Which urbanites are writing books?

[Brainaddict]

Do you mind if I ask what you wrote while you were there?

Yes

It didn't come to much in the end.

 

[phildwyer]

Yes

It didn't come to much in the end.

I was going to say, I found it impossible to even begin to think about starting to write while I was in Thailand. Its best to be somewhere really boring and crap.

 

[Brainaddict]

I was going to say, I found it impossible to even begin to think about starting to write while I was in Thailand. Its best to be somewhere really boring and crap.

I don't mean I didn't write. I mean it didn't produce what I wanted.

I can't write when I'm travelling around. But I wasn't on this occasion.

 

[girasol]

I like writing but it's all for personal consumption. I've been writing diaries since I was 14 years old, but I don't think anyone else would find it interesting.

Since my son was 5 months old I started writing my diary as if I'm speaking to him. It'll be his birthday present when he's older... Urban75 features heavily in there, as well as any major historical events taking place, and personal stuff! I just have a strong need to document my life, I always felt it...

My literary style (well, there's no style, really) leaves a lot to be desired, but I do enjoy writing, and that's all that matters.

 

[phildwyer]

I don't mean I didn't write. I mean it didn't produce what I wanted.

Same thing though really, innit? Have you read Keep the Aspidistra Flying? Or maybe The Information?

 

[bluestreak]

Not you, I was referring to Bluestreak.

who still can't produce work of any value whatsoever just by sitting at a monitor and waiting.

my best work comes when i'm relatively sober (i.e. not in a period of substance abuse), working for a living (as boredom makes my brain go in different directions), and inbetween an up and down swing (as nothing of value seems to be produced during my manic highs or my depressive lows).

 

[Brainaddict]

Same thing though really, innit?

Not really, no. There's about 60,000 words difference.

 

[phildwyer]

who still can't produce work of any value whatsoever just by sitting at a monitor and waiting.

my best work comes when i'm relatively sober (i.e. not in a period of substance abuse), working for a living (as boredom makes my brain go in different directions), and inbetween an up and down swing (as nothing of value seems to be produced during my manic highs or my depressive lows).

Well yeah, I suppose everyone's *best* work comes under such circumstances. But of all the things that can stop you from working, substance abuse ranks far below pure procrastination. The former is often used as an excuse for what is, in reality, the latter.

 

[tastebud]

I like writing but it's all for personal consumption. I've been writing diaries since I was 14 years old, but I don't think anyone else would find it interesting.

you summed it up nicely. although, i think i may have been younger when i first started.
it is very different now though. diary like but not really events, and i think as you get older and wiser you write as though somebody else was actually reading it.

 

[phildwyer]

Not really, no. There's about 60,000 words difference.

60,000 *published* words?

 

[Brainaddict]

60,000 *published* words?

*sigh*

 

[marshall]

Yes, I've written a slim 'novella' ( ) about a disfigured lifeguard who lives on the beach in Cornwall.

Only wrote it to see whether I could and it's been optioned. Which isn't as exciting as it first sounded...

 

[phildwyer]

*sigh*

Thought not, somehow. Suspected as much, somehow. Call me intuitive. Unpublished writing is like drinking--its fun, but *anyone* can do it.

 

[Brainaddict]

Phil, you're a cock.

 

[YojimboUK]

Thought not, somehow. Suspected as much, somehow. Call me intuitive. Unpublished writing is like drinking--its fun, but *anyone* can do it.

Troo. Like wanking vs sex.

 

[tastebud]

Thought not, somehow. Suspected as much, somehow. Call me intuitive. Unpublished writing is like drinking--its fun, but *anyone* can do it.

and within your post exists a glaring contradiction. for how can you get to published without first being unpublished...

 

[phildwyer]

and within your post exists a glaring contradiction. for how can you get to published without first being unpublished...

I like it! You have a great future ahead of you. Unlike Brainaddict, who has a great future behind him.

 

[Brainaddict]

I like it! You have a great future ahead of you. Unlike Brainaddict, who has a great future behind him.

When you've rationally proved the existence of god I'll start to worry about your opinion, fool.

 

[SubZeroCat]

I like it! You have a great future ahead of you. Unlike Brainaddict, who has a great future behind him.

Says a person who has 1) never met him and doesn't know him 2) never read any of his writing 3) has no idea what he's talking about.

Poor Brainaddict will be so hurt when he reads what you said phil (!)

 

[tastebud]

I like it! You have a great future ahead of you. Unlike Brainaddict, who has a great future behind him.

now you're just being quarrelsome for the sake of being quarrelsome.

 

[bluestreak]

Well yeah, I suppose everyone's *best* work comes under such circumstances. But of all the things that can stop you from working, substance abuse ranks far below pure procrastination. The former is often used as an excuse for what is, in reality, the latter.

now i'll actually agree with some of that. procrastination, laziness, fear of failure, and overly harsh self-criticism are all major factors in a slack writers' life.

however grant us the intelligence to be able to tell the difference between laziness and not being in the right place mentally....


