Writers in Disguise

My mp3s have been playing up, but lovely Kim from The Storyteller's Blog has helped me out and there's now a player embedded in the side bar of the blog where you can hear me reading the opening of 'All the Lovely Ruined Things'. The pilot died laughing when I nervously played it to him last night - 'You sound about 12!' I was planning to record some of the past blog posts which have the most comments for you ... but maybe I'll stop now if it's excruciating (cringe). Let me know if it would be helpful - just thought it might be useful to be able to download some writers prompts to your ipods. Still, good to learn something new - and for anyone else interested in putting recordings on their blogs, there are brilliant instructions on the Storyteller's blog - thank you Kim.

Is it any wonder writers hide behind their characters? Poke your head above the parapet and you get told you sound like a twelve year old. The last time I did any acting was at school ... then I was told I sounded like Lady Di. It's always odd hearing your own voice recorded isn't it? Maybe it would be better if I sounded like Betty Boop or James Earl Jones as John speculated ... If anyone has any tips about book readings I'd love to know. Alan Bennett was talking about the writer's dilemma. He said he often has difficulties with his central character - while those around take on vivid personalities, there they are 'passive, dejected, at odds with themselves, they are that old friend, the writer in disguise'. Do you think you do that? Are your protagonists fictional versions of yourself - do you give them your voice?

TODAY'S PROMPT: Do you 'write what you know'? Or do you write outside your experience? Bennett also said: 'one seldom sits down knowing exactly what one wants to say, the knowing very often coming out of the saying. A writer does not always know what he or she knows, and writing is a way of finding out.' I think it was Stephen King who said first drafts are just getting the story down. In the second draft you figure out what the story is really about, and enhance this - cutting out anything that diminishes this. Today, why not push your comfort zone - try something new. If your work is based on 'you' and your experience of the world why not pick something external and random (a postcard, news item, song on the radio), and write a few paragraphs about somewhere or someone you've never been.