Writerly Ramblings

I’ve been quite pleased with myself for managing to do a bit of writing, even if it’s only a teeny tiny bit each day since the 30th of March. I’m still working on Behind the Scenes and although not all of what I’m writing is good the fact that I’m actually putting pen to paper is a big achievement for me.

Right now I’m trying to take a NaNoWriMo approach to getting it written. For years I’ve been saying I want to rewrite the story and get it updated; when I started writing it not everyone had mobile phones, mobile internet access was virtually non-existent and lots of places were still on dial-up. I had two choices, to either set it definitely in a time in the past, or bring it a little more up to date. I’m kind of doing a bit of both. There wasn’t really any reason not to give the characters mobile phones or internet access, so I’m letting them have those creature comforts, especially since it’s helping to close up some plot holes.

I’m trying to just churn out as many words as possible. Or rather, I’m getting as much of the story onto paper as possible. I’m not giving myself a deadline and I’m not giving myself a set word count per day. If I write five pages I’m happy, if I write five lines I’m equally happy.

The sticky points come when I’m deviating from the original version because then I panic about coming up against things later on that I’ve changed and not knowing how to fix it. But I’m trying to take each page as it comes and trusting that one way or another things will work themselves out.

I’m also trying to challenge myself a wee bit. The original story began as a challenge to myself to write a car crash without describing what was happening. The whole thing was told almost entirely in third-person limited POV of the main character, Abby, occasionally switching to follow a minor character or two. Now I’m switching between four people’s third-person limited POVs and it’s kind of fun to work out which POV I should use for a particular section or pushing myself to go with something different.

The bit I’ve been working on this week has been the big reveal. Jack has been concealing something from Abby about the family and their relationship… it’s all a bit soap opera but I’m loathe to change it as it’s such a huge part of the plot. In the original I just followed Jack and Abby as they had the conversation and she left.

This time I did Jack revealing the truth to Anna first of all, from Anna’s point of view, before going to tell Abby. Then the next chapter is from Alex’s perspective when Abby arrives on his doorstep. Originally the whole arrival thing was told from Alex’s point of view but it was pretty much just a paragraph. This way it’s a challenge to get all the information across about how everyone’s feeling when you don’t actually see the two main players in the conversation through either of their eyes.

I might get to the end of this draft and decide that it doesn’t work at all, but right now it’s a fun thing to play around with while I’m working out exactly what I’m doing.

I’m also kind of psyching myself up to share a little snippet. It’ll be under the proviso that it’s still very much a draft of the story and I’m still working out all kinds of kinks, but I think it would be really cool to see what other people think of it.

Fantasy Casting

I mentioned at the beginning of the week that I've been inspired to write my story Behind the Scenes again recently. It's heavily influenced by the area I live now and also places I went to regularly when I was at university in Glasgow (although I didn't know that at the time when I was writing it originally).

In a nutshell it follows four different characters, three of whom are actors in a film being made in Scotland, and their relationships with each other. Over the course of the story, which is about a year in their lives, their relationships change and so do their attitudes towards each other... or something. Like I said on Monday, it's very much a work in progress.

It's been influenced by a number of other things, not just Scottish places and buildings. Namely films... about half the story takes place on a film set, thank you Lord of the Rings special features. There's also a hint of Jack & Sarah and Animal Attraction in there as well.

You can also kind of tell what TV series I was into at the time I was writing it as well because there's an Abby and a Susan (that's the E.R. influence) and another character has a mother named Cathryn Sanders (names pinched from CSI).

I've been thinking about who I picture the characters as in my head. I know some people do fantasy casting as a sort of creative exercise as they're planning or writing a story. There's only really one character who I've always pictured as one person, conveniently he's now actually just about the right age for the character I picture him as.

I've mentally cast Hugh Jackman as Jack Walker, the heartthrob film star, because just look at him, you just don't need to imagine that. I'd like to point out that I was incredibly restrained and did not in fact use a topless photo of him... not that I've got any of those...

*Ahem*, where was I?

Jack is a bit of a playboy character which I suppose is why I picture him as Hugh Jackman because at the time of starting to write the story one of my favourite films was Animal Attraction, where Jackman plays a playboy sort of character (who does walk around topless on at least one occasion, take note folks). He's quite a self-centred sort of guy until the events of the story happen and he has to take responsibility for Abby, a younger family member.

I've never really been able to pinpoint exactly who I think Abby is. She's seventeen at the start of the story and is involved in a car accident which killed her parents and leaves her on crutches for most of the story. She's also badly scarred by the crash, most of the scars are easily covered but there's one on her head that is hard to hide which makes her very self-conscious.

Watching Labyrinth last week I had a sudden flash that she might look a little like Jennifer Connelly (as she appeared as a teenager):

Abby's quite a confused young woman, having been uprooted from her home and thrust into the limelight as Jack wants to keep her close whilst continuing to work. She's grieving and adapting to her new lifestyle when Jack drops a bombshell on her about the family. She spends the rest of the story coming to terms with that... and kind of falling in love as well.

