Mythical, Magical and Monstrous Women

Today I attend a symposium on "Mythical, Magical and Monstrous Women in Contemporary Women's Writing". It was a very interesting event.
The main themes of the symposium were those of the nature of a "She-Monster" in literary terms, examining archetypes and subversions of this trope using feminist theory. We were treated to panels as far-ranging as "The Wicked Anti-Mother: Bellatrix Lestrange" to "Angela Carter and the Sadeian Gothic" to "Addressing Female Sexuality and Identity in Japanese Comics".
As well as increase my desire to study a Masters, the symposium was also useful when considering my own writing. I'm currently creating my own "she-monster" in Matti, and I do not want her to succumb to typical patriarchal stereotypes of powerful women, and I do not want my story to reaffirm the Mother/Madonna/Whore doctrine found in so much classic literature.
Matti is coming together piece by piece, and I am glad I am taking my time with it, as I hope that the finished product will be something amazing.

The Hunger Games and E-Books

*Contains minor spoilers for The Hunger Games trilogy*


I've just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and must say I really enjoyed it. I became completely immersed in this dystopian society, and as the traumatic events continued, I too became slightly traumatised. This is why I liked the ending, and was very pleased with how it was written. I felt that Katniss had the happiest ending she could have hoped for, given everything she experienced and that showed great skill (and restraint) on the part of the writer. 


I read the series on my Kindle, and whilst it was convenient and has helped me overcome my problem with storing paper books, the one negative I can identify with ebooks is that I am unable to share it with my friends or pass these stories on to my own children one day. So yes, "sentiment" and "community". Ebooks just can't compete.

Alt.Fiction Day Two

Howdy all,
Finally, here are my notes from Day Two of Alt.Fiction, Leicester's premier SF convention.

The day started off for me with a panel by Graham Joyce and Kate Laity about fairy tales and folklore. Like most members of the audience, I was a little hungover, but what I took away from this session was:

• Myth and fairy tale actually have very little to do with one another; there is more elasticity in folklore, whereas myth was deemed as more "fixed".
• Fairy tales exist in every culture, the same stories recur over and over again.
• The image of fairies from the Victorian age (delicate wings, white dresses, etc) was a way to make fairies "safe".
• The idea that fairies are linked to a sense of the uncanny, of uncertainty, menace, and creativity as a destructive force.
• Graham's new book sounds awesome!

Next up was a session on Diversity in Fantasy. I was pleased that they covered diversity in most senses of the word - sex, race, sexuality, even touching on religion. If they had included disability as well, then they'd have had to call bingo. The panel discussed secondary worlds, and how it is a writer's responsibility to consider diversity when creating their own universes. If there can be dwarves and dragons, why not minority ethnic characters? They touched on whether as readers, are we still conservative when it comes to homosexuality, male homosexuality in particular, and pointed at recent criticism of gay characters as evidence. The session made me reflect on my own writing, and I was pleased to discover that most of my stories contain characters from non-white backgrounds in (hopefully) non-stereotypical roles. Perhaps though the fact that I live in Leicester in a multi-cultural society, it is very hard for me to imagine even in a secondary world a place where "white male" is all there is.
I missed the last sessions because my stomach was rumbling something chronic and so I had to get something to eat before hunger turned me into the Hulk. Therefore I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Phoenix cafe, chatting to people, eating chunky chips with mayonnaise and improving my laughter lines.
I'm already looking forward to next year's event. So thanks to Adele and all who organised it. See you in 2013!

Alt.Fiction Day One

Last weekend was Leicester's turn to host Alt.Fiction, the sci-fi/fantasy convention run by Writing East Midlands. I had a pleasant time overall, meeting new people as well as hanging out with the Speculators. I took notes, and rather than let them fester in my notebook, I thought I'd share them here for you. This is a collection of my thoughts and notes from day one. Day two will be in a separate post.

