A writer’s life is one of the best jobs in the world. What could run it close? Everything in your life is grist to your mill. You absorb something from the world – outside your window, on the TV, in the press, on social media, that you’ve read, on the beach – chew on it awhile and find that all those bits and pieces reform into Something Else. Writers are alchemists.
My life has been entwined with writing for over 20 years. And I shall continue writing until they prise my cold, dead fingers from the keyboard. I love the quietude of the work, the world-building, the control. And no two days in a writer’s life are ever the same.
To be a writer it helps if you can live on a very small income, or have some other means of support. Fortunately I a) can and b) do. So I can write what I like.
I write long fiction, short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry. Currently I’m writing a lot of poetry. I think that’s because I’m still exploring the scenery, the ambience and the herring gulls after moving to South Dorset a couple of years ago. Herring gulls as a source of poetry? Absolutely! I love reading living poets and value Oxford Brookes’ Poetry Centre weekly poem, delivered to my inbox. I buy a lot of poetry books (because libraries just don’t stock them) to keep up with modern poetry.
I also write book reviews: for Big Al & Pals in the States, the premier reviewer of indie publications; on my blog and my Facebook page I put reviews of novels and non-fiction books to share something good I’ve found; occasionally I review on request.
I read widely for my own pleasure and to inform what I write. I’m most at home with novels in the thriller, SF, magical, crossover-YA genres. I get my current affairs from ‘The Week’, which provides a balanced view not usually found in British newspapers; I read ‘The Literary Review’ (it’s pretty much essential for a writer who also reviews); non-fiction that piques my interest, anything from Mary Magdalene to Wilfred Thesiger but usually with an historical bent; local history.
History was what got me into writing, and I am increasingly drawn towards writing about the past. Although sometimes I write science fiction. To write about the future you need a good grounding in the past.
When I was doing my history degree I realised how very much history leaves out. Much of history is a series of conflicts written up by the victors and by those who can, actually, write. Thus whole groups of people – women, children, illiterates, minorities to mention but a few – never get an historical voice. How interesting would it be to give them one? Very.
The most basic question a writer asks herself is ‘what if?’.
Jottings image courtesy of Marc Yeats
The world is full of questions to which the answer is that QI favourite ‘nobody knows’.
What a marvellous combination.
Little Mouse available here