It’s quite a long time ago that I blogged about the benefits of a fiction writer getting creatively divergent (or doing “creativity cross-training“, which sounds a bit too athletic!). But just because I haven’t blogged about it, doesn’t mean I haven’t done it.

As I see it, getting your right and left brain working together in ways other than writing has got to be a good change and (hopefully) benefit your writing. For some reason the craft of amigurumi has popped up on the internet in front of me quite a few times over the past year and I’ve always wanted to try it – basically it’s a Japanese style of crochet that creates cute animals and other creatures. The perfect opportunity came when my nephew was about to turn one, and I didn’t want to get him more of those plastic toys that make annoying noises. So I tried out an amigurumi pattern, got creative with it (the hat, for example, was actually a misshapen initial attempt at the head) and found great satisfaction with finishing this guy! And let me tell you, it’s a lot quicker to make one of these than to write a novel.

I plan to do more of this – it’s a good balancing activity for me because I’m easily tempted to spend more time in front of the computer than I should. Anyone else got some secret creatively divergent activities to share? I’m open to lots of suggestions.

Thanks to the influence (and book collection) of my mother, I was a mad keen fan of Enid Blyton books – and I know she gets some bad press these days, but I’ve still got a shelf full of both my own Enid Blyton books and those I inherited from my mother, and I’ll be reading them to my children. Her Secret Seven and Famous Five series were high on my favourites list and I remember adoring The Magic Faraway Tree in particular. (I hope you’ll confess in the comments if you also read a tonne of Enid Blyton books as a child …)

As I got a little older, so Australia also got a little less British, and the influence of American authors like Judy Blume seemed to grow. By far my favourite and most often re-read Judy Blume book was Tiger Eyes. I swooned, and felt so grown up when I read it. It’s still on my shelf too and I should re-read it now, I think, as I’m wondering what it’ll seem like to a real grown-up!

Finally, I have a really strong memory of a book I used to borrow from the local library over and over again. It was a novel by Mabel Esther Allan called The Night Wind (I’d forgotten, but thanks to Google I know again) with a main character named Tafline. I really have no idea at all what drew me to this story, but I read it many times and I can even picture exactly where it could be found on the library shelf.

Over to you: what were your childhood favourites? Do you think you’d still like them today, or want your children to read them?

However, there is one important piece of goal-related news: the next round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest was announced, and my novel Bratislava has made it to the next round of judging. YAY! This year the contest is divided in half into adult fiction and young adult fiction, so this means that out of 5,000 entries in the adult fiction section, mine is already in the top 1,000. Of course this ABNA deal is always a slow process so it’s another month before I know if I make it to the next round. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Now, while I haven’t been able to write, I have been able to read a fair bit. As you might’ve seen if you’re following my 2010 reading list (there are some blurbs about what I thought of these books on that list, if you’re curious), this is what I’ve sunk my teeth into during February:

1. Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfallby Kazuo Ishiguro
2. Absolutionby Olafur Johann Olafsson
3. The Book Thiefby Markus Zusak
4. Revolutionary Roadby Richard Yates
5. The Easter Paradealso by Richard Yates
6. Like Trees, Walkingby Ravi Howard
7. Henry’s List of Wrongsby John Scott Shepherd
8. Friends Like Theseby Danny Wallace
9. Anna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy
10. The Writing Classby Jincy Willett
11. The Woman from Bratislavaby Leif Davidsen
12. Dancing Backwardsby Salley Vickers

Ishiguro’s set of stories was, of course, fantastic, but the runaway book of the month winner for me is Zusak’s The Book Thief. READ IT! You might read the blurb and think it’s just another Nazi Germany story but it’s not. It’s one of the best books you’ll ever read. Everything about it is fantastic – the structure, the choice of narrator, the characters and how they grow, the language, the everything! In case you look it up and wonder about the audience – it was billed as adult fiction here in Australia (Zusak is Australian) but for some reason promoted as young adult fiction in the US – whatever your age, you’ll love it. I promise.

On that note, I’ll sign off but will try to get back at the end of March with at least a reading update – probably not much on the goals, although by then I’ll know if my novel survives another Amazon round or not. Happy writing and reading!

