Author / Gerald Hornsby

by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 3 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

GET IN THE FLOW

As a trained engineer, I studied many subjects for my degree. Amongst them, two of the most important were Statics and Dynamics. Statics – the study of stationary objects; Dynamics – the study of moving objects. 

For instance, in statics, we developed formulae to tell us the safest angle to lean a ladder against a wall.

Yes, really.

It’s quite a complicated formula (it is, honest), and requires analysis of the forces acting on the ladder, coefficients of friction, and so on. And no, I don’t remember any of it.

In dynamics, we studied moving objects. Accelerations, mass and velocity, why it gets increasingly harder to accelerate your car as your speed increases (spoiler alert – air resistance and square laws).

The difference between them can be shown when you use a hammer. To drive a nail into a piece of wood using a dead weight, you’d need a lot of weight. So what do we do? We swing the hammer, hopefully hitting the nail on the head, with imparts more energy to the nail than simply resting a heavy weight on it.

You must be scratching your head by now. Stay with me.

And… so it is with writing. Have you ever noticed that it’s more difficult to begin writing when you have a blank page / screen? And that, once you get going, it becomes easier? Push a book along a worktop. Initially, it resists movement. Stiction, is what it’s sometimes referred to. That resistance to initial motion. Once it’s moving, it becomes easier.

So the tip for today is: develop a writing flow. Don’t let anything stop you or push you off track. Don’t go back and edit what you’ve written until you’ve finished writing. If you write a paragraph, re-read and edit it, you need to overcome stiction to start writing again for the next paragraph. And so on. 

One more anecdote: over 15 years ago, I took part in a 24-hour short story writing challenge for charity. Every hour, on the hour, the group leader would post a selection of writing prompts, and we could write against one of those prompts, or one of our own. And I found, after writing about 5 pieces of flash fiction, I got into a real flow of writing – a groove, if you wish. The words and subtexts flowed, drawing admiring comments from readers. I definitely felt intensely focussed on what I was doing.

So: start a habit, set your boundaries for those around you, apply realistic targets, and really get into that writing habit!

Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 2 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

HAVE A PLAN

The second tip I have for you this month is regarding planning. Some writers don’t want to plan – they want to freestyle their writing, see where it takes them, let the words drive the narrative.

Which is all well and good.

But the danger is that an inexperienced writer will sit at their desk (or dining table, or rickety old stool from the garage) and wait for the ideas to come. Lady Muse may, or may not, visit the writer when they’re at this stage.

If she doesn’t, it’s incredibly FRUSTRATING! You’ve found your writing space, you’ve created that magic half hour or more where you can be undisturbed, and then… nothing. “What shall I write about?”

Oh dear. That isn’t the right way. The right way is to have an idea before you sit down. You have a germ of an idea, a character or two, some way in which at least one character gets into a ‘situation’ where conflict can happen. Because conflict, undesirable in real life, is ESSENTIAL in a story. 

A famous author (I don’t know who) was once asked “How do you create conflict?”

“I force my character up a tree. And then I throw rocks at him.”

But whether you’re writing a novel, a memoir, a short story, or poetry – before you sit down, you must have an idea. If you’re short of ideas, look online for “writing prompts” or something similar. I have often found the pages of a local newspaper a rich source of ideas for a story, e.g.

“Lawnmower stolen from shed.” Who stole it? And, more importantly, why did they steal it? Did they steal it from a specific person who they didn’t like, or was it an opportunistic robbery? What’s the history of the owner of the lawnmower. What’s the history of the thief? Is there a bigger story?

“Elsie Baggett celebrates her 100th birthday.” Nice story. Who is she? Where does she live? Why does she live there? Does she have any family? Did she work? As what? Where was she born? And what sort of area was it she lived in?

“Local town council elects new mayor.” Why did they elect a new mayor? Did they need to? What happened to the old one? What qualities does the new mayor have which qualifies him for the role? Does he have any dark secrets? Was it an open and fair election, or he he ‘twist arms’ to get votes?

You see? Delve into backstories. Don’t just read the headline. Read the article. And ask the questions that the article doesn’t answer – who, what, where, how and why.

But always… HAVE A PLAN.

Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

DAY 1 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting

FIND TIME AND SPACE

I’m going to start of this month of blogging with my first tip – and it’s the most common thing non-writers will say to me: “Oh, I wish I had time to write.” Or, even worse: “I’m sure I could write a novel, if only I had time.”

Now, I get it. Some years ago, before I became a full-time author, I too thought I didn’t have time to write. But now I understand that it wasn’t anything to do with time – it was that I didn’t have the HEADSPACE to write. Sure, there was physical time during the day when I could have written, but most of my head was filled with information about my work, which left little time to think of anything creative. But you might be different. I hope you are.

Now, for the moment, forget about a writing study with a view over the mountains, or a comfortable nook with hot and cold running gin and tonics – we need to be practical. But, on the other hand, don’t think you’ll be able to write sitting on the sofa next to family members whilst they watch Eastenders or The Price is Right (or whatever’s on the telly these days). You’ll need a space for a notepad, a tablet, or a laptop. And some way of ‘cutting yourself off’ – a door to the box room, or headphones to cut out extraneous sounds and interferences. Don’t worry – those around you will soon get used to your ‘special half hour’. Don’t demand more than that. It will create friction (instead of fiction, geddit?) and you’ll come under pressure to “stop messing around with that writing thing.”

