The Creative Identity

Try This

We only see and understand others according to our character and way of life. –Rabbi Tsadok HaCohen of Lublin– I find that I cut much more slack to everyone I know than to myself. In fact, I never cut myself any. I am not planning to get into the psychological reasons for this, especially because they would be sofa-psycho-talk of Oprah-variety involving women's roles these days and the post-feminist bubble and... just spare me. But when I think of these things I wonder whether we could all do better with ourselves if we treated our daily blunders as endearing, hilarious episodes off the pages of a book. Earlier this week I showed you what Lynne Truss and Chris Pascoe can do; could you be slightly less demanding with yourself if you were a character? Write a description of yourself as if you were a character off a book. Use the traits that really annoy you in order to make fun of this character and to endear him (or her) to your reading public. Read more →

Making You Laugh – Part Two

I've never come across a more hilarious book than Chris Pascoe's A Cat Called Birmingham. Its sequel, You Can Take The Cat Out of Slough... is equally side-splitting. You see, I love animals. Really, really, really love them. Whoever is like me can rarely stomach tear-jerking stories and, sadly, those books about heroic dogs and the like are more than a bit heart-breaking. If you have animals of your own, you really do not want to read about brilliant lives, not if they end with a chapter about death, as they normally do. Complete the narrative arc and all that. I even shed a tear at Seabiscuit and that wasn't penned by the people close to the horse, but by an historian, and was tragedy-free too. However, Chris Pascoe's two books about his cat Brum (short for Birmingham, in case you ain't British) have none of that, so proceed to Amazon fearlessly because these will make you cry, but with laughter. Today I wish to share a couple of pages off the first book which, perhaps bizarrely, aren't about the cat, but about the author's clumsy friend Andy. You'll see... *** If there could ever be a parallel of Brum in the human world, it is quite definitely you, Andrew Bond. We'd all gone down to the coast to watch the early afternoon England opener against Tunisia in a huge football orientated pub. There were flags and large screens everywhere, and incredibly tight security. We'd all been damn near strip-searched... Read more →

Making You Laugh – Part One

This week I am going to share two extracts from two books I love very much, for no particular reason other than wishing to spread hilarity. First up is Lynne Truss. Now I do know that Lynne is best known for her much publicised, and often maligned, work, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Whatever you think of it, and I won't go into the details of what I think of it, for I don't care that much and it's Monday morning and I just cannot be asked right now, it isn't that book that you should read but Making The Cat Laugh, one woman's journal of single life on the margins. There's not much else to tell you; enjoy a little extract that is as much about the single life as it is about the writing one. *** Single Bananas An old friend of mine, who five years ago migrated to the country with her husband to propagate children and rear a garden, recently sent me a card which I didn't know quite how to take. 'Wishing you all good luck', she wrote, 'on your chosen path.' I sat looking at it with my fingers in my mouth. What did she mean exactly, by this notion of the 'chosen path'? I assumed she meant it kindly, but it made me feel suddenly exposed and distant. Hey, where did everybody go? Supposing that she imagined herself on a path radically divergent from mine, I instantly pictured myself labouring alone up a narrow,... Read more →

Try This

When I was at primary school, on a couple of occasions the teacher sent us home with a very special type of homework. 'Write a story'. Just like that, yes, no other prompt other than 'make something up'. In the beginning I was very worried by it. I remember going home thinking, 'Well, I can't think of anything'. Eventually, when I really squeezed my brains, I came up with a story featuring the sun and the moon. My remembrance of it is a bit sketchy, but I think it was very dialogue-based and also involved human beings talking among themselves and to the sun and the moon. When the teacher read it, she said, 'Very nice, but you couldn't have possibly written this yourself'. Ziiiiiiiiing, thank you very much teacher. The second time she gave us that homework, I wrote a jungle-based story with talking animals. The giraffe was very talkative, so much so, in fact, that she used to annoy all other animals. One day they painted eucalyptus leaves with glue and when the giraffe ate them, she realised she couldn't utter a word. Thus giraffes are mute. The reaction from my teacher was the same as the first time, 'Very nice, but you couldn't have possibly written this yourself'. Do you remember that beautiful ad from the mid-nineties, the one that showed images of engaged classrooms and finished off with 'Those who can, teach'? I am telling you this: also many who can't, teach. Write a short story... Read more →

Stephanella Meets Jody Hedlund

I found out about Jody Hedlund via her agent's website which I urge you to visit immediately, then get back here quick. [Digression: Rachelle's site always makes for awesome reading, not simply because of the incredibly sound advice that she hands on to aspiring writers, but also for the comments she gets. Why the comments? Because I like a good laugh. Despite Rachelle's experience and understanding of the industry, despite her patience and good nature, despite her taking time writing her posts and engaging with her readers, she always, always, always gets amateurs telling her that, no actually, she is wrong and that they know better. Compelling, if only a touch depressing, reading.] So I investigated who this Jody was and navigated to her online home. I was impressed. No, I was IMPRESSED. And do you know why? Because this is a writer with a family (no, not just any family, but one including five little kids and various pets) who successfully landed an agent, a multiple-book publishing contract and finds time to write articles about the writing process on her site, three times a week, while always engaging with her readers. Does that make you feel just a tad small dear reader? Perhaps you complain that you don't have time to write because Twitter takes up all of your waking hours? Yeah, well, exactly. Jody was the writer who therefore inspired one of my favourite posts, the one about not having time to write, where I suggested we all... Read more →