Hello,
Another guest blog and this time it's author Stuart Ayris. I met Stuart online and we've kept in touch and helped each other with various things. I think of everyone I've met through my writing, Stuart is the most genuine and humble. He's written a series of novels and one of them, 'Tollesbury Time Forever', was the 2012 winner of the IBB Best Overall Book Award and Best Psychological Fiction Award. So without further ado, here is the wonderful Stuart Ayris talking about his writing and what inspires him.
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| Stuart Ayris |
How I write and what inspires me
I guess it’s best to start with what inspires me because without that I wouldn’t write anything. Saying that, inspiration is a big old word which implies some sort of grand achievement, some monumental work of art. I just put one word after the other, often words that I make up, wake up the next morning and invariably smile at what I have written – having forgotten usually that I had written anything at all.
My writing starts I think from the middle of my mind and often when I am well away from any means of writing it down. Then when I get home I’ll turn that sentence into a paragraph perhaps and just keep going for as long as things feel right. I am of the firm belief that writing is a natural process that requires as little interference from the conscious mind as possible. If you force it, it will appear strained. If you think too much it won’t come at all. I try and write about five hundred words a day. Sometimes I’ll manage ten, other times a thousand. And I can go a week or so without writing a single word before plunging into a three thousand word all night session.
In terms of the practicalities of writing, I have two able assistants who are, in my opinion, much maligned – cheap wine and insomnia. I must confess to not having had a sober word pass through me and onto the page in the last five years. I like the quietness of the Tollesbury night and the letting go that occurs as the wine flows. Thinking is magical and writing is magical. There is nothing more magical though than a Tollesbury black sky white star night and nothing more beautiful to me than the process of bringing to the surface something that has been created deep on down in the big soul universe.
I don’t believe I ever have or ever will write anything unique – all I have managed to do is to find a process that enables me to recall to the front of my mind something that has already come into being. I just write it down is all.
With regard to the structure of my books, I always write the final line, then the first paragraph. I then just fill in the part in-between. I have no idea where it is going until I’m about halfway in and then I work my way towards that last line. The only editing I do is to go through a couple of times to make sure different scenes and characters link together. I do a basic spell check but Microsoft Word tends to confuse my made up words for words that aren’t real. So if you don’t mind, I shall end this little post with a copy of an email I received from KDP Amazon:
Hello from Amazon KDP!
The book “The Bird That Nobody Sees” you recently submitted to KDP has possible spelling errors in your converted file. Consider correcting these and resubmitting.
Note: If you need to fix any of these potential typos, please do so in your digital manuscript and then upload the corrected file. We also recommend running spell-check if you have not done so. Learn more.
Here are the errors we recommend you address by correcting your manuscript:
I guess it’s best to start with what inspires me because without that I wouldn’t write anything. Saying that, inspiration is a big old word which implies some sort of grand achievement, some monumental work of art. I just put one word after the other, often words that I make up, wake up the next morning and invariably smile at what I have written – having forgotten usually that I had written anything at all.
My writing starts I think from the middle of my mind and often when I am well away from any means of writing it down. Then when I get home I’ll turn that sentence into a paragraph perhaps and just keep going for as long as things feel right. I am of the firm belief that writing is a natural process that requires as little interference from the conscious mind as possible. If you force it, it will appear strained. If you think too much it won’t come at all. I try and write about five hundred words a day. Sometimes I’ll manage ten, other times a thousand. And I can go a week or so without writing a single word before plunging into a three thousand word all night session.
In terms of the practicalities of writing, I have two able assistants who are, in my opinion, much maligned – cheap wine and insomnia. I must confess to not having had a sober word pass through me and onto the page in the last five years. I like the quietness of the Tollesbury night and the letting go that occurs as the wine flows. Thinking is magical and writing is magical. There is nothing more magical though than a Tollesbury black sky white star night and nothing more beautiful to me than the process of bringing to the surface something that has been created deep on down in the big soul universe.
I don’t believe I ever have or ever will write anything unique – all I have managed to do is to find a process that enables me to recall to the front of my mind something that has already come into being. I just write it down is all.
With regard to the structure of my books, I always write the final line, then the first paragraph. I then just fill in the part in-between. I have no idea where it is going until I’m about halfway in and then I work my way towards that last line. The only editing I do is to go through a couple of times to make sure different scenes and characters link together. I do a basic spell check but Microsoft Word tends to confuse my made up words for words that aren’t real. So if you don’t mind, I shall end this little post with a copy of an email I received from KDP Amazon:
Hello from Amazon KDP!
The book “The Bird That Nobody Sees” you recently submitted to KDP has possible spelling errors in your converted file. Consider correcting these and resubmitting.
Note: If you need to fix any of these potential typos, please do so in your digital manuscript and then upload the corrected file. We also recommend running spell-check if you have not done so. Learn more.
Here are the errors we recommend you address by correcting your manuscript:
......Fuckle
......blang
......chinkety
......darknight
imagebright
......doomphed
......hootly
dootly
......dossy
......morphined
up
......rambledown
......stiggering
......thoughtdreams
......toppermost
......wowest
You have chosen to ignore these possible errors.
Regards,
Kindle Direct Publishing
Cheers!!!
Stu
You have chosen to ignore these possible errors.
Regards,
Kindle Direct Publishing
Cheers!!!
Stu
