Breaking the Mould
I regularly break the laws of everything in my writing. The laws of physics, the laws of nature, the rules of writing which really stand more as guidelines; a 'how-to' on how to write a successful novel.
The end result, I feel, will be one of the least marketable books around. I'm not writing to cater to what is currently in vogue. I'm writing for fun, to push boundaries and possibly to irk a few of the more conventional-minded people out there. Money simply isn't on my agenda.
I often describe my own novel as 'a freewheeling load of bollocks'. Which, essentially, it is. The characters are always flitting from one place to another (usually drunk) and while there is some semblance of plot, more often than not it randomly starts raining sleighbells.
Perhaps I'm just tooting my own brass noisemaker here but I genuinely believe that unmarketable, unconventional books that break the mould are just as viable. Providing, of course, that the quality of the writing itself is good enough. I'm a huge fan of the bizarre. I adore books that make me sit back, aghast, laughing and thinking 'what the hell?'. Books that make me think. And I have so much respect for the writer that completely disregards convention.
Genre and conventions might just be the vice that stifles progress. Now, I'm not saying there aren't excellent examples of genre fiction out there; some of the really clever novelists use genre to create something pretty far out; but for every good genre novelist there are about six more who waffle about, pandering to the cliches and guidelines that their chosen genre is defined by.
These are the authors who might want to be the next Jane Austen or Stephen King or J. R. R. Tolkien, all in the name of money.
I'll confess that I used to be like this. I was once what you might call an high fantasy writer. I read nothing but the vast array of epic, Tolkien-esque novels found on the fantasy shelf at my local WHSmith. And this was all I wrote, based entirely on what I'd read.
At one point, I either went crazy or got frustrated with the tropes and characteristics that defined conventional fantasy. I just didn't find recycling those features fulfilling. So I scrapped my current novel, and about a month later made a vow.
I would read more widely, for starters. Then I would write a book that wasn't planned, wasn't structured, and the plot would develop on its own, as I wrote it and exactly how I wanted it. So if I wanted a man-eating ladder to jump in and maim people out of nowhere, by Douglas Adams, it would happen.
I haven't looked back since.
Before you all start bleating that this is no way to write a novel and it'll just wind up a heap of disjointed nonsense, hear me out. I have a very good reason for doing what I do.
My argument for this style of writing is that it encourages imagination and natural flow. When you remove all constrictions from yourself you can, quite literally, be free and do what the hell you want with your book. Then you can have a bloody good time of it, writing will feel less of a chore and you'll hopefully use that motivation to get your first draft out quicker.
Then, when you look over the heap of rubbish you've created, you can start to worry about what does and doesn't work. See what I mean? Freewheeling insanity first, controlled rewrite later. This is my writing method summed up in a sentence.
So, how do you 'free your mind' in fiction? There are many, many ways of going about it. Some work better than others and in different ways for different people, but here's a few ideas I have on the matter:
Just keep going. Write ceaselessly, even if the ideas fail to flow. You never know when a gem might present itself in the endless stream of crap. One idea leads to another.
Don't just settle for the first three ideas you get. There are a thousand other routes you can take, and the first one is usually the most obvious. Write your first idea down, but then write more. The further on into your idea writing you get, and the more thought and mental exploration you have to put into it, the less predictable the ideas become.
Do not accept anything as impossible. This is fiction, darling; the laws of physics don't apply here.
Think long, think hard, think absurd. This really relates to all the others. Think as you write, analyse every possible tangent your story might take and take the weirder ones!
Defy logic, quite deliberately. There is nothing more hilarious, especially when you play on that defiance.
Last but not least, if you want to write it, who's stopping you? The 'rules' of writing are guidelines. There's nobody breathing down your neck saying 'you can't do x, y and z in a novel because blah blah blah'. You might annoy a few snarky critics on the Internet but, well, you can't please everybody!
Of course, it all depends on what works best for you, what your intentions are and what you hope to achieve with your writing. If you like to plan, plan by all means. If you want to apply genre restrictions, go right ahead. You could bend them, break them, take the absolute piss out of them (my personal recommendation) - the choice is yours. The pen (or at least your pen) isn't in my hand. It's in yours. I've lost mine in my plate of wordy spaghetti.
