Good day or bad? How come it can change so fast?

Nothing in life knocks me back more than, how fast a day can go from good to bad. You can be having the best days of your life and BANG right in the middle of your smile comes a knock back that if you could script your own life you wouldn't write It In, because it's to unreal and people would think it fake.

I'm not one to moan or groan about life. I take life as it comes. Truly I do. No really I do. Ok I suppose I try to and some people may say that I can take things a little to far at times but I can assure you it all comes from the right place. And I never want to hurt anyone. As you know I'm not a religious man but if I had to align myself to any one religion I think it would be of the Buddhist persuasion. A good quote from Buda is;

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." Buddha.

I like this one because happiness is a gift we can all give. And when we don't take the opportunity to share such a gift its a waist. So less shouting and jealousy and more sharing of the cheapest thing in life a SMILE. Smiles in my experience give happiness for free.

Have a good day. Or what's left of it. And remember to smile.

Inside A Writers Mind

I was having a conversation with someone the other day and we touched on the difficulty and the process of writing a novel. He asked about the amount of information needed and hinted on it being very difficult. Also he commented on how my spelling and grammar is not the best.

 

These are two very good points and it got me thinking. The process of writing a hundred thousand words plus novel is probably the most complex and complicated thing I have ever done.

 

It’s not just the start, middle and end thing but the main story ark and all the small story arks within them. Each novel has chapters that must have a protagonist and an antagonist. They must have intrinsic and extrinsic conflict with them selves and each other. Maybe even with many other characters as well. The chapter has to have a start middle and end, each chapter has to have scenes and those scenes have to have a start middle and end. This rule applies to the pages and the paragraph. Even each and every sentence has to have a purpose. If it has no purpose then it has no right being in the book.

 

Also the characters have to have profiles, people don’t realise that even though we writers don’t put the past twenty years of a characters life in the novel, they do have a life before the story. Thats each character has a whole book inside my head already. They have lived and had good and bad times before strolling into what ever situation that my storyline has given them.

 

Each novel has at least three main threads to it. And many more minor threads through out. And thats just the one I’m currently working on. I don’t know about other writers but I have one finished and thirteen unfinished novels and many more short Stories floating around my head at any one time.

All this is inside my head. Maybe I should say sorry for the times when I’m a bit forgetful or distracted. I have good reasons but I promise there not excuses.

 

As for spelling and grammar all I can say is if you ask a builder to build you a house he will get the bricks (for a writer his brick are the words) and place them all in order following a predesigned plan. The architect would have spent many hours and days drawing out his vision of a building and the builder puts this together. As a writer I don’t pretend to be a good builder but I’m a good architect. I can design the book and work on all the plot lines and all story arks, character profiles. But I may need a little help at time to put it together at the end. Please don’t forget the creativity and passion that I have poured into my prose. For my head is full of many lives, young, old, thin, and fat, Human, animal and alien alike. I have whole civilisations being created and  being destroyed in my head. To say a writers mind is a busy mind is probably one of the most understated comments ever made.

Wow! Another Year Already

Wow September the 8th, I get to this part of the year and it brings to mind that the year is about to enter its fourth and final quarter.

My birthday is in just over a week on the seventeenth and although this once filled me with wishes and expectation when I was younger, it now makes me look back on the last twelve months and take account of what goals I have made. What I have accomplished and even more so, what I have not accomplished in the last year.
For one, I said I would have sent my manuscriptout to an agent. And buy and large I suppose I did, only it keeps coming back complete with rejection letters. I wanted to start a new novel, Not a sci-fi but a crime thriller, and that is on its way. I’m at least a third of my way to finishing the first draft. I’m very excited about this one. Its fast and gritty, with honest characters that are filled with many conflicting values and principals. Its great to write about bad guy turned good and god guy turned bad. They say the secret to a good book is conflict, and inner conflict is even better it is also a great motivator.
Its no secret that I’m a great sci-fi fan but the crime thriller genre is a page turner for sure.
The novel’s called, “The Promise” it follows a father and a promise he made to his wife sixteen years earlier. He is bad guy turned good. The only thing is a bad life has a habit of coming back, wanting its flesh even when you have no more to give. The promise he makes is about his daughter who has just turned sixteen. She has no idea what her father once was, where he made the money they live by today. How will she cope with the idea of living off blood money?
I really do love this one, and I hope so will the agents and publishes when its finished.
In the mean time my other novel “Purple” is still out there awaiting representation so any up and coming agents fancy a read and I haven’t sent it you then please don’t be shy.
A friend of mine was on his annual holiday and by chance bumped into an agent at a hotel bar. The conversation moved on to my friend telling her that he knew someone who was trying to get published. (Thats me he is talking about, incase you were wondering.) She told my friend the same as every writer out there knows. They have many thousands of query letters and synopsis per month and it all starts with the query letter, if thats ok then its the synopsis and if their still reading then its the first fifty pages or so and if you are still in the running, then they request the full manuscript. And even then you are likely to be rejected. Its a numbers game, a mood game. For instance if the agent had a bad night and had had enough of sci-fi then the next sci-fi novel would not get past the query stage.
In the end you can have the best query in the world and a synopsis that would bring tears of joy to the eyes. A manuscript that any full time author would give his right eye for. Your query can still be binned at the first glance.
I try not to take this as a negative but to reassure myself that if I keep sending them out and keep writing more, then one day it will be my manuscript that the agent see’s, and that day they were looking for a manuscript just like mine.

