Writing is something that a lot of people believe to be constant, unchanging. And to a great extent, they're right. Writing is essentially the conquering of the blank page, as it always has been. Whether that's for the purposes of wringing emotion, laughter, pathos or ethos from your reader, it's basically been the same forever. But the method to that writing has altered considerably, not just over the last century, but my own writing life, which loosely I credit with starting in earnest near the beginning of 1997.
I would have loved to have written in Victorian England. OK, there would be no Spellcheck, a very basic Thesaurus, and fewer opportunities for publication. But the idea of writing by Quill and Ink, of sealing letters with red wax stamps, candlelit writing at a bureau stocked to the gills with notepaper, random notes, research books, maps, the idea thrills me to even think of it. However, my own methods of writing have changed enormously, and looking into them, they're no less interesting in reality.
I began writing a novel, which is odd to me really, as that desire didn't resurface after that for a full six years. Aged 18, and mid-GCSE's, it seemed at the time like more of a distraction from tedious revision. I made no notes, I just started writing, and it was called Alert, and based on my favourite TV programme at the time, Red Dwarf. There were three parts to it, 'Blue' (Alert), Mauve (Alert) and Red...well, you see where my primitive style was going. It was fairly imaginative, but went nowhere, and was handwritten, on A4 lined paper.
My second foray into writing was scrawls. Those random Victorian notes I dreamed of I guess. What I wrote were jokes, often puns, or observations. I stuck them onto the fridge of the pub I was cooking in, being a chef at the time (it's still a four-letter word to me) and in the evenings, rehearsed the delivery of them until I made myself laugh. It wasn't easy. And whilst it led to performances alongside Ross Noble and Tim Vine on a few stages, it didn't lead to the fulfillment I was looking for.
Having changed locations a lot, my writing style changed to screenplays, two plays were started and the experience of writing these stood in me in good stead. Again these were handwritten, the year was 1998, but I had no computer. All my work was handwritten. This continued in my writing of short-storied, a short film, more performance stuff, audition pieces, etc. It continued all the way up to my debit novel. The original copy of Cats Don't Eat Pancakes was handwritten, all 367 pages of it, and edited by scrawls in the margin, on the page, everywhere. It was a mess. Such a mess in fact, that when Micaila persuaded me to type it up, turn it into something solid and do something with it, it was a huge amount of work. Editing on the computer was difficult, time-consuming, slow and uncomfortable.
I still make a lot of notes, little pieces of paper, that eventually get copied up into a book. Nowadays though, it's more about the surrounding environment - desk-space, soft-light, chapter plans or logistical guides to how I progress the script or book with each chapter or scene. All those things are important, and yet the desire to make notes and develop these into chapters, scenes, whatever. My writing method is making a note, copying it, typing in a peaceful environment, printing it out and tearing it apart so that the person I give that work to (long-game, the reader) doesn't tear it up also!
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