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Lettres d'Uzès #43: Write of passage

12/6/2014

13 Comments

 
This blog is dedicated to Joy Harper who died in St Quentin la Poterie last weekend. Never was anyone so well-named. RIP.
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“I love being a writer. It’s the paperwork I can’t stand.” Michael Frayn, I think.

I have joined the hundreds of other would-be writers who think that a few months in the south of France is the solution to writer’s block. Away from the distractions of the real world, that long-imagined novel will come to fruition. The Provencal lifestyle will provide the perfect environment in which to