Creating Reality

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been completely immersed in writing the final chapters of my first novel, G.O.D. It’s a long, complicated, solitary task, and as a result, I’ve found that I don’t have much to blog about, as I’ve been living in a fantasy world and become a little detached from people and reality. Or so I thought.

Writing and structuring a novel actually relates to living life in many ways, as you’re constantly planning, overcoming problems, or following and developing characters on their own journey through existence. It has ups and downs, easy times and difficult ones. Sometimes you love what you’re doing and never want it to end, and others you just want to screw the whole thing up, throw it away, forget about it and start all over again.

It got me thinking philosophically about the links between fact and fiction and the universal truths they share. Being the author of somebody else’s story teaches you that you are also the creator of your own.

Here are a few more things I’ve learned from the writing process that can be applied to the everyday:

Five lessons that writing fiction has taught me about real life

1. Don’t worry about mapping out the plot

It might be useful to begin everything with a precise story structure in place, but it’s not always possible or necessary, and following a carefully planned route can become quite robotic. Chances are that when you actually start out on your chosen road, you’ll be forced to make unscheduled stops, avoid obstacles, pick up passengers and take unexpected turns. You might even hit a wall. Some of these interruptions will get you completely lost, but others will take you exactly where you needed to be, and some might do both, even if you don’t arrive at your original destination. In life and in writing, spontaneity can be hugely beneficial, and you always have the choice of whether to explore a different path, turn back, or simply continue along the one you know. Often it’s only when you stop over-thinking and fretting about questions that the answers come.

2. Everything can change in a moment

In reality, as in fiction, all it takes is one occurrence, or a few words. They might form a confession, an acceptance, a rejection, some breaking news, an accident, a pregnancy, a death, a chance meeting, or any number of other common incidents that hold the power to revolutionise an individual’s world in a single sentence. Each can happen at any time, and have the potential to throw everything into disarray, or make it all fall into place. They can perfect or destroy someone’s life, or radically alter their perception of it in an instant. Often, the event itself is not the important thing; it’s the character in question’s reactions and responses that make the biggest difference to the story. Whether it’s tiny, dramatic, joyful or tragic, everything that happens offers opportunities for growth and development.

3. Let go

Sometimes, no matter how much you love something, or how much effort you put into it, it just doesn’t work out. In those instances, it’s better to walk away or at least take a break from the thing that causes you pain than to waste time and energy allowing it to torture and dishearten you. Clinging onto people, ideas or dreams that have fulfilled their purpose or don’t serve you or your story can only be harmful to both. Don’t let one impossibility prevent you from seeing the myriad of new possibilities that lie beyond it. Life and novels progress in chapters, and one has to end in order for the next to begin. Keep moving forward, even if it means that precious things are left behind. If they are meant to have a part in your script, they will find a way to return.

4. Actions speak louder than words

A wise tutor once told me that you can't be a writer unless you write. In life and in literature, it’s what people do and how they treat others that defines them, and one small deed can be worth a thousand spoken words.  A person’s beliefs can reveal a lot about them, but their behaviour discloses even more. In life, it’s important to notice if a person’s conduct matches what they say, and in writing it can be a useful device to expose a character’s authenticity whether it does or it doesn’t. Lengthy speeches, explanations, theories and declarations can be as tedious to read as they are to listen to, and whatever they are attempting to express can always more excitingly portrayed through action, so think visually. If your life, or your novel, were adapted into a film, would it capture your attention? Protagonists should not only narrate their story, but actively participate in it. Showing thoughts and feelings is always more powerful than simply telling them.

5. Be yourself

Never try to act, look, or write like somebody else. They’ve already got it covered, so you and your work will only lack sincerity and originality as a result. It’s great to admire others, but don’t let it lead you to imitation. Discover and celebrate what’s unique about you and channel that into everything you do. Putting your personal stamp on something is exactly what will distinguish it as yours, and make it recognisable and interesting to others. In life, there’s no need to aspire to be perfect, and in prose, there’s no need to write in a highbrow, 'Literary-with-a-capital-L’ way. Use your own voice, imagination, knowledge, experiences, idiosyncrasies, vocabulary, points of view and points of reference, because they are the things that truly belong to you and nobody else can ever possess the same. It will make you and your work so outstanding that you will become the one to inspire others.

