Always Fascinating

A friend of mine has recently been published over at 'Writers' Billboard'. Julian Holt is and/or was (depending on how far in the future you're reading this. This is 2013 at the moment. Welcome...) the June joint short fiction winner with his piece 'Writer in Residence'. Now, the link is only good for a period of a month or two, apparently, so if it doesn't work you weren't quick enough!

'Writer in Residence' is essentially a meta-narrative, where the question of narrative reliability is surpassed by narrator's culpability. The 'meta-ness' of a story 'like this' is always intriguing to me. Writing above narrative is fun, but it takes an amount of skill to pull it off. A big bank of meta-narrative cliches have built up over time, and even the idea itself can become stale. To overcome these varied stagnant swamps of writing delusion is a tough thing, but I feel Holt has hopped, skipped and jumped over the pitfalls and into all the exciting things a narrative of this type presents to us. The narrator is a self-confessed writer (i.e. professional liar (no, not a politician)) which gives us an immediacy to the truth (or does it?). You're drawn to the process of narrative, as well as multiple character facets and there's no way of judging if it's true or not beyond speculation.

But aside from my ramblings about so-called 'meta-ness', the essential tenets of storydom are very competently mastered. The dual 'tracks' (i.e. the writer writing about the Brusque-Mantels/Derailleurs and then the 'real-life' Kemps/Raleighs) converge pleasantly at the end. And yeah, it makes you think. I felt I had to read it over to get a sense of its full worth and I got more out of it the second time.

And for my end I shall talk about Holt's beginning. My love for language meant I was completely trapped in the honey-sweet stickiness of linguistic longing in the first paragraph. I was hooked, I was 'gotten' - I had to read on. What a journey. Go read it, or else you may have dealings with the very same 'writer in residence'...

+ve

Normally I'm about as positive as a drawer full of photograph film (I tried there, I really tried...), but it struck me the other day while doing work on an assignment: there is hope. I know the fact that it was an 'academic' essay may make people question the relevance to the practice of creative writing, but I can honestly see ('feel' is also as appropriate) a difference.

I remember, not too long ago, the feelings of utter restlessness that used to haunt me whenever I sat down to write something. Usually an essay, but also creative pieces (when they were done completely off the cuff). Whenever I started a piece, came back to a piece, re-started a piece or even came back from a piss in the middle of a piece I'd be all out the groove and have to ask myself "right, what am I doing?" I noticed on my last essay, though, that I've managed to be more relaxed about my approach and have also gotten cracking much sooner.

In the writing of the first draft for my latest endeavour, it took me barely a few minutes to actually start pushing keys (after my usual notes on paper - much more civilized!). Did a little bit of internet surfing, but only really to check my blog.

Which brings me onto what I think are some of the main causes of my increase in dynamism. First: deleting my facebook games ('Angry Birds' especially) has cut out so much potential procrastination and made a lot of my work avoidance more practical (if I do go on facebook, I'm able to socialize quickly and check what other writing pals are doing, other than that I'll check my emails and whatnot - also very useful for keeping up to date with writing events and stuff that no doubt you've signed up to). Second: my blog. It's got me writing more regularly (thereby helping to increase my writing stamina), thinking about content, formal elements, comedy and perceptions more and it's got me reading reading other people's stuff more - generally being more 'active'. The blogging has also helped me associate the internet with the right kind of fun, i.e. writing. What better way to procrastinate from writing than to write? That's a win-win-win situation!

Anyway, there're more reasons, but I've gone on long enough as it is.

Just wanted to share some positivity I found in a world of rolling negative-storms.

Bye.

Oh yeah and Liverpool won 2-1 against Blackburn at home today (despite, apparently, a few shocking decisions going against us)... Didn't see the game desafortunadamente :'(