I've been tagged! Join me now to find out more about how a random chicken, a skull, and time stopping are part of my writing process!
Sooo … the Art Of Blogging.
Not a good medium for someone who wakes in a cold sweat over an ill-chosen adjective. And wait! I’ve thought of a MUCH BETTER way to describe the freak thunderstorm that swept the hero into the Lost City Of Unknowing ... but it’s too late! Gah!
Because blogging is instant! You write! You press Go! And it’s published!
But - sweeping blogging angst aside - on to the official blog tour questions:
What am I working on? Several projects at once: it’s like plate spinning. Which I tried at circus skills workshops and it wasn’t all that easy. And what are these projects ...?
“I would love to tell you. But then, of course, I’d have to kill you.” (The Hound Of The Baskervilles)
All I CAN tell you, in a mysterious whisper, is: something pantomime funny (my fiction has been described by editors as 'fantastically anarchic', 'packed full of humour' and 'pacy and engaging'), something magical, and something from the Otherworld. With a handful of funny verses thrown in, via www.thefuneverse.com.
Mainly I'm working very hard at developing my editing skills, as most of writing - the part of the iceberg hidden beneath the sea - is editing.
Who knew? (Tongue firmly in cheek)
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Erm - Characters? Voice? Awful jokes?
It’s hard to know what’s unique about your own work. Maybe it’s best to have an outside eye on it for that:
“Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That's the thing about painting, photography, cinema."
David Lynch
... And stories! Everywriter's brain (alert: the serious, scientific part of the blog. No really) is a bubbling cauldron of stewed memories, experiences, books they loved when they were ten, exciting words, something they just saw or thought or heard that evoked a feeling, a sensation ...
“Things that I grew up with stay with me. You start a certain way, and then you spend your whole life trying to find a certain simplicity that you had. It's less about staying in childhood than keeping a certain spirit of seeing things in a different way.”
Tim Burton
Why do I write what I do?
“I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.” Robert Frost
Scratch a writer and you'll find a reader. I spent my childhood with my head in a book and never quite managed to get it out. I believe 'The Veil Between The Worlds' is thin, and stories lurk in between, waiting to be told. I’m endlessly fascinated by what lies just beneath the surface, what might have happened or be about to happen in a different version of the world. I love spending time in alternate realities. And my dream is to create story-worlds others love to inhabit and make their own. I'm very grateful to all the storymakers who have inspired me. I love children's and young adult fiction.
How does your writing process work?
There’s a spark – a word, an image, a place, a news report, a random chicken, a skull or a name - and the flame is kindled. I see, in my mind’s eye, scenes, settings - the spirit of a place is important. I hear the voices of the characters. And the characters need a world to live in.
It’s not just one idea, off the shelf: it’s filtered through dreams and visions. I write and see where the story goes. I leave gaps where it isn’t clear, and come back to fill them in later when I know what happens at the end.
I love the surprises that happen when the process is working well. That’s the positive side of this way of working: the other side is when some of the surprises are red herrings: they can make for a confusing plot which has to be sorted out later.
Setting and a sense of place - I don’t know about you, but I have themes which recur in my creative work: the sea, and the dark woods of fairytale are powerful motifs. So I spend time where my characters have their adventures, taking photographs.
Although I’m not sure I actually follow my characters into the Otherworld, Time has definitely stood still on more than one occasion.
Not a good medium for someone who wakes in a cold sweat over an ill-chosen adjective. And wait! I’ve thought of a MUCH BETTER way to describe the freak thunderstorm that swept the hero into the Lost City Of Unknowing ... but it’s too late! Gah!
Because blogging is instant! You write! You press Go! And it’s published!
But - sweeping blogging angst aside - on to the official blog tour questions:
What am I working on? Several projects at once: it’s like plate spinning. Which I tried at circus skills workshops and it wasn’t all that easy. And what are these projects ...?
“I would love to tell you. But then, of course, I’d have to kill you.” (The Hound Of The Baskervilles)
All I CAN tell you, in a mysterious whisper, is: something pantomime funny (my fiction has been described by editors as 'fantastically anarchic', 'packed full of humour' and 'pacy and engaging'), something magical, and something from the Otherworld. With a handful of funny verses thrown in, via www.thefuneverse.com.
Mainly I'm working very hard at developing my editing skills, as most of writing - the part of the iceberg hidden beneath the sea - is editing.
Who knew? (Tongue firmly in cheek)
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Erm - Characters? Voice? Awful jokes?
It’s hard to know what’s unique about your own work. Maybe it’s best to have an outside eye on it for that:
“Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That's the thing about painting, photography, cinema."
David Lynch
... And stories! Everywriter's brain (alert: the serious, scientific part of the blog. No really) is a bubbling cauldron of stewed memories, experiences, books they loved when they were ten, exciting words, something they just saw or thought or heard that evoked a feeling, a sensation ...
“Things that I grew up with stay with me. You start a certain way, and then you spend your whole life trying to find a certain simplicity that you had. It's less about staying in childhood than keeping a certain spirit of seeing things in a different way.”
Tim Burton
Why do I write what I do?
“I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.” Robert Frost
Scratch a writer and you'll find a reader. I spent my childhood with my head in a book and never quite managed to get it out. I believe 'The Veil Between The Worlds' is thin, and stories lurk in between, waiting to be told. I’m endlessly fascinated by what lies just beneath the surface, what might have happened or be about to happen in a different version of the world. I love spending time in alternate realities. And my dream is to create story-worlds others love to inhabit and make their own. I'm very grateful to all the storymakers who have inspired me. I love children's and young adult fiction.
How does your writing process work?
There’s a spark – a word, an image, a place, a news report, a random chicken, a skull or a name - and the flame is kindled. I see, in my mind’s eye, scenes, settings - the spirit of a place is important. I hear the voices of the characters. And the characters need a world to live in.
It’s not just one idea, off the shelf: it’s filtered through dreams and visions. I write and see where the story goes. I leave gaps where it isn’t clear, and come back to fill them in later when I know what happens at the end.
I love the surprises that happen when the process is working well. That’s the positive side of this way of working: the other side is when some of the surprises are red herrings: they can make for a confusing plot which has to be sorted out later.
Setting and a sense of place - I don’t know about you, but I have themes which recur in my creative work: the sea, and the dark woods of fairytale are powerful motifs. So I spend time where my characters have their adventures, taking photographs.
Although I’m not sure I actually follow my characters into the Otherworld, Time has definitely stood still on more than one occasion.
©Lesley Moss 2014