Tag: creativity

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Better to tell a Story or Write a Story 

In the forthcoming year there’s going to be a slight change in the way that I produce my books. Actually it’s a pretty fundamental change. Various authors have seen the benefit of dictating their books in a rough first draft before then editing. But the amount of writing produced has increased and enabled them to produce more whilst not sacrificing quality.

I have prepared for this step change by purchasing a dictation machine with software for my computer which will translate the dictation into written format. So far I have completed some tests with the device and have started training it to my Northern Irish brogue. And I have to say that first results are pretty good.

I still remembering having dictation on the computer some 20 years ago when the results made my words look like Yoda was on speed. Despite creating a whole new language, it was a disaster and I abandoned the idea of “talking” to the machines. But technology has moved on and hopefully it will move on my writing this year.


Last year I produced 2 novels, “The Darkness at Dillingham and “Surface Tensions”, both early in the year. Things got a little delayed after that but I also have my 3rd Austerley & Kirkgordon novel in the final drafts as well as a short story to go with it. There is also a totally new venture, “Dark Wen” awaiting more editing.


The thing about using dictation is that my writing habits need to change. I need quiet to dictate, so for the first drafts the coffee shops will not be so prevalent (this is a major disappointment). Even in the house it will require getting up early to dictate so as not to be disturbed. This will hopefully also fit better into the daily workings of our household but there is definitely a suck it and see aspect to it all.

The grand plan is to produce 8 books next year. This is ambitious but then we need to aim for the heights or we stay in the valleys. So look forward to more intrigue, fantasy, action and adventure, as well as some new characters, including a Scarlett O’Meara and a myriad of mythological beasts.

So this is a sign-off for this old year and hopefully bounding into the new year to bring novels aplenty!


Happy reading in the New Year and as always thanks for your interest!

Gary

G R Jordan

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Has Electronic Life wiped out Books?


I recently read an article about Jacqueline Wilson (link) and amongst the views attributed to her was that she believed that “Electronic life has wiped out books.” This seems like a strong statement but what is the truth behind it? According to the Washington Post (link) there has been over a 16% decline in adults who read at least one literary work per year from 1982 to 2015 from just under 57% to 43.1%. I find that quite shocking as the percentage in 1982 already seems low. 
Apparently there are more things to amuse us nowadays. With our smartphones we can surf the web or read our emails, play games or watch more television programs. I am a fan of television series and do watch a number of films and programs a week but one important thing I find with the cinematic art form is that while it may exercise your brain with issues brought to the fore, it doesn’t drive your imagination.

Surely imagination is the well spring for creativity. Without imagination our whole society would struggle to function. How would we develop, how would we grow without that capacity to think what would be and then working out how to get there? And surely books are the playground for that creativity.


I’m not saying that books are the only playground for any of the creative arts will do that. Sculpture, basket weaving, drama, embroidery, painting, etc.. are all pastimes that will drive the imagination. But when we simply hover over what I would call static detail, that which is fixed and cannot be changed, then our imagination will die.

I don’t think Jacqueline Wilson is totally right, well, not yet. But she certainly has hit the nail on the head with how things are heading.

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Fear of Failure

fear of failure

There’s nothing like a job interview to bring out the fear of failure. fear of failure

Fear of failure in a job interview

Have you been to a job interview recently? Have you sat across a table from your prospective employers to face the barrage of questions which seek to determine your suitability for that particular job? Usually they ask you to demonstrate times in your career when you can show that you demonstrated the attributes for the role in question. You relate your successes, explaining how you achieved those wondrous things that your previous employer was so enamoured with.

But how many would-be employers ask you about your failures? How many ask you what you managed to salvage from the wreckage? Or seek to see the building blocks that made you successful in the areas the work demands? How many seek to know what you have learned?

Facing your fears (and even using them)

Successful entrepreneurs are not people who have never failed, but rather people who have learnt from their failures. And most importantly they are prepared to give it a go.

