Writing Or Rather Not
By Chris Roberts
The sad truth is I don’t write that much, or, at least nothing like as much as I’d like. What I do is spend an awful lot of time doing things around writing. Mostly this involves publicity, events and editing of stories for One Eye Grey (the 21st century penny dreadful I publish). Then there is the ongoing, and extremely dull, rewriting of existing material so publishers can find new ways of rejecting it and, of course, there are the scripting of my London walking tours and attendant communication around them. Oh and of course the four days in the library that actually keep body, soul and cat together.
What writing I do is structured around those and naturally the everyday things from grocery shopping to hobbies and social events. I expect this is true for many people and don’t wish to make a big deal out of it because I’m lucky in my job – working in a library is handy when it comes to research – and increasingly my social life has followed my interests in writing. So the book that is currently being kicked into the long grass by publishers – Football Voodoo – and One Eye Grey to which I contribute a few stories every year are helped by going to football and folklore events, for example. These are useful for research (I’m very boring with my notebooks of hastily jotted bits and pieces), keeping focused on the idea and meeting like-minded people. The latter group are vital because how I make myself do things is to talk about them, that way in order not to appear a liar I have to follow through. The other thing is to be very organised about taking opportunities when they present themselves, this piece for example is being written on a train journey to North Wales.
Averaged out over the past five years I suppose there is a non fiction book published every 18 months (the latest called Lost English is out now and written in a rush from December to May) and for every published one another goes unpublished, not to mention the completed but unstaged Margaret Thatcher musical. Alongside these have been twenty five published short stories, a dozen talks, twenty fresh walking tour scripts and a few articles. At the moment I’m involved in a project relating to delivery of fiction down mobile phones, an idea for a Welsh version of One Eye Grey called Dark Valleys and am warily sniffing about some of my older ideas like the great Brixton lido novel I’ve wanted to write for years.
The reality is though that most of what I think of doing doesn’t get done and a combination of idleness, pragmatism and finance dictates the writing agenda as it does all others. The simple facts of my day to day life and interests naturally predispose me to short easily assembled pieces that link together to form a whole. For example my book on London’s Bridges (Cross river traffic) is simply broken up by bridge as my book on nursery rhymes (Heavy Words Lightly Thrown) is by rhyme. This coupled with an ability to link seemingly unrelated facts together means I can work in bits and small time frames, assembling a book or larger project. In fact it’s the only way I can work because the writing time is pretty much snatched at, though weekends and Mondays do allow for longer stretches.
With the larger projects I do construct a framework – which may initially be completely different to the finished one – that can be no more than a list of song titles or bad puns from which the chapters emerge. One thing which astonished me was how much work there is from the decently advanced draft stage to the finished item, hence my vexation at rewriting the numerology chapter for Football Voodoo for the tenth time. Publishers increasingly want something as near to the finished article as possible and the support formerly offered to many writers quite simply isn’t there as it once was. Working with an editor – however much that might annoy you – is incredibly helpful as it provides what most writers want, feedback from a professional source. It was one of the things I noticed writing Heavy Words which was initially self-published then republished and edited by Granta in the UK and Gotham in the US.
I don’t have that contact now through any one publisher, nor do I have an agent (another source of such advice). I do use an editorial service – for polishing One Eye Grey and own material sometimes – and do have friends in publishing I can ask for specific advice. I also have noticed that since editing One Eye Grey I’m getting very good at spotting how other people’s stories can be easily improved. Sadly I can’t seem to transfer that talent to my own output very well.
About the author:
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Chris Roberts can be stalked online as @oneeyegrey on Twitter and most of his barking schemes end up at www.fandmpublications.co.uk Lost English (words and phrases that have vanished from our language) emerged blinking into the sunshine in Autumn 2009 courtesy of Michael O'Mara Books and Football Voodoo: Magic, Superstition, and Religion in the Beautiful Game was published in May 2010 by F and M Publications. Details of the latest issue of One Eye Grey can be found at http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/oneeyegrey.htm. |
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