You haven't got a pen I could borrow, have you?
tl;dr: ANARCHY!
The end result, I feel, will be one of the least marketable books around. I'm not writing to cater to what is currently in vogue. I'm writing for fun, to push boundaries and possibly to irk a few of the more conventional-minded people out there. Money simply isn't on my agenda.
I often describe my own novel as 'a freewheeling load of bollocks'. Which, essentially, it is. The characters are always flitting from one place to another (usually drunk) and while there is some semblance of plot, more often than not it randomly starts raining sleighbells.
Perhaps I'm just tooting my own brass noisemaker here but I genuinely believe that unmarketable, unconventional books that break the mould are just as viable. Providing, of course, that the quality of the writing itself is good enough. I'm a huge fan of the bizarre. I adore books that make me sit back, aghast, laughing and thinking 'what the hell?'. Books that make me think. And I have so much respect for the writer that completely disregards convention.
Genre and conventions might just be the vice that stifles progress. Now, I'm not saying there aren't excellent examples of genre fiction out there; some of the really clever novelists use genre to create something pretty far out; but for every good genre novelist there are about six more who waffle about, pandering to the cliches and guidelines that their chosen genre is defined by.
These are the authors who might want to be the next Jane Austen or Stephen King or J. R. R. Tolkien, all in the name of money.
I'll confess that I used to be like this. I was once what you might call an high fantasy writer. I read nothing but the vast array of epic, Tolkien-esque novels found on the fantasy shelf at my local WHSmith. And this was all I wrote, based entirely on what I'd read.
At one point, I either went crazy or got frustrated with the tropes and characteristics that defined conventional fantasy. I just didn't find recycling those features fulfilling. So I scrapped my current novel, and about a month later made a vow.
I would read more widely, for starters. Then I would write a book that wasn't planned, wasn't structured, and the plot would develop on its own, as I wrote it and exactly how I wanted it. So if I wanted a man-eating ladder to jump in and maim people out of nowhere, by Douglas Adams, it would happen.
I haven't looked back since.
Before you all start bleating that this is no way to write a novel and it'll just wind up a heap of disjointed nonsense, hear me out. I have a very good reason for doing what I do.
My argument for this style of writing is that it encourages imagination and natural flow. When you remove all constrictions from yourself you can, quite literally, be free and do what the hell you want with your book. Then you can have a bloody good time of it, writing will feel less of a chore and you'll hopefully use that motivation to get your first draft out quicker.
Then, when you look over the heap of rubbish you've created, you can start to worry about what does and doesn't work. See what I mean? Freewheeling insanity first, controlled rewrite later. This is my writing method summed up in a sentence.
So, how do you 'free your mind' in fiction? There are many, many ways of going about it. Some work better than others and in different ways for different people, but here's a few ideas I have on the matter:
Just keep going. Write ceaselessly, even if the ideas fail to flow. You never know when a gem might present itself in the endless stream of crap. One idea leads to another.
Don't just settle for the first three ideas you get. There are a thousand other routes you can take, and the first one is usually the most obvious. Write your first idea down, but then write more. The further on into your idea writing you get, and the more thought and mental exploration you have to put into it, the less predictable the ideas become.
Do not accept anything as impossible. This is fiction, darling; the laws of physics don't apply here.
Think long, think hard, think absurd. This really relates to all the others. Think as you write, analyse every possible tangent your story might take and take the weirder ones!
Defy logic, quite deliberately. There is nothing more hilarious, especially when you play on that defiance.
Last but not least, if you want to write it, who's stopping you? The 'rules' of writing are guidelines. There's nobody breathing down your neck saying 'you can't do x, y and z in a novel because blah blah blah'. You might annoy a few snarky critics on the Internet but, well, you can't please everybody!
Of course, it all depends on what works best for you, what your intentions are and what you hope to achieve with your writing. If you like to plan, plan by all means. If you want to apply genre restrictions, go right ahead. You could bend them, break them, take the absolute piss out of them (my personal recommendation) - the choice is yours. The pen (or at least your pen) isn't in my hand. It's in yours. I've lost mine in my plate of wordy spaghetti.
You haven't got a pen I could borrow, have you?
tl;dr: ANARCHY!