The first panel I went to was about Science Fiction and Non-Fiction. It was a little disorganised at the beginning (I believe one of the panelists had been delayed) but got off to a good start. I was still waking up however, so didn't take a great deal of notes in this one. I think it can be boiled down to science fiction and non-fiction have a bit of a symbiotic relationship, and also fiction writers should be careful not to put all of their research into their fiction (a la the Da Vinci Code).

Next, I headed off to a workshop on The Business of Writing, with Mark Chadbourn. Quite interesting, although full of scary advice like "quit your day job". Mark was putting forward that you should treat being a writer in the same way as you would if you were setting up your own business. I totally agree with that, but for me, quitting my job now would be like starting my own plumbing service before I'd even qualified. Anyway, Mark gave loads of ideas as to how and where we could make money writing, and the key idea is to diversify, try a bit of everything if it pays, and use the crap jobs you do to buy you time to work on your ideal project.

The next panel was based around Dragon's Den, where writers role-played pitches to agents to show us what not to do. Basically:
DO:

• Tell the agent the end of the story in your pitch letter.
• Compare yourself with authors who are similar, but only if they have been successful in the last 5 years.
• Show you are passionate about your work.
• Consider series potential.
• Finish writing the novel before you pitch anything.
• Consider where your book would be placed in the bookshop.
• Pay attention to details such as the agent's name, as well as spelling & grammar.
• Keep the pitch short - ideally 3 paragraphs.
• Read the guidelines on the agent's/publisher's website and follow them.

DON'T:

• Write in the pitch letter that "my mum loves it".
• Be closed off to feedback and criticism from agents, as they are there to help.

I think that's everything!

Onwards to Online Marketing, with Tom Hunter. Interesting session, especially as I work in Marketing for my day job. Condensing this session down to a few words of advice, I would say it boiled down to "don't be a git on the internet" and "be open to new opportunities". The other thing that was interesting was to learn that imprints are themselves trying to create more brand recognition, trying to be more personable. As a reader, I think this is a great idea.

Next, Comics. I came away with a long list of books I want to read, and will buy when I have some money. Also, the ways to get into comic writing are:
1. Get together with an artist and self-publish your own.
2. Be successful in another literary genre (ie TV, novel writing, etc) and then comic publishers will contact you.
3. Learn to draw. I laughed at this one, when relating it to myself. Next time, I'll try to remember to upload one of my "Lucy Drawings" and you'll see what I mean.

Finally, I went to a talk by James Swallow on "Games Narrative". I'm not a gamer, aside from loving Super Mario on the NES and having a pretty strong Sims 2 addiction, and hadn't really considered writing for games before. After this session, however, I was eager to buy an X-Box and have a crack at it! Games writing is all about the discovery of the story, as opposed to the delivery of a story (as in film/novels). I never realised how much work there was for a writer on games; not just the cut scenes and main story, but also every little bit of throw away dialogue by background characters, as well as all the stuff for the different options and pathways you can go down. James also talked about "environmental narrative", which was something I'd never thought of before, the way in which the environment is shaped tells you about characters, setting, time and place, mood and tone. Converse to novels and short stories, narrators in games have to be empty vessel characters, because you want the gamer to pour themselves into the game. The one thing he didn't touch on, I think because we ran out of time, was how you actually become a games writer. Maybe I'll find out at the next convention I go to!

So that was my Saturday, minus the free goodie bag, the wine and the curry. Really informative and fun day.

Pitchfork Disney

I went to see The Pitchfork Disney at the Arcola in London last weekend. Philip Ridley is one of my favourite playwrights and it was great to finally see a professional production of this classic. I think this production really brought home to me Cosmo and Pitchfork's position as part of Presley's dreamscape. It's hard to feel pity though for someone so fucked up and I'm not sure you're supposed to pity him. I think that's the point of those wonderfully-written nightmare speeches, so that you feel like you are in the nightmare, so you live the nightmare with him. All great! I have tickets for Shivered at Easter and might possibly go and see Mercury Fur too - there seems to be a bit of a Ridley resurgence in London at present and I'm loving it!

