ass on chair
on writing advice and an upcoming live call
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While book #1 is out on submission, partly because I have this idea that won’t leave me alone, and partly because I’m trying to distract myself while other people make decisions about me and my work that are entirely out of my control, I am feeling around in the dark with the beginnings of a second book.
It is not proving to easy! All feels very murky, very hazy, I’m very unsure. I’m writing some truly awful prose! I don’t even know quite what it is I am trying to say (I’m reminded of Joan Didion saying she writes to work out what she thinks). But I also know there is the kernel of an idea here, an idea that won’t leave me alone, there is something worth shaping out of the massive lump of misshapen clay I’m plonking onto my Scrivner files day after day.
This is the image I have; that the first step in creating this book is to scrape a big dollop of clay onto the wheel. It is ungainly, it’s messy, it isn’t pretty, it doesn’t really look like anything much. But, once I have managed to get this lump onto the wheel, I can go back to it, wet my hands, start turning it, allow it to take shape. From my vast experience of potting (aka watching the Great Pottery Thrown Down!) I know that even after the clay is turned into a pot there are many many stages still to go; refining, adding sprigs, thinning out the base, carving out shapes on the surface, painting, glazing, firing it in extreme heat (is this the early readers you send it to?!). It’s a long process and not everything is clear at the start - I’ve read writers wiser and more experienced than me compare the process to driving at night with the headlights on – you don’t have to see everything, just enough ahead to keep going twenty metres, and then the next, and then the next.
So this is what I am doing right now - doggedly and boorishly writing down words. They are so SO far from what I would like them to be, but I can’t make a pot if I don’t have any clay. So I am continuing on until I have enough to start shaping.
I stuck this Post It to my computer the other day:
Which is advice I heard Robert MacFarlane give in a podcast I listened to recently. He said a lot more erudite things in the interview too, but I liked this very very much. Ass. On. Chair. Get the words down. There really is no other way.
He also spoke about pattern recognition, of how, once you have got all these scribblings and scattered thoughts down and started carving them out, you can begin to keep an eye out for patterns and motifs that appear, what is rising to the surface. It might be a surprising thing.
I am seeing those patterns appear all the time at the moment - I’m having that slightly magical experience where ideas relating to this new book keep presenting themselves in the strangest places. Conversations I have with strangers, snippets on the radio, a line in a book, something my child says. I’m gathering them all like a magpie, jotting down these shiny shards and shimmers and hoping to god I’ll be able to make sense of them soon!
What about you? Where are you at with your writing? How are you getting on managing to plonk your ass on the chair and get the words down?
If you’d like a little nudge, we still have two more weeks of our Sitting in the Dark early morning writing sessions (and more to come over the summer), plus I’m going to hold another MULCH Meeting call on June 11 7:30-8:30pm GMT+1.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about - a MULCH meeting is a casual Zoom call in which we chat for an hour about what we are working on, what we are struggling with, what is sparking our interest. I haven’t held one for a good while, but they are always really great ways to cross-pollinate ideas, find inspiration, get advice, have a good chat. Calls are open to all paid subscribers and it would be lovely to have you join. I’ll share more re in teh coming weeks, but pop it in your diary for now.
Layla xx
It sounds like an important idea is taking root under the surface of your mind/consciousness. By getting those words down you’re watering it until something starts to peak above the surface and you say “Aha! That’s what’s aim writing about!”
I’m like a Joan Didion - I often have to write to work out what I’m trying to say.
But I’m struggling so much with prioritising writing. My ass is on the chair but it’s dealing with myriad admin issues for my mother and brother if it’s not learning or working with my new client on her book.
I’d love to join your next mulch session and will do my level best! X
Ass on chair is such good advice. Which podcast was McFarlane speaking on?