Creativity

Today, for me, has been full of creativity. This morning I was talking to Cynthia Selwyn about some story ideas, for her work and mine, and I was getting ridiculously excited (if you don't know her, she's written some short erotica stories, and when she told me that was her pen name after a few weeks of chatting, I squeed like a kid).

And this afternoon I met up with two local writers, Sarah Banham and Sarah-Jane Bird. Sarah's had eight books published, and the three of us met up to talk about Sarah-Jane and I deciding how to publish and what to do to be publish-ready and taking some wonderful advice from a lady who, after about five minutes, I worked out had the same goals as me. Maybe not in terms of writing itself, but we both want the same overall achievement. We're three Essex girls, who don't act like the stereotype and want to abolish it. Sarah does workshops and a couple of radio shows, editing, the whole shebang, and I think I'm in awe of her, not only for that, but because, like most of the writers I know, she does it despite some very real barriers.

It was good, because Sarah-Jane has a lot of the same thoughts and worries as I do about going forward with our manuscripts, so to know I'm not alone in wanting to put quality material out there but accepting that we're at the point of needing professional help, and the pitfalls that come with wading through the mystery surrounding editing and publishing … I have a feeling it's going to be one of those things I worry over and worry over, and I'll find a solution and look back. And when I look back, I'll realise that the information was all there, all along, and it was only my mental barriers that prevented me going forward sooner.

Sarah-Jane had some great advice too, based on what she knows about my work. She was working off my synopsis, but she summarised it beautifully, in a way I can't, because I just feel too close to it. I tell myself stories about Lamb and Carter going to bed, they're chatting as I wake up. I know things about them five years before the series starts, I know what happens when they're ninety. I've surrounded myself with their world and it's hard to step back and look at it in stark terms.

I feel like, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, NaNoWriMo, Fanfiction.net and leaving McDonald's to work for Dune/Lydia/freedom was like, the best thing to happen to me. It's hard to feel lonely writing when you know people who are ten, twenty, thirty minutes away who have lived or are living exactly what you are. It's healthy to get to know your peers and create a support network.

I think I'm understanding more and more why the acknowledgements pages of books run as long as they do and list so many people. Even without your agents and publishers, you have your beta readers and writing groups and reading groups and friends who read for the joy of reading … there are so many layers to writing. It's like making lasagne, you can't have lasagne without pasta, or tomato sauce, or cheese sauce, or the filling. You can't construct it properly without layers. You need to write - and edit - in layers, and you need help from others to make those layers (unless you're showing off and made the mince and ground the flour to make the pasta etc etc).

Having said that, I haven't written much today. It's been nearly all storyboarding. But sometimes, creativity has to come first, and then the writing process.