Personally, I’ve found a spare bedroom and a pair of over-the-ear headphones works wonders. Or a dining table. Or maybe sit with the kids whilst they do their homework?

If you’re seriously struggling, time-wise, why not try setting the alarm half an hour early? Your house should be very quiet (tiny children notwithstanding) and your sleep partner will appreciate waking up to a fresh cup of tea!

But it’s all about carving out time and space, for something like half an hour initially. Don’t be too greedy. Just half an hour – for you, and your writing, exclusively.

So, in conclusion: do you think you’d be able to find time to write a page of a paperback during a day? Doesn’t sound too difficult, does it? Well… if you’d started that a year ago, you’d have written a complete novel by now! Something to think about. Start today!

Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

LOOKING FORWARD to 2024

BOOKS – FICTION

This is the year the Witford Market Mysteries gets released! Oh yes! Book One is in first edit, Book Two (part-written for NaNoWriMo last year) is about quarter written, Book Three is planned, and Book Four might be the Christmas episode I’ve written and abandoned several times. The problem has been that I want the Christmas episode to come out just before… Christmas. I know. Crazy, huh? So the Christmas story has been the first, then the second, then the first again, and now it’s going to be 3rd or 4th. The problem is that in the first book, you are introducing your characters for the first time. So there’s more back story exposition, the relationships between the characters is different, and the conflict and tensions are different. So yeah.

I’ve emptied the well of short fiction I have, and I’m unlikely to write sufficient quantities to make another collection anytime soon.

Continue reading →
Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

Looking back on 2023

For some reason, I didn’t do a review and a forward plan last year. I can only think I was reviewing the purpose of blogs and newsletters and so on. There was some discussion that blogs are fairly self-indulgent, and only serve the person writing it.

The same applies to vlogs and YouTube videos, too. I’m watching vids which point out “no one cares about you, no one’s interested in your life.” And I can get onboard with that, a little.

SO WHY AM I WRITING THIS BLOG?

Probably a good question. And the answer? I want to record what I’m doing, how I’m thinking, what has been good – and bad – about 2023, and what I should be looking forward to in 2024.

Continue reading →
Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

NaNoWriMo – how did it go?

The short answer is: not well. After a good start, and being well on course to write 70,000 words for the month (which would have seen another successful NaNo for me), I injured my back.

Not doing something heroic. Oh no. Not skiing down a glacier, or climbing a great peak. No, I injured my back… feeding ducks.

As a result, I could stand, I could lie down, but sitting was too painful for more than 10-15 minutes. I kept going, I tried to stay on track, but I began to fall further and further behind, and ended on the 24th November with just 17,629 words in the project.

If you want to see some of the update videos, I have made a playlist. I tried not to moan too much about my back! LINK HERE: [ NaNo23 Playlist ]

Am I downcast? Maybe a little. Not for spoiling my run of “wins” (my winning streak was up to 14 before 2023). For me, NaNoWriMo is about what it does for me and my writing goals, rather than being an end in itself.

I shall pick up the project again early next year.

Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

NANOWRIMO – the planning (2)

At the end of the last post, I detailed the story beats thus:

Act 1 – opening before investigation, setup, initial enquiries, decision to progress

Act 2A – maybe side story (love interest?), detailed investigation, first obstacle, 

Act 2B – the investigation gets more difficult, MC suffers biggest obstacle, things look bad, oh – hang on…

Act 3 – new impetus, new ideas, closing in on the culprit, knocking red herrings aside, final disclosure, rounding up, return to normality

At this point, I’m eyeing up one of my favourite processes, which is 100% the key to all of my novel writing in the past five years – maybe longer.

Continue reading →
Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

NANOWRIMO – the planning (1)

Over the years, I have listened to many authors speaking on their process. It’s always interesting to hear how “the professionals” do it. I remember one author (whose name I have genuinely forgotten) who told a group of aspiring writers that during the editing process, he rewrote his completed manuscripts at least 10 times.

I thought I had misheard.

But no – he wrote, and rewrote, his whole manuscript for each novel at least 10 times.

At the time, I hadn’t published any novels, and I was keen to hear other people’s methodologies. But ten complete rewrites sounded completely bonkers to me. Surely, there was a better, more time-efficient, way?

Indeed there was.

Continue reading →
Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

It’s NANOWRIMO time, and I have no choice

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, comes around at the end of October each year. From a local challenge in San Francisco in 1999, with just 21 participants, it has grown to a global event, with hundreds of thousands of writers joining each year.

As you might expect, with a name like National Novel Writing Month, the idea is to write “a novel” in a single month – the 30 days of November. The actual size of the “novel” is determined as 50,000 words, which means participants need to write an average of 1,667 words per day to be successful in the challenge.

I first heard about this challenge in 2003, and it sounded like fun, so I signed up. And I “won” – the prize being a downloadable certificate and the self-satisfaction of having written a whole bunch of words in a single month.

Continue reading →
Share:
by Gerald Hornsby

What to do, what to do

Here’s a confession. I have written no fiction for several months.

No, it’s not writers’ block, or me being lazy. Being a full-time author means, for the most part, making a living from other, writing-related pursuits. Contract work for other authors is one thing; running courses and workshops for other authors is another. But you can’t just turn up for a course without doing some preparation. The prep for a course sometimes takes many times the work required to actually run the course.

I’m not complaining. I’m very fortunate to be able to sustain myself (with a little help from small, occupational pensions, and being a partner to another full-time author).

Continue reading →
Share: