A Writer's Inevitability

I suppose it was supposed to happen some time or the other, and to be frank, I was expecting it. I just did not realise how unprepared I was for it. I'm talking about that moment you realise that your friends have no idea exactly how much it takes to write a novel.

I have made peace with the fact that writing a novel will take a lot of this:

(Anyone who knows anything about drinking more than one cup of coffee a day knows that you have coffee black with half a teaspoon of sugar per 200ml of coffee)

And not a lot of this:

(I have absolutely no idea who the people in the picture are - I got the thing off Google. If you're in it and you don't want to be, drop me a comment and I'll find a new one)

Especially if I have to balance a full time job and writing. Up until now my friends have been supportive. Most of them thought it was awesome to have a friend that is writing a book and that will one day be a published author. (They are naively optimistic about a debut Fantasy author's publishing prospects in South Africa, and I keep it that way since they make me feel good about myself)

But I had to be aware that the novelty would wear off, and tonight it did. I was asked by a close friend to join them for movies and takeout, and had to decline since this week has not been a very productive writing week, and I had to catch up. That's when I got the comment: "But no one told you to write a novel."

Yes, I know it was said in jest, and I know that the person did not mean it seriously and I know that they never thought I would take offence, but still, it hurt.

If you've read yesterday's post, you'd know that I currently have this story bashing the inside of my skull to get out and I desperately NEED to write. It's a physical need, like eating and breathing. I'm not doing this for anyone other than myself, because I'm sure that if I do not write this story down, my head will explode and my friends and family will have to pick the pieces of my skull out of the curtains.

And on that happy note I leave you,

Happy writing...

Lethologica

My brain is going to mush. I blame a stressful combination of work, writing and personal issues for that. You see, I managed to start suffering from lethologica, but not in any clinical sense, and I don't think it's necessary to go see a specialist but it is impacting negatively on my writing.

You see, when a person wants to write a sentence, they usually have an idea of what they want to say, so they sit down and write it down using the words and phrases that best articulate their thoughts at that time. I thought it might also be because English isn't my first language. I find myself knowing what I want to say in Afrikaans, but having to write it in English and somehow those thoughts don't always translate well. But it is part of the writer's bane, I suppose.

At the moment my head is swimming with story, and every piece of the story demands my immediate, undivided attention. The words want to break out and tell the story to the point that my fingers struggle to keep up with my brain. I think if it was up to my enthusiasm, this novel would be finished this week.

I have spoken to a couple of fellow writers, and read the same thing on a couple of author blogs and I must say that I've had a similar experience. The first 10 000 words were the hardest. It took me four months to hit 10k, and only two weeks to write the next 3000. I would like to describe this as the "honeymoon" period in my writing. The story is well on its way and the only thing standing in its way is the fact that it has to be channelled through me, an ordinary human being that has to try and keep one foot in the real world - if only so that I have food to eat.

I have another theory as to why there seems to be periods in time that writing just flows. There are two other writers in my writing circle, The Writing Circle That Has Yet To Be Named (although Dave calls us his fellow WITs - apparently that stands for Writers In Training) and between the thee of us we go through the same kind of writing spurts/slumps. A couple of weeks ago real life decided to get in the way of me writing and for the month of July I wrote a total of 1500 words. Disgusting, I know. But it seemed to me, and they're free to correct me if I'm wrong, that my fellow WITs had a similar issue - The words were just not getting out.

I blame the Universe, or thank it depending on what time of day you ask me. Maybe nature provides these slumps for our weary brains to rest a while, to gain perspective on our stories and give the seeds time to germinate, so to speak. It was just strange that it happened for three people roughly at the same time.

Isn't nature just wonderful?

My Life in Links

I think I'll start a new feature that I'll update every so often on the blog where I post the links that I found or that friends shared. I'll divide them into sections to make it easier.

Youtube Clips:
I share an office with a friend that finds the most amazing and strange clips on Youtube. Don't get me wrong, I find my fair share of weirdness, but he seems to have the knack/connections for it. Between the two of us we have discovered a myriad of mirth or shock inducing clips. I think I'll share a couple with you.