-----


on a related note, a bimble through the tate at lunchtime has given me a great idea for a section of the novel.

 

[YojimboUK]

and within your post exists a glaring contradiction. for how can you get to published without first being unpublished...

Well, of course... unless you're a fucking blogger when everything you write is immediately published, of course... but there's a difference between writing for writing's sake and writing on commission or for publication. Every book I've done has been contracted before I wrote the first word of the actual manuscript. Admittedly most of them have been shit, but they've been shit that's been translated into eight languages.

 

[phildwyer]

Well, of course... unless you're a fucking blogger when everything you write is immediately published, of course... but there's a difference between writing for writing's sake and writing on commission or for publication. Every book I've done has been contracted before I wrote the first word of the actual manuscript. Admittedly most of them have been shit, but they've been shit that's been translated into eight languages.

Amen to that: "Only a blockhead ever wrote except for money." -- Dr. Johnson.

 

[phildwyer]

now i'll actually agree with some of that. procrastination, laziness, fear of failure, and overly harsh self-criticism are all major factors in a slack writers' life.

however grant us the intelligence to be able to tell the difference between laziness and not being in the right place mentally...

I won't even grant that to myself. I *can't* tell the difference between them. Or rather, I suspect that there is no such thing as "not being in the right place mentally," while I know very well indeed that there is such a thing as laziness.

 

[YojimboUK]

I won't even grant that to myself. I *can't* tell the difference between them. Or rather, I suspect that there is no such thing as "not being in the right place mentally," while I know very well indeed that there is such a thing as laziness.

"Not being in the right place" is when you force yourself to write your daily two thousand words (or whatever your daily dose is), look at it the next day and realise that it's utter, utter tosh, complete rubbish without no redeeming features within eye-range, and delete it.

"Not being in the right place" to write at all is either writer's block (which does exist) or laziness. Though, as Simenon put it:

"Anyone who does not have to be a writer, who thinks they could do something else, should do something else."

 

[phildwyer]

"Not being in the right place" is when you force yourself to write your daily two thousand words (or whatever your daily dose is), look at it the next day and realise that it's utter, utter tosh, complete rubbish without no redeeming features within eye-range, and delete it.

"Not being in the right place" to write at all is either writer's block (which does exist) or laziness. Though, as Simenon put it:

"Anyone who does not have to be a writer, who thinks they could do something else, should do something else."

I go by "hours at desk" myself, rather than by wordcount. Even if you're just staring at a blank screen, your mind is working. But I do think you have to do 2-3 hours every single day of your life. Once you start making excuses, there's no end to it, you'll *always* find something. I don't believe in "Writer's Block" either, I prefer to call it "Not Writing." Its a very widespread syndrome, Not Writing, especially prevelent among "writers."

 

[marshall]

I go by "hours at desk" myself, rather than by wordcount. Even if you're just staring at a blank screen, your mind is working. But I do think you have to do 2-3 hours every single day of your life. Once you start making excuses, there's no end to it, you'll *always* find something. I don't believe in "Writer's Block" either, I prefer to call it "Not Writing." Its a very widespread syndrome, Not Writing, especially prevelent among "writers."

Everyone’s different, though.

Personally I never sat in front of a blank screen. Only went to the laptop when I was ready to write. I did my thinking, planning elsewhere.

It seemed to work for me.

 

[mangakitten]

I've got a novel I'm trying to get published at the moment. It's about 100,000 words. I wrote it after getting made redundant last year. Once I didn't have a job, and not much to distract me, I found the actual writing process easier than I thought I would... I just had to do something every day, and that kept me going.

I did get an agent interested, and he sent me a dead helpful list of suggested changes, which I've also done.

However, despite all this organisation and stuff, I've done nothing at all about it for about a month now cos I haven't been able to print it out for a final re-read before sending it back to the agent. Which really is quite ridiculous...

 

[Brainaddict]

I've got a novel I'm trying to get published at the moment. It's about 100,000 words. I wrote it after getting made redundant last year. Once I didn't have a job, and not much to distract me, I found the actual writing process easier than I thought I would... I just had to do something every day, and that kept me going.

I did get an agent interested, and he sent me a dead helpful list of suggested changes, which I've also done.

However, despite all this organisation and stuff, I've done nothing at all about it for about a month now cos I haven't been able to print it out for a final re-read before sending it back to the agent. Which really is quite ridiculous...

What kind of novel is it? Having made so much effort it seems a shame that you're falling at the last hurdle. Do you mean you can't afford to print it? Surely your agent would take pity on you and let you send it by email if they knew that?

And can I be the first to say: 24 posts in three years

 

[Throbbing Angel]

I have to write a novel over the next 3 years as part of my MA

I'm off to read the rest of this thread and then I'll be back and PM'ing stopid questions to people who've contributed here

pip pip