When and how to write...

From direct and indirect experience, I can honestly say that all writers will at some time in their creative lives be unable to write anything more than their own name on a piece of paper. This is not what I'd call "writer's block", so much as "human's block". All creative people, at some point, will face the dreaded invisible brick wall of "uncreativity", unable to break through no matter how hard they try. Buy why is this, and how can they overcome the impasse?

I think blockage happens for individual reasons because humans are very individual beings. Each creator will have their own reason for not creating, and this is primarily because they are not machines. They might have families, jobs, illnesses, money worries, fears and phobias etc. They have a psychology that is, at one and the same time, desirous of success and vulnerable to thoughts of failure. A machine, on the other hand, can churn out the same thing over and over...ad infinitum...but its output will never be as unique as the output from a human being.

That said, having "human's block" for too long can become a bigger problem, especially if it lasts more than a year. A very recent article in the Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/05/daily-rituals-creative-minds-mason-currey?CMP=fb_gu
talks about the routines and behaviours of famous creative writers, musicians and thinkers...and it is very interesting; not for what it says about block, but rather how to tap into the rich vein of creativity, be that rising early in the morning, drinking vat loads of coffee, martinis for lunch etc.

What most resonated with me was not so much the fascinating and sometimes bizarre routines of some creators, but the mundane and the apparently trivial. It doesn't surprise me, for instance, that a large number of thinkers need time and space to think, and what better way than to walk...preferably in natural surroundings...

I've always liked to walk. As a writer, I am always writing in my head as I walk, especially if I have characters walking in my head with me. It is not only because the natural surroundings provide space to think, it is the motion of walking that sparks the creativity. It is as if the physical movement of walking (done without thinking) prompts the thinking part of the brain to drift and move. I have also found that moving in any capacity, but particularly on the upper deck of a bus, allows for the same kind of mental drifting. Ideas rise up, characters speak, narrative possibilities materialise, when before, sitting at my desk, they were silent.

However, at some point, the writer will have to get down to the nitty-gritty of writing at home, somehow using the drift wood collected on a long walk/bus journey to build something more substantial, like a poem, short story or a novel.

If it is to be a novel, you had better invest in a sturdy pair of walking boots.

AFM

New Website

I'm pleased to introduce my new website here:
http://www.afmcguinness.com/

Any news regarding my writing, publications or appearances will be up on this site. Feel free to drop in any time.

AFM

Libraries are not just to look at, of course, but wow! Look at these...

As you know, occasionally there are 'news' items on Yahoo. Quite often the 'news' is nothing more than the earth-shattering revelation that the Duchess of Cambridge has some grey roots showing...or (more interestingly perhaps) a man was found buried alive in Brazil. But now and then there is a 'visual' news item that literally catches the eye. Ian McEwan once said that when he writes descriptive passages he lends 70% to the visual as 70% of the human brain, he says, is geared up for visual stimulation. Who am I to disagree...

Anyway, recently, my brain was seriously stimulated by pictures of the 'best' libraries around the world, and provoked all sorts of memories of all sorts of libraries I've used in the UK.  None of them, perhaps, can compete with any of those around the world, but then we should remember that 'best' should never mean best-looking. 'Best' is a subjective term. Nonetheless, look at these buildings...wow.

Or if you prefer something less fanciful, and more Zen...

Or if you prefer something more prison-like...

Looking at all of these beautiful libraries took me back to one in particular that I used whilst researching medieval seals at Durham Cathedral. 

It does not have much of the grandeur of most of the other buildings...but it is truly medieval...and the ceiling is amazing. Though I don't dabble much in the medieval era these days, I feel privileged to have spent time in that library. Though most of my time was actually spent in the bowels of the cathedral archive examining hundreds of original medieval documents, scrolls (and seals), testing my Latin and paleography skills to their maximum, in the low watt light thrown from a study lamp. I worked there for the best part of three years...and ruined my eyesight in the process...but there is no gain without pain.

The library I've most recently visited is The Beaney in Canterbury. Modern, vivid, efficient, and very welcoming. A zillion miles from a dusty cathedral. 

Sometimes, my mind trails back to the first library I ever used, in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, where I was loaned my first books. Alas, it was closed many years ago, and I cannot find a photograph of it. I was quite a poor reader as a child, and first borrowed Dr Seuss's "Cat in the Hat" series. How I got from that phonetic cat to lecturing in medieval history is a long mystery, and how I got from writing history to writing fiction an even longer one... 

But my question(s) to you is: do you have a favourite library in the world...and can you remember the first book you ever borrowed from your first library...? 

AFM

A New Beginning

A warm welcome to you. This is my new writing blog. It has been a few years since I last wrote one (or two), for reasons I'll no doubt go into a few months down the line...

But for now, I must only mention the brand new e-publication of my debut novel, A Portrait of the Arsonist as a Young Man by Red Sail Press. For the very first time the novel is downloadable to all e-reading devices, priced competitively at £2.99. 

For a preview of the book, please find here: 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portrait-Arsonist-Young-Man-ebook/dp/B00G3I20LK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383054340&sr=8-1&keywords=portrait+arsonist

From memory, the first edition sold out in a few months (yippee!), but sadly the publisher overstretched himself, folded, going the way of the duck-billed platypus (boo!). Even more sad, the publisher then absconded with all of my royalties, never to be seen again (like the above-mentioned platypus) ..but that's another story now consigned to the file called 'ancient history', or is that 'natural history'...? 

The very good news, however, is that my novel has survived and only got stronger, as if from a Darwinian process of natural selection. This painstakingly-edited second edition is somewhat shorter, sharper, slicker and as a result, superior to the first, not least because a Hollywood screenwriter cast her experienced eyes over the script and made some illuminating discoveries/suggestions. As the author, I can honestly say that this version of A Portrait of the Arsonist is much closer to how I'd imagined it in the beginning...if only I'd had an experienced editor in 2008/9. For one thing, I've been cured of hyphenitis. Ha-ha!

Also, I'm very excited to say that Red Sail Press will be publishing my debut collection of short stories (title to be decided) early in 2014. So things are looking up. 

It is easy to forget sometimes that more than just sand and stone roll in with the tide. 

AFM