Our current kick is from the film Clue with Madeleine Kahn playing Mrs White.



Just before this we were quoting the infamous Double Rainbow guy. Here's the link to Double Rainbow guy's conversation with Adolf Hitler:



And here's Double Rainbow Guy's song:



I discovered this little gem parody depicting the way in which our favourite oil company handles a spill:



And if you've ever wondered how many ninjas you could fit in a jazz (because, you know you've always wanted to know), here you go:



Then there was this freak from the Electric Daisy Carnival:



Current Affairs
Then there were some current affair issues that also had their own links, starting with the issue of Freedom of Press in SA where I initially linked to the leading party's views on the transformation of the media. Then on 4 August, the first journalist was arrested amidst a fanfare.In lieu of these events, Lauren Beukes posted her Big Issue column early in which she discusses the freedom of press issue in SA.

Bookish News
I posted a couple of links relating to books on my FB page, the first were the betting odds for the Man Booker prize, and the second was the link to "With Great Power" - which I really want.

From now on I'll try and update my links every so often.

Keep it real,

L

Spreading the meme love (aka Meme with Relish)

Every so often you happen across something on the internet that you can really sink your teeth into. I found this meme on Dave's blog (who in turn got it from Floor to Ceiling Books who got it from Un:Bound), and it made me think.


So the questions asked here was:

Name:

1. One book that changed your life
2. One book that you have read more than once
3. One book you'd like to have on a desert island
4. Two books that made you laugh
5. One book that made you cry
6. One book that you wish you'd written
7. One book you wish was never written
8. Two books you are currently reading
9. One book you've been meaning to read

Let's see where I go with this. It was surprisingly difficult to think of some of these answers.

1. One book that changed my life.
I would have to name the Terry Brooks novel, Sword of Shannara in this category. Before this book, my reading scope was limited to Enid Blyton and the like. I read The Sword of Shannara at the tender age of 12, and immediatly fell in love with the Fantasy genre. I have since devoured every book in that series, apart from the last trilogy, and the Word and the Void trilogy. But believe me, they're on my to be read list!

2. One book that you have read more than once
Soliloquy  by Stephen Finn. This is a brilliant book about a boy who was bullied at school, who ends up murdering his tormenter. It is beautifully written and very sad. The back cover blurb reads:

"I'm sixteen years old and I killed a boy of seventeen. Yes, I admit it. I stabbed him in the heart with a knife which happened to be in my pocket."

3. One book that you'd like to have on a desert island
This one was easier than expected. An Idiot’s Guide on Surviving and Enjoying a Deserted Island (how to live life to the fullest until rescue arrives without anything at hand). But seriously? It's hard to ignore Dave's brilliant suggestion of The Passage by Justin Cronin, because it is easier to lug around than my Wheel of Time collection.

4. Two books that made me laugh
I'm not sure whether this means books that made me laugh because they were written in a humourous style or books that made me laught because they were so blatantly implausable or stupid. I'll name one of each then.

Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy can definitely be rated up there in the humourous books category. I first got this as an audio book, way back in the day, and I've loved it ever since!

The Twilight series rates up there as the most humourous implausable series of all time. I started reading it with a glimmer of hope that the idea can be salvaged into something less ridiculous. I was sadly mistaken. And I have to say, I think I laughed for 5 minutes straight when ol' Edward stepped into the sunlight and sparkled. It was just too much for me. Then when the movie came out, I went to watch it again, just for that scene. And it did not dissapoint,they added little bell chimes to it and made me laugh all over again.

5. One book that made me cry
Only one? You see, I really live my character's lives. I experience their emotions with them, I laugh with them, I cry with them. (One reason I don't like reading first person POV, It takes me weeks to get rid of the character in my head.) So I cannot name one book that made me cry, the most recent one was The Passage by Justin Cronin, and that was only last week.

