My Busy, Lazy Week.

Last week was my first week back at work since lockdown began and, as a result, my writing came to a standstill until Sunday. It's not that there hasn't been any time, just that getting back into the routine and working hard has left me with little energy.

I used my first week back as a bit of an excuse to let my discipline go and do whatever non-taxing thing I wanted with my spare time. It's been a week of procrastination, but I've put my guilt about that to one side for the time being. It's not often I have the opportunity to watch what I want on TV or allow myself the luxury of doing nothing at all. So, just this once, I decided it was okay to be lazy during the hours I wasn't being busy with work or childcare.

Between writer's block on the children's book side of things and hating the chapter I was at with my editing, my motivation was somewhat lacking anyway. I think it would have been a tall order to expect to overcome those things at the same time as a total routine change and the physical tiredness resulting from the job itself.

There's a lot to be said for routines and timetables for writing projects, though I think the strictness of these will depend on the other variables in a person's life. For those of us who work another job and/or have small children, keeping our writing going is a challenge at times. Now and again, we need to cut ourselves some slack. I would find a completely regimented approach impossible.

Anyway, after almost a full week's break from writing and editing, on Sunday I was prompted by a friend to do something a bit different; enter a flash fiction competition. The task was to write a piece of up to 250 words of any genre.

I decided to give it a go and loved the challenge. The great thing about flash fiction is it's good practice for making your writing concise. With such a low word limit, every word has to work hard for its place on the page, which is how we should be writing our novels. No-one wants to read an author's irrelevant ramblings when they're trying to stay connected to a story.

The exercise of writing something – anything – gave me the kick start I needed, and I managed to fight my way through editing out the parts of that chapter I so despised. Now it just needs a little padding out with some more action. I still haven't overcome my writer's block where the children's book is concerned, but that's a job for some time this week. Maybe some inspiration will come to me.

Speaking of inspiration, an idea for a play came to me last night when I was listening to some music my drama teacher used for some of our performances in school. The beginnings of a plot and script began to form. I could picture the actors and the stage lighting. I envisioned scenes filled with emotion, the performers assaulting the audience's senses, performing in a similar style to Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty. I can't stop thinking about it now because, you know, I don't already have enough projects on the go.

It's funny how an idea can just hit you out of nowhere. All it took for me was time and space to switch off from everything else, then the music became my stimulus. Inspiration doesn't always hit at the most convenient times, or for the project I've got in hand, but knowing my ideas haven't run dry completely is a great comfort.

V.

Prose and Prejudice: My Battle Against Hate.

It's been a while since my last post because inspiration for a topic has eluded me. Anyway, it's about time I made an appearance. I tend not to blog for the sake of it. I imagine that would make for pretty boring reading.

Yesterday, I was just about to write a check-in post about what I've achieved with my writing over the past week or so. Basically, I've just been plugging away at the novel editing, making steady progress (which I hope to keep up when I go back to my day job on Monday.) Then, I moved on to what I hadn't achieved; the neglect of my blog and the fact that I still hadn't done any work on children's books.

I put my lack of creative output down to a negative mindset. With all the unkindness and sheer ugliness in the world at the moment, a dark cloud has been hovering over me. In particular, all the racist and transphobic people of the world have crawled out of the woodwork in response to Black Lives Matter and Pride month respectively. What's more anti-trans people feel all the more validated (not that they needed any encouragement) in their harmful rhetoric because of J. K. Rowling's anti-trans tweets. The hateful comments from cis men are bad enough, but then we have TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) implying that somehow the trans rights movement is in some way harmful to their own gender identities. 

Look, as a cisgender female and a feminist, the idea that trans rights would in any way threaten women's rights or women's safety doesn't ring true. To my mind, it's just an excuse to marginalise some people in the way that all women have been marginalised for centuries. The hypocrisy is astounding. But I digress.

When I thought about all this and the pain I was, and still am, feeling on behalf of my fellow humans, I realised there was a way to lift myself up and out of my melancholy state. Instead of soaking in all the negativity and evil in the world, I could put some positivity into the mix.

In my last post, I wrote about using writing and other art forms to help change the world for the better. The most effective way I can think of to change the world is through education. Unfortunately, many adults are too stubborn to accept that their deep-rooted beliefs might be incorrect. They don't want to read anything, scientific or biographical, which would open their minds. They don't see anything wrong in their unkind words and behaviours and they'll defend their bigotry to the death. If we want to make future generations better, kinder and happier than ours, we need to introduce the right kind of ideas and values to children. Time for me to pick up writing children's books again, then.

This in mind, I've started to write a book which aims to promote racial equality. After that, I intend to write one addressing tans kids with the aim of helping such children feel seen, and cultivate understanding in their peers. This would create inclusivity on two levels: the acceptance from writer and book characters and acceptance from their own friends.

