Helpful advice from a master

I read something today that really hit home. I read it when I was struggling. I had been trying to write but my mind was full of other thoughts and when it turned to writing it soon turned to doubt and pressure. The pressure building with each minute that I wasn't writing.

Then I lay down in a heap on my bed and let these self defeating thoughts take hold. Then I turned to a book. It's one I have been reading intermittently over the last month. And I got to a section that really hit home. It states that time doesn't really exist, it is only something that man created because of his limited vision.

I thought about it, and it made sense, a lot of sense. So I freed my mind from the pressure of time and started writing.

Finding my voice

When I read 'How to write a Damn good novel II' I understood most of what James Frey was talking about. I may be great at implementing it but I had an understanding of what he meant.
All except the part about "Voice" finding your narrating voice. I knew all about, 1st person, 3rd person, past and present tense and all that jargon, and had made a choice on those aspects. But I didn't really understand the part about choosing your voice. I believe now that one reason was because I hadn't read enough books to know what he was talking about.

I have now just finished reading a book coincidentally by James Frey, but another James Frey. A million Little pieces it a slightly controversial book about his struggle to overcome a drug and alcohol addiction. Controversy aside it is a brilliant book and I read it faster than any other book ever, and I know why. Because I felt I could relate to him. He wrote with such passion and raw truth that I could relate to nearly everything he wrote.

I have spent a lot of time forcing myself to write. In hind sight I should have spent more time reading, that way I could decide 'how' I wanted to write. As I didn't know my writing 'voice'.
I feel now I have a better understanding of that. And I feel that if I stay true to my 'voice' I won't have to force myself to write anything anymore.

My writing will just flow naturally.....

The little I've learnt about characters....

You have to make the character a real, eating, breathing, drinking, thinking person. Then you have to get right inside their head and see the world from their eyes.
You have to know how they talk, how they smell, how they react, how they interact, everything about them and you definitely can’t go changing their emotions at the drop of a hat.

I believe you have to decide what their emotion will be beforehand. Then once decided you must create an air-tight environment around them that will only lead to this desired emotion being shown to the reader.

So don’t go making them do things or say things just because you need them to make the plot flow. And definitely don't do it just because you can’t think of something to write. That is being lazy and you'll pay the price. You have to put in the hard yards to get these 'real' characters to lead your story.

In saying this, I'm still a long, long way from fully grasping the talent. But I'm happy that I've now at least grasped the vital importance of it.

Tim B.