WHY?

Why do we do this writing thing? I think the layman, the man in the street, the man in my street (and the woman, too) think it is because of the money. I am not the first or the last to laugh at this. I just about break ahead at the moment, and that's with some biggish competition wins each year, and enough of them, and a children's book out there. I certainly do not make enough I could give up the day job, not even for a single month (not that I would anyway, thank you very much).

There's a great blogpost here: http://patriciaannmcnair.com/blog/

I think it says it all and says it in an amusing way, too, and this from a writer who might be judged to have made a success of writing... on her own terms.

Of course there are those who rake in millions, and there are those who eke out a living from it. But there are far more of us who simply do it for something other than money.

I used to act. It was like donning a mask and becoming an extrovert at no risk. I am a teacher and that is something the same. And now I write, and you know, it is not so very different. It is a way to express myself; it is me being creative (and I need to be that); it is something that I love (having loved reading first); and (I am told) my writing brings pleasure to others who read it... the better question is why wouldn't I be a writer?

It is not the money, not ever the money, not even the lure of it.

Forgive!

I keep getting these pithy little pick-me-up quotations in my hotmail in-box. I don't recall requesting them. They just started appearing, as if from nowhere, like little gifts. I read them sometimes and then fly on past and consign them to the bin not always giving them the time they need. But it's Easter and the sun is trying to break through the clouds and a blackbird is singing it's heart out in the laburnum tree outside my window and the cat is stretched out on the slate tiles trying to find cool and this is in my in-box today and it feels appropriate somehow:

"He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass." (George Herbert)

So, to anyone who has done me wrong or harm, I offer forgiveness, unreservedly; and to anyone to whom I have done wrong or harm, I beg for it, humbly. And to anyone reading this, why not do the same in your world.

Happy Easter everyone.

RARE WISDOM!

Was reading again Jonathan Lethem's article on 'The Ecstacy of Influence' and thinking again of this idea of the 'gift economy' as applied to the things we writers do. Still makes absolute sense, this does. You should check it out if you are serious with this writing game.

I entered a competition recently, one I have entered in the past and done well in. The person processing my entry recognised my name and thanked me for entering and said they were pleased that I had. Then the person said: 'Your stories are wonderful, and full of a rare wisdom.' How nice is that? To be read first of all, and to be remembered, and then to be thought well of, and wise! That's as good as getting a result in my book.

And it all goes to the idea of me, as a writer, gifting my stories to the world and hoping to be read and appreciated for what I have written and all the rest is just bullshit.

Sun is Shining

After the usual rush of writing in January, I sort of stalled. It’s not that I didn’t have stories to tell, it’s just that I wasn’t sure why they had to be told. They felt a little frothy and superfluous. I wanted to say something in a story and something that had to be heard. That’s what I thought. And so production has been slower than usual.

I have tinkered with things and produced lots of flash fiction that may grow into something. I am working on a novel as well, and have penned nearly 20,000 words of that, and I am pleased at how it is going, so it’s not as though I have been idle. But still there was a nagging voice in the back of my head, that maybe it was time for something serious. So, yesterday I laid down a draft of something, was not altogether happy with the ending and not sure that it quite had what I wanted to say. I slept on it and woke to a much more complete ending. It is done now, and it is the first story in a long while where I feel it should be read for what it has to say as well as for the story and the writing.

And then today the draft of a second story falls onto the page, and it has something good in it too. And in my in-box notification that I am placed third in a story competition and I know I am on a shortlist for something else…nine competition hits so far this year and it feels good again… and I have a story available as a download through Ether Books for just 59 pence…and the sun is shining outside my window and birds are singing.

I hope there is something good where you are... whoever you are.

(Not wanting to put up a separate post for this, but something to add to the above: have just found out I am third in that shortlisted competition mentioned. So that makes nine competition hits: 2 in first place, 2 in second place, 2 in third place, and 3 commended; not bad to start the year, and 15 pieces printed or posted on the web so far. I should also mention that I have bombed in a handful of comps, too... it's not all easy.

