read an extract from my play FALLING FROM GRACE here:
Buy it here:
FALLING FROM GRACE – the life and times of Shane McGowan
read an extract from my play FALLING FROM GRACE here:
Buy it here:
Author: gorgeousgael
BEWARE – WRITER AT WORK!
In my view writing should be like masturbating – best done in the privacy of your own home. Though nowadays with the advent of the internet, and with CCTV everywhere, in might be a little difficult for both occupation in that respect. Although many writers eschew the notion of writing in a garret – what ever that may be. J K Rowling springs to mind; she famously is said to have written most of her first Harry Potter book in an Edinburgh cafe. I expect the multi-millionaire is a bot more discreet these days!
My own idea of a ‘garret’? Just a small room with a desk, laptop, my books etc, that I call my den. It’s kind of claustrophobic, but I like it like that, I feel it helps me concentrate – if it was big and airy and too comfortable I might be tempted to do nothing at all! Ernest Hemingway had it about right: ‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.‘
Papa at work.
Well, maybe I don’t bleed, but sometimes it feels like it. You can’t sit there waiting for inspiration to come but that blank page can be mesmerizing at times ; the longer you stare at it the less inclined the words are to appear. Hemingway always left a piece of his previous day’s work unfinished so that he had something to begin the new day with. I try to do that as much as possible myself; failing that I write any old rubbish that comes into my head to kick-start my thought processes. It’s a bit like a car with a dodgy battery; once I’m up and running I chug along okay.
I never write for more than a couple of hours at a stretch. Then I may read for a while or go for a walk. I also like to listen to other people; on buses, on trains, in the shops; you can get some great lines for use in your work. Most people never listen; they are too busy talking.
Nowadays I type directly on to my laptop, but when I started twenty years ago all I had was a cheap typewriter, a Smith Corona I think it was. These days I don’t know how I managed with such primitive equipment! There is no excuse for sloppy writing in today’s world; all the facilities are there at the touch of a button for editing, spell-checking etc. All the high tech improvements may not make one a better writer but they certainly make writing easier.
Happy writing!
DIGITAL BUS SHELTERS, BIKE SHEDS & STREET CORNERS
Time was when the bus shelter, bike shed or street corner was regarded as meeeting places for the youth of the time. Places where you could have a puff on an illicit ciggy, a quick fumble, or whatever turned your mojo on – away from the prying eyes of the ADULTS. Nowadays it’s all digital; the meeting places are more likely to be Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, WhatsApp etc – but not Facebook, which is now seen as the territory of the over 50’s. Technology, which in theory should have liberated teenagers, has instead trapped many. Their lives have become narrower and more transcribed; banned from many open spaces such as shopping malls, not allowed to ride on public transport unchaperoned, online public space is for many the only public space they have. Most of them are addicted to their phones and their computers, and this is where their friendship groups live. Online. Digital Friends. IN A DIGITAL WORLD.
Oh for a return to a less complicated,more innocent time!
WHAT READERS SHOULD KNOW
I borrowed this piece from writer 9e Hammon’s blog. She says it a lot better than I ever could.
http://www.niniehammon.com/what-every-writer-must-tell-every-fan/#comment-33119
THE HEMINGWAY CONNECTION
Apparently this is the Hemingway-themed layout. Can’t see the connection myself, unless the barn is meant to represent a writer’s garret. Not that Papa ever wrote in a garret as far as I know. He always wrote standing up, on a tall,sloped desk, everything handwritten before being typed up. He was usually an early morning writer, and the location invariably was his bedroom, and he was usually finished by lunch-time. Certainly this was his routine during the years he spent at his villa, Finca Vigia,in Havana Cuba. Years of heavy drinking and high living caused him all sorts of health problems and he blew his brains out early one morning at his residence in Ketcham Idaho in the summer of 1961. Maybe it’s the best way to end it all; not the long slide to oblivion but the quick end from the speeding bullet.
Advice from Papa; Write drunk, edit sober.
More advice from Papa; Writing is easy,you just sit at your typewriter and bleed.
HIGH TEA ON A LOW TABLE
with my son Trevor on my birthday yesterday
ELVIS AIN’T DEAD
Finally got my website up and running properly. Now to fill my blog with words of wsidom. If only it was that easy! Writers block is a much bandied word, though I think it is more like writers seizure in my case. They say you should try and write your way through it. Easier said than done! Never mind, here’s a poem that might ease the symptoms;
ELVIS AIN’T DEAD
Another juggernaut rocks the Van
But Van just smiles
And sings Brown-eyed Handsome Man.
Then The Lady in Red joins in
And Chris De Burgh bangs loudly on a tin.
You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Houndog
Can be heard from up ahead
And a squeaky voice pipes up
Hey, Elvis ain’t dead!
He drivin’ that big old truck up front.
Goddamn! Says Bo Diddley
Aint’ he some cupid stunt!
BRENDAN BEHAN STANDS UP
BRENDAN BEHAN STANDS UP
By Tom O’Brien
A monologue
A bar. Brendan is entertaining the customers. A glass of milk sits on the table.
BRENDAN: (sings) Oh a hungry feelin’ came oe’r me stealin’
And the mice were squealin’ in my prison cell
And the auld triangle went jingle jangle
CRICKLEWOOD COWBOYS – NEW PAPERBACK
Now available to buy on Amazon
My Writing Life 