Tag: graft

Stephen King on writing

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I like this. I like this very much. Here’s an assembly of 20 quotes about writing from horror maestro Stephen King. I like the way he blends a wonder at the world with the coal face, roll your sleeves up, nuts and bolts of writing.

I read most of King’s work when I was 13 or 14, taking them three at a time from the mobile library that did the rounds outside Inverness. Cujo, Carrie, It and The Stand have all stuck in my mind; I recently found a copy of The Stand in a charity shop, and I’m looking forward to rereading it this summer. I’m not sure I could handle another bout of It.

Bog boats

~ simonsylvester ~ 1 Comment

This is brilliant – no fewer than eight Bronze Age boats have been discovered in a creek in Cambridgeshire. The boats have been preserved by dense layers of silt, to the point that the archaeologists have recorded games of noughts and crosses carved into the wood.

Bogs and marshes….

The full article is here.

Quercus Books

~ simonsylvester ~ 4 Comments

Now then, people: I’m pleased to be writing with some extremely good news. After weeks of turmoil and torment, I am utterly delighted to announce that my first novel will be published by Quercus Books in 2014. The last month has been something of a rollercoaster, to say the least, but I’m just blown away to have landed Riptide with such an amazing publisher. It’s still sinking in, but I’m starting to believe it.

My editor, Jane Wood, is really enthusiastic about the novel, and I can’t wait to work with her on the manuscript. I’m just home from meeting with Jane and Sue, my brilliant agent with the bodacious Conville & Walsh team. It was an incredibly surreal experience to talk about release dates, discuss options for the cover art and explore where I’d like to go with my next few novels. I have three solid ideas plotted out and ready for writing; I know what I want to do with the stories, but it was very odd to expose them to publishing professionals for the first time, as I hadn’t had to vocalise or pitch them before.

So what happens next? For now, it’s business as usual: I’m working on a number of films for Cumbria Wildlife Trust, and college is about to go ballistic with end of term projects and paperwork. I’ll have the summer holidays to get my teeth stuck into another draft of Riptide, then we’ll be looking at proofs in Autumn, and publication in Spring 2014. Around all that, I’m keen to get my head down and start making progress on my second novel. The bogs and marshes idea I mentioned last month is shouting louder and louder – I think I’m going to work on that one next. It’s great to have the ideas lined up – it’ll take me years to complete them all – but now I need to carve out some defined, scheduled writing time. I don’t know where that time is going to come from, but I’ll find it. The further I take my writing, the further I want it to go.

I’ve worked hard to reach these early stages, and I feel extremely humble to have had that work embraced by such amazing people. It makes me want to strive even harder with my stories. I wouldn’t have come this far without the support from Sue, from writer friends Ali Shaw, Iain Maloney and Steven John Malcolm, and most of all from my wonderful wife Monica – and my daughter Dora, in her own way – because this is all for her. I’m fortunate and grateful to have such incredible people in my life.

It’s a sunny day in the Lake District, and I’m going to have a wee celebration – time to take the family for some cider in the park…

Soundscape

~ simonsylvester ~ 9 Comments

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When I’m writing, I listen to music. I can barely type a word without it. Music helps me focus. Occasionally, I’ll use music to steer my emotional response towards a certain tone in my writing, but more usually, I simply need a soundscape filling the space in my head. I tend to avoid music with vocals – or rather, if there is someone singing, I prefer the vocal to blend tonally with the track.

I’ve returned to some records endlessly over the years. I’ve listened to Mogwai‘s Come On Die Young literally thousands of times. I’ve spent entire weeks working to the British Sea Power back catalogue on repeat – or Arcade Fire, Arab Strap, Throwing Muses, The Antlers or Godspeed You Black Emperor.

All these bands have similar musical themes: they drone and fuzz, they soar and soothe – but ultimately, the music they create is cohesive, regular or continuous. Their albums tend to run without breaks or interruptions, creating sonic soundscapes. Call it post-rock – call it what you like – it works for me. It helps me tune out and focus on the story.

I develop different soundtracks for different projects. My 2008-2009 novel-length prose-poem Meat was soundtracked almost exclusively by Godspeed You Black Emperor’s 2-disc, 4-track epic album Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!, while first novel The Visitors was heavy on Mogwai and British Sea Power (two of Flora’s favourite bands). As I moved from writing to editing and redrafting, the soundtrack changed, and I built a playlist that was energetic and snappy; exactly what I needed to fuel my 12-hour redrafting sessions.

Now I’ve started work on my second novel, the music has changed again. At the moment, if I listen to Mogwai or BSP – as much as I love them both – it takes me back into The Visitors. So I need something new, at least while I’m making the transition from one novel to another. Even as I’m feeling out a fresh vocabulary, I’m developing a different soundtrack. While working on Grisleymires, I’ve been listening to a lot of Beirut, Bat For Lashes, The Antlers and Super Furry Animals. Thanks to Last FM, I’ve discovered Portico Quartet, Hidden Orchestra and Bersarin Quartett, all whom play organic, slightly sinister trip-hoppy movie-type soundtracks. At the other end of the spectrum, childhood favourites Crowded House are also back on the stereo, though I’m not totally certain why, as they go against all the conditions I suggested above; but they just fit, and that’s fine. Most startling (to me) is that I found myself wanting the sound of wind chimes to work to, and downloaded an hour-long track of chimes and trees designed for meditation. I can’t see it lasting, but for now, it helps me into the world of my story.

Does anyone else need music to work? Who and what soundtracks your writing?

Hello Sunshine

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I had a few hours working on Heaven yesterday. Over the last week, slowly but surely, I’ve crept up to 5,000 words. That’s still a drop in the ocean, but to consider it as 1/20th of a first draft is strangely sobering.

Long miles still to come, and I’ll try and write some more tonight… but for now, the sun is shining, Mon and I are taking Dora to the wildlife park, and here’s the Super Furry Animals doing what they do best. Enjoy.

Magpie

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In odd hours and half-hours, I’ve been chipping away at Heaven. I’m writing and rewriting the first chapter, combing through it over and over again, settling on a style and language that feels right. It’s starting to work, and the first draft of that first chapter is pretty much finished. My main character’s voice rings true, I can envisage the geography exactly, and I’m happy with the plot.

The biggest stumbling point so far has been the need to invent a religion. When I was blocking out the story, this wasn’t an obvious problem – I drifted past the religion that pervades the culture of my story. Now I’ve reached a point where it matters, and I’ve had to take a step back and consider details. I’ve always imagined this religion blending Buddhist and Hindu iconography with a militarised Catholic Inquisition attitude – almost like a junta, woven into the fabric of the culture. So far, so good… but now I need specific rituals, and the actual wording of prayers. That’s going to take a little time to make concrete, though it will develop as I go. Like most successful religions, I’ll be a magpie, stealing, adapting and borrowing from others on the way. So far I’m thinking shrines, tributes, sacrifices, tithes, prayer wheels, prayer flags, wind chimes, omniscience, monks, robes, bindis and torture.

Not much to report on the manuscript submissions so far. It’s hard to focus while that’s bubbling away in the background, but I’m making myself sit down with the new novel whenever I can. It’s a strange feeling, at once intimidating and exciting, to look ahead and see the rest of the story stretched out like an endless ladder, ready to be climbed.