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Why I Watched 4 Rom Coms In One Weekend

27/5/2015

Last weekend the BF was away on a stag do, so I decided to work my way through the films I knew he wouldn't enjoy I'd been saving up on the recorded TV box.

Why did I do this?
Because I'm an old romantic at heart. Because I love a happily ever after. And because some of my favourite films are rom-coms, and I was hoping to add some more to my list of all time favourites. I keep hoping for another 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Playing By Heart, Overboard, Mannequin, Dirty Dancing, Eat Pray Love – you get the picture.

The results were mixed.

Buster
Julie Walters and Phil Collins are Mrs Edwards and Buster Edwards, one of the robbers from the great train robbery of 1963. I've watched a few dramatisations of this story – Mrs Biggs, The Great Train Robbery, and I've loved all of them. This was no exception. Although it didn't focus in great detail on the train robbery itself, but for me, that was the backdrop to the film. There was a very young looking Larry Lamb (EastEnders and Gavin and Stacey) and Sheila Hancock playing Julie Walters' mum, in all her south London glory. The real story was about the romance shown by the good chemistry of Collins and Walters. Honestly, I'd watch Julie Walters putting on her make up and brushing her hair, she's so wonderful at portraying characters. The sad part was how Buster robbed the bank and couldn't spend any of the money in the UK, so they emigrated to Mexico where they lived like kings. But poor Mrs Edwards just didn’t enjoy it. Christmas dinner, sun blazing as they carve the turkey and Buster says what more could anyone ask for than all that, with the sun. Walters stares out the window and says, 'Snow and sleet, ice, London, and the boozer.' Which, as someone who spent last Christmas on a beach, I tend to agree with. Christmas in the sun just ain't right. The ending is so romantic, showing how much Buster loves Mrs Edwards. OK, so it probably wasn't 100% factually accurate, and OK so it didn't show much about the robbery itself, but if you want total accuracy there's a thing called a documentary. I wanted romance and this is what I got.

Fool's Gold
Matthew McConaughey – amazing in Dallas Buyers club and beautiful to look at in Magic Mike - and Kate – daughter of Goldie Hawn so therefore I LOVE HER – Hudson. So far so great. Rekindling of married couple's romance. Good. This is why I'd 'taped' it. However, once I started watching it was all over the place. Sometimes it was a romance, sometimes it was a trying to be a James Bond / Mission Impossible action film. Sometimes I completely lost the plot of what was meant to be going on and the plausibility of the plot made Death Becomes Her look like a documentary. The ending was happy, so that was something. And sadly, McConaughey's chest and Hudson's ditzy wide eyed performance, both normally enough to keep me engaged, couldn't over-come the what the actual fudge plot.

The Vow
Rachel McAdams, tick. Channing Tatum, tick. Less than two hour running time, tick. Based on a true story, tick. This had it all going on for me before I'd even started watching it. The beginning was all very smooth, and I was waiting for the inciting event, and them BOOM it hit. I. Was. In. Bits. Ten minutes in I had to pause for crying so much. I love a film or book when it makes me cry. Channing Tatum walks about in only a pair of tracksuit bottoms. Just putting that out there. There's mysterious family back story, slowly revealed. There's evil exes. And the ending. It was perfect romance film as far as I'm concerned. Not an awful lot of comedy, enough, touches, so probably not officially a rom-com, but whatevs. I loved it. Added it to my favourites list.

Leap Year
I really wanted to like this film. It had so much promise, but after the initial set up it just rollocked along and lost its way. Even an old Renault 4 couldn't maintain my interest. I watched 30mins then skipped 10 mins from the end to check what I hoped would happen did happen. It did. So it gets an ok rating for the good ending and the good start, and the Irish lead, Matthew Goode was pretty easy on the eye. And there was some evil boyfriend / oh sh*t moment too. But it could have done with a good 25mins being cut in the middle.

