The Ton-Up Club

It’s been a very exciting week here at Jumping From Cliffs.

My little blog officially gained its 100th follower!

What can I say?? Apart from “Woooooooo-hoooooooo!! How terribly splendid!”

100 eh? Goodness. Actually 104 now, as I’ve been a little lax in posting about it – put that down to a birthday, a house falling into the sea, woolly mammoths and a spot of pirating.

Scarce did I imagine when I made my first-ever post on the 23rd of May last year that even one single solitary soul would ever take the time to read it. Now there are over 100 in under a year.

To say that I am highly honoured and flattered would be an understatement of some magnitude.

I’d like to say a gigantic Thank You to each and every one of you. I’d come round to each of your houses in person with a cup of tea and a piece of cake if I could.

Whether you’re a Lurker & Liker who pops in, has a read, nods appreciatively then scampers wordlessly off again, or a Committed Commenter who takes the time to engage with the posts and leaves me encouragement, inspiration and motivation, I love you all.

This journey would have got nowhere near this far without all of your support and I would never have met some of the truly outstanding talents and all-round bloomin’ lovely people that I have.

You lot are ace, you know that?

Give yourselves all a hug from me and, on the count of 3 chant in unison: “We’re splendid!!”

Ready? 1, 2, 3…

That’s What I’m Talkin’ About

“You know, as someone who struggles with dialogue, I flippin’ love this post,” mused Jumping From Cliffs, stroking his beard thoughtfully.

“In that case darling, I would rather suggest you re-blog it, so others may love it also,” purred his Muse, sipping her gin and tonic as she reclined on the chaise-longue…

Reblogged from Wordsmith 6

“Hi. My name is Main Character.” He raised his hand in a wave.

“Hi, Main Character. My name is Nemesis.” He nodded toward Main Character.

Main Character smiled. “It’s good to meet you.”

“Thank you. It’s good to meet you too.”

Main Character looked past Nemesis’ shoulder and Nemesis looked down at the floor. The clock ticked an awkward moment.

Read this post in its entirety at Wordsmith 6

You Say You Want A Resolution

Happy New Year!

This week, it seems every post I read has been expounding upon New Year’s resolutions, fresh beginnings and goals to be achieved.

Never one to allow a bandwagon to roll by un-jumped, I thought I’d share mine as well.

Quite simple really: writing.

Now, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. Not since the year I failed to stop drinking, failed to give up caffeine, failed to get fit, failed to become wealthy and failed utterly to find myself driving a Rolls Royce Corniche around my private castle in Monaco flanked by a bevy of dancing girls force-feeding me chocolate mini-rolls.

So this year, I set myself one goal. I plan to write at least something every day for 365 days. Sounds easy, but is actually terrifically daunting. What if I’m busy, ill, tired, out socialising, etc. etc?? All the usual things which get in the way of all our writing aspirations.

I figure I should still be able to find just 10 minutes to write something… anything! It may be a few swift additions to a character back-story for Novel Number Two. It may be a more considered outline for a new short story (another sort-of resolution – turn some of those sketches that will never stretch to novels into short stories). Or it may, on the really good days, be a full 3 hours or more of charging joyfully through flowing prose.

Whichever way up, it’s the exercise that counts. Am I right people? Just like getting fit, or singing (I guess) or training your memory, it’s the act of doing something which improves your strengths therein. Or so I hope.

Some of that work may make its way onto this very blog. In fact, I may have to cheat very occasionally and say that a blog post counts as my writing for the day.

Bending the rules already and I’m only 4 days in.

Whatever your goals aspirations, dreams and self-promises for the year ahead, I wish you all a fantastically productive and fabulously creative 2013!

May the muse be with you.

Write Drunk, Edit Sober

A few days ago, this wonderful infographic popped into my Inbox (I do love a good infographic!)

While it’s ostensibly focused on copywriting, it contains some fabulous advice for writers of all kinds and some even more fabulous quotes from renowned authors.

Amongst them is the one and only definition which has ever clearly defined for me the old adage “show, don’t tell”:

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

That’s from none other than Anton Chekhov, so I’m taking it to be pretty authoritative!

It also contains a lovely section on Productive Tactics, dishing out some cracking advice to help the writer stride over the seemingly-insurmountable hurdles with which we all come face-to-face at one time or another. A particular favourite is:

Write drunk, edit sober.