I have made big improvements in my personal life, finically and emotionally.  I look forward to what I have to come in this next year, who knows what may come.

Image from http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

Don’t we love to talk

As people we love to talk, we love to socialise and network. Dale Carnegie had a great quote: -

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

I suppose your wondering where I’m going with all this? Well it’s the “why” we as a species like to talk and network or dare I say it, “Gossip.”

Gossip can be a very good vehicle for moving a story on, or for-shadowing a future event. Two characters discussing another character is very helpful when you need an aspect of their personality for-shadowed.

So to understand Gossip we need to know why we do it in the first place.

We can express ourselves through the arts, I.e., music, religion, writing, politics, and even science. But what do we talk about most of the time? It’s not the above list I’m sure. I have read that two-thirds of all human conversation is gossip. This may come as an unwelcome reminder of our interest in the personal lives of others. But if you think about it most gossip is not negative. Most is just chitchat about who is having a baby or what colour someone’s going to paint the lounge. Whatever the moral status, gossip serves an important evolutionary purpose. It’s like a verbal grooming, ape’s pick each others flea’s and stroke each others fur. As for our social grooming, we talk and gossip.

The term gossip once meant, "A person related to one in God, The word later came to mean a close (female) friend or companion. This later translated into the modern definition of gossip, "small talk, and rumour" or "to talk about the affairs of others," I like this one.

Somewhere along the line of our evolution, we evolved the capacity for language; gossip replaced our physical social grooming. According to Robin Dunbar, a professor at the University of Liverpool and a leading researcher on human gossip, “language evolved specifically for the purpose of gossip.” It functions to make a bond within your social group, It can resolve conflicts, build social networks, clarifying social status, also it can help to influence others. Gossip is therefore a powerful way of strengthening the social bonds we already have.

Stated by Kate Fox, "Gossip generally involves more than the sharing of information about people's lives and relationships: it usually involves the expression of opinions or feelings about this information." Although opinions may not be directly stated, they may be heavily implied through tone of voice or body language. It shows their views on the subject matter. It’s not necessarily negative. However, this is not to say that negative views do not exist, as they definitely do; and these negative comments serve a very important function.

When someone engages in negative gossip with a trustworthy person they are strengthening the social bond with that person.

Although other animals have mating calls and grunts, only the human species uses language to such a degree. Gossip is what humans use to establish and maintain relationships, resolve conflicts, build social networks, influence others. Gossip undoubtedly works as a social mechanism. So when someone asks if you’re gossiping, answer with a big fat “YES”. As, we are all very good at it.

The Sun, how it changes my day.

I walk with my wife, the sun breaks through the clouds. I feel warm, I feel happy.

There's a definite change in women when this happens. In the winter months, when it's cloudy, it's raining, there's drizzle and it feels miserable. Oh and not to forget it's wet and damp. Well women cover up, they have there hats on, umbrellas sprung open and big coats covering from chin to toes.

We don't really see them. We just don't notice them. They become part of the grey back ground.

