Coffee Break: Introduction and Analogies

Morning everyone. I've been skulking round the back here without being brave enough to actually introduce myself for months now. I blog about writing here and about life in Newcastle here. I also am the main contributor to Newcastle upon Tyne Daily Photo. And the main reason I've never introduced myself is that...

(looks around for an escape route; can't see one)

... I've never decided which of the six novels that I've started (never getting more than a few thousand words into any) I should concentrate on.

I know (hangs head in shame).

So - it's time to commit, else I'll have to drop out and let someone else take my place. I'm B (also known as Beth; best call me that if you meet me in person) and I am writing on a novel around a young man who was abandoned as a baby; his adoptive mother; and his birth mother.

Aaaaah. That feels better.

Now, onto the Coffee Morning part of the proceedings. I have about seven different teas and various flavours of coffee (soya milk available if you'd prefer) and hot chocolate, with a lovely selection of pastries (dairy free available for anyone who wants them)... mmm.

Along with various other novel racers, I've been working on the Open University's Advanced Creative Writing over the last few months (as I'm sure many of you are sick of hearing about now!). One of the things we were expected to demonstrate a grip on was analogy.

I didn't get it. Why it's important. Why it's so hard to get right. Why I should care in the first place.

I started to understand when I likened the thoughts of one of my characters to a CD skipping in my final assignment; my tutor said she could imagine that this was something that was relevant to the character's life, that she could believe in that thought.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in my opticians, reading the February edition of Marie Claire. An article about drunk dialling - why you should (or shouldn't) get drunk and phone your ex/parents/whoever. And I came across this sentence:

I spent the next week bright red with shame, like a large, devastated strawberry.

[copyright Tanya Gold; Feb 09 Marie Claire]

And suddenly I got it. This one sentence made me happy. I spent the rest of the day grinning to myself. And I nicked the magazine from my opticians so I could write about it here today. Sorry.

I still don't understand how to get it right every time. But I finally that it can be an really, really useful tool. How it can bring colour (literally in this case, I suppose!) and extra depth to your writing.

Do you use analogy in your writing? Why/why not?

(sorry it's so long. Something shorter, and completely different, next week)

(and Michael Jackson! And Farrah Fawcett! What a strange day.)

Rejections

Another one today. I comfort myself that at least the novel is being read in its entirety rather than just the first three chapters. I felt quite resolute yesterday when I received the email saying No. But today I woke up feeling really down. You know - sluggish, irritable, insecure - all of that. It had evidently been brewing in my sleep. Then I thought about this agency and realised that a) I rang them twice and they never returned my calls; b) I emailed them several times and they didn't respond to my emails; c) the ms was lost in the post and d) they are a very long way from Cornwall. Do I really want an agent that treats me like that? Of course not. An agent should believe in me and my work, be behind me all the way. So I sent the first three chapters off to the next agent on my list before I could draw breath.

Today I will nurse my bruises and look out at the sun. I will decide who next to send it to, and keep my spirits up. But no one likes being kicked in the teeth (that's what it feels like) least of all me.

The good thing about writing journalism as well is that I went to the Farmers Market after walking the dog first thing and one of the stallholders saw me and said, "LOVELY article on David!" (This was one of the other stallholders I've just written a piece on.) THAT made me feel good!