Cutting

One of the odd things about writing a book is that you have to write numerous scenes which won't finish up in the final book. By the time I've finished writing a book I've probably written scenes which, in total, are three times the length of the final book. Sometimes even when I'm writing a scene I know that I'll cut it all out later. But some how it has to be written. A friend of mine who reads for me, and whose views on writing I respect entirely, has an interesting idea about this process. She says that one should never be frightened of cutting entire scenes, chapters or sections out of a book because, even after something has been cut, the shadow of it remains in the book. That's so true. It's impossible to explain how it can be true - but it definitely is - and understanding that makes the cutting process very much less difficult.

Elizabeth Taylor

I've just finished reading a book by Elizabeth Taylor. You probably haven't heard of her. She wrote during the 1940s and she was never very well known. But her books are wonderful. Small, slight, dreary, English - they are nevertheless extra-ordinary. The people she writes about are always trivial people and their lives are always directionless. In her world it's always evening and it always rains. The houses are always surrounded by dark and dripping laurels. Expectations are disappointed, people fail to rise to the occasion or are forced into making cheap little compromises. The style is so light but some how it pierces the heart. That is because - beyond anything else - the world she creates is acutely and poignantly real. She is writing about all of us, although we may not want to recognise that. The best one I've read so far is called Mrs Palfrey at the Clarement. The one I've just finished is called The Sleeping Beauty. Elizabeth Taylor should be famous but she isn't.

Doris Lessing

I just found this Doris Lessing quote. It made my day. I agree with her so entirely. The quote goes like this: "It does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, 'Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism, the reviewers, the book pages - all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronised, put-down and underpaid person.'" Three cheers for you, Doris.

Elmore Leonard

I've actually never read an Elmore Leonard book and I'm not sure that I ever will but he said something which is particularly important. It goes like this: 'If it sound like writing, I re-write it.' We all need to read through our work and take out the bits which sound like writing. It's hard to do that because we love those bits, they sound so clever and stylish and witty. But it is exactly those sentences which draw attention to themselves which have to go.

Putting a rotisserie together

'What's really annoying about instructions of this sort is that they imply that there's only one way to put this rotisserie together - their way. And that presumption wipes out all creativity. Actually there are hundreds of ways to put the rotisserie together and, when they make you follow just one way, without showing you the overall problem, the instructions become hard to follow in such a way as not to make mistakes. You lose feeling for the work. And not only that, it's very unlikely that they've told you the best way.' This quote comes from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. I think that it's an important quote for writers. The key words are 'feeling for the work.' That's what every writer needs to have. We've all got our own way of writing and our own approach to our work. It's the process which is important not the product. Don't let anyone else tell you how to put your rotisserie together.

Adjusting the volume

I've been reading through draft 4 of my book. Overall I feel quite encouraged. It does fit together more or less. But it's all very loud, very obvious, very explicit. Early drafts of books have to be like that. You have to write it all very big at the beginning. You are in the process of finding out what the book is about so you have to shout the messages of the book out in order to test them out. You have to let the characters behave in extreme ways and say everything they want to say. Then slowly - draft by draft - you turn the volume down and down and down. You take more and more out. You make the book quieter and quieter. You discover the confidence to let the reader work it out for him / herself. You gradually remove yourself from your own book. I know that this is the process but still I find it painful to read what I'm writing at the moment because it is all so loud. I have to maintain faith in the fact that I will be able to make it quieter. That's a large part of what the writing process is about - turning the volume down.

Lost

I have got lost in my own book. I can't find the way forward because it has all become too confused. So I've had to stop writing draft 4 (which is what I'm currently doing) and print the book off from the beginning so that I can read it through. I know that books go through these very messy stages so I'm trying to keep my nerve. Hopefully it will all get clearer when I've read it through.