{"id":6378,"date":"2020-11-13T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/of-abseiling-and-avoidance\/"},"modified":"2020-11-13T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T13:00:00","slug":"of-abseiling-and-avoidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/of-abseiling-and-avoidance\/","title":{"rendered":"Of abseiling and avoidance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh my fine fat furry friends, this time last week, I was stuck. The door to my Shed of Ideas was jammed and I couldn\u2019t lay my hands on a crowbar, or even a flat-bladed screwdriver and a dab of oil.<\/p>\n

And this week? The door has been flying open in the wind. There are ideas \u2013 dusty but beautiful \u2013 lying all over the floor, spilling off the shelves, getting tangled up in twine and squashing the seedlings.<\/p>\n

There is enough stuff here that I already know what I want to tell you next week and maybe even the week after that.<\/p>\n

But, for now, one little bit of housekeeping:<\/p>\n

Because Covid is a pest and because lockdowns are boring
AND<\/strong>
Because we got lovely feedback on my live self-editing webinar a few weeks back (one that was open to JW members only)
AND<\/strong>
Because we love each and every one of you, not just the wise souls who pay us money,
AND<\/strong>
Because self-editing is the only sure and certain pathway to a book as beautiful as you want it to be,
WE THEREFORE DECIDED<\/strong>
To offer a live self-editing webinar to everyone.
*** For free ***<\/em>
\u00a0You just have to pitch up.<\/strong>
It is on 19 November at 19.00 GMT<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re going to do is take chunks of YOUR work (see the PSes for more about that) and edit it live on screen. I\u2019ll show you exactly how I would change the text, if it were my own piece of work, and I\u2019ll talk you through my thought process as I do it.<\/p>\n

You lot, meanwhile, can use the live chat to pour scorn on everything I do, offer suggestions of your own and generally participate.<\/p>\n

The webinar page is here<\/a>. Remember that although the event is free, you do have to register<\/em><\/u>, because otherwise the system doesn\u2019t know who to admit. Registration is sweet and simple. You\u2019ll get emails telling you exactly what to do. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. More details in the PSes if you need it.<\/p>\n

Right-ho.<\/p>\n

The Shed of Ideas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, I told you that you don\u2019t have to be good at everything. That\u2019s true if you only think about marketing. That\u2019s true if you think about writing. It\u2019s most certainly true if you consider yourself as an author in the round.<\/p>\n

That was \u2013 to judge from the responses I got \u2013 a useful, bracing, encouraging message. It permits you to be a bit shit at certain things and still to feel OK about yourself. It matters more that you have genuine dazzle in one or two respects, than that you can handle every aspect of an author\u2019s craft with real competence.<\/p>\n

OK. Good. But even knowing this, it\u2019s still easy for us to get stuck.<\/p>\n

In my Life Before Kids, I used to do a bit of mountaineering, and I remember one time in the Alps where my buddy and I were descending a mountain. The ascent had been a bit more scary and painful than we\u2019d expected and we were tired and very much wanting to get down to somewhere warm and with hot food.<\/p>\n

We were following a ridge that we thought would take us all the way down to the valley, only then \u2013 our nice little ridge turned into a 250-foot cliff. There was no way we were going to down-climb that, so we had to abseil off, belaying halfway on a crappy little ledge that wasn\u2019t built to Switzerland\u2019s normal excellent standards.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not scared of abseiling in general, but I do remember being afraid this time. I was cold and tired. I knew that cold, tired descents is where most climbing accidents occur. There was just something about that long, wet drop which I still don\u2019t like to think about. I remember tying a knot at the bottom of the rope to make sure that I couldn\u2019t just abseil accidentally off the end. That\u2019s not something I normally do, but I was scared of my own dulled reflexes.<\/p>\n

Anyway. It all turned out fine. The crappy little ledge halfway down already had a bit of climbing tat fixed to the rock, so we hadn\u2019t been the only climbers to have chosen the wrong way down. We got down to the valley. Got warm. Got fed.<\/p>\n

But \u2013 that fear.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something we all know, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re 60,000 words into a manuscript. We know the start of the story, because it\u2019s written. We sort of know the ending (because the thought of it has been keeping us going for that long middle-of-book slog.) Only then, we hit an unexpected plot obstacle. A wet 250-foot cliff that faces north and whose granite has a tendency to come away in your hands.<\/p>\n

The fear halts us.<\/p>\n

And, OK, your plot obstacle may come earlier in your book, or later. And the metaphor you might choose to describe it might be different from this one. But this I bet is true:<\/p>\n

You avoid contact with the obstacle because you\u2019re afraid of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of tackling the problem directly, you engage in any kind of displacement activity. You re-edit the stuff you\u2019ve already written. You follow idiots on Twitter. You walk the dog. You hoover the floor. You (ahem) waste your time reading this email.<\/p>\n

But you need to tackle the problem directly. You need to take that rope off your back and throw it down that dirty, wet cliff and do what needs to be done.<\/p>\n

In plainer language, you just need to write. Don\u2019t know what the next chapter is going to be? You don\u2019t have to know. Write the next sentence. Any sentence. Just get it down. Then write the next sentence.<\/p>\n

The trick is to force your character into motion. Force yourself into motion. Yes, it\u2019s possible that a chapter you write in this way is rubbish, but even the act of writing a rubbish chapter will show you the way need to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cInspiration exists, but it has to find you working.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a Picasso quote that one of you sent me a few weeks back.<\/p>\n

And damn the man \u2013 he\u2019s right. With plotting problems more than anything else, m\u2019lady Muse will only solve your problems if you put a shift in.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another thing: it may not be fun.<\/p>\n

Abseiling down that cliff was not fun. It did a job and delivered an outcome. (The blessed, blessed valley floor!)<\/p>\n

We mostly think of inspiration as joyous, but that thought can be a blocking one in its own right. Sometimes, the right thing just isn\u2019t going to be entertaining as well.<\/p>\n

So, if you are facing a problem that you don\u2019t know how to fix, just say to yourself:<\/p>\n