I do this fairly often, which probably tells you a whole host of badness about me. But it really does work. The first few paragraphs are invariably dry and stilted as I struggle to chase my fleeing muse around the room. Just as invariably, the work slides gracefully into outlandish gibberish as my alcohol tolerance level is reached. But in the middle there, at the point where the inhibitions are loosened and the muse perches coquettishly upon my knee, there’s some really good, free-flowing writing which is not only good in itself, but raises ideas and concepts worthy of further development.

There are far too many other gems in here for writers of all ilks – if you’ve never written an ilk, give it a go – to be able to summarise with any justice, so you’ll just have to read it for yourself. It’s lengthy, but very worthwhile. Trust me, I’ve written a novel.

My parting shot for today is from the unspeakably wonderful Ray Bradbury, making a long-overdue repeat appearance on these pages:

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.

Pass me a pen, several reams of paper and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s time to get to work!!

Should I?

I have been ‘sort-of’ challenged to take part in NaNoWriMo (you know who you are!)

Anyone who’s read my post It’s About Time will appreciate the combination of excitement and abject fear this causes me.

1200 words a day??

How I’d love to. But there’s also work, cleaning, family, moving house (again), cooking, cleaning, eating, washing, ironing.. aaaaarrrggghhhh!!

I guess I could give up sleeping for 6 hours a night but, hey, everyone’s entitled to one luxury right?

Do I? Or don’t I?

Now You See It…

…and very soon you won’t.

A book written in disappearing ink? It sounds like the stuff of childhood spy fantasies but now it’s all come true.

Which of us didn’t spend hours writing notes using lemon juice or top-secret kits purchased with our hard-earned pocket money from the ads in the back pages of the comics? I know I certainly did… before I discovered girls obviously.

Now, “The Book That Cannot Wait” (El Libro Que No Puede Esperar) has come along as an extraordinary writing/art concept. From the day the book is opened, you have two months to read it before the words vanish irrevocably.

You can read all about it in this article at Springwise – but be quick ;o)

Oh, and check out that cover too – I love it.

Step Away From the Biscuits!

The Joy of Writing

Ah, the blank slate.

The freedom. The possibilities.

The abject blinding terror…

Sitting with a blank sheaf of paper (or virginal Word document) before you, you have the boundless liberty to let your mind and words run free. You have the opportunity to conjure up undreamt-of landscapes populated with captivating characters, enthralling events and plots so twisty and turny that Machiavelli himself would weep to read them.

At this stage, the temptation to throw it all in and hide under the duvet with a packet of chocolate digestives is virtually overwhelming.

What should I write? Who should I write about? What’s going to happen? Will anyone read it? Why am I doing this? Why did I ever want to be a writer in the first place, oh Lord help me! Time for a biscuit…

The pressure of a blank slate needing to be filled is one that all of us writers encounter at one time or another. But we impose it upon ourselves. And you know what? It’s completely invented. Writer’s block doesn’t exist.

That’s right, you heard me correctly; writer’s block doesn’t exist.

Harking back to my previous post on taming writer’s block, I’d like to re-state the wonderful advice from Maya Angelou:

What I try to do is write… And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’

Unless someone’s taped your fingers together with duct tape overnight, you can still write. Your imagination may have booked a package tour of Merthyr Tydfil for a few days, but that shouldn’t stop you from writing. So abandon all thoughts of cowering under the duvet and just write.

Write anything.

Slay the dragon of the blank slate with the sword of words (if you’ll excuse a mangled metaphor).

Write about what you had for breakfast, write about the colour of your socks, write about the wall you’re staring at with inspiration-free perspiration dripping from your forehead, or just write the word ‘badger’ 73 times. Then it’s no longer a blank piece of paper. That’s Step One. Huzzah!

Now carry on writing, don’t stop, don’t ever stop. It doesn’t matter if what you’re committing to paper is gibberish, you’ll find the groove as long as you carry on. It doesn’t have to be the next chapter of the novel, the next stanza of the poem, it doesn’t have to be the same characters or genre or even, Heaven forbid, of any great quality.

Start turning your account of breakfast into an account of the final breakfast recalled by an aristocrat huddled in a tumbril, awaiting his turn at the guillotine.

Morph the colour of your socks into the colour of the moon over Ganymede piercing the green-black gloom of night whilst below the surface, hideous beings toil in the depths of labyrinthine drone-mines.

Or the blank wall instantaneously transformed from a cracked and peeling canvas of magnolia by the livid crimson slash as the assassin’s bullet hits home, piercing the diplomat’s temple, taking with it fragments of skull and brain matter…

The instant you start putting words down, there’s no more blank slate and no such thing as writer’s block. The slight tremor of panic I felt 400-odd words ago at the blank slate which has become this post has morphed into a burning desire to carry on adding words to all those story openings. And I don’t even LIKE historical fiction. Or Sci-Fi. OK, so none of those lines are great quality or jaw-droppingly inventive, but they’ve kick-started a process and got me warmed up. Time now to head back to Dark Energies and apply that creativity to wherever it was that Dan and Kate were stranded when I last left off.