So what have all these got in common?
Happy endings. Love and romance. And the ones I enjoyed most had believable well-rounded characters portrayed by brilliant / beautiful actors.

I like to write a happy ending too for at least *most* of my characters anyway! The ones who deserve it.

What do you look for in a romance film/book?

Liam Livings xx

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The Confidence Cycle In Novel Writing

24/5/2015

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I've talked with many authors about how their confidence varies through the process of novel writing. I've never heard an author say s/he felt confident the story was amazing from the first word to the final. And if such a person existed I'd expect him/her to be confident to share this with the world. From my very unscientific random sample of authors, it seems everyone's confidence varies, and most people seem to reach a point when it would be so easy to give up.

I've written a few novels now and every time I hit the same post 20,000 words crash – if the full story is about 65-80,000 words. I'm sure others may differ depending on their full novel's intended length. From talking to people I think the percentages through the story are roughly similar depending on your 'normal' novel length. Some of my RNA friends who write longer stories of 130,000 words will hopefully recognise the pattern I describe scaled up to their total word count.

I've just finished the first draft of my work in progress so using that experience and previous novels I've plotted how it is for me on this diagram which I'll explain by talking through the 5 sections from A to B below. I've drawn it free-hand as I'm not very good with graphs and diagrams on computer, but I hope it gets the point across.

Liam Livings - The Confidence Cycle In Novel Writing, copyright Liam Livings 2015

A – This is the PLOTTING AND PLANNING section, before you write any words on the story itself. Even if you don't plot this would be the moment you think more about an idea you've had and consider if it is strong enough to become a whole story or if it's just something that's interesting. A good example is when someone who's not a writer says they've got an amazing story idea for you and you ask what is it, they say, 'Undertakers!'* like that's the whole idea. That isn't an idea to sustain a story through 60,00 words or more, that's a setting. This is the stage you sort out the difference between these two concepts. For some the enthusiasm stays high, these are the ideas that move on to stage B. Others have dwindling enthusiasm when you realise 'Undertakers' isn't enough for a story, these ideas follow the dotted line shown by Dead ideas end here. *Thanks to Jean Fullerton for the Undertakers story.

B – This is the KING OF THE WORLD section. This is the first few chapters section when the idea is fresh, amazing, you think you're the king / queen of the world, everything about the idea is amazing, you must get it down onto paper. Of course in this section as with all others there are dips in confidence and enthusiasm, hence the line goes up and down. But overall this is the easy part. This links into the first few chapters syndrome I've so often heard about. People who get beyond the 'Undertakers' phase, and start writing a story can usually sustain it this far. But then, like me, they reach the CRASH.

THE CRASH – at this point you've exhausted the enthusiasm from B, the thought and enthusiasm from A has long since gone and now you realise there's lots more work to do to write this story. Certainly lots more than 'Undertakers' and also, sadly you realise more than just the first three chapters / first 20,000 words. This crash is your inside critic jumping in the driving seat. He may shout things like: THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER. YOU MUST STOP WRITING IT NOW. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME. YOU ARE WRITING COMPLETE AND UTTER BILGE. END NOW. As you can imagine, listening to this voice would be very easy. Many people do listen to this voice. If you are an author who wants to reach the end of what you write – never mind being published, that's a whole different barrel of biscuits – YOU MUST IGNORE THE VOICE AND CARRY ON WRITING. There are many author casualties at this section. Many stop writing and that's the last they ever do to this current idea, before scampering off to the next exciting idea and returning back to A then B again and again. If you want to be an author who reaches the end (because you can only ever try to publish something with a start, middle AND and end) you need to ignore the shiny new idea and forge on past THE CRASH. OK?

