Monthly Archives: April 2019

Writing

Inspiration from Art

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I change my laptop’s wallpaper daily, taking images from an 8GB memory stick which holds paintings and photographs I’ve saved over the last ten years.

I’ve stored photos of wildlife, famous and obscure artwork, favourite cars, motorcycles and aircraft and portraits of inspirational writers, musicians and actors. What I choose each day is sometimes done randomly, other times more selectively to create a mood. In winter, I don’t often pick photographs of the Arctic—I’m already cold enough! The wallpaper that appears from time to time, as I close documents stirs wonderment in me and the brief pause while I contemplate another world gives my brain a mini-break. 

Occasionally, I realise that one of the reasons I saved a particular image is that it’s connected to issues that I’d like to write about. This morning, I have a painting by David Inshaw on my computer screen. He created neatly composed vignettes of the British countryside, which feature people in sinister, suggestive and symbolic arrangements. Phallic and pubic imagery abounds, and there’s a feeling in many of his paintings, that things are barely restrained and are about to explode! 

As I look at She Did Not Turn, I wonder who the lonely woman in a blue cloak is, and why she’s making for an isolated house or barn—an assignation with a lover—or does she live there? It’s showery weather, from the largely clear sky and rainbow. What’s the strange structure on the hill summit…a haystack or an ancient fortification? My Cornish Detective novels feature acts of violence in beautiful surroundings, and it would be easy to build a plot around this painting.

I’m currently in the early stages of writing a second novella about an American Civil War veteran, a cavalry officer with PTSD, who is making his way from the Appalachian Mountains to his sister’s war-damaged plantation near Atlanta. He’s travelling by horseback and has inherited a mustang, two mules and a mongrel dog. I think of Olaf Wieghorst‘s paintings of lonesome cowboys making their way along precipitous mountain trails.

Do any of you seek inspiration from paintings, photographs or sculptures?

Reading

Books as Friends

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I recently borrowed two library books by favourite authors, which felt like meeting up with old friends. One is by cult author Richard Brautigan, the other by so-called Liverpool poet Brian Patten.

Brautigan wrote surreal bizarre tales of misfits, and his style is unmistakable and inimitable. I’m enjoying revisiting his Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942 which I haven’t read for twenty years.

Patten writes exquisite verse, some of the finest love poetry around and really entertaining poems for children. I’m currently recalling love affairs from long ago, helped by his Collected Love Poems.

Other favourite books that I’ve read many times over the years include The Wind In The Willows, An Island To Oneself, Those About To Die and any collection of Guy de Maupassant’s short stories.

They all lift my spirit in different ways.

Which books do you think of as friends?

Writing

Who Stars in the Film of your Novel?

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I’d argue that it’s impossible to write a novel in the 21st-century without thinking in terms of how the action and dialogue would look and sound when adapted into a television series or Hollywood film. Having said that, you might prefer that your sensitive writing be turned into a radio or stage play, or filmed by a European director as they’d show the subtleties of characterisation and not swamp things in computer-generated special effects.

When I’ve written my short stories, novellas and novels, I’ve more often visualised real people I’ve known rather than famous actors. For instance, a recurring character in my Cornish Detective series is a forensic pathologist called CC, and she’s an amalgam of various earthy country doctors and veterinarians I’ve met, along with a female psychologist I once knew, a survivor of Auschwitz, who’d seen the worst of human nature.

Unusually, I’ve imagined my detective protagonist, (who is the son of a sheep farmer), to look like one of the presenters of a long-running British television series called Countryfile. Adam Henson is a farmer, and his laid-back mannerisms appear in my fictional detective Inspector Neil Kettle. My protagonist has a way of lulling whoever he’s questioning into a false sense of security, before jumping in with a killer punch.

Image result for adam henson

I also remembered the appearance and behaviour of a Swedish actor, called Rolf Lassgård, when writing a novella about a man who escorts his wife to the Dignitas clinic for an assisted suicide, and how he rebuilds his life at the age of 60. Lassgård is probably best known for playing Kurt Wallander in one of the television adaptations of Henning Mankell’s detective novels.

Image result for Rolf Lassgård

The casting of movies is critical to their commercial success but doesn’t always follow how the main characters were described in the novel. The worst recent example of this is diminutive Tom Cruise playing man-mountain Jack Reacher in two film versions of Lee Child’s novels.

Some adaptations get the casting just right. The BBC’s second attempt at interpreting Winston Graham’s Poldark novels, first filmed in the 1970s, is a joy to watch as much for the appearance of the actors, as the scenery and the historical accuracy of the action, even if some of the actors’ attempts at a Cornish accent are a bit shit!

