Mansoura Ez Eldin was IPAF-shortlisted for her “Beyond Paradise” said: ‘Being a writer means that you should always live with your eyes open wide to all the tiny details around you. Everything you see, every person you meet, every tiny detail could be a treasure for your writing. The world is a wonderland and you are Alice.’

I really like Eldin’s wonderland advice because it pretty much sums up how I approach life. I may overhear a conversation on a train, a story from a friend, or someone I meet. I just use what’s all around me, every day as a ‘treasure’ for my writing. 

One of the most important tools writers have is our eyes and ears, to take in the world around us, down to the tiniest little details. 

I’ve found this approach has helped me through difficult times, because no matter how miserable, stressed, or unbearable something is, at the back of my mind, I’m always thinking, ‘I’ll get a good character or story out of this.’

Someone once said if my house burned down, I’d get out, stand on the pavement with a note pad and pen and just observe what happened all around me, how I felt, what others did, carefully writing it down.

I love to notice people’s speech patterns, to really listen to how they speak, what phrases they like to use. I noticed a colleague started every sentence with, ‘I don’t know, but...’ and then went on to say something she really did know very well every time. Or how about someone who constantly boasts they ‘don’t do...’ before being shown to do quite the opposite?

I may not use that actual phrase, but it conjures up some other character traits which I can quite easily form into a character, a bit more imagination and I’ve got a ‘what if’ scenario, or a problem, and then an idea for a story.

A friend told me about a boss he’d had, and described their one to ones – a time where they should discuss his personal development, issues with work etc. He explained, ‘They were just ones.’ I asked what he meant. The boss monopolised the time and only spoke about himself, his children, his weekend, his lunch, anything really, except what a one to one was for. My friend watched their precious time tick away, all his unanswered questions remaining on his pad, unanswered, until the next ‘one’ the following month.

Someone else told me about her leaving do: after some years at this organisation, her boss spoke at her leaving do for fifteen minutes. So far so ordinary. But the boss didn’t talk about her, and her contribution to the company, oh no, the boss talked about himself. Yes, that’s right, fifteen minutes all about himself, what he thought when he first met my friend; the different jobs he’d done at the organisation; the career path he’d taken to get to the job etc.

Things like these may become the start of a scene I’m writing, or they could be a shortcut to summarise the character I’m developing. However I use them, they’re all around me, every day, all the time, you just have to watch and listen for them every hour of every day, and subtly make a note of it for later use.

What use do you make of the world around you? Do you have details from life you’ve used in your writing? I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time

Liam xx

We saw the Liberace film at the weekend. Ok, yes, it was without doubt the campest film I've seen in a very long time. And I've seen Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and The Boys in the Band. This is the film which was so camp and gay it hasn’t been released at cinemas in America, where it was made.

Here’s a flavour:

• One of Liberace’s (Michael Douglas) houseboys sashays up to him and Scott (Matt Damon), wearing the tightest whitest trousers you’ve ever seen.  
• The costumes (white ostrich feather capes, 15 feet trains)
• The opening scene to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love is discotastic
• M Douglas’s performance – giggling, campery, purring voice, prancing around the film

• Liberace’s unrealistic, bouffed wig – wigs are just camp full stop no?
• Liberace’s stage appearances (in a white Rolls Royce)
• Matt Damon’s costumes (diamond encrusted white chauffeur outfit, tiny white trunks)
• The interior decor of Liberace’s home (golden furniture, marble columns, mirrored walls, opulent to a point well beyond vulgarity) makes Versailles look like a back bedroom from a semi in Stevenage. Lee Liberace refers to it as ‘palatial kitsch’ and it certainly is.
• Rob Lowe as a plastic surgeon with a face as tight as a drum. Liberace asks if he’ll be able to close his eyes after his plastic surgery, and Lowe replies, ‘Not fully, but you’ll be able to see everyone looking at how amazing you look.’ Hence Liberace sleeps with his eyes partially open!

But it’s much more than just frothy frippery. Laced through it are some moments of darkness, melancholia which are best watched through your fingers:

• Liberace lived in a time where he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) come out to the public, yet within his private life, inside and outside his home, he was out, visiting gay bars and clubs.  
• Liberace lived with a string of younger men, each one discarded for the next brighter, younger one as he came along.
• He meets, Scott a 17 year old man who he quickly takes under his wing. He pays for Scott’s plastic surgery (shown with graphic detail) to make him look like a younger version of his 58 years, and encourages him to take diet pills. If this were made up it would have echoes of a fairy story, but since it’s true, it takes it to a whole new level of darkness.

• Their relationship breaks down; Liberace moves on to another young man and repeats the whole cycle again. This part has shades of Boogie Nights, as you witness the gradual descent of Scott’s life from Liberace’s soul mate, to collecting his things in black bags. As he’s gathering his things from the house Liberace bought him, Scott comments that he doesn’t even have his own face any longer.
• Liberace’s death, wigless and pallid, as he calls Scott, asking him more than once if he’s not sick. Scott arrives at his bedside and Liberace admits he was the person who made him most happy. He said to Scott, he didn’t want to be thought of as another queen who died of AIDS.

So you see, it’s much much more than just camp and sparkle, although it does have a fair dollop of that too!