C – I've called this part the MID-NOVEL MEH section. It's not quite as bad as The CRASH, but you're bumping along the bottom, slogging away, adding the words to the work in progress, little peaks and troughs of enthusiasm /confidence, but basically. It. Is. A. Long. Slog. Again, if you want to be an author who reaches the end you must forge on, plough forth through this difficult part. I also believe this mid-novel meh part is linked to some stories having a 'soggy middle' when you've shown the world of the characters, had your inciting incident, then it all gets a bit wishy washy while you work out what the big bang at the end is going to be. My advice, don't worry too much. Write write write through this. When I’ve re-read what I've written while deep in the mid-novel mehs and I've even sometimes put little notes to myself like, THIS IS UTTER CRAP, NEEDS A GOOD EDIT but when read back, it's actually alright, sometimes it's pretty good. During first draft read through a month or more afterwards I can see no discernible difference from the bits I wrote in section A when I thought I was the king of the world and those in section C. Keep that thought and hold it close to your anguished, doubting heart as you forge your way through this section.

D – POST MID-NOVEL MEH section. Here you're coming out of the mid-novel meh and the enthusiasm is building slowly as the end of the novel is in sight. It's hard, but you probably know what's going to happen at the end, who's going to fall in love with whom, who's going to slay which dragon, who killed who with which instrument in which room, whatever, but that's something to look forward to now it's nearer, hence the building enthusiasm here.

E – THE END IS IN SIGHT. It really is so near you can almost touch and taste it. The enthusiasm of D builds quicker, with the little wobbles as ever, but basically you're in the home straight. You're recapturing some of the 'I'm the king of the world' and 'this is amazing' you had in B as you build to the end. And even if you're not a completer finisher like I am, most people get a degree of satisfaction out of finishing something. This section is all about that enthusiasm.

THE END – the enthusiasm peaks as you finally do it, you type The End on your manuscript. You've done what you thought was impossible. You've taken an idea – something better than just 'Undertakers' you've created characters, you've written their story, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. And now you've reached the end. Pat yourself on the back. Go for a walk. Eat a cake. Watch some TV. But remember, when you write the next novel, you'll go through this whole cycle all over again. I certainly.

Does this resonate with you, other authors?

Please feel free to share the model.

Happy writing everyone,

Liam Livings xx

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Losing The Plot In Nineties Clubland

21/5/2015

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This time, rather than planning the whole story out from start to end, then writing it, I've taken a sort of headlights in the dark approach; only planning a few scenes ahead of what I'm writing.

I planned the first few 15,000 words, wrote them. Then planned the next bit, wrote it. Rinse and repeat until I reached the last few post it note scenes last weekend. It's currently 67000 words or so.

And here's where the wheels fell off my plan. I'm at the difficult final quarter to a third of my work in progress, currently called, Love U More, after the dance song by Sunscreem from the nineties. On Monday I sat with post it notes, paper and pencil (what I usually use to plan) and *nothing*. I realised the very rough plan I had when I sketched the whole story out on 2 pieces of paper now doesn't work, not for what I've written, not for the story I now know it is going to be. I stared at the original plan and nothing new came to me.

I'm hoping the genius, or whatever it is comes to join me when I turn up to write at the weekend. Himself is away and I'm home alone and planned to have a one man write-in. Or not.

Well, that's enough blabbering on about not writing, so what is the story actually about?

Set in the mid nineties in London and Ibiza. Tom and Paul meet through a shared love of dance music. Tom's mum is a slightly too liberal ex-hippie from the seventies. Paul's mum lives her life as if she's stepped into a Jackie Collins novel. It's about thinking you've found yourself and ending up losing part of yourself. It has orbital parties – last minute parties in fields near the M25 orbital round London. People used to meet in service stations and drive off in convoy when found out, via pirate radio station, the secret location of the party.

It will have a happy ending, as I love a happy ending, I've just not quite yet worked out how that's going to be!

So in the meantime, here's a selection of songs, I've used as a sort of mood board for the story. I hope you can grab a coffee / tea / gin and tonic, sit back and enjoy them.