Who would you have to play your characters?

Did you envisage a particular actor as you wrote? Was it their physical appearance or their mannerisms that influenced your writing?

Writing

You think writing’s a dream job? It’s more like a horror film.

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This article was in the Guardian. I recognize many of the thoughts of Tim Lott, who wrote it.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/20/tim-lott-life-as-an-author

Tim  Lott

The comments at the bottom of the article are worth reading (expand them), particularly the one about the 60% of people who want to be writers, imagining that it’s all J. K. Rowling easy-peasy wealth and celebrity. It wasn’t for her when she was trying to find a publisher for her first Harry Potter book, though fortunately, that turned into a publishing juggernaut which will keep her for the rest of her days.

The John Dos Passos observation quoted made me snort in recognition at the truth of it: “Writers are like fleas, they get very little nourishment from one another.”

Writing

Why all writers are vain

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There was an interesting article in The Guardian newspaper by Julian Baggini, about how sensitive writers are to criticism.

jb

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/feb/25/writers-vain-egotism-julian-baggini

( some great stories on writing beneath this article, and do read the comments section )

One of the first pieces of advice that I’d give to anyone considering writing a book, is to develop a hide as thick as a rhinoceros. Everyone thinks that they’ve got a book inside them, but nobody considers what will happen when the book is released into the wild!

Being an author is setting yourself up as a target for criticism and rejection. These brickbats will come from friends, family, readers, publishers, book-sellers and critics. That’s if they say anything at all, for being completely ignored is the usual fate of a freshly published book. This is why writers welcome adverse criticism, for at least it means that someone has noticed you.

 

Self-Promotion, Writing

Pinterest and Self-Promotion

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As I’ve commented on this blog before, writing a book is relatively easy compared to the Herculean task of actually marketing it. People need to know that something is available to buy if one is to make a sale. One way of doing this is self-promotion – selling yourself.

There are lots of different ways of doing this, and social media is the way to go, assuming that funds aren’t available for a costly advertising campaign. The notion that one can simply write a book, upload it without saying a thing about yourself, and it will sell like hotcakes is laughable. Remembering that most ebooks struggle to reach sales of 100 over a couple of years, is a great goad to get involved in all of this putting yourself about by schmoozing. But I warn you, it feels like pushing a length of string, as no discernible progress can be seen.

I’ve read advice that gaining a significant amount of followers for a blog can take a couple of years. The same thing is said of Pinterest, which I hadn’t previously considered as a venue for self-promotion. I’ve looked at it plenty of times, enjoying the wonderful images that people compile, but hadn’t really noticed anyone trying to sell themselves and their products. As one of the main selling points of a book is its cover design, then it’s easy to appreciate that Pinterest is a great place to gain attention for one’s stories.

I tried all sorts of things to raise my profile, after finishing my first novel ‘The Perfect Murderer’ in November 2014. I didn’t feel like a creative writer anymore for all I produced in three months was four poems. Instead, I researched marketing, blogging, making postings on this blog and FaceBook, as well as updating 44 previously published books to mention these places, so readers could find me.

I started a business account with Pinterest, to promote myself as a brand. I added to my Pinterest boards, though what good they’ve done I don’t know. I like sharing nice photographs and spreading knowledge, but it’s an astonishingly time-consuming process. For example, I did a board on favourite art and thought to add some biographical detail about the artist. This needed checking, so pinning 73 images took me nine hours!

https://uk.pinterest.com/pithywords/art-i-like/

Linking some of these to my existing books could be a bit tricky, but the thing is one links one page to another, then to my blog, to my FaceBook page, to my Linked-In account, to my Twitter feed (maybe), to my Smashwords shelf, to my Amazon page, to the Good Reads book review site.

By which point Paul Whybrow has disappeared up his own arse!

Referencing myself via the Pinterest boards is easier for some of my chosen subjects than others. For instance, some of the book covers I designed for my stories used copyright free paintings, which I included on the ‘Art I Like’ board, along with my designs. The theory is, that anyone who likes my taste in pinned images, might click on the cover and onto the sales sites where they’re sold.

I’m considering doing a similar thing on Tumblr and Reddit, but that would mean repeating a lot of what I’ve already done, which runs the risk of boring people. Doing this is such a lengthy and involving task, that I now understand why people work as social media marketing consultants.

