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~ Random thoughts on writing and life

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Tag Archives: Writing tips

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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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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Do you worry about criticism?

30 Monday May 2016

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

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#amediting, #amwriting, Authors, Book Reviews, Writing tips

Oh, you didn’t like my book?

Screen Shot 2016-05-30 at 14.14.08

You’re so mean!

Have you published a book?

Did you slave over that book for all of your best years, and now you can never get those years back?

And, after you gave so much of yourself, someone left a bad review? (in bold to emphasise the anger and hurt you feel––I could EVEN CAPITALISE AND ADD BOLD AND ITALICS, BECAUSE THE PAIN IS REAL!)

It’s like someone calling your baby ugly, right?

If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready.’––David Mitchell, Black Swan Green.

Stop.  Smile.  If the fool who left a damning review took the time to do so, then guess what?

You are a winner!  You gave that reader something to think about, to connect to, to have an opinion on, to take time to write about those feelings and to share them with you.

How often have you simply discarded a written piece, a book, an article, a blog post, and not cared less about it?  More often than not, we don’t take the time or feel strongly or passionately enough to bother leaving any feedback.  They lost us.

We’re out of there faster than Donald Trump in a barber shop!

A review–both rave and terrible–means that you have held that reader’s attention, that your writing was worthy of their feedback, even if disclosing this wasn’t their intention in submitting the review.

There is a saying, ‘No publicity is bad publicity,’ and the same is true of book reviews.  While people are talking about your work, your novel, word is getting out there about your book.  There can be elements within the review that, while the reviewer nearly passed out over, another potential reader might like.

“It was smut, smut, smut and more smut.  Filthy rubbish!”

“Ooh, I like the sound of that!  I think I’ll download that to read by the pool in Malaga.”

You see?  One person’s idea of hell is another’s heaven.  If you take a look on Amazon or B&N, you’ll see mixed reviews for even the literary greats and I guarantee that the literary Gods who wrote them did not have their writing careers ended overnight by any one of those negative reviews.

But it still hurts!  And isn’t it tempting to retort?  To let them know that they clearly didn’t get the entire premise of your story?  To hurt them back?

Screen Shot 2016-05-30 at 14.45.41

Do not do it!  Scream, cry, make a Voodoo doll of them and stick pins in the eyes, but do not respond to negative reviews!  Know that there will be a positive review right around the corner.  It will boot the bad review down the list and restore your faith in your skill.

When I self-published my first book and it went live it felt the same as if I’d stripped naked and run through the supermarket.  Exposed.  Vulnerable.  Then I received some 5* reviews.  This was unbelievable.  Until the first negative review landed on my book’s Amazon page and my heart broke in two.  They hadn’t even read past the first few pages!  I wanted to scream at them, ‘You didn’t even get to the good part!’  I knew I couldn’t respond, I did–fleetingly–consider creating a fake reader account and leaving myself a good review or begging my grandma’s neighbour’s first-cousin-once-removed to do it.

What’s the point?  What would it achieve?

I realised that, actually, the fact that the reader had bought the book and taken the time to leave a review was not entirely a bad thing.  It dawned on me that I can’t please all of the people all of the time.  I like Marmite and cheese sandwiches, others don’t (their loss).  I had to accept the following:

Book reviews do not define you, your book or your writing talent.

They are individual preferences and tastes.

As always, I’d love to hear from you!  As a writer, how has a negative book review made you feel?  As a reader, are you influenced by reviews when making reading choices?  Please comment.

Janey x

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Using your friends and family’s dirty little secrets for your own gain…

25 Wednesday May 2016

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

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Writing, Writing tips

Use the dirty little secrets of those you love and care about.  Sounds terrible, doesn’t it?  Who would do that? Are you kidding me Janey?

I kid you not.  The skeletons in the closets of those around you are sat there, in the dark, gathering dust, and you owe it to them to take them out, air them, use them in your next story!

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. –– Roald Dahl

Secrets and scandal are all around us.  Secrets are buried and rarely talked about because, to the bearer, they are of such monumental importance as to be quite shocking and scandalous if ever they are known.  By their very nature then, they are nuggets of information that are outside what may be classified as socially acceptable or morally right. Honestly, you probably couldn’t make up that stuff!  Use it then in your novel writing.  Change the names, the circumstances, move abroad, whatever you have to do.  Don’t divulge the source but do utilise that little snippet of wrongness or perhaps something really wonderful, and hand that secret to your protagonist or antagonist.  Do it to them, whatever it is, or put the secret inside their mind and then let them deal with the consequences.

The secret is out.  How will they ever pick up the pieces?  You see?  It’s okay to use this information if it doesn’t disclose the writer’s source.  After all, you’re not breaking a trust or telling a secret that isn’t yours to tell; it was the story people what did it M’Lord.

Like me, have you ever used real secrets or experiences in your novel writing?  Did you feel guilty afterwards?  Did it add to the tension for your story people?  Comment below and free the skeletons of this world.

Janey x

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