Love U More by Sunscreem – covered by Steps on their first album in the late nineties, but this is the original trancey and much more serious version. It's about how you'll do anything but you can't love someone more than you do. I thought it was a good representation of the main romance in the story.

For An Angel by Paul Van Dyk – this was everywhere when I was going clubbing and it's just come out when the story is set. It is a classic and has been re-released numberous times. Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care!

Children by Robert Miles – another classic from this period. Not quite as wavey-hands-in-the-air as Paul Van Dyk but worth a listen anyway.

Chicane – Poppiholla – strictly speaking this is later than the story is set, but I've written almost the whole story while listening to my Chicane back cataloguue on random as it's perfect to write as it's almost without lyrics and it gets me in the clubbing mood for the frantic, chaos in the story. You'll recognise it from the end of every reality TV show / mission show when they reach the end and they succeed. It's a sample of Sigur Ros. And it is perfection.

Love Story by Taylor Swift – I DON'T CARE IF YOU DISLIKE HER, I LOVE HER AND I LOVE HER SONGS. Wrong time period, but whatevs. This is a romantic love story, and this song is perfect shmaltzy, cheesy teenager romantic dream. That it all.

I wanted to set the story in the recent past, but during a time when people didn't have mobile phones, so they could 'disappear' more easily than they can now.

“Nobody had mobile phones so there was nothing else to do but live in the moment.” – Dave Swindells photographer who took these pics and more.

Wish me luck for the rest of the story to come to me soon-ish…

Liam Livings xx

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4 Tips For Nervous Flyers To Relax And Increase Productivity

18/5/2015

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I normally dislike flying. I'm a very nervous flyer. From the moment the alarm goes off to get up, until the moment I am at the final destination, I find it stressful., heart racing, hands sweating, stomach sickness, unable to eat properly. Taxis, airports, security, queuing, checking luggage, crowds, weighing luggage, and the flight itself is pretty scary.

I don’t enjoy it, but realise it’s a necessary evil if I want to holiday anywhere outside the UK. Since my dad died in a light aircraft crash, and I've got older, my fear of flying has become worse, but I manage it. I try to be part through a good book and bury myself in that during the whole flight/airport/taxi experience. That combined with some deep breathing and it’s ok. And that’s just for a two hour flight to France!

Last year we went to Australia. It was my second time, after I went in my gap year before uni, in the nineties, and it was my BF’s first time. That’s a twenty three hour flight and two internal flights of at least 3hrs each.

Wonderful.

Marvellous.

So in preparation of this, I decided to take a different approach to flying. I embraced it, loved it, welcomed it in a few different ways.

1. I revelled in the campiness of flying: the flight attendants, the uniforms, the ‘lights along the aisle and emergency exits’ movements. Kylie even has a song – Light Years and there’s Pam Ann, whose cabaret about the campness, the difference between airlines, is legendary. And of course, there’s The High Life, which I’ve always loved and is mentioned in Best Friends Perfect of course. On a flight to France recently, the woman looking after the gate was so strict I felt like I was at boarding school. She ran her gate with a rod of iron. I was in awe of her ripping the boarding passes, moving people from priority boarding to the other queue without hesitation, deviation or toleration of anything. So I embraced all that, and more.

2. I made the most of the enforced isolation away from the internet & phone. How often do you get a break from the pings of social media, emails, and your phone? Never really. I leaned into the situation of being everywhere, but nowhere. Rather than watching 23hours of films, which would have given me a headache, I made the most of this time to think and more...

3. I brought a notebook, 2 pencils and pencil sharpener & wrote. On the flights to and from Australia and the 2 internal flights I managed to hand write 24,000 words on my work in progress at the time. The advice about taking a notebook and pencils on a flight was one of the best pieces of writing advice I've ever read. This was the first time I'd tried it, I thought a long flight to Oz would really test out if I could do it. It was the perfect distraction from the flight, and a productive use of the otherwise dead time. I rested my notebook on the table and the post it notes of scene planning underneath and I wrote. Interestingly, when I typed up the 24,000 words in February at my New Forest writing retreat, I didn't change much, I think writing it slower by hand meant it was already a bit more 'self edited' than my usual frantic fast drafted typing. We'll see how it works when I edit the whole thing together.

