's lives and stories. We will not learn anything if we lose this art altogether. It will just be about our own opinions and views on the world and there is not exchange of relationship or ideas. There is nothing interchanged between the people in conversation unless they both listen at some point to one another.
I had a great trip to Brisbane on Monday, in which I met with my friend Jenni Messina. We chatted about writing our novels, our occasional impatience with the process and our writing styles. It was wonderful to be with another person who feels the same as me and listen to her experiences and finding they were similar to mine. This is always good.
As a side point: I was extremely chuffed by Veny's comment about my chapter from my novel that it was: "extremely evocative."
22 Aug 2007
Hemmingway came down to Melbourne with me...
I have recently picked up A Moveable Feast by Hemingway and I am enjoying it immensely.
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." (Ernest Hemingway to a friend in 1950).
It is so easy to read his first person style. It flows well and is very relaxed not like some of Hemingway's short stories that can be aggressive and abrasive. But this little book is enjoyable and also very powerful. I loved Paris when I was there in 2001 just after September 11, it was as if nothing dramatic had happened in the world and nothing would touch that city.
It is amusing to read about Gertrude Stein criticising Hemingway's style of writing and saying that he was of the Lost Generation. It talks about how Hemingway and his wife deal with their poverty and about their everyday lives and about the fisher people on the Seine River. It is candid and charming.
"Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only true sad time in Paris because it was unnatural...Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again...When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed."
There are other observations of his relationship with his wife and how they spend their time and money. I can really relate to what he is talking about. He seems like a friend of mine, someone who understands how an artistic person feels about life.
It is unlike any other Hemingway I have read. He is a free spirited and generous person in this book. It is refreshing to hear about his life in Paris with authors such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce and others. To me it is a gem of a book, beautifully and soulfully written.
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." (Ernest Hemingway to a friend in 1950).
It is so easy to read his first person style. It flows well and is very relaxed not like some of Hemingway's short stories that can be aggressive and abrasive. But this little book is enjoyable and also very powerful. I loved Paris when I was there in 2001 just after September 11, it was as if nothing dramatic had happened in the world and nothing would touch that city.
It is amusing to read about Gertrude Stein criticising Hemingway's style of writing and saying that he was of the Lost Generation. It talks about how Hemingway and his wife deal with their poverty and about their everyday lives and about the fisher people on the Seine River. It is candid and charming.
"Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only true sad time in Paris because it was unnatural...Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again...When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed."
There are other observations of his relationship with his wife and how they spend their time and money. I can really relate to what he is talking about. He seems like a friend of mine, someone who understands how an artistic person feels about life.
It is unlike any other Hemingway I have read. He is a free spirited and generous person in this book. It is refreshing to hear about his life in Paris with authors such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce and others. To me it is a gem of a book, beautifully and soulfully written.
21 Aug 2007
Present Tense...
Recently I wrote a short story for an ABC competition. I decided after researching tenses, to write it in present tense because I thought it made it more exciting and immediate. Present tense is not used very often, normally past tense is used for narrative but in a short story it can be a useful technique to create a sense of suspense and energy.
Anyway, I read some information about tenses and
From Nicks Writing Blog: http://www.mywritingblog.com/writer/2007/07/tense-in-fiction.html
"And finally, if you write in the present tense, you need to be very careful when referring to events that occurred in the characters' past. In ordinary, past-tense narration, we use the pluperfect tense to introduce such "flashbacks":
Novels are better to be written in past tense, especially for a novice, that is the advice I have read.
Anyway, just some thoughts on tense that I thought was interesting.
Anyway, I read some information about tenses and
From Nicks Writing Blog: http://www.mywritingblog.com/writer/2007/07/tense-in-fiction.html
"And finally, if you write in the present tense, you need to be very careful when referring to events that occurred in the characters' past. In ordinary, past-tense narration, we use the pluperfect tense to introduce such "flashbacks":
Mary smiled and sipped her tea, remembering when they first met. It had been a cold November morning...I never knew about pluperfect tense but there you go. Very interesting.
Novels are better to be written in past tense, especially for a novice, that is the advice I have read.
Anyway, just some thoughts on tense that I thought was interesting.
17 Aug 2007
Bob Dylan in Melbourne
Hey everyone
As anyone would know that reads my blog I am always talking about Bob Dylan, amongst other people. When I found out he had been in Brisbane last week and I didn't know about it, I felt completely demoralised. I had been getting updates from his website about tour dates however I noticed the other day how one of them had been deleted as if it was spam, so obviously the one telling me when he was in Brisbane was deleted.
Anyway, long story, I am flying to Melbourne on Sunday to see him on Sunday night. I missed his 1997 show at Byron Bay and since then I have really gotten into his music. I believe he was here in 2003 as well.
I may go down and be disappointed but I have always wanted to see him in concert. A lot of people come away disappointed but I am prepared for this. It would just be good to see him in person on stage.
Anyway, I am very excited and thankful that I am able to do this. I will report back about this experience if anyone cares to read and even if they don't.
As anyone would know that reads my blog I am always talking about Bob Dylan, amongst other people. When I found out he had been in Brisbane last week and I didn't know about it, I felt completely demoralised. I had been getting updates from his website about tour dates however I noticed the other day how one of them had been deleted as if it was spam, so obviously the one telling me when he was in Brisbane was deleted.
Anyway, long story, I am flying to Melbourne on Sunday to see him on Sunday night. I missed his 1997 show at Byron Bay and since then I have really gotten into his music. I believe he was here in 2003 as well.
I may go down and be disappointed but I have always wanted to see him in concert. A lot of people come away disappointed but I am prepared for this. It would just be good to see him in person on stage.
Anyway, I am very excited and thankful that I am able to do this. I will report back about this experience if anyone cares to read and even if they don't.
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