There was a call for papers for this conference on the University website. I would love to write about the legacy of Angela Carter, looking at modern writers like Cat Rambo, Erzebet Yellowboy, Catherynne M. Valente and many, many others reclaiming and creating their own myths, rewriting fairytales to better understand gender and politics and the human experience, but I don't have time and haven't written anything academic for almost 10 years (yikes). Maybe after I retire and get to do a doctorate I'll revisit this idea, though by then it'll be classified as "Ancient Literature"!

W.I.P

Right, so I'm still trying to work on my novel about the witch/superhero sisters, which started life as a short story and developed into a first draft during NaNoWriMo 2010. I've been having problems with it because I just didn't know how to tell the story - whether to set it in the present with flashbacks or to tell it chronologically and perhaps stretch it out into a series.

I've finally decided to give the version with flashbacks a go. I had started to write a series, but the reason I got stuck, I think, is that all the good stuff that I was interested in actually happens in the present, rather than the past. So anyway, here goes version 3.

If anyone would like to recommend good novels (SF/Fantasy or not) that deal with flashbacks particularly well, I'd really appreciate it.

There's an interesting competition looking for stories to be included in an anthology at Fantasy Faction. I think I might use it as motivation to finish one of the short stories I've had lying around for months. The details are here, if any of you are interested (good luck!).

York

I've been in York for the past 3 days, at a conference for work. If you haven't been, it's very pretty, even when it is peeing it down with rain, but I swear there are more drunks wandering the street than pretty much anywhere else I've been.

The hotel was nice, and I basically got to stay in a room the size of my old one-bedroom flat, so that was nice. The conference signed us up to go on a ghost walk, which was fun and fine until our guide told us our hotel was haunted by a ghost AND a poltergeist, which meant I couldn't sleep for fear of being prodded by some supernatural being.

I find ghosts interesting. I'd love to say I don't believe in them, and say what a load of tosh it all is, but the irrational side of my brain is absolutely petrified that the world is really like it is in Sixth Sense, where there are dead people literally everywhere, and that I might one day be made aware of this fact. *shudder*.

(above: can you spot a ghost in this picture? If so, please don't tell me!)

"Nooooooo!"

I know the film has been out now since 2009, but last week they were showing X Men Origins: Wolverine on Film 4. I quite enjoyed the other X Men films, so thought I'd give it a go, but was very disappointed. None of it made a whole lot of sense, and it was so cliché it was ridiculous. How many times did Wolverine hug a dead person to his manly chest, turn to the sky and scream "Nooooooooo!": 2. How many minutes of the film were dedicated to long shots of someone driving through Canada in a truck?: several. And the plot was all over the place. Why was the man baby Wolverine thought was his father played by Hugh Jackman, if he wasn't in fact his father? Who was he then? Why did Wolverine and Victor have to fight in all the wars of the twentieth century? Why would an adamantium bullet kill Wolverine, when he survived his skeleton being fused with the stuff? Similarly, why would a bullet make him lose his memory? I have to admit, they did a pretty good job on Gambit, given that I never saw the appeal in the past after watching the cartoons (his mutant power is that he can shuffle playing cards? Lame). Just a pity we'll probably never see him again. I found myself more moved by poor Ryan Reynold's character than Wolverine/Victor's sibling rivalry. The poor man got his mouth sewed together, injected with mutant powers, and then manually controlled like a toy car by that Striker bloke. Poor sod. And his only crime was that he talked too much.

I'm on a bit of a Superhero bent at the moment, having dressed as Batgirl at Butlins a few weeks ago (How come most of the famous female superheroes are DC?). I'm currently reading Demo, a brilliant comic by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan about disenfranchised youths with certain superhuman abilities. I'd like to say it's all research for Matti, but really it's just for fun. I'm still having problems with Matti; I'm still not sure how to write it. I mean, I have a plot, I have characters, but how to stylistically do it justice, I can't figure it out. At least I know not to make my heroine scream "Noooo!" anytime she finds someone dead. That's just plain annoying.

Monsters, Monsters Everywhere

My god-daughter is really into Monster High at the moment. I bought back a doll for her from New York in April, thinking how cool it was to have little goth dolls, as opposed to the normal pink-wearing Barbies or those Bratz dolls with their freakishly-large heads.