4. I disappeared into a big thick book that would normally take me a few weeks to read, and ploughed through 600 pages with no distractions. When we flew to New York in 2012 to avoid the Olympics in London, I read most of The Best Of Times by Penny Vincenzi, and I loved it. I dreamed about the characters.

So that's my four point plan for future flights, I threw myself in the deep end with a long one to Oz, but I like a challenge.

How do you feel about flying?
What tips do you have to help with nervous flyers?
What do you like to do on a flight?

I’d love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

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Queer Company - Manifold Press Event

11/5/2015

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For those of you who missed this event I have two things to say to you, 1) why did you miss it? What were you playing at? And 2) no fear, I've given a brief summary here. I left home at a bit after eight and arrived in Oxford, no traffic, no trouble, having been slightly bamboozled by Oxford's penchant for weird roundabouts with roads running through them, and one way systems, at 9.30. I inadvertently parked next to Bruin Fisher and we talked writing and stories, over tea once at the Jam Factory.

Welcome – I confused the rainbow wrist bands – for the buffet lunch, with the Coo-ee wrist bands - which represent the personal qualities associated with Australian service people and were donated by friend and contributor Lou Faulkner. And so began my expert chairing skills...

Session 1: Clichés and how to avoid them
I chaired the panel with KJ Charles, Morgan Cheshire and Heloise Mezen.

We discussed the different things that can be cliches in stories: cliched phrases and descriptions like people getting on like a house on fire or something being as hot as the sun, or as cold as ice. We talked about how though these can be a useful shorthand for something and shouldn't be avoided when they felt natural as the conspicuous avoidance could result in much more awkward phrases instead, including one involving a grotto, which I won't repeat here as I'm trying to delete it from my memory and I don't have a content warning on my blog.

We discussed how it's good to use well known cliches and mix them up a bit, Terry Pratchett described two characters as getting on like a house on fire, there's flames, things burning. Just because I love this film and this clip this seems like a good point for the Mrs White/ Madeline Kahn 'flames, burning on the side of my face' clip from the fabulously camp film, Clue.

We talked about cliched characters, where an author uses a stereotype as the whole of a character rather than making him/her rounded and nuanced as real people are. A stereotype is a shorthand for a type of person, but that isn't the whole person, and neither should it be the whole character. A person is rarely all good or all bad, and neither should characters be, to avoid cliches. The interesting thing about writing is to explore what makes that evil person like that, so you can help readers sympathise with him, or show his good side too.

Book Launch: A Pride of Poppies
Charlie Cochrane talked about how proud she was to be part of such a wonderful book, and how its proceeds will be donated to The Royal British Legion. She read a part of a poem by Wilfred Owen, who died just days before the armistice, to remind everyone how grateful we should be for those who gave up their tomorrows for our freedom today.

Session 2: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray: The First Gay Novel?
Our guest speaker Iarla Manny talked about this including reading some wonderful passages from the book. He was so knowledgeable about Wilde and this time in history it was a treat to hear him talking about it as if it was only last week, really bringing history to life.

I think I may go Bunberrying next weekend!

Some phrases I noted during his talk included: 'somehow I have never loved a women.' Having 'metaphors as monstrous as orchids' that the novel had been described as a 'medico legal novel' that the 1890s were known as the 'naughty nineties' and the character saying he wanted to 'pursue a life of pleasure.' As to that last comment, I don't see anything wrong with that at all.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, as with so much of Wilde's work, is a cultural reference point even for those who have never read the book or seen his plays. I've a friend who said there's a portrait in his attic rapidly ageing while he enjoys still being in the first flush of youth despite being well into his forties.