So as soon as that sun comes out my wife and women change, they evolve like a butterfly, they will go from this covered up form, kin to a nun and transform into a beautiful glowing sun filled person, full of life with the embodiment of all things nice. They really do entice us all, my male friends pretty much say the same thing, we all notice. With the first bit of sun the first thing a man notices is his partner or wife. It Isn't the sun its self. We love the sun only because women are gorgeous in its light. I'm including my wife, as she is very gorgeous. She does the same, see changes, see becomes vibrant and colourful, there is a little bit of flesh that shows after being coved up for the winter months. The skirts, the makeup, and then "the smile".

This is the most important of all the changes, the smile comes on most faces. I drive round the streets or I walk round the town centres, I go for walks at the weekends. If the suns out with blue sky's and fluffy clouds then people smile, men are smiling just as much as woman. I like to think that I smile more in the summer too.
So I think this post is a testament to all women. To say thank you for uplifting my day and most other men's day too. I don't think you realise what impact you have on us, us men of the world.

Thank you sun and thank you women of the world, most of all thank you, my wife.

The picture I used today was taken by James Heathcote, find more of his work at www.jamesheathcote.com

Summer Holidays

Some unfortunate souls, (like me) have been on holiday for a week or if your lucky two, and the prospect of leaving the sunny beach location behind, well spells out doom and gloom. I'm about to swap flip flops and shorts for toe protector boots and a blue uniform, and instead of looking out towards the horizon on the beach front, I’ll be staring at parts and components for at least 8 hours.

It's strange because normally I'm quite looking forward to getting back home by now, but as I write this on the eve of my return, I feel I would quite happily stay here for another week or even two. If not for the obligations I have back home, ( like work and house and bills) I might just extend this to a more permanent arrangement. I mean why not? Others live at holiday resorts and look very happy doing so. Could I move here or somewhere like this? If your wondering I'm in Cornwall which is the very south of the UK.

rolling hills, deep valleys and long stretches of sandy beaches. When the sun is shining and the sky is blue Cornwall is as beautiful as anywhere on earth.

The dream of a writer as I understand it is to be able to write where and whenever they like. Preferable from some window through which inspiration will flow over you like a child's smile after handing them their most favourite ice-cream.

We can dream and wish and if we are really lucky, (not to mention hard working) we may reach such goals whether it be Cornwall are your very own most loved of places. To reach high will at least get you somewhere better than you are know.

Relationships and the Facebook, Twitter revolution

In my recent post Life Under Construction I talked about how life is never really finished building. Recent events in the lives of people I now illustrate that very well. The modern world with the communication tools we have today is great. (come on this is how I speak to you now) The internet and mobile technology has sent most of the world into communication overload. Where as only twenty years ago you would have only talked to an old school friend at the twentieth school reunion, Facebook and Twitter make this a daily occurrence for most people today.

There is a down side to all this, you may gasp in surprise. What with all this tech, how could there be a down side?
As always its relationships, boyfriends, girlfriends, man and wife maybe mother and son. These are relationships that have grown from a time before the Facebook, Twitter revolution. From a time before there was this option. A saying my mother still says to this day is "the grass is always greener on the other side" She would say this a lot when I was a kid growing up, looking at other kids wanting what they had, I have grown up to be a reasonably stable person and under stand that the desirer is fleeting, once a goal is achieved we all move on to the next. Knowing this makes me think a bit more carefully before picking my next projects.

What has this to do with Facebook and Twitter?

I have seen things happen and normally Facebook or Twitter are involved for instance I have seen two marriages and a son and mother relationship fall apart because of one social network or another. Whether right or wrong these people found a new solution to there relationship problems through these mediums. Reaching out, connecting with people they would not normally discuss such maters with. (hay lets be honest dose it not cross your mind that maybe if people spoke to each other about there problems there might be more blank spaces on Facebook). Life is about stages we move through them as we grow. Childhood and the 'good old school days' are really meant to stay there, in the past. Not to be revisited every day, scratching at old sparks that never grew to be a flame (There is normally a reason why they stayed as sparks in the first place). We move from school days to collage days to marriage and then to have children of our own.
Its the marriage stage thats hard, especially when the children come along. If you can hold on, the next stage should be the best of all. Its this stage when the children have gone on there journey that truly is for you and your partner. All the learning is finished, all the passing of experience to the next generation is done. this is when life is built and you are just applying the finishing touches to the decor.

Finally I believe if you can hold on to the one who came with you on most of this construction project we call life, then this stage is all the better for there presence. After all no one knows me like my wife.

Please Please comment, good or bad I really don't mind.