I really fell for the idea of them, these anti-Barbies who face the oppressive "Norms" to get an education and get on in life (afterlife?). So I was a tad disappointed when I saw that there was a Monster High website, which seemed to imply that all these monster teens actually cared about was cheerleading and stealing someone else's boyfriend. I know that's the bread and butter of teen dramas, but really. Perhaps they ran out of imagination after the initial product designs were completed.

Anyhow, she's asked for another one for Christmas, which I will happily supply, because she's currently too young to read the novels and I like the fact that not all of her dolls are blonde (OK, so Zombie-Blonde is allowed).

Why I Will Not Be Participating In NaNoWriMo This Year...

I have been taking part in NaNoWriMo since 2006 and have won every year since 2007. In the past I have explained why I think it is useful for writers looking to complete a first draft. From taking part in the programme not only have I learned discipline and seen a novel through to finish, it has also given me the self-confidence that writing is something I am capable of, and that there is always time to write no matter what the circumstance.
All this considered, it may seem a little strange that I am not taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, and in fact it has only been over the last couple of months that I have really finalised that decision. It is not because I won't be writing, and it is not because I've become one of those snobs who looks down on the programme and can't see the benefits. Rather, I am going to use my time productively to create a first draft organically. By that I mean, I am going to give myself the time to let my prose develop, my characters breath, my plot develop at a natural rate, so that (hopefully) I don't have too many major problems when it comes to the second draft.
I believe that if I did not work full time (and wasn't also studying German) I may be able to write an excellent first draft for a novel through NaNoWriMo in 30 days. However, because work is crazy busy, because I can never seem to go long without adding a new extra-curricular activity into my schedule, what I get through NaNoWriMo is passionate if sketchy dream worlds that need a lot of elbow grease afterwards.
So that is why I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I will miss uploading my daily word count into the website and chatting with people in the forums, but it's for my own good.
Best of luck to all those who will be taking part! I hope you get what you want out of it.
For me, for now, I am moving on.

Re-Writing: My "New" System

I'm still trying to re-write my fantasy story, and have developed my own system (I can't claim it as unique, as I'm sure it isn't).
First, write a story.
Second, print out said story and read it again, preferably after letting it sit for a few days. Mark on the manuscript where there are errors or where things need expanding or changing for the sake of the story/plot.
Third, create a new second draft, starting from a blank word document, using your notes and incorporating all the necessary changes from your notes.
Fourth, go back through this second draft, and think about phrasing and correct any errors.
Fifth, finished. Share with friends and have a night off.
I'm currently at step 3, and it is DIFFICULT. I'm out of my comfort zone now, writing with my editor's hat on (rather than my creative hat, which has daisies and paper windmills and bubbles coming out the top...). I'm determined to get it finished, I really need to get into the routine of finishing what I start.

And on that note, let me tell you that last week I workshopped a story from the "Corrie Flint" canon at Speculators and spent a little time outlining a plot. This might be my next big project, but I'm aware that I still have so many things unfinished, so near to completion.

I'll let you know how the re-writing system works out. For now, back to the grindstone.

Re-Writing

At the end of August, I spent 4 evenings writing a 9,000 word short story. I let it sit for a while, and am now in the process of re-writing. I was sad to find that it needed a lot of work, but at least I know I am developed enough as a writer to be able to spot my own personal writing flaws, and the flaws in the story, so I can fix it. "Writing is Re-Writing", or however that old adage goes.

I'm glad it is autumn now. Autumn to me is so strongly associated with the start of school, and so I usually use it to kick off new writing projects and make new year's resolutions. One of my main aims for the next month is to think about which story I want to present as my first novel, so I can focus my energies on that, instead of spreading myself thinly across several ideas.

A couple of websites/blogs that I found interesting this past week:

This blog gives some advice about manuscript lengths.