Lunch
A lovely chat about all things writing, plotting or not, productivity with writing, what we were working on at the moment. For me, in case you're interested, it's a novel called Love U More, set in the nineties in the world of clubbing in London and Ibiza, but any more of that's not for here.

Q&A: A Pride of Poppies
Morgan Cheshire chaired this quick Q&A, with Poppies authors Julie Bozza, Charlie Cochrane, Wendy C Fries, and Eleanor Musgrove in the hot seats.

They talked about the quality and variety of submissions received for this anthology and how the editor helped iron out any anachronisms which had crept in. The authors explained where their inspiration had come from, which although none of them were alive during the first world war, they, as authors were able to write authentically about the time.

Session 3: Sex scenes – how necessary are they?
Julie Bozza chaired this panel, with panellists Bruin Fisher, Wendy C Fries, Fiona Pickles. It built in passion and embarrassment as the hour went on. It was a great debate.

Fiona, just to be controversial I think, said sex scenes were unnecessary. Wendy said they were necessary if the story needed them rather than just for the sake of having another sex scene. I admitted to once getting a bit drunk when I needed to write a sex scene I'd not been able to write. We agreed sex scenes should be physically possible, and to ensure that using action men, or the internet were wonderfully useful places to start. There was a discussion about how there's nothing wrong with sex, writing it, reading it, enjoying all of it really.

I was a bit controversial (surely not I hear you all say) talking about a mm romance I read where the gay male characters were talking about sex in an Ikea way, insert tab a into slot b, giving the more inexperienced gay man a lesson in gay sex. And in my experience gay men do not talk about sex like that. Gay men do talk about sex, oh yes of course we do, but not like that. Not my friends anyway. Maybe other gay men who aren't friends talk like they're running a training course in man love 101, maybe they do, but not in my experience.

Feeling I was on a bit of a roll and getting further up my soap box, I explained I had a problem with reading mm romance sex without safe sex as this had been drummed into me since coming out. There was a discussion about how some mm romance authors and readers aren't necessarily as bothered about these things as the focus can often be about fantasy and not reflecting reality. I disappointed many women in the room by explaining, contrary to what I'd read in some mm romances, a man having sex to a conclusion, and then rolling over and starting all over again is really not physically possible, even if you're eighteen. Feeling I may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, I went on to say my least favourite phrase I'd read a few times related to this topic was the use of 'clean' to describe a man who doesn't have HIV or other STIs; the implied opposite of clean as a term used to describe a gay man living with HIV is distasteful and unnecessary, and explaining that used to be an accepted term also doesn't help. We used to have lots of terms for black people which are no longer acceptable, times move on and so should people's language around HIV etc, please. Gets off soap box – sorry, but this really upsets me, as a gay man who has friends who are living with HIV, this is just not acceptable. It also doesn't seem to fit with the general support of gay men and GLBTQ rights generally found in the MM romance community, which is why it strikes me as odd.

Session 4: A Duty of Care to our Characters
The keynote speaker Charlie Cochrane concluded the day on a lovely note with this thoughtful topic. She talked about the importance of writing about the reality, not what you assume is the reality – the importance of doing research to get this right, even with contemporary stories. She explained if you distort the facts to fit the story you're not giving your characters that duty of care they deserve. The film, The Imitation game changes, omits and places different emphasis on the facts of Turin's life, and it would be a shame if this film version, though good in itself, were to become the canon of accepted truth about Turin's life for future generations.

'Is he gay or does he live in Maidenhead' was phrase I noted for future use. I've been to Maidenhead and can testify it is only populated by gay men. That is all.

I read a wonderfully moving Wilfred Owen poem about affection between men.

We talked about how everyone felt the event had gone, and what sort of things they'd want if an event were to be put on in 2016. I left feeling inspired about writing, pleased I have such wonderful friends through writing, and educated about lots of historical things I knew nothing about before.

