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~ Random thoughts on writing and life

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Tag Archives: storytelling

Censorship and fiction…

14 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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Authors, creative writing, Imagination, Literary, storytelling, Writing, Writing tips

 

An interesting conundrum settled over Facebook these past few days, a question of morality, of ethics and of censorship.

If writing is the unburdening of the mind, the purging of creativity onto the written page, who is the gatekeeper? Who is the moral guardian of the ‘nice’ society in which we live? Should there be a gatekeeper, a guardian or should creativity be outside all societal constraints?

I won’t elaborate on the nature of the book which had readers and writers flapping their hands on social media.  Suffice to say, it was a fiction book about a topic that is abhorrent to many.  Shocking enough to warrant The Great Amazon Gatekeeper to rip it from its listings, to banish it to the dank basement with other Books Thou Shalt Not Read.  The topic itself–according to some–was glorifying the ghastly in the way it was delivered. How can fiction be delivered in a solely factual way before it becomes non-fiction, you might ask.

Is the glorification of a taboo subject wrong?

How far can a writer go before creativity becomes harmful, before it crosses lines, tarnishes reputations, and sends readers into coronary care wards around the land?  I have no answer for this because what I deem outrageous (very little, I’m sick in the head) might be perfectly acceptable to another (more sick in the head even than me).  People have triggers and people have different moral compasses than their neighbours, friends, grannies, psychiatrists.

And is it even glorification?

Isn’t this too based on perception and your own code of right and wrong by which you live your life?  Or, does our ingrained and inherent freedom of choice scratch away at our morality until we can justify almost anything, including enjoyment in the taboo in the name of ‘entertainment?’

There are reasoned arguments on both sides:  When we begin to censor books, films, plays, are we planting a Japanese Knotweed in the entertainment industry that will eventually choke the life from it?  Or, without abiding by a set of ethics and morality, are we accepting that anything goes? That, because it’s for entertainment, we are happy to abandon our own beliefs?  You could argue that it’s up to the individual to read or not read, to watch a film or a play, or to not do so–choice. Let us all be our own censors.

An interesting conundrum.  A moral dilemma.  What are your thoughts?

As always, I’d love to hear your views, please be respectful 🙂

Janey x

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Self-Doubt, The Story Slayer…

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Authors, Book Reviews, creative writing, Literary, Self-Doubt, storytelling, Writer, Writing

screen-shot-2017-02-27-at-20-05-14

In a narrow corner of my mind she waits, cast aside in chains, her judgement neither sought nor welcomed.  I see her, oh how I see her: face gnarled, grotesque.

Her name? Self-doubt.

I defy any writer to deny the existence of their own dark angel, their own inner self who shouts loud and persistently that your work is crap, that you are a fool to even CONTEMPLATE publishing that tripe!  What if the reviews are bad? Heaven forbid a reader doesn’t ‘get you,’ doesn’t get the character, their journey, the entire premise of your tale.

Think babies.  Oh, how we proudly we show off our newborns.  Now imagine that someone says your child is ugly!  The anger and hurt that they can’t see the beauty that you see.  Well, our stories and our story people are our babies.  When we nurture them for months, investing our very souls, and finally give them a gentle nudge out into the world it’s with great trepidation, our minds littered with ‘what ifs.’  Rejection is a punch in the solar plexus after all, isn’t it?

Those fears stem from that evil little dark angel on your shoulder, or in that dusty corner of your subconscious.  The same little shit that tries to infiltrate your family and friends who mean well with their whispered scorn and sympathetic tutting and mumblings of, ‘why don’t you concentrate on your real job? At least you tried.’

The dark angel will chip away at you until you believe that you’re delusional to ever think that you could be a writer.

The more that you listen to the wizened beast, the greater the chance that its prophecy will come into being.  You see, your imagination will be cloaked in a fog of negativity until your words cannot see, cannot breathe, will never reach the page.  Self-doubt scratches out the art that you should be creating.  Self-doubt twists your words into a tight knot of over-worked, over-thought stilted paragraph after paragraph.

You can take control away from your self-doubt dark angel.  Lock that negative voice away in a box.  See the clouds part, the sun’s rays fall upon your face. Celebrate the fact that you have a gift to write.  You have a voice that no-one else on this planet possesses. Go you!

  • Don’t seek the opinion of people who you know to be negative.  Stay true to your dreams and remember, YOUR dreams are no-one else’s.  No other person is as vested in your story as you are.  Don’t ask for their opinion, instead talk to another writer or a friend who believes in you, who will motivate you.
  • Grow! There is a wealth of ‘how to’ books, writers’ groups and seminars.  Eat up all of that free information like a starving man at a free wedding banquet.  Plunder that buffet until your stomach groans.
  • Writer’s block is you letting that dark angel back into your story world.  Defeat it by skipping to another chapter, taking a walk, eating cake, parking your book for a day or two or putting an emotional piece of music on your iPod and letting it fan that fire back inside you.
  • Accept that you are not perfect.  There will be that one negative review that rocks your soul and reinforces your belief that you are the worst writer ever to have been spat onto this earth.  Immediately re-read the good reviews that your work has received.  Remind yourself that you can please some of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.  Some people may be dealing with their own dark angel and your book might have been a trigger.  You will receive praise.  You will make an impact on someone’s day, life, future.  Those moments are to be celebrated.

I so hope that this has been useful.  What if it hasn’t?  What if you judge me by this post and–

Much love,

Janey x

 

 

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Sensory writing…

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Sensory, storytelling, Writing, Writing senses, Writing tips

Here is an owl.  A barn owl.

Screen Shot 2016-08-28 at 15.27.29

Unable to credit photographer as Anon.

What is a barn owl doing on your page, Janey?

Great question!

Yesterday I witnessed the joy and emotion on the face of a girl without sight when a barn owl flew onto her gloved hand.  A barn owl is an exquisite creature, particularly in flight as can be seen in the photo above.  Yet, the blind girl seemed to experience as much enjoyment from her experience as a sighted person.

We have five senses.  Use them all in your writing!

The point of sharing this with you is to remind us that all five of our senses are a gift.  If we lose one, our bodies compensate with the others.  Touch, taste, smell, sound and sight: all enrich our experience of life, none is dependent upon the other.  When writing, we can bring our stories to life for readers by utilising senses.  Crucially, with the introduction of audio books, it’s vital to also consider how these senses are invoked through the spoken word.

Using all five senses brings the story to life whereas using only sight, for example, renders it one-dimensional and isn’t true to life.  Even if we can’t see the ocean, we can taste the salt on our tongues, feel the sand – powdery or scrunching between our toes.  We can hear the squawk of a careening seagull…and so on.

What did the girl feel as the owl perched on her gloved hand?  

‘Magic,’ she said.

Write on!  🙂

Janey x

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Why stories matter…

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

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#amwriting, Childrens stories, creative writing, Imagination, Parenting, storytelling, Writing

Once upon a time, there was a small girl with yellow hair and blue eyes and an inquiring mind.  The girl––let’s call her Janey––lived in a house with her parents and a brother who poured milk over her head, and threw spiders at her.  Janey loved her family, even her brother, but the one she loved most of all was her friend who lived in a Marmite jar.  ‘Friend’ was a pebble.  The pebble and the yellow-haired girl flew on magic carpets to whimsical lands…

Screen Shot 2016-08-28 at 13.28.07

Stories matter.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t submerged deep inside my own mind in a world of fantasy – where the impossible was achievable and where my made-up friends were never perfect but always fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I had lots of ‘real’ friends and we often made up other worlds together but there was something special about ‘Pebble’ and the possibilities that my imagination afforded me.  Us.

When I became a mum, I delighted in making up worlds for my children, places that together we would go to at bedtime or in the car.  The story of Bobelie the fairy became so real to my daughter that she would search for her in the spring flowers in our garden.  I would always begin a new story, my daughter would then pick up the thread and let her imagination facilitate the story’s direction and the fairy’s journey.

Why do stories matter?

Stories matter because life is a tough ride.  Who doesn’t daydream in the middle of a challenging day at work?  Our minds want to lead us to a place that is calmer, or where we can be all of the things that once we had dreamed that we would be.  Or to take us to places that perhaps seem unreachable in our everyday lives.  Without stories, life is flat – one dimensional.  Stories can unravel in our minds or can be absorbed through the written word, on TV, at the theatre.  We are sponges from birth with an enormous capacity to soak up all the possibilities that we learn about and to project ourselves into scenarios and worlds at our own behest.

Stories matter.

(I no longer have Pebble).

Write on!  🙂

Janey x

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Dear writer, do your readers like me? Love, your antagonist…

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Janey Rosen in I'm just saying ...

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#amediting, #amwriting, antagonist, Hitchcock, protagonist, Psycho, storytelling, Writing

(Insert evil cackle)

We all love to hate the bad guy in a movie, in a book, in life!

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.48.48

I’m looking right through the screen at you!

Let’s take Mr. Norman Bates as an example.  Creepy guy without a doubt.  I’m sure that you have seen the film Psycho, 1960, brought to us by the portly terror-peddling genius, Alfred Hitchcock.  Am I alone in actually feeling empathy for Norman by the end of the film? (If so, then that makes me weird so let’s pretend you felt for him too).

I cared about him!  He loved his poor, rocking, dead mother so very much that he used to cross-dress in her frocks––that’s love!

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.57.06

I love you Mommy, mwahaha

His backstory was heartbreaking.  Misguided as he was in slashing doe-eyed ladies in full makeup in the shower (I mean, do not try this at home!), I could sort of understand how he was as psychotic as he was.  If I hadn’t known about his mother’s love then I would have pegged him as a nasty piece of work who slaughtered without motive.  I wouldn’t care what happened to him!  He could have had his eyeballs chewed out by mice and I’d have applauded, or worse still I wouldn’t have cared.

Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 15.55.56

Who turned off the hot water?

A wise owl, the wonderful Ms. Paula Munier,  told me recently that readers need to be invested in our antagonist as well as the protagonist.  This made sense to me.  I don’t necessarily have to like the baddies in the books I read, but I need to understand their motivations.

Antagonists need to have something to lose and something to gain also!

What does Norman Bates have to lose?  He never got over the death of his sweet mother who butchered her lover then killed herself.  Desperately trying to continue his abstract life where his mother lived on, he hid her body in the fruit cellar (as you do) and created her inside his own mind (he could be a writer!).  With his altered personality he became two people and it was the real Norman towards whom viewers empathised.  We became invested in him and that emotional investment meant that we cared about him, even if we didn’t like him.

And, as Norman Bates finally got his comeuppance, sitting in a police cell, his dead mother’s voice could be heard protesting that the murders were her son’s doing.  That she wouldn’t even ‘harm a fly!’  Poor Norman.  His devotion to his mother was impressive and yet, when the s*** hit the fan, she turned on him like a rat.

We want our protagonists to rise up gloriously at the end of our stories but, in order for their achievements to be monumental, we need to see them overcome our antagonists and for the battle between them to be real, to be emotional, for all to be at stake on both sides.

What have you thrown at your antagonists?  I’ve wept for my baddy when I threw her off a high building, have you cried tears over yours?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Janey x

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