Appreciation

My wife and I were talking about how difficult it is for some people during this Covid-19 pandemic. We’ve been incredibly fortunate and I count my blessings every day. I know what it’s like to be out on your ass without two coins to rub together, walking around aimlessly with no idea what you’re going to do. It’s hard out there. It’s always been hard, and sometimes you just get lucky and life throws you a line. And sometimes you’re not. We don’t have control over these things, but we do have control over whether or not we want to be assholes about it. And that’s what I want my son to appreciate - that kindness is a courageous and powerful choice even if the universe sometimes tells us otherwise.

And there’s another thing he will need to remember when he appreciates the things that life has put his way. That almost everything he touches, eats, wears, or drinks has been picked, sorted, reared, assembled, or created through the labour of another. Apples don’t just magically appear in the supermarket or in our kitchen. Clothes aren’t just found in shops and warehouses. Our lives and our labour connect us all together, and the natural world that we live in. We’re part of an enormous, wonderful, and, at times, frightening fabric. We’re not islands. And even when life can be difficult, we are not alone.

Go Big or Go Home

Writing isn’t easy. I get that, but I can’t step away from it, even though it’s physically been impossible for me to have two seconds to myself, what with a house move and a one year old baby to help look after. And don’t get me started on the pandemic. But everyday, in my mind, there’s a small corner to myself where the stories bubble away and where I’ve been pondering the fundamental problem of how I am going to write a good - scratch that - fabulous story.

I’ve been lucky enough to have feedback from both a professional editor and a high profile agent, and for that I’m immensely grateful. The truth is, Damaskopolis as it is now is a generic novel. It’s too bland, bloated, and unwieldy. There are a lot of cool scenes, interesting characters, and a fascinating future world all peppered in between bland chapters that aren’t tying the story together very well. In fact, at times the story itself is a bit difficult for the reader to follow.

I’m going back to do another course, this time enticingly titled “How to write a Page Turner”. I know I can write dialogue, I can write interesting characters, and I’ve gotten better at setting the scene. But the magic stuff of putting it all together into an actualy story is a trick I have yet to master. I’ve been consciously avoiding tackling this beast for quite some time, but now I need to jump on and grab it by the mane.

It doesn’t matter how many story ideas you have or how much world building you do, if there isn’t a good old fashioned story in there somewhere, people aren’t going to bother reading your story. I don’t want to write a novel that people will politely tell me they ‘liked’. I want to write stories that pop out of the page and slap people in the face. I want to write white-knuckle rides and splashes of cold water that will have my friends and readers exhilarated at the end.

No more generic for me. It’s time to go big or go home!