So, here’s the thing: Irvine Welsh, who I do think is a great writer apart from this flaw, is coming to the Perth Writers Festival in 2010. This was the impetus I needed to read another novel from him, so I picked his newest one, Crime. The good news is that I finished it, and loved it – it’s a pretty dark story about paedophiles but totally page-turning. It’s also set in Florida, rather than Scotland, with only a couple of major Scottish characters, so that meant that the dialogue I’m scared of was a lot rarer than in some of his other novels.

But just the same, I was occasionally quite bogged down trying to figure out what those Scottish characters were actually saying. Example: “I was gaunny take her … Tess came down wi it in there” is relatively simple to “translate”, but still slows down my reading; “An awfay sweet wee lassie, and she’s been nae bother at aw” starts to stretch things for me. Like I said, these kind of phrases are few and far between in Crime, but it reminds me why so many writing teachers suggest – implore! – that you should avoid writing in strong dialect. A few words here and there – “Aye” for yes doesn’t bother me in Welsh’s work – should be enough to remind us that these people sound a bit different.

What do you think? Would you be annoyed if an Australian character in a story I wrote went around saying, “Struth mate, watcha reckon we get the barbie goin’?” all the time? Does strong dialect in novels bother you? Let me know in the comments.

My other half refuses to sit down at my computer any more because he can’t type using my keyboard. I guess, looking at this picture, I can understand why. I type so much, and probably a little too fast and too hard, with the tough fingernails I inherited from my mother, and the letters have worn off many of the keys. And this is the second keyboard I’ve been through in about a year.

I don’t usually notice because 95% of the time I touch type, but there are odd occasions where I find it difficult. If I’m trying to drink a cup of tea with one hand, for example, and need to type in a website address to read while I drink, then searching for a letter when not using both hands to type is quite tricky. I have to look away and then my fingers find their own way. I guess for someone who can’t touch type,
this keyboard would really be quite a challenge.

It’s not even old – maybe six or seven months. It’s wireless which I love, because I can move it around my desk to fit in with the piles of books or notepads that might otherwise get in the way, and I can easily hold it up high out of the way when my cats are playing around on my desk. It’s also super-ergonomic, which was weird at first but means my wrists don’t feel tired or sore at the end of the day. So I’m reluctant to change it back to the old non-wireless keyboard I still have sitting in my shelves, even if it does still have the letters on most of the keys. I guess if the punctuation marks start disappearing too, then I might have to give in. Until then, I’ll keep typing. Fading keyboards are just one of the curses us writers have to put up with, I suppose.

Of course, I’d much prefer to be still at work teaching, and also able to get out of the house a bit more (although I don’t miss the supermarket too much!), but I’ve never for a moment felt like I could get bored. I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s just my personality type, and/or how much it is related to being a writer.

My current theory is that writers very rarely get bored. In my case, if I find myself in a boring situation, I find a way to make it interesting or useful for me. For example, last year I was “trapped” in a cinema having to watch a really bad, boring movie because it was part of a compulsory school excursion, and obviously the teacher can’t leave – but she can do something else! I had a notebook and pen in my bag (as always) and in the dim light coming from the movie screen, I made some notes about a story I was writing. Admittedly they were a bit difficult to read later, but thinking about that story stopped me from being bored.

Similarly, now that I’m home most of the time, I really can’t imagine getting bored. I have so many things I want to write, and on top of that, a million books I want to read. And that works out pretty well, because I need to make sure I don’t spend too long doing any one thing – I can’t sit, stand or lie down for long periods of time. Being forced to change tasks quite regularly is even better and keeps my writing fresh. And bored? I don’t have time to be bored.

So now I want to know what you think. Do you get bored? If you’re a writer, in particular, do you get bored less than other people? I’m curious. Please let me know in the comments.

First off, I’ve discovered yet another great use for waterproof notebooks for fiction writers. Or for any writers, I guess. Thanks to some lovely pregnancy-related dramas (pelvis problems and leg swelling, if you must know) I currently need to spend a fair bit of time in our swimming pool, but I’m not allowed to swim, in fact I just have to stand there in the middle (this photo’s an old one!).