If you’d like to see more of my writing, including extracts from G.O.D., visit http://www.shelleyirving.com

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Comments and feedback always welcomed here, or contact me directly: shelley@shelleyirving.com

Come back and visit soon, it gets lonely with just me and my laptop!

Grammar: the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.

My friends call me the Grammar Bitch.

I’m sure it’s not offensive, most of my friendships are based on affectionate insults and I like to think I give as good as I get. It actually makes a pleasant change to be mocked for something other than being a pasty, vegetarian hippie with ginger hair and a Liverpudlian accent. In fact, if I’m excessively nice and polite towards someone, it’s a sure sign that I feel uncomfortable, because if I genuinely like a person, I’m much more likely to laugh at them and call them names throughout general conversation.

Besides, in a country where few natives seem able to write fluent and proper English any more, I have to say, I’m quite proud of the title.

As a writer and English graduate, I’m probably bugged by bad spelling, grammar and punctuation more than most people. Modern word processors may auto-correct mistakes, but that’s no excuse to become dependent on them and even they, in their infinite inhuman wisdom, get it badly wrong at times.

Why can’t people see that one comma, apostrophe or typo can change the entire meaning of a sentence?! There’s the famous story of the murderous panda that eats, shoots and leaves. And statements like:

A woman without her man is nothing.

Which could also be written as: A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Same words, entirely different sentiment!

Text speak is a particular irritant. I can understand and just about tolerate its use in text messages, where people may be caught on the move and have only a limited amount of characters to express themselves (although I, as Grammar Bitch, still insist on using complete, punctuated sentences even in this medium). But why introduce it to other forms of writing? While it appears lazy on the page, I can’t help but think that skipping vowels and purposely misspelling every word must take more time and effort than simply typing the correct words would...

It also seems like nobody understands or cares about the differences between there, their and they’re; where, were and we’re; you’re and your; two, to and too, or its and it’s. Apostrophes, rather than being used correctly, are instead freely and unnecessarily misplaced in pluralised words – I’ve seen many a shop sign advertising Pizza’s, CD’s or Flower’s and wondered what those items could possibly be in possession of. All of these examples can completely alter what someone is trying to express, or just turn it into total nonsense.

There’s also the problem of the misuse of words themselves. People say ‘should of’ instead of ‘should have’ and ‘am’ to mean ‘I’m’. ‘Affect’ and ‘effect’ have become interchangeable, despite conveying almost opposite meanings.

Some People, For Some Inexplicable Reason, Will Even Start Every Word In A Sentence With A Capital Letter, yet use a lower case ‘i’ when referring to themselves, or say they live in london with their sister, jane. I’m also starting to wonder if there’s anybody else left in the world that can spell definitely, as I see so many other variations of it. And these are just the things that bother me most; I could go on and on and on...

The art of letter writing may be dead, but there’s still plenty to annoy me in emails, and sometimes it takes all my strength not to proofread my news feed and correct everyone’s Facebook statuses. I often spot obvious mistakes in newspapers and magazines or on TV news reports, and find such errors from professional journalists unforgiveable. People regularly ask me why I don’t teach, and there are many, many reasons for that, but one is that marking badly written essays might just push me over the edge and drive me to permanent, angry insanity. I have a lot of European friends who can speak and write better English as a second, third or fourth language than some people I grew up with in Britain. For such a patriotic nation, I think we should be ashamed of that.

It’s not stupidity that causes these mistakes, just the widely held assumption that it doesn’t matter, and speaking in my role as Grammar Bitch, that makes me sad. I love the constant evolution of language, the introduction of new words, and the playing around with old ones. It’s a fascinating cultural phenomenon, and that’s why I don’t like to see it slipping backwards.  It took thousands of years and influences from a lot of other beautiful languages to develop our own, vast and complex vocabulary into what it is today, and it deserves to be preserved. It’s far too precious a thing to lose (NOT loose!).

If you’d like to see more of my writing, visit http://www.shelleyirving.com, where I’ll be adding new short stories and articles soon.

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