Juliet E McKenna talks about the problem with women characters in Fantasy fiction

The Importance of Grammar

Some people don't think that grammar is important. They are wrong. Grammar is important on a fundamental level. It wasn't established as a way to police how you write or to limit your creativity. It is there to help a reader gain clarity and understand the meaning of your words. This is obviously very important if you are trying to be a writer, but it is also good standard practice to have a good grounding in grammar for any job application or official correspondence you might have to write. I don't always get it right myself, so thought it would be good to do a post exploring common grammatical mistakes.

A few things to remember:

It's/Its:
"It's" is used as a contraction of the phrase "it is". The apostrophe represents the missing letter "i". "Its" (no apostrophe) means something belonging to something else. If in doubt, try replacing the word in your sentence with the phrase "it is" instead. Does it still make sense? No? Then don't use an apostrophe.

The semi-colon:
I can't explain it better than how it is here, and this has the added bonus of being humorous to boot.

There/Their/They're:
Basically, "There" is used to denote direction ("over there") or an abstract sense of place ("there once was a boy") (there is more to it than that, but I'll try to keep it simply - for further details see here.) Use "Their" if you mean "belonging to them"."They're" (it's that apostrophe again!) is a contraction of the phrase "they are".

That/Which:
A little bit of old school grammar here, but generally speaking, "that" is used if what you are referring to is important to the meaning of the sentence ("restrictive clause"), "which" is used if you could leave that clause off completely and it would still make sense ("non-restrictive clause"). There should never be a comma before "that", but always with "which".
I did a google search, and here are a couple of stolen examples from http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/which-versus-that.aspx:

Example 1: Gems that sparkle often elicit forgiveness
If you remove "that sparkle", it changes the meaning to say that all gems elicit forgiveness (and note there are no commas).

Example 2: Diamonds, which are expensive, often elicit forgiveness.
Diamonds are always assumed expensive, so if you remove the "which", the meaning remains.

For more on grammar, do have a look at http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/, which I found whilst researching this post. I'd also recommend reading The Elements of Style; a very handy guide.

Edinburgh and Back Again

Went to Edinburgh for a few days last week. Was great to be back at the Fringe, saw some really great productions. Obvious plugs for my friends' shows - Paper Tom and The 90s in Half an Hour (both excellent) but I think my favourite had to be The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik, on at the Underbelly. It was truly moving, simple, beautiful. Had me in tears by the end. If you're in or around Edinburgh during the Festival, I very wholeheartedly recommend you go and see it.

Works in progress at the moment are mainly Matti (still the working title, I really hope a better one pops into my head soon) and a revamp of my old Three Sisters idea. This newer version started off as a dialogue between two young teens in a cafe. It is now around 7000 words long, and I'm just seeing where it goes. I'm also about to start work on a new short story. I got the idea on the train back from Edinburgh, as I was sitting in my damp clothing looking out of the window. It is about a ghost and a boy. The challenge will be to keep it under 10,000 words long.

Just A Thought

Why do some people hate JK Rowling so much? I suppose the question can be directed at many famous successful people, but I'm choosing JK Rowling because I've just stumbled across some really vile comments on the internet. I know that there are people in this world whose only happiness seems to be writing mean things on the internet, but I just don't understand where that passion, that hatred, comes from. Her only crime is writing some books that lots of people have enjoyed. She hasn't wronged anyone (as far as I'm aware), doesn't seem to be a mean person, doesn't harm animals or take drugs, etc. Why do people feel the need to be so completely hateful? I know there are differing opinions about the quality of her work, but should that really stir up such a strong reaction? Seriously, take a nice deep breath and go lie down somewhere quiet for a while.

Hatred is such a strong thing. I think the only times I've ever really felt hatred (or something akin to it) has been caused by jealousy. Well, jealousy and hormones. It's strange how people can become obsessed with people they don't even know, and think that just because they're online all rules regarding etiquette and appropriateness don't exist.