Ken Robinson, the education guru, once told the story of a little girl in a drawing lesson (TED talks) . Normally this little girl was very quiet and somewhat withdrawn but in this lesson she was really going at the drawing she was making. So the teacher asked, “What are you drawing?” and the little girl responded, “a picture of God.” “But noone knows what God looks like?” answered the teacher. And the little girl replied, “They will in a minute.” Mr Robinson’s point was that children will give it a go even when they don’t know how to proceed. They are not afraid of failure.

So often we do not take the chances in life because the result is unknown. Or we are unsure if what we will create will be a success. And so we stifle our creative spirit because we are afraid to risk, we become risk-averse. Hence we settle for what is, not because it is wonderful but because we are afraid to pursue what is better, in case we don’t make it. In case we flunk. But isn’t life for embracing?

Taking risks

Christian commentator Tony Campolo, once surmised that risks need to be taken. He reported comments from a group of senior citizens who stated that the consequences of our failures are never as bad as we imagine. I contend that if we do not risk then we destroy ourselves, simmering away in our cauldron of mediocrity.

So the next time you wonder why you are sat in a life of boredom, or tedium then ask yourself are you risking anything to change it? Extend the hand to a stranger or an enemy, go for that job, take yourself out of the house, join that club, become a DJ at the local radio. Whatever it is, don’t fear the consequences. Weigh it up and make that jump. You might find your life takes off and you’re capable of more than you ever imagined.

What fear if failure did for me

There’s no doubt that the fear of failure meant I was over 40 before I self-published my first novel, Crescendo. It was a big risk but one worth taking. Whether or not it becomes a ‘best-seller’ is as yet undecided but the self-fulfillment and achievement of writing has made facing my fears totally justifiable.

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Crescendo Crowdfund Update!

Crescendo Crowdfund Update

Just a quick note to say I am one sixth of the way there with the crowdfund. Thanks to all the generous folk  who have contributed to help make this book happen. If you haven’t pledged and would like to, or simply require to know more check the link here. Thanks all you wonderful supporters.

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G R Jordan author, poet, and top Dad apparently!

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Methodically Creative – words combined that don’t make sense?

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It was my English teacher who said the word in a school report. Methodical. Truthfully I didn’t know what it meant. It sounded similar to the word on those cough sweets. Now that I know its meaning it is certainly an appropriate word for a man who likes to make lists, who sees a structure in apparent chaos, a guy who abhors sheer randomness. You probably know those devices for writing prompts. Spinning wheels or random numbers indicating your protagonist, the dilemma, the setting and the type of story. That is never me, never.

Unfortunately my creative side was never pushed and although apparent in my scientific nature, I struggled along on my own in the arts disciplines that I loved. Life was about getting a degree to get a job and then build a life. There was little room for my music, my poetry and my drama to be anything but pastimes. I look at my own kids now and hope I can stop myself from making that mistake.

Science is all about methodology and without doubt it is one of the reasons I am well suited to it. My mind is diagnostic in nature seeking what’s not as it should be, spotting the flaw in the machinery. However, repetition bores me and I struggle with mundane going through the motions during experimental practice. I think a lot of us do. Wrestling with the answers is where it’s at for me.

And so it is with my writing. I diagnose life around me. I dismantle and rebuild it, looking to see how it works, finding the flaw before this churning mix in my mind produces an image or story. My wife asks can I not write normal books? Well no because in the normal the flaw is not seen. So often we have to take the flaw out of its surroundings to see it for real with no compensations. But there is always a method in the way that I do this. I have my mode of working.

Sometimes I get into difficulty with editors because my way of understanding the world, my method, means I often leap across different POVs in the same chapter in order to compare different agendas and motives. A life time reading Pratchett probably taught me how to do this (although I am still the novice to the great master in this) but more importantly gave the encouragement to write in my own style and not cling to the methods of different instructors.

So I hope you can see I am methodically creative.Science and art mixing, left and right brain co-operating. I believe these opposites are present in all of us if we let them loose, in different forms and ways to be sure, but conflict to hone the content we produce. What two words combined that don’t make sense describe you? Let me know!

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G R Jordan author, poet, and top Dad apparently!