I was in danger of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, from the amount of clicking that I did on Pinterest. I’ve put together nine boards so far :

      *Joy – Pins To Make You Smile  *Doom  *Animals As Friends  *Rust Never Sleeps

     *Art I Like  *The Road Goes On Forever  *Look At That View  *Colours Of Nature

      *Wise Words

The latter board uses the common Internet trope of placing inspirational quotes on a suitable background image. I’m aiming to include lots of sayings to do with literary endeavours, to encourage other writers – and maybe even myself! Here are some of my favourites :

Anais Nin offering a toast

Anais Nin offering a toast

quotegraycieharmon

quotepatrickness

quotegabrielgaeciamarquez

Self-Promotion, Writing

The modern writer has to be a hustler too

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This is an honest and rather depressing appraisal of what it means to be a writer these days. Unbelievable how low the income is for a Booker Prize-winning author. The title of this piece is what I’m finding to be true – it’s more about marketing and hustling what I’ve written than actually creating the work.

Image result for book selling cartoon
Reading, Writing

Richard Brautigan

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Richard Brautigan is one of the most unusual writers you’ll come across. His style has been described as naive, and he’s certainly surreal, humorous and dark in places. I love his novels, short stories and poetry. He has a unique style, with very short chapters, sometimes of only a couple of sentences. His prose reads like poetry, with clever metaphors.

Image result for richard brautigan

I discovered him by chance while working at Marylebone public library in Westminster, London in the early 1970s. I was drawn to the unusual title and the cover photo of ‘The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966’. The story is set in a strange library, where the books on the shelves are brought in by the people that wrote them. It reminds me a little of e-publishing, now that I think of it. There’s a romance between the shy librarian and a stunningly beautiful poet. Brautigan poses with a singer called Victoria Damalgoski in the cover photo – she was a folk singer who made a couple of albums but has since disappeared. She’s a dead ringer for Vida in the story.

Brautigan’s writing makes you think, and some of his observations are wistful and chillingly accurate. One of my favourite works is ‘The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western’, which is violent, sexy and funny. It has one of the most amusing entities in fiction. The characters of the cowboy gunmen must surely have influenced Patrick deWitt in his writing of ‘The Sister Brothers’.

Sadly, Brautigan’s sales and fame waned in the late seventies and eighties. He fell prey to various mental maladies including depression and descended into alcoholism. Long obsessed with suicide, he took his own life in 1984. I miss him.

Reading, Writing

Tomi Ungerer

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Tomi Ungerer was an author, who specialised in illustration. He was versatile, making work for children and adults that includes delightful tales, protest posters and books, advertising, surreal cartoons, erotica and autobiography.

Tomi Ungerer

 

(1931-2019)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomi_Ungerer

He’s good at taking a satirical view on things, and his images are compelling, humorous and occasionally unsettling. For such an enormously talented artist, his work and name are not as well known in the English language as they should be. Thankfully, many of his books are being republished by Phaidon, including the lovely children’s stories.

From ‘The Three Robbers’

His attitude to human sexuality is open-minded, so this sort of illustration is not for the prudish. He believes that if we were free to express our erotic nature, then the problems of pornography would be solved.

Ungerer’s observational humour on human relationships, including power struggles and the search for loving fulfilment, is amusing and well observed.

Tomi Ungerer tried his hand at farming in the early seventies, which he later turned into a book called ‘ Far Out Isn’t Far Enough’. This has some beautiful illustrations of the landscape of Novia Scotia, as well as some gritty depictions of rural poverty and life and death. This title was used for a film about his life.

 

 

 

Reading, Writing

Charles Bukowski

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The career of Charles Bukowski should give encouragement to any writer who starts to apply themselves late in life to writing. He was 49 when he finally quit working at menial jobs, including as a filing clerk at a post office. As he said :

“I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.”

Image result for charles bukowski

He’s sometimes been referred to as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, and he was certainly familiar with the seedy side of poverty. An inveterate drunk, he turned his experiences into a script which was filmed as ‘Barfly’, starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.

He penned an amusing Roman a clef called ‘Hollywood’, in which he wrote of the making of the film adaptation of ‘Barfly’, using pseudonyms to disguise the names of the actors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_(Bukowski_novel)

Bukowski’s weariness with the world meant that he said a lot of truthful things, in what sounds like a cynical way. Even his gravestone is cryptic, with the inscription ‘Don’t Try’. What he intended with this advice was explained as being waiting for inspiration to write something – one shouldn’t try, shouldn’t force work out of one’s system – if it doesn’t come naturally, leave it.

His poem ‘So You Want To Be A Writer’ explains his philosophy well, and should be read by anybody aspiring to be a writer.

‘So You Want To Be A Writer’

Charles Bukowski, 1920 – 1994
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.