Getting in The Zone

I have found that it is much easier to write when you have a routine.
Mine is currently this: After work, go to the library.
Just like starting any new routine, it's hard to get into. At first, I'd stop for a cuppa, take a few notes or check emails before actually getting down to the business of writing. Now I have a drink in the office before I finish work, so that as soon as I leave I can head straight to the "Silent Study" zone.
It gets easier. And now, if I don't go, I don't have to punish myself because it's starting to feel wrong. I'm becoming more productive, having finished 2 1/2 chapters of Matti and 2,500 words for something else that is Three Sisters related, just in the last fortnight.

On a separate note, I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a couple of days at the beginning of August. Any recommendations? I've just finished compiling my usual matrix of shows I'm interested in. Top of the list is Paper Tom and The 90s in Half an Hour. Can't wait to get back to Edinburgh, if only for a flying visit.

Baby Steps

I have put the faerie story to one side for the moment to concentrate on the rewriting of my Matti novel. Will it be finished by August (in reference to the deadline I set myself earlier this year)? No. But this rewrite is stronger than ever and I am feeling happy that it is now sounding more like I intended.

I had a really nice rejection email the other day - sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? - possibly a sign that I'm actually getting better at this craft. I'm feeling pretty positive right now. I feel like I am starting to establish my voice through my writing, and I have a good idea of what my brand will be when I do get published.

So, enough with the update already. I'm off to do some writing. Catch you later!

Away with the Faeries

Recently, I have been doing some research about faeries for a new story I am writing. I thought I was quite informed about "the good folk" after all the research I had done whilst writing Banshee, but then discovered today that a "doxy" does not actually exist and was something made up for Harry Potter. Oops.

Nevermind.

I have been doing some research, as for years now I've wanted to write a short story about Tir na nOg and proper faeries* and it was only today whilst driving home from a school event that I worked out how to do it. So this is what I'm going to be working on for the rest of the evening.

I attended Alt.Fiction a few weeks ago and had a pretty enjoyable day. I've left it a bit late to review it, so will direct you to Selina's blog review of the event (diving into my own fragments of memory about the event, all I can really recall is talking about seal sex in front of Jon Courtenay Grimwood!). Will Ellwood also comments here.

*Canny regular readers will know I have already attempted to write about proper faeries once in The Tower (link takes you to the far superior audio version rather than text).

Technology Hates Me

Everything seems to be going wrong at the minute, and I'm starting to wig out. Twitter on my phone keeps telling me my username and password are invalid, even though I can sign in fine through a web browser, plus it keeps losing signal, even though I apparently have a "boost" through WiFi. Stupid BlackBerry. I can't even get Facebook on it anymore as it kept crashing, and so I missed loads of events and social occasions as a result. I swear I'm getting an android phone as soon as my contract is up!

Work is uber busy, but despite this I have managed to work out the story for my Matti novel. I just can't quite decide at what point in the story do I begin - I hate flashbacks, but the beginning isn't really the most interesting part. Decisions, decisions.

I am hopefully off to Alt.Fiction next weekend, and going to try to do some of the workshops this year as I didn't go to any last time. I hope it's good.

Uh! Stupid phone. Now it won't even let me send a text message. I think I'd better go and calm down before I throw it at something. Is there such a thing as "phone rage"?

A Little Writing Update

I have been having a bit of a think about my Matti novel. I knew that what I had written for NaNoWriMo hadn't turned out as I had intended. It just didn't say what I wanted it to, and I have been flummoxed as to how to go about fixing it. After speaking to a couple of people at Speculators (the writing group that seems to have adopted me), I've decided to try again, starting with the short story that I wrote initially about Matti and Eva at the funeral of their mother, using this as the starting point of the story, rather than as a flashforward to the end. I know now what I want the story to be about (“sisters, and mothers and daughters, and loss”) but now I'm trying to put some plot to it, trying to find something that is fitting to the piece and won't threaten to take over the main themes, like my Whedon-esque plot did the first time around.

It has been a while since I've actually written something. I have done lots of planning, lots of rewriting, but not a lot of the 'creating' recently. So that's something I am trying to get my head back into. I think Matti and Dorcas are my main priorities right now, though I do need to write a new short story too. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm trying not to let that feeling of being under pressure and needing to rush consume me again. Trying to take it one piece at a time.