If these books get published, I'm going to get a lot of hate for the second one, I know I am. But I can't let that stop me. It's no good me sitting over here, literally in tears over how cruel people are to one another if I'm not willing to do anything about it. Just starting to write the first one has cheered me up because I feel like I'm being proactive and my work might actually make a difference to someone someday. I'm willing to take some shit from narrow-minded people if it helps just one child through a difficult and confusing time. 

Frankly, if any adult challenges my attempts to try and make the world a less scary place for some children, I would seriously question their humanity. I mean, who wants a child to feel isolated, lost, abandoned and bullied? No-one I want to know, that's for sure.

So, there we are; a brief summary of what's been on my mind and what I'm working on right now. To anyone who's feeling down about the world, like me, hang in there. There's a lot of hate out there, but try to remember there are still a lot of us who love and care about people. If we all do what we can to spread the love, maybe we can tip the scales.

V.

Black Lives Matter: What can artists do to help political causes?

A week on from the murder of George Floyd, the world is reeling and many of us want to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but aren't really sure what we can do to assist. It's uncomfortable, feeling helpless when action is so badly needed.

We British citizens can write to our local MP demanding the UK suspends the sale of riot shields, rubber bullets and tear gas to the USA (there's also a petition for this at www.change.org)  and that we publicly condemn Donald Trump and his administration for the attacks on innocent protesters and press. I would encourage you all to do this. Protests are a little trickier because of coronavirus and social distancing. It's understandable not to want to attend mass gatherings at this time.

Going forward, we can challenge racist behaviours and comments where we hear them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a great deal of "All Lives Matter" rhetoric on social media, which winds me up no end. People who say that are contributing to the problem. Yes, all lives are important, but it's not white lives that are in danger every day because of their skin colour, is it? The fact that all lives matter is the very point that the BLM movement is trying to make because, historically, black people have been treated like they don't matter. Enough is enough.

I'm not sure being a keyboard warrior over social media is the answer, though. The people who don't see the problem and aren't willing to listen are not going to have their minds changed by the rest of us commenting on their ignorance and privilege. Social media disagreements just seem to make everyone, on all sides, dig their heels in even further. Nobody wants to listen; they just want to be right.

So, social media might not be the place where people are listening. How about getting the message out by other, calmer channels through which people might be in a better position to hear and absorb other perspectives. I'm talking specifically about the arts.

When someone reads a book, browses artwork in a gallery, watches a film or piece of theatre, or listens to music, they are generally more rested, open, calm. They are looking and listening. I think everyone appreciates some form of art, and this is the way we can reach the masses with important political messages. It doesn't have to be heavy-handed or explicit either. It can be subtle, symbolic. In fiction, for example, we could show characters going through the kind of plight we want to draw attention to. We can raise awareness and empathy. We can make the reader feel another person's pain.

In 2018 the musician, Hozier, teamed up with Mavis Staples and wrote a song called "Nina Cried Power," and this song brings to attention the lack of activism in music these days as compared with a past era. It lists people (notably Nina Simone and Mavis Staples herself) who used their music as a call to arms and created anthems for human rights protests. If we, as artists, want to help a particular cause, this is exactly the answer. We can use our platform to inspire change. We can cry power.

My work-in-progress is not explicitly political, but its themes include the mistreatment and underestimation of women and projects hope for a brighter future. I do this by detailing the struggles and victories of my female characters. In the enmity between men and elves, parallels can be drawn between their battle and the battles between different races in our world. The tendency of humans in my novel to take over everything and crave absolute power is an obvious reflection of real world issues like war and dictatorship. An imbalance of wealth is also featured in the story.

These are the ways in which we can make our fiction challenge the more damaging and dangerous ways of the world. Of course, if you want to write something more explicit and tied to reality, even if you want to write an essay or a work of non-fiction, go for it! But if, like me, your genre is fantasy or you want your work to be a lighter, easier read, we can still strike a chord with political movements without making our stories into lectures.

Of course, this blog is about writing, so I've focused heavily on this particular medium, but this applies to other artists too. Musicians, sing your outrage. Painters, get that pain onto the canvas. Playwrights and screenwriters, show the masses exactly what's wrong with the world. Our work isn't going to make immediate change, but we can make our own small contributions to the awareness of society.

It's not just about our own work either, but about appreciating the art and literature of black artists. White people can help project the message loud and clear by making the conscious choice to read/ look at /listen to this work and recommend it to others. Not only can it enlighten us and give us perspective, but in passing it on, we can help to get closer to equal representation and the education of the general public.

I'd just like to wrap this up by saying to the black community, I can never understand what you go through, but I stand with you. Let's all stand up against the injustice, whatever it takes. So often in history, it has taken violent protests and damage to property for minorities to make themselves heard and change things for the better. Think women's suffrage, think Stonewall, think apartheid. Remember this before you say

it's wrong and solves nothing.

Peace and love to you all.

V.