January Running Down

As we bid farewell to Janus for another year I figure it's time to consider the first month. The biggest highlight for me would have to be the Dresden Dolls' concert; it started with a far too short set by The Jane Austen Argument, those two are such beautiful souls and talented musicians. Then came the Bedroom Philosopher with his line of musical comedy and self-deprecating humour that tickled my fancy; but of course the Dolls themselves rocked out the house for a long time. Seeing them work together on stage, the level of communication and trust between them was as amazing as the music itself. And seeing Brian Viglione play drums is entertainment in itself.

In terms of my writing the year is off to a shaky start but it's still a start. The tale of Five-fingered Jack is developing in bursts and is the first completely new creation of 2012. Working on it has also confirmed my process involves some planning ahead and some improvising. More improvising around a set plan so I at least have a destination and some waypoints so I don't get lost.

With that in mind I've also started chapter outlines for novels; one was more practice than anything and probably won't be written, the other is for a novel I started years ago and long ago stalled. I also started writing descriptions of places as background work for the story. I might not use whole passages as written but having them gives me something to go off when using the places and helps me develop them in my head as well. The city of Esst, for instance, has gone from a hazy blob of streets with a port to a home of ruffian merchants, religious pariahs and a husband and wife who own an inn in a cave by docks at the base of a cliff in a secluded harbour off the Grey Seas.

The idea of reading 50 plays this year is also off to a rough start. Ibsen's Peer Gynt opened the account and led me into a strange tale of a man who'll be anything other than himself. The fantastic stories he invented or was involved in actually reminded me of Five-fingered Jack to some degree so there was that sense of synchronicity which often haunts me when my writing is going well.

Other than that I only managed two short works by Ferdinand Arrabal, a Spanish playwright who fits in to the post-Absurdist school if you believe in such things. Fascinating works; Guernica is an anti-war story but without the heavy-handed sentimentality or didacticism you might expect, and The Labyrinth is a metaphor, possibly, for life that denies easy interpretation and shows the absurdity of human existence quite clearly.

In other reading however I encountered Thomas Love Peacock for the first time. He was a friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley to give you the timing and wrote short satirical novels in a vaguely Gothic Romantic bent that lampoon the genre and German philosophy and society of the day all in the most charming an inoffensive way. The characters in Nightmare Abbey are hilarious send-ups of various stock types and social stereotypes. I mention this, partly to recommend Peacock, but also because of how I found him, which was on the internet looking for things for my e-reader.

While I do love physical books and the tangible experience of reading from them, I've found the e-reader a wonderful addition. It means I can read at times I wouldn't normally, so I'm reading more; but it also means I'm finding things to read I wouldn't have otherwise. I haven't gone to the shop sites and bought e-books; I've gone to the sites which have free e-books because the texts are in public domain. The University of Adelaide has one which has provided me with numerous texts and from its lists of authors I've discovered names like Peacock as well. There are also books it's hard to find physical copies of these days and ones I probably would've put off interminably if I had to rely on paper and ink alone. So for anyone still in a flap about e-books not being as good as the real thing, well that may be, but you're missing out on a world of reading never before so open.

A final comment, while the technology of e-readers is a wonderful development, the casual games of Facebook are not. They're distracting and I really must be better at avoiding the temptation of 'just a quick game of Bubble Brew' ...

On to February my friends – and remember, it's the month of the dead according to ancient Romans, hence the name.

A Different Point Of View

On the second day of the year I went with Samara to collect our Christmas presents to each other, our Merlin passes. These are yearly passes to several attractions including Sydney Aquarium, Oceanworld, Sydney Wildlife Park and Centrepoint (sorry, Sydney Tower Eye ... cause that's such a catchy name). We got our photo pass at the last of these then went up the elevator, popped our ears a few times, and had a look about.

I'd never been up there before and it really is a gorgeous view and it was such a clear day too. I suddenly thought how cool it would've been to have been up there while they were filming the helicopter scene in The Matrix so we had a look to spot the roof Neo landed on. It looks a little different but we found it all right.

Afterwards we quite naturally went to Kinokuniya for a bit of a browse. On the $10 sale table a book caught my attention and I had to buy it. Terry Brooks' Sometimes the Magic Works is a look at his writing life with advice for unpublished authors and wannabe writers. It seemed to fit in well with what's been going on so far this year. It certainly inspired me somewhat given I read it in two days.

On the topic of planning your work, which I revelled in Stoppard saying was unnecessary, Brooks takes a very different view. He firstly admits that many famous writers do not outline before they write, they just jump in and see where they end up. Good for them he says, he also points out the number of rewrites and full redrafts these writers do; the amount of work is the same as when you plan your story in advance, it's just done in a different order.

He on the other hand much prefers to have a blueprint of where he wants to go. It's not a rigid outline but a reliable plan on which to fall back on. It contains a general idea of the plot, character arcs and ambitions, scenes and background information. There's a lot of worked involved, although to be honest it sounds rather fun if you like world building the way I do.

Reading Terry Brooks' case for outlining so soon after Tom Stoppard's case against it made me stop to think, what exactly is my process? It's actually possible that my dry period is partly due to my abandoning my process, or not really knowing what it is. This blog is as much me trying to work it out for myself as share any insights with anyone else.

I think I may be somewhere between the two poles. I love world building and dreaming up characters, but I also like to leap in with stories and see where I end up. The problem is the number of times I end up at a dead end or a ponderous crossing I can't see across. The very spot Brooks mentions as being due to a lack of organisation; if I had my blueprint I'd be able to ford the stream and keep going strong on the other side. In short more pieces would get finished because I wouldn't lose interest from not having any idea what to do next.

And, when I think about it, I have often done some planning and outlining, just not always in the beginning. The other thing this allows me is to write scenes out of order. The play I just finished consists of five short episodes, I planned the episodes then wrote them in whatever order I felt like. So again, it was the planning that got me through to a finished piece, even with months in between putting pen to paper – I always knew what needed to be written.

The real lesson from both these perspectives is to get into it. Find the process that works best for me, which I think I have, and apply myself to it.

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