The only thing stopping you writing is you. Get over it. Stop worrying if it’s going to be good enough. It never will be if you don’t write it. Sure, you’ll throw a lot of it away, you’ll change a lot of it and only some will make the final cut.

But at least you’ll be doing what you’ve told yourself all along you wanted to do more than anything else in the world.

So just write.

Maybe get yourself a biscuit while you’re at it.

After all, what’s stopping you?

Summoning the Muse when all hope seems lost

Just a quickie from me today as I beaver away behind the scenes to put together a series of posts on how you can best use digital marketing to publicise your writing.

In the meantime, I came across this splendid infographic which shows that the many-headed beast known as writer’s block attacks the great and good every bit as ferociously as those of us tackling the foothills of ambition. (Sorry for the tortured metaphor, it’s been a busy week!) It also has some great tips on how to conquer the monster.

Click the image for the full version.

I’m sure everyone has their own techniques. Personally, I love Maya Angelou’s:

What I try to do is write… And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’

So my friends, how do you summon your muse and convince her that you mean business?

A Lesson From Narnia

Thanks everyone, there was some great feedback on the first look at Dark Energies. And by “great”, I don’t mean everyone told me how amazing it is and what a genius I am. Although to those of you who did say just that, I love you more than cake. And boy, do I love cake.

No, by “great” I mean comments that have genuinely, within the space of 24 hours, helped shape the way the next edit of the first draft is going to go. As I’m right at the start of that process, the timing couldn’t have been better; it’s saved me a massive amount of re-work later.

Two key points were made a number of times and they bring me to the real point of today’s post. Make sure you can always see the wood for the trees.

As an “indie” author (yes, it’s National Quote Mark Day) there’s no input from an agent, editor or publisher to tell you where you’re going wrong. You write away day in, day out and it can be all too easy to get on a roll and stick with it. Sometimes that works, other times it leads you off on a dangerous tangent. One thing I’m learning is to always maintain a level of objectivity. To step back and see your work through the eyes of your readers.

Of course when you’re actually putting words down on paper (I write longhand most of the time and type it up later) you need the subjective immersion in what you’re writing. You have to be there, right in the scene, hearing it, smelling it, tasting it. Living it. Otherwise it won’t live for your readers.

But.

When you hit the editing stage, pull yourself away from the world and imagine you’ve just spent money on a book. A prime example from yesterday is the over-use of adjectives. Clearly, when I wrote the prologue, I was in a descriptive frame of mind. Very likely influenced by whatever I’d most recently been reading. I obviously thought “Wow, I don’t use enough description. Better throw some more adjectives at it!” Either that or I was just in a wordy frame of mind, which isn’t uncommon for me.

Hence, everything got described in minute detail, which had the knock-on effect of slowing down the pace of what should be a driving scene. It took peer reviews to point that out. Even re-reading my own work, I was pulled back to the place, time, situation, emotion, whatever, of when I wrote it. Objectivity took a back seat and the writing suffered as a result.

Which, I guess, is a long way of saying, immerse yourself in writing but make sure you’re towelled off, changed out of your trunks and sipping a hot cappuccino before you start editing.

All of which was encapsulated far more succinctly by C.S. Lewis in this letter: C. S. Lewis on Writing

Jumping From Cliffs

Edit: I wrote this post about a week before the great man died. He will be much missed, but his advice and inspiration will linger forever.
JS

So, why Jumping From Cliffs?

I was out of work and 18 months (on and off) into the putative novel now known as Dark Energies and massively doubting whether there was any point in continuing with it. Who was I to think I could write? Why put myself through the embarrassment and potential humiliation of committing my innermost thoughts and feelings to paper, thinly cloaked in the disguise of characters I’d invented? Then, serendipitously, I stumbled across this extraordinary interview with Ray Bradbury:

I didn’t know his work well and am still unfamiliar with far too much of it, but I had read Fahrenheit 451. His love of books and writing shines through in this interview, as does his enthusiasm, spirit and love of everything to do with the written word.

His exhortation that

You have to jump from cliffs every day and build your wings on the way down

should be tattooed on all our foreheads at birth.

Backwards, of course, so we can read it in the mirror.

Watch and wonder people, the man is pure authorial inspiration wrapped in a casing of skin. Like a wonderful sausage.