Writing to Music

Sitting here writing, I can hear my exceptionally talented son practising the Mozart clarinet concerto in his bedroom, which is very relaxing - a bonus I don't normally get when, as he's usually away at school.

I must admit I don't normally listen to music while I'm writing, although it would be an easy enough thing to do as my computer has a CD player built in.

There's also a radio gathering dust on the window sill. I can't remember whether I put it there or whether it's a left-over from when my husband used to share the study with me in the days before we became a two PC family. All I know is that although I love listening to the radio, I never use do it while I'm writing.

Because I'm really interested in music and I play musical instruments, I'm always afraid that music might distract me from my writing because I'd have my attention on what was being played rather than on what I'm supposed to be writing.

Other writers find it essential to have music playing while they work as they feel it helps them relax and become more creative. I might cope with a soothing instrumental, but anything with words would really divide my attention too much - I couldn't juggle words in my head and words in my ear.

But my friend, David Darling, who is a science writer, will happily work with rock music on full blast, and there are many other writers who have their own favourite type of music to help them write - be it Baroque, jazz, classical.... I don't think anyone would choose to write to 20th century twelve-tone serialism, but you never know!

Some writers choose their music to suit the mood they want to evoke in their writing, a stirring Beethoven symphony for something grand and momentous, delicate Debussy for lattice-work poetry, jazz if they want to write about smoky bars.

Sometimes writers even experiment with music in writing workshops, to see what sort of an effect writing to music will have on the participants.

That's something you could try. If you always write to music, try one session where you write in complete silence or at least play a different type of music from usual. If you never write to music, put some on and see how it affects your writing.

At the very least, it will stop your writing sessions from getting into a rut, and you may even find that the change in your listening habits leads to some sort of creative breakthrough.

Starting a blog yesterday may have been a surprise to me, but it was a pleasant one. I've enjoyed my Accidental Blog and have been looking forward to writing another post on it.

Between yesterday and now, I've been wondering if there is a formula for a successful blog. What would I tell my students if they asked me how to write one?

I suppose the form of writing that comes closest to it is an opinion piece in a newspaper, and the essence of that is for the writer to reveal their personality and views. In the tabloids, of course, it helps to be controversial, vitriolic even, and to make a name for yourself as a bitch. I don't think I'll be taking that line with this blog.

I don't claim to be whiter than white, but slagging people off and humiliating them in public isn't what turns me on. I'd rather my listeners logged off feeling a little bit better about life, a little bit more knowledgeable, a little more hopeful.

So why bother reading this blog? Well, I hope that by getting to know how I approach my life, my writing, and my teaching, you will get the chance to reflect on your own life - and maybe even to learn more about yourself by starting to write.

Everyone can do it. Everyone has something to say, even though you might not be able to think of anything off the top of your head. In fact, writing, like any creative activity, can be immensely therapeutic.

Over the past twenty years, I've sat in writers' groups where I've been enthralled by ordinary people's true stories of the most extreme experiences in their lives - how they've coped when members of their families have suffered serious illness, accidents, suicide attempts, even.

Several people I know have turned to writing to make sense of their lives when they were turned upside down by a traumatic divorce or relationship breakdown.

But the stories I've heard haven't been all gloom and doom. I still love to recall the true life tale of an elderly friend, now sadly dead, about how as a boy he used to play with children in a large Irish family. My friend was an only child, so compared with lots of children in the thirties, he was relatively well off, and always always got his meat and two veg.

The Irish family were poor in monetary terms, but happy and well cared for, and the kids were never short of someone to play with.

One evening, my friend had been playing out with them. It got to tea time and he joined them at the dinner table - they didn't have much, just a big pan of potatoes, but he thought this huge communal meal was better than a feast.

Then it got to bath-time and bed-time. That night, the father of the house was in charge of getting his brood ready. One by one, he dealt with his offspring, conveyor-belt fashion - ushering them into the bath, then packing them off to bed. To my friend's delight, he became part of the conveyor belt, and so he found himself being sent to bed with all his chums. The dad obviously didn't clock that there was one extra that night. Well, I did say it was rather a large brood!

There was my friend, happy as Larry, lying top to tail with all his chums, several to a bed, as poor children did in those days. He thought he'd gone to heaven! He'd have gladly stayed there all night if his mum hadn't come looking for him.

That was an example of what my students would call 'autobiographical writing'. But more than that, it's life writing. It's not just the 'who did what and when' that matters. It's the little details that make up our lives, that make us who we are - 'life writing' in the broadest sense.

And that's what makes learning to write different from learning any other subject. When you learn to write, you're not just finding out how to string words together in sentences. You're discovering yourself.

As I tell my students: 'You're the best person to write your story. It's uniquely yours.'

If you have a memory to share, why not write it here as a comment? It's quick and easy to do.

You've got to start somewhere...

I wasn't intending to start writing a blog today - in fact, I was intending to begin reading one! But due to the vagaries of the blogspot website, here I am! I had to create a google account first, and got a bit carried away.... But, hey! I'm a writer, so it won't do me any harm to write...

What I was really trying to do was to access my friend's new blogspot. Her name is Lindsay Townsend and she writes romantic novels: romantic thrillers and historical romances. I created a website for her and am in the process of updating it by adding two new pages and extra links to publicise a new novel that she has had accepted for publication. I got an e-mail from her today telling me that she now has a blog and asking me to put a link to it from the website. I thought I'd better check out her blog reference first, but couldn't access it, so I ended up going onto a blogging website and creating a google account so I could find the blog.

And I ended up creating this too!

Well, I was intending to start writing a blog some time, so why not?

So who am I apart from the person who created Lindsay's website?

Well, I'm a professional writer and creative writing lecturer, Scottish by birth and upbringing, but for the past thirty-odd years I have lived in England.

I started off my career as a BBC television researcher working on a television series for The Open University. That led me into more projects, writing and producing educational materials for The Open College and writing dramatisations for more Open University programmes. I began writing fiction and non-fiction too, and had two biographies published by Harper Collins. One of them was about Cliff Richard and I sold a lot of copies to members of his fan club.

Now, after a while out of writing to do the whole "mum" thing and bring up my thirteen-year old son, I'm back writing again, but I've found that what I really love to do is teaching adults. Since September, I have been teaching an adult education class in creative writing.

I love my class. I love the mixture of personalities and ages and abilities. I love all the different sorts of writing they like to do. I love seeing their enthusiasm when they try something new and it works, or when they read aloud something they have written and their fellow students tell them that it's really good.

I love the coffee break as we have such interesting discussions about writers and books and often people end up going home with the name of a new author they want to go and read.

I love seeing my students grow and develop both as writers and as readers. Let's not forget that if you want to become a really good writer, you have to read voraciously - or if you want to write for TV, watch lots of TV drama, but critically.

That's another thing I really enjoy about teaching my class - it's not just about telling them technical stuff, it's about getting them to think like writers, to look at life like writers.

So do writers look at life differently? If you want to find out, come back again and you'll be able to make up your own mind.

Meanwhile, why not check out the website that I built for Lindsay? You'll be able to read about her novel, A Knight's Vow, which is set in medieval England. When I finish the new pages, you'll also be able to read about her latest book, Flavia's Secret, which is set in Roman times.

Her website is http://www.lindsaytownsend.co.uk/. If you like her books, send her an e-mail, and if you like the website, let me know.

But do look in on my blogs again, and we can chat a bit more about writing and reading and teaching.