And yesterday I think I wrote my emotionally strongest ever short story... it brings a lump to my throat at least.)

SAD SAD NEWS

I have just visited the JBWB site (Jacqui Bennett's Writers' Bureau). There is some very sad news there. Jenny Hewitt who ran the operation and who was an excellent judge of creative writing and a truly nice person, sadly passed away on the 18th March. She was a keen voice in the encouragement of new writing and new writers. Whenever I entered a competition at JBWB I felt that I was writing for Jenny personally, such was the flavour of her personal notes of encouragement, always looking forward to reading the next entry - and she meant it when she said that.

I shall miss her cheery responses. Although JBWB will continue to operate as normal, it can never be the same without Jenny. She will be sorely missed by many people and many writers.

My sincere condolences to anyone close to Jenny.

Times they are a-changing... or are they?

I have seen a few blog posts recently that stand up and say to would-be-writers and developing writers: read, read, read and steal, steal, steal - everything. It seems that everywhere I look I see something about art being about stealing and developing ideas that have come from other works. Has the world gone mad? Is this a 'Brave New World' we are creating for ourselves?

Well, not really. It's what I have said all along and others have said before me: we are the product of what has gone into our heads and so what we produce must be influenced by what has gone before. That's just common sense. But if it is to be something other than mere copying (which would be an infringement of the copyright rules) then it has to be something more, a development on what has gone before. It must add something to what is already 'out there'. That's how Art works.

But let's not think that this is anying new. Here, read Goethe:

“What am I then…? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished by countless different individuals, by innocent and wise ones, people of intelligence and dunces. Childhood, maturity, and old age all have brought me their thoughts,… their perspectives on life. I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name of Goethe.”

And so, those petty people who are so prissy precious about their ideas need to wake up and do some serious thinking and realise that their ideas are only really worth anything if they are passed on and made much of. There should not be a sense of having been stolen from, but rather that someone else has been fed and watered by what you put out there. When I give blood it makes me feel like I have done good in the world; when someone takes my idea and makes a new life out of it, then I should feel good also. Is the blogosphere waking up to this? Is that why I am seeing so much on the subject just now? Do we need to differentiate between plagiarism where actual arrangements of words are lifted and 'plagiarism' where an 'artist' uses another's ideas as a starting point for a new work of art?

I DIDN'T THINK SO!

Some private emails in support, but nothing from the people who were called on to respond... and over a hundred views of my blog since I posted two weeks ago. Could it be that there is no response because there can be no hard rules on what can and cannot be borrowed? Since all writers borrow on some level, and some even instruct others to take from the established writers there are, where exactly a line can be drawn becomes difficult... and perhaps even arbitrary.

There is a precedent for borrowing in almost every writer that has ever been, if they are honest and we are honest. It is the proven practice of writers going back to the dawn of writing. It is how art works and culture works and society. Then suddenly there were rules and they were copyright rules and they were there to protect the income of the writers who had published. That seems fair. I can see the need for that. But those rules were not there to restrict the free flow of ideas and the free exchange of ideas; they were there to protect the printed works and the printed words.

Then there were lawsuits and lawyers and it falls to them still to pick and pick at the 'small print' to decide if an infringement has occurred and cases are never so clear cut. I am not a lawyer and few writers are, so how is it possible that well-intentioned and honest writers are to be protected when they borrow? And how does the internet serve to bring about 'justice' in these cases when there are no internet police and just the baying of the loudest wolves to be heard?

Right now I have given up all borrowing... as far as that is humanly possible. That, it seems to me, is the only way. And yet I read a respected and great writer recently and he was telling new writers to take from all other writers and to take and take, and then to make what has been taken their own. Is that simply being irresponsible? Or is there some magic in that phrase 'make it your own'? I repeat that I have never taken something and then not attempted to make it my own; I have never stolen words, not ever; and I have always been honest in my borrowings. I have not been sneaky or clever, but have been open and plain, and there for all to see.

I am not, therefore, a plagiarist.