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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Write drunk, edit sober?

8/4/2019

8 Comments

 
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It’s been an odd year so far on the creative front. After setting some grandiose fantasy goals about raising my profile, I succumbed to a virus which meant I could barely manage the weekly 99-word stories. But, once the acute phase was over, while still lacking the energy to leave the house, I found I could edit. Big time! So that what began as a gentle tidy-up of the (already much-edited) manuscript of my possibly third novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, cutting out modifiers like just and only (of which there were actually surprisingly few), morphed into a mammoth spring clean, where almost every word was subjected to the third degree.
Although laborious, I found the process soothing, and rewarding, and a perfect fit for my enervated state. So much so that I continued the process after I had regained my strength. I was polishing the language – what’s not to like? – although I did wonder what had happened to my muse.
 
I can’t decide whether it’s good news or bad news that the sap is finally rising in Anne Goodwin’s head. I’ve had one of those weeks where something that looked like nothing has mushroomed, within a couple of days, into a story I’m bursting to write. There ought to be a mathematical formula to describe that exponential growth: a function of a chance (and not particularly interesting) news item; my unpublishable reflections on something I’m reading; and my core preoccupations (oh look, it’s about attachment again).
 
As fascinating as I find that process, I need another formula to represent the way it takes me over. For me, that’s the downside of a new idea. It’s not a matter of Mm, that might be interesting to explore at some point, at your convenience, but Write me, write me, now!
 
Now, I experience this in some form with any internally-motivated writing project. Even a blog post like this. But if it’s small, it can be managed, either by putting other commitments aside and writing it out or insisting it shut its mouth until a more convenient moment. And if that means it withers and dies, so be it. Another idea will arrive eventually to take its place.
 
But this is a novel. And Begin new novel was not one of this year’s real or fantasy writing goals. Of course, a few days old and still vulnerable, it might, conveniently, die on me. Except that I’ve already written 3500 words (a lot for me in a couple of days).
 
Those words aren’t wasted if I bin them. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. It’s that I’d have liked to have been more disciplined, to let the ideas breathe on their own before translating them into words. It’s like I’ve breakfasted on the cake that I was saving for tea. Worse, I’ve eaten the batter straight from the bowl, before I’ve switched on the oven.
 
While I’m becoming accustomed to this process, I fear I’m getting worse at holding back. That bothers me because, while I doubt I’ll ever be a novelist who outlines chapter by chapter, except retrospectively, I believe a plan, even a loose one, helps. The oft-heard advice to just write, you can always edit, is all very well, but sometimes the best writing is not writing. It’s easier to edit good prose that knows where it’s going than flat writing that stumbles along.
 
Another reason I don’t find this a cause for celebration is that I’d like my fiction to become more commercial. While no-one – including editors and agents – knows for sure what makes for literary success, my reading and reviewing has given me some pointers to assess my new ideas against. It’s not quite a recipe, and nor would I necessarily follow it if it were, but it’s something to measure (weigh) my ingredients against before I start to write. In my defence, I do have some boxes ticked (in line with – are you listening, Charli – the hero’s journey) but not all.
 
So why couldn’t I resist the urge to splurge? As an introvert who doesn’t get out much, I often refer to myself as manic when I’m overexcited at social events. But maybe I’m just excited. Being driven to pursue a novel idea has some elements of this excitement but, as I intimated earlier in this post, it has a less positive side resonant of mania as a mental illness (and I don’t often use the term illness to refer to mental distress).
 
I don’t mean to exaggerate the mental disturbance in the creative process, nor to minimise the disorder of psychosis, but there are some similarities. The mix of excitement and anxiety. The compulsion: a sense of being taken over by something bigger than the self. The grandiosity: of course, the idea is brilliant until it’s put to the test. Fortunately, mine doesn’t stop me sleeping, or make me forget to eat.
 
Or is it like being drunk? Having never set much store by Hemingway’s advice to Write drunk, edit sober, perhaps I’m coming round to a sense of the need for different states of mind. Based on recent experience I might say Plan manic, write sober, edit sluggish. How would you put it?

Or is it like having fire in your belly? Or in your head? Which fits neatly with this week’s flash fiction challenge to write a 99-word story featuring fire. Having noticed on yesterday’s walk how dry it is for this time of year, I’m also thinking of moorland fire.