Liam Livings xx

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Why Artistic Genius Is A Dangerous Concept

4/5/2015

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I watched a wonderful TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love – without doubt the best autobiography I've ever read; so much more than that, with some wonderful, wise lessons for life, and a beautiful story too. If you didn't know they also made it into a great film, starring Julia Roberts. But any more of that's not for now.

In this talk, Elizabeth Gilbert asks the question – are anguish and art inextricably related? Can we always expect there to be an element of suffering, anguish, and depression / suicide etc when you have a person producing art?

The Greeks believed creativity is a spirit that comes to someone, a damon. So in a sense it's not only up to the individual to create the art, it's a joint venture between the individual, and the damon. This helps because it means the artist can't be too narcissistic – they can't say 'I'm wonderful' since it's not all down to themselves, they've had a bit of help. From the damon. And it's also quite freeing if it's not so great, if it's a bit rubbish, the artist can say, 'it's not my fault' cos they weren't the only one involved in creating the art – the damon had its hand in there too.

So, right through ancient human history civilisations talked about people having genius – when the damon or whatever that civilisation called it, joined the human to create the art. Which has all the great advantages I've discussed above.

Until in the last 500 years of less we started talking about people being a genius. Note the difference: having genius, and being genius. Avoir and etre if you're into French. To have, and to be. A small, but important difference between the two.

In the recent human history the person is a genius, therefore if the art is great, it's all down to that person - enter stage left the narcissistic artist and if it's a bit rubbish, that too, is all down to the artist enter stage right the artist suffering with depression who may take his or her life. Changes the game a bit doesn't it?

A poet friend of Elizabeth Gilbert's described what it felt like when the genius / damon came to her as she was farming in the fields: it was like a thundering elephant arriving, charging towards her and if she didn't get to a pen and paper when it hit, the genius would pass through her and go find some other poet to be with who'd take down the poem. When she sat with pen and paper the poem just flowed from her, because the genius was with her. She and the genius were working together. I don't paint or anything else particularly creative, but I'm sure I'm not alone as a writer having those days/hours when the words are literally pouring out of me, it's all I can do to type them fast enough. And other times I sit at the keyboard and it's like pulling teeth to extract the words from my brain onto the page.

I prefer this having genius concept to this being genius concept. It takes off the pressure when things are good and when things are a bit crap. Elizabeth Gilbert said since the success of Eat Pray Love, it's very possible her best work her most successful work is now behind her, which in itself could have become paralysing in terms of creating new work/art (which is her job). But it takes the pressure if if you embrace the having genius, rather than being genius.

All you have to do as an artist is to show up; to sit at the keyboard when you've said you're going to write, and to write. Some days the genius will be nowhere to be seen, but you still showed up, you still did your part of the deal (and the genius will hopefully turn up when you edit the words).

Other days the words will fly from your fingers and the genius is with you, you're an amazing team writing together. Those are the amazing days, those are the days when you feel you could write your way out from here to eternity, to the sky, across the fields, anything. But they're definitely not every day, and if you sit around waiting for the genius to visit you until you start writing, you'll not write very much.

Elizabeth Gilbert has a journalistic background and I've done some newspaper work too. As a journalist, if your editor says 'I want 600 words on that film review by Tuesday,' you can't turn, mopping your brow, say you're waiting for your inspiration/genius so Tuesday will have to wait. No, you sit down at the computer and you pull 600 words out of yourself by Tuesday. End of. You show up to work.

As long as you, the writer, the artist, show up for your part of the job, if the genius didn't show up that day, it's not all your fault if that day's words are a bit off par. You still added words, you still showed up. And the days when the genius turns up, fly, enjoy those days, but don't get too big headed, don't become that narcissistic artist, because as Elizabeth Gilbert said, 'some of the best bits are on loan to you from “the genius”.'

So next time you're having a day when it's not flowing and you're all stuck, it's not your fault, it's a day when the genius is with someone else, but you still did your part. You showed up to write.

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