In the beginning.....
So now you’ve
visited a couple of times, and you obviously have learnt I am trying
to make a career as a writer, I thought today I might talk about some
of the aspects of writing which I find the most challenging and/or
interesting and share them with you. Now, I’m sure everyone who
sits, gazing at the blank computer screen without having the vaguest
idea what to say, would tell you, it’s a daunting experience, even
if you know where the story is going, how to actually get there,
isn’t always obvious. So what do I do? I just start
typing..anything which comes to mind which has some connection to
either the character or the plot line. I have just found, in my
admittedly limited experience, once I get going, its kind of a
snowball effect and soon, I am slamming down the keys like a crazy
woman. Obviously, when you’re finally completely exhausted,
slumping at your desk, with only just enough energy left to read, you
often find, you haven’t actually written anything worthy of the
average shopping list. But, if you’re lucky, when you look closer,
there might just be a phrase or an idea, a piece of dialogue or a
description, which you can either use later or sets you off on a
whole new train of thought – so none of your efforts are ever
wasted.
Now even though I haven’t been writing for long, I have been asked where the original idea for my book came from, and the simple answer is, I wanted to tell the story of an ordinary woman. At the time, the whole ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ phenomenon was just about hitting its peak, which was quickly followed by a whole stream of other books, telling much the same tale. For those of you who may have missed the whole thing, basically the plot is a millionaire meets a naive young woman, who he introduces to his private BDSM world. Personally speaking, I wasn’t convinced by the ‘reality’ of the books’ premise, after all, if I went back to a man’s house and he showed me a locked room filled with a variety of sado-masochistic equipment, I would have turned tail and run ! But I accept, had that happened, it would have been a very short book, not much more than a page really.
So I opted to tell a rather different story, aside from anything else, I have very little knowledge of that world and so trying to write it, well, it would have been woeful, although those who really know the subject, would have undoubtedly found my blatant ignorance, a mildly amusing distraction from the task of oiling up their whip or polishing the handcuffs.
So in answer to the original question, the idea was just a woman’s story – which meant I could include friendship, motherhood, love, sex and (dare I say it) her journey through a specific period of her life. Now I can almost hear the groans from here, when I mentioned someone going on ‘a journey’, after all, we have all watched those talent shows where a wannabee Madonna, Justin etc talks about how they were deeply affected by the loss of their goldfish, yucca plant, favourite jeans...and so were inspired to follow their dream to become the ‘next big thing’ and so their rags to riches ‘journey’ had begun. Hopefully, within my story, it is slightly less of a cliché – apart from anything else you might be relieved to learn, nobody sings in it!
Oh my, is that the time ? Well, I should probably let you get on with your day as I am sure you have plenty to be doing, so that can be all from me for today but please come back again when you have a free moment, so until we meet again,