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Fire on the moorland, fire in the writer’s head

Beneath the surface calm, she smoulders. Quiet now, change is on its way. The fuel’s deep, it only takes a spark to ignite it and, when it does, it sets her whole world alight.

There, a glowing flicker! There, another, crackling the bracken. The fire jumps from one hummock to the next. Connect, connect to horseshoe around her. Should she stay inside the circle or race to safety through the gap?

Peat burns and engulfs the moor, like ideas in a writer’s head. Should we douse the flames to save the landscape, or fan them into a new story?
 
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Clare Stevens link
8/4/2019 08:44:20 pm

I think having an idea for a new piece of writing is like falling in love. At first the thing is fuelled by adrenaline, and the writer is taken over by a temporary madness. The spark may or may not turn into something lasting. Time will tell.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
9/4/2019 01:24:12 pm

Falling in love is the perfect analogy. Wanting to spend every possible moment with that person/project but not really knowing them and maybe anxious about whether it will work out as we hope.

Reply
D. Avery link
8/4/2019 11:12:59 pm

I also read your older post about bursting to write. I need the prompts to fan my embers, would amount to even less without them.
Yep, you’re a case of not quite spontaneous writer combustion, not quite spontaneous because of the ever smoldering embers you cart around. I say, if manic gets ink onto paper, go with it. Take the badge off, Ranger, git wild.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
9/4/2019 01:32:15 pm

Thanks D.
Your quick and efficient responses to the prompts suggest you only have to see the tinderbox to feel that spark. And didn’t your poetry collections come from inside?
I’m not sure what badge I’m wearing when I come to the blank screen, that I’ve had my share of writing into dead ends to want to avoid them.

Reply
Charli Mills
9/4/2019 12:27:10 am

"It’s like I’ve breakfasted on the cake that I was saving for tea." Anne, this reminds me of my little rituals of delayed gratification, and how awful I would feel to eat cake too early. Your musings have me wondering if a creative life is indeed perceived as craziness, but I'll take heart as you have -- sleep and appetite are not suppressed. You also have me giddy over the idea of a budding hero's journey!

All in all, you should be held up for pressing through a period of illness, finding inroads to edit when writing became more difficult, and experiencing an unexpected creative breakthrough. A creative life in mot easy to manage. You made progress!

Burning moors sounds as dangerous as oil field fires. Your lasy line is what people out west often face with destructive wildland fires -- the choice between prevention and renewal. Maybe, like writing, we need both the force and the management of it.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
9/4/2019 01:43:16 pm

I’m actually not averse to cake for breakfast as long as it’s not too sweet as that’s when I like my coffee!
It feels good to have had an idea that fits the hero’s journey rather neatly, although I’m still looking for the cave. I’ll certainly let you know how I get on.
I’m not sure that I should be applauded for working through illness: I’ve never been very good at is switching off and it’s possible that’s part of what made it through on so long. On the other hand, six weeks of doing nothing would generally have driven me mad. But it’s a dilemma when there’s such a big overlap between work and play.
Yup, we’ve already had one moorland fire this year – if that’s what’s happening in winter it doesn’t bode well for the summer.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
9/4/2019 12:15:07 pm

Love these, Anne, "It’s like I’ve breakfasted on the cake that I was saving for tea. Worse, I’ve eaten the batter straight from the bowl, before I’ve switched on the oven." and the thought of letting ideas breathe before you translate them into words. Your imagery is so clear, so to the point, so perfect. You nail it every time.
I agree with Charli about pushing through and editing when you were ill, but finding the germ of an idea in an inconsequential story tied with something you were reading. Attachment theory - why not? And a hero's journey. Pour it out, Anne, there's plenty of time to edit later.
Your flash may be a perfect description of fire on the moorland, but also a perfect metaphor for fire in the writer's head. I always enjoy your posts of reflection. :)

Reply
Anne Goodwin
9/4/2019 01:52:47 pm

Thank you, Norah. I always enjoy the reaction I get to my reflective posts, which sometimes takes me by surprise!
Having splurged the opening, I’m pleased I’ve been able to hold back on the writing while continually developing the idea. Attachment has a lower profile now although I suppose it’s implicit in much of what I write. I’d be amazed and mega impressed with myself if I could complete the outline before writing any more.

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