6. One book that I wish I'd written
Now this one is a doozie. How do you single out a book that according to you was the biggest literary accomplishment? It is hard. If I'd have to choose, I would choose The Lord of the Rings. It has been hailed as the Romeo and Juliet of the Fantasy genre, and I'd have to agree. Tolkien shaped the fantasy genre for years to come. We're only now beginning to see a proper breakaway from a tolkienesque way of fantasy writing. For that sir, I commend you.

7. One book you wish was never written
This one was equally difficult. I would have to say any book written by Dan Brown, they were truly aweful, and made my life hell as a bookseller (one person referring to it as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Bible, and many people not realising that it was a work of fiction). I hated that book with a passion!

8. Two books that I'm currently reading
Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes and Spellwright by Blake Charlton


9. One book that I've been meaning to read
Anything by David Gemmel or Steven Erikson - Many people will most probably stone me for this, but I've never read either of those authors' and I've really been meaning to!

So that's my take on it. If you see this and would like to use it, feel free - it's a meme after all.

Keep it real!

Book to Film adaptations - My love/hate relationship

I like my job, I really do, but sometimes it frustrates me. You see, before I was in this position, I was completely oblivious to some of the sacrilege going on out there. But now that I'm in a position where I have to be up to date on these kinds of things, it has really hit me: A great film adaptation is a rarity.

Now don't get me wrong. I understand the issue of adapting a novel into a film, there is just no way you will be able to fit everything into a two hour movie. Add to that the fact that actors, directors and the other creative people in the have their own interpretations of the material and you can very well end up with a film that does not even remotely resemble your favourite novel.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see that James Rollins' Sigma series has been optioned for film. And this is not the normal we're-going-to-mutilate-your-book-and-call-it-an-adaptation film option. No, Dino de Laurentiis, the producer wants a completely new story, which, it appears James will have a hand in writing.

This excites me to no end, and not because I am a fan. I have never read a James Rollins book, but fans of the series assure me it is brilliant (hence the fact that they're fans). It excites me because the story would be an expansion on the series, not an adaptation. Chances of people walking out of the cinema going: "The book was better." has been severely reduced.

Sure, some people just nit-pick. I recently heard someone walked out of Kick-Ass because the main character's hair colour changed. But there are some valid issues as well. Take My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, for instance. To make the movie "more acceptable" for the Hollywood market, they changed the ending completely, losing most of the punch of the book. That, to me, is completely unacceptable.

Books that get film options are usually picked because some big wig number cruncher spoke to some creative person and realised that creatively the movie is a viable cash cow with enough fans to make it worth making the film in the first place. But they tend to forget that people became fans of a book for a reason: the books characters and storyline(s) appealed to them. Changing that is like taking someone's idea of a perfect partner, changing the personality and looks and telling the person that this is the love of their life. Seriously, did you think we wouldn't notice?

Books also appeal to people for other reasons. When I read a book, the story comes alive in my imagination. I see the characters, experience their world and share their trials and tribulations. These characters become my friends. When they get transported to screen, it loses the magic. I cannot read a Harry Potter novel without seeing Emma Watson. I cannot read Lord of the Rings without Elijah Wood's sitting in Frodo's place. I hate the movies for this.

On the other hand, I love them. I get to see other people's interpretation of ideas, and sometimes they enrich the story for me. Let's take Harry Potter for example (again). When I read the part about Dumbledore dying for the first time, I was in shock for about a page and a half. It never occurred to me the pain and anguish that the characters had to go through. Everytime I read that part, it shocked me again. When I finally saw the film, I realised that my shock as a reader was not half as bad as the pain that the characters had to go through. My subsequent reading changed my perspective of the scene, and it has become one of my favourites in the series.

I wanted to put a nice cartoon here that I saw a couple of years ago, but I was unable to find it. So I'll just describe it to you.

An old woman and her husband is walking out of a cinema complex, the banner showing that they have just watched The Passion of the Christ. The old woman has her Bible clasped firmly under her arm as she loudly proclaims: "The Books was better!"

I thought it would have been appropriate. If anyone can find that cartoon, mail it to me and I'll post it here.

There we go, some random musings to start this Tuesday.

Keep it real...