The other person I didn't really have a picture of was Alex. He and Abby develop a rather complicated relationship after she kind of runs away Jack. I've always thought of Alex as being a really good looking guy in a slightly unconventional way, though I'm not sure what that would actually look like. There have been moments when I've been watching TV or I've seen a guy on public transport and thought, he looks a bit like an Alex but I've never seen a definitive Alex.

This guy is Ben Barnes who I found whilst searching for actors in their 20s for this very post. Apparently he was in the Narnia films and there's something about his eyes that makes me think of Alex.

The other person who makes me think of Alex, who I was kind of thinking of before I started searching, is Kit Harington from Game of Thrones:

He's kind of got a similar look so I guess that's the sort of style I'm going for. I picture Alex with shorter hair and no stubble. He definitely has dark eyes which isn't really something I'd thought about until I started seriously writing this post and playing around with Google Image searches.

Alex has had a rough sort of life, moving around a lot. He's quiet and sensitive, speaks his mind and often doesn't come across well. This movie is his big break and he's a little bit worried that he's going to say or do something to ruin it. He and Abby gradually hit it off and become quite close but obviously their relationship can't be that smooth and complications arise.

Alex's role in the film is in part due to Anna Kent putting his name forward. Anna Kent is a beautiful English Rose type actress, the sort of person who frequently gets cast as royalty. She's been Anna since the story's inception but I'm toying with changing her name because of my four main characters three of them have names beginning with the letter A. Abby and Alex will always be Abby and Alex, but I feel less close to Anna's name so if anyone gets the chop, it'll be her.

For the last few years, because even when I've not been writing it, I've been carrying it around in the back of my mind. I've decided that Keira Knightly is a fair embodiment of Anna.

One of the minor characters who is slowly playing a bigger part in the rewrite is a Californian called Keeper. I cannot for the life of me figure out who he is, except that he's got that sort of squeaky clean Disney image. He's like one of the kids from High School Musical... I'm just not entirely clear on him yet.

The only other person I've mentally cast is the director of the film, who's really just a bit-part. As I was lying in bed last Saturday night planning this post I realised that John Rhys-Davies would suit well.

If you write, have you ever done a fantasy casting for one of your stories? Or are there books that you've read and picture certain characters as being played by particular actors?

Inspired!

For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed making up stories. I don’t actually remember a time when I didn’t; I have a vivid memory of visiting an old family friend (named Percy, who always called me Topsy for some reason) with my parents. I must’ve been about four and had a picture book called It’s Eight O’Clock, Said The Cock memorised, I was getting restless and my Mum had me recite the story’s rhyme to keep me occupied; I remember adding in bits of my own. From a language development point of view I guess I was just playing with word sounds; from a creative point of view it was a kind of fan fiction!

I used to ‘play’ stories in the school playground recruiting friends to take parts in the action. I made a little book once and illustrated it for my brother (who was just a baby at the time); it was called William Rabbit and was about a little rabbit who needed glasses, apparently inspired by my Five Minute Bunny Tales book. As I grew up so did my stories and their characters, I experimented with different genres and styles, and even occasionally shared what I wrote with friends or family.

But in recent years I’ve not written so much, with the exception of doing a Creative Writing course through the OU and NaNoWriMo (with varying degrees of success) each year. It’s a question of having time and inspiration as much as anything.

Last Sunday I found myself feeling well and truly inspired.

I found that a lot of the songs I was selecting as my favourites linked in some way to the year I was seventeen when I had a friend visit from down south and we both began writing stories. Behind the Scenes was the result; 76 handwritten A4 pages which I had started rewriting and updating a few years ago. Until I found myself losing momentum and deviating from the original story, I grew disheartened by the monster I was creating and set it aside in a drawer.

But listening to all those songs reminded me of it. So out of the drawer it came. And I read it. And realised that it wasn’t all bad. It’s a bit shaky in places but it’s not all bad. Bits of it are only technically the first draft after all so they’re allowed to be a bit rubbish; other bits are technically a third draft so they have no excuse.


I was around page 70 of the handwritten rewrite and I suddenly felt inspired to try my hand at it again. It’s amazing how easily I’ve slipped back into it. All the characters are as familiar as old friends and although I’ve had a couple of sticking points I’m sailing ahead with it, in under a week I’d written around 15 pages. I'm now fast approaching my 100th handwritten page!

It’s still going to need a lot of polishing (which will happen when I type it up… whenever it gets to it’s denouement) but I may actually want to share it at some point, either on here or some other fiction site. But maybe someday it might actually see the light of day. At least it’s not stuck in a drawer any more.

See, the A to Z Challenge has many uses!