This is not always too exciting, as you’d imagine, and I’d wondered what else I could do while I’m in the pool. And suddenly it hit me: waterproof notebook! Just recently in the pool I wrote several pages of notes for the planning stages of my new novella (more details on that soon). It makes my stay in the pool a lot more interesting and I love that I’m also getting something productive done at the same time. I highly recommend it to anyone – I really have a theory that being in water helps make you more creative, so try hopping into a pool or the ocean with your waterproof notebook next time you need some inspiration!

Second, I came across someone else who’d had the same idea as me, but unlike me, is making money out of it. Whereas my mother sourced my waterproof notebooks from a forestry supply shop, there is actually a company that is marketing their AquaNotes waterproof notebooks as being perfect for “shower thinkers”, just like myself. Smart work.

I thought it’d be interesting to do a quick survey of the house and find out where my current reads are. Of course, there are a couple by the bed. At a minimum, I usually have two books on the go next to my bed, for reading in the evening before I go to sleep, and there are two because it depends whether I have the energy left for something heavier, more literary, or if I’m exhausted and just need something lighter.

Moving on through the house, there is always a book on the dining table near the kitchen. If my husband goes to work too early (therefore eating breakfast long before me), then that’s there to read. I nearly always manage to resist reading at the table when he’s there! Sometimes this book might move to the kitchen bench or, like now, there might be another book there entirely – that’s the one I read while I’m cooking dinner, in those pauses between stirring something.

Out in the living room, there is often a book either on the sofa or the coffee table, and that usually gets attacked during ad breaks while I’m watching TV, or occasionally when I have the chance to sit down and actually spend time devoted to reading of an afternoon (that’s rare).

And finally, there is always a book in whichever handbag I’ve used last – there to be read in a waiting room or on the train or during some kind of interruption to whatever I should be doing. See what a good girl scout I am – always prepared.

What about you? Where are your current books? Let me know in the comments – you know I’m curious.

Books are not usually the stars of cool photos, but this is really an exception. Recently at Bondi Beach in Sydney (oh, how I wish I could have popped over to Sydney and seen this in person!) a furniture store (one I like, but nonetheless won’t plug on my blog) set up this display of bookshelves and organised a “book swap”. You could bring your own books and swap them for ones on the shelf, or just take a book and give a gold coin donation, with proceeds going to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Isn’t that a neat idea? I just love the idea of going for a swim or a surf then strolling up the beach to browse all these book shelves. Heavenly.

What I want to emphasise is that for novelists … I think that your peak is likely to be somewhere in your mid 30s to your mid 40s. A few years after footballers!

But then the pressure came on …

You have to really go for it when you’re in your 30s, and you have to ignore older people who patronise you as though you’re some kind of little chick that’s about to hatch. Historically, that’s when you’re most likely to do your best work, so go for it.

He went on to give plenty of examples of famous novelists who really had published their best novels in their mid 30s.

So, there’s good news there: I’m about to enter my mid 30s, so I figure this is a positive sign for my future novel writing potential. Of course it would help if Ishiguro could share his theory with all the publishers likely to look at my work, then I could really milk it. But the bad news seems to be that it’s getting close to crunch time. If I’m going to make it, I have to really get on with it and make it soon!

It’s nice to daydream about a future where I really am a published novelist (I mean, I actually do believe it will happen one day – I just don’t know when). However, being a novelist is one thing that I’ve always thought is much less age-dependent than pretty much every other occupation. I mean, sports stars and film stars mostly start young; sports stars generally finish young, too. But plenty of novelists don’t start until they retire from their “real job” and they still do well.

Okay, to summarise my thoughts: I would love to be a published novelist in my 30s, but I don’t think this will be my peak. Perhaps if I’d studied writing at university and had really spent my 20s practicing my craft, it would be possible, but I still think I have far too much to learn. But is what Ishiguro says, in general, true? I don’t know, but I’d like to turn that question over to you, readers:

What’s the peak age for a novelist? Let me know your opinion in the comments section.