What did you think of it? Have you seen it at the cinema if you’re in Europe, or on TV if you’re from the USA? I’d love to hear your views.

Until next time

Liam x

I've just been in Elin Gregory's Comfy Chair, answering all sorts of questions. I'd love you to check it out and ask any questions in the comments box.

Enjoy

Until next time

Liam x

I’ve read about and spoken to some writers who, when they’re ‘in the writing zone,’ don’t read any books or watch any TV. All I can say to that is facepalm! As I’ve said before, it takes all sorts, and that’s what I’m getting at here, there are no hard and fast rules for writing; it’s about what works for you. And as soon as you realise that, you can stop feeling guilty about not doing it ‘the right way’ and get on with what works for you. You may well have a complete lockdown on media while writing, but I don’t. And wouldn’t life be dull if everyone was the same?

1) I write for all year round

At the moment I have three things on the go, four if you could blogging, which I think is still proper writing, I mean, it’s not dancing about architecture is it? (I have Playing By Heart to thank for that one.) I have first round of amends for WIP, after vomit on page first draft. I have a shorter piece bubbling away in the background. I have the first book amends. And I have blogging. So if I had a media blackout I wouldn’t read or watch anything. For the whole year.

2) A phrase/scene/character can give you an idea to expand on in your own writing

In Best Friends Perfect, Kieran and Jo climb Ayers Rock in drag. Yes I took that from Priscilla Queen of the Desert (PQD in our house), but the situation and characters are completely different. It was an interesting event, which I wanted to reflect on differently. Kieran and Jo refer to being inspired by PQD, and that’s way post modern, or something... Haven’t you ever watched a film and thought, I wonder how that character would get on trapped in space? Or maybe those lyrics perfectly express the feeling at the end of a relationship your strong silent character would feel?

3)Media consumption is part of your life

In the same way that seeing friends or family is part of your life, media consumption is too. Jonathan Harvey said he wanted to be a teacher before becoming a writer, so he’d have some life experience to draw from in his writing. He’s a writer on Coronation Street, and his first book All She Wants, is about a girl who became a soap star. Most of us consume a fair bit of media every week, so I say why deny yourself an important aspect of life just because you’re writing that month/week/year?

4)Guarding your own voice is important – however

Yes, it’s important to guard your own voice. Some people say they can’t listen to music while they’re writing or they end up writing about what the songs are about. Others say that’s a perfect way to overcome a writing block. I think even if you use an idea in some media, and write about it, the story can only ever be told in your voice: if I went on holiday with three friends, we would all tell the holiday story differently, all using our own voice. That’s all people ever do, tell each other stories: through films, music, books it’s all stories.

So what are your thoughts on this? Is a media blackout essential when you’re writing? Do you write in silence, or accompanied by music? I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time

Liam x

The thing about rules is, they’re there to be broken. This is the first in a series of posts about how rules for writing do, and don’t work for me, and whether they work for you too.

I like to think about writing in the same way as another creative pursuit I love, cooking. Cooking has plenty of tips and rules. How many different ‘ultimate recipes’ have you seen for basics like a sponge cake, Yorkshire pudding, shepherd’s pie? Each one very different from the last.  

There are many different ways of getting to the final dish, each one with its own benefits and disadvantages, each one giving a slightly different result, each one works better for different people.

Leila Aboulela, (born in Cairo and grew up in Khartoum. Two of her novels have been longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize) said, ‘Put your work aside for a time in order to gain some distance and then read it again. You are very likely to find that it needs changes in some places, edits in others, or certain sections have to be further developed. Draft and re-draft. Give this editorial phase time effort and patience.’

While writing Best Friends Perfect, at first, I tried to edit as I was writing. This didn’t work for me. I found myself conflicted between writing and editing:

• After editing a section, I returned to writing and completely forgot where the story was going
• After editing, I found it hard to just write, and found myself micro editing rather than getting words on the page
• While editing if I was a bit stuck, I’d just nip to the end of document and start writing, completely abandoning the edit, and having to work out what I was trying to fix the next time I returned to that (still unresolved) bit of editing
• In short it was a mess

It was like starting to make a cake, leaving to buy the sugar, returning to continue whisking, then stopping to buy the grease proof paper, then returning to the cake mix.

For the second book, I did the vomit-words-on-the-page school of first drafts. No going back, no checking if I’d changed the name of the MC’s mum, what colour hair the boyfriend had, just on and on and on. Like a road trip, no stopping for detours.

Then, I left a couple of months between finishing the first draft and starting the first edit. I put on my editor hat (metaphorically, although maybe I should get myself one...) printed out the manuscript, took a pen and note pad and marked where it didn’t work, with some ideas for how to fix it in the note pad, and moved on to the next bit to fix.

This allowed me to stop thinking about it as ‘my story’ and instead, think about it as a reader would – that’s confusing, why would that character do that, where did the dog go from chapter 3...

The time between the two different stages, gave my brain chance to put itself into a different gear, a different mode, and to work much better at each of the two different stages.  

Do you edit as you write, write as you edit, mixing it up as you go? Or do you like to separate the two, like I now do? What’s the best writing rule you’ve heard or read about?  

Until next time

Liam x