Learn your Craft

 

Writers need to learn the craft of writing. No matter how good we were at writing essays at school, no matter how well we entertain our friends with stories, no matter how many of the classics we’ve read, we still need to practise and learn. Key advice from all the experts:

• Write every day
• Read a lot, including books that are not in your comfort zone or favourite genre
• Keep an ideas notebook

 And more specific advice...

• Lose the adjectives
• Make the verbs stronger
• Learn how to use punctuation
• Know whose point of view you’re in and don’t head hop
• Plot--know how, and when, to include a hook, trigger, first plot point, crisis, climax, 3 acts, rising action and downtime
• Action--use it to move the plot forward
• Backstory--know where, and how much, to include
• Dialogue--limit the beats, and use ‘he said’ rather than ‘he muttered, shouted, whined, or asserted.'
• Show don’t tell

 Plenty of good tips to be found at Daily Writing Tips

Over the past year, I’ve been sitting down every day to write, and feel more confident and organised. So, am I capable of applying it all? I'm sure I could take another run through punctuation at the very least, but how much more is there?  

How do you know when you’ve grasped enough to start sending out queries?

Crusty bread and a jug of wine

One of my favourite restaurants is hidden away in a hilltop village, with 350 inhabitants. And all along the street under the arcades flanked by a 14th century castle, and a 16th century covered market, there are mismatched and rickety tables and countless diners happy to spend a long afternoon in the dappled sunshine.

There’s no menu. On the table, they place a big pot of soup, usually a wholesome garbure, full of cabbage, meat, beans and goodness. The entrée is a platter of cold meats, salad, and hard-boiled eggs, or sliced tomato, Bayonne ham and melon in summer. A big basket of crusty bread, a jug of water, and a jug of table wine complete the first uninterrupted hour. 

The waiter eventually takes the order for our meat. It's served on a large platter, with garlic potatoes or chips or French beans or whatever vegetables are in season, and probably picked in their own garden. The region provides plenty of beef, veal, pork and, above all, duck. We don’t count calories around here, but they say that the particular combination of duck fat and red wine is the secret of the locals' longevity.

Dessert is ice cream or fruit. The fruit comes in a huge basket with a plate and a knife. Help yourself.

12€ for the 4-course set meal, including wine. Where is this paradise? In the picturesque village of Bassoues.

Listen! A book!

I’ve avoided e-Readers until now, because I generally only read in bed. And I like the feel of a real book. But I was tempted by the idea of listening to books when out walking, or driving so I subscribed to Audible.co.uk and purchased a few Audio books.

The first snag, when I downloaded ‘Canada’ by Richard Ford, was that I don’t have the right kind of device to listen to it on, other than my laptop. So that scuppered my plans to read when out and about! 

I was laid up for three days over Christmas and decided to listen to Canada. A wonderful experience. It’s hard to say if it would have been the same book had I read it using my eyes rather than my ears, but I loved it.

So I’m now listening to Stephen King’s '11.22.63’, another hefty book, and am finding it a pleasant way to read. I read many of King's earlier books many years ago and have only recently returned to him, and I appreciate his talent all the more. Great to watch his talks on youtube too. He's a natural comedian.

However, my bedside reading has to remain in paper format for another while because I keep falling asleep when I try to listen to an Audio book in bed.

All you need is...

... on the world wide web!

I was preparing to spend a year in Japan on the JET Programme. I tried to learn the language from a book. But I knew very little about Japan or the Japanese. I'd read 'Shogun' and that was the extent of my knowledge of the country. In pre-Celtic Tiger days there were very few foreigners living in Dublin, so I had never met or spoken to a Japanese person.

Learning is much easier when you can find what you need on the internet. To learn Spanish I've been following an audio course, but grammar and vocabulary can be dull, let's face it! So I asked for music recommendations on the web and was offered suggestions with links that lead to other links. I spent hours on youtube discovering Spanish and South American bands. Amaral's 'Como hablár' was a happy discovery.



The next phase may be to watch Spanish films, I'll purchase the DVD from the comfort of my sitting room. Then I may try to participate on a forum, and look for recommendations on where to stay this summer. Speaking to real people will be the final phase. There are many Spanish people looking for language-exchange via skype.

The danger though is getting lost on the internet. It's easy to look up one thing and find yourself clicking hither and yonder and soon you realise it's four o'clock in the morning and you still haven't checked the weather forecast. That's the real challenge these days - staying focused when there's so much information out there.

My Writing Agenda

The kids have been dispatched to school and the breakfast things shoved unceremoniously aside. I move to my desk, and consider my agenda.

Today I’m working on short stories. I have several in progress. One needs a final edit and I’m submitting it to a competition. Another needs a total review, if I have time.

My writing group is meeting next week. I also want to write 500 words on the subject of ‘A Family Meal’. These things are always harder than they sound. I don’t feel inspired. Yet I know that after a brainstorming session and a little simmering time, I'll manage to write something and it may even be decent.

Tomorrow I’m back to the hard slog that is my novel. I wrote the first draft, put it aside for six months, reread, and decided there were holes everywhere. In the past few months I have revised the plot, added, rearranged and improved scenes, worked on the character arcs and plot points. I’m confident that it’s a good story. I’m about to embark on a major edit and am striving to finish sometime in February. The self-imposed deadline is supposed to keep me motivated.

Then I’ll begin to send it out to agents and editors and hope that it attracts some interest. It’s the third novel I’ve completed but the first I have confidence in. I’m embracing the slush pile, and the possibility of rejection. But I do believe that perseverance and patience will get me there this time.

Gascon Conviviality

Gascony, in the south-west, is very different to other parts of France. La Gascogne has its own culture, language and local cuisine.

The people too are very different to Parisians or people from northern France. I see lots of similarities with the Irish. Compare:

• Le quart d'heure gascon - punctuality means turning up 15 mins after the agreed time
• The apéritif: any excuse for a drink... Ah sure, one more for the road! 
• The weather (OK, that's just today!)
  

I play the flute in the village orchestra and we're often invited to play at local festivals but our biggest demand is from the priests of the canton. We're lured to the Sunday mass gig with the promise of an apéritif afterwards.

Sunday mass... Ah! The memory of cold churches and long sermons. The prayers may be in French, but the intonation is familiar. Today we played in Beaumarchés, a village in the hills with wonderful views of the snowy Pyrenees, and afterwards we went to the village hall for foie gras, saucisson and a glass of something warming. There's a great community spirit here - a good way to spend a Sunday.

Adishatz! *

* 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' in gascon

¿Habla espagñol?

Have you ever learned a new language as an adult?

I'm taking up Spanish. I started two weeks ago using the Michel Thomas method and I'm listening to it in the car every day for about twenty minutes. I wonder how well I'll be able to speak by the time my summer holidays roll around...

Learning languages is a something I've always been interested in. I studied French and German and live in France so I use French every day. My children are bilingual and I'm often amazed at their ability to process new vocabulary. They're starting Spanish in school now so it's interesting to see the difference in the way we learn. They're already mocking my Spanish accent, even if they only know about twenty words themselves! 

Now how to pronounce that dish? Paella!!!

I've been following Benny the Irish polyglot for a while now and I love the way he has the courage to jump in at the deep end and even post up videos of his progress. So, rather than 'fluent in 3 months'  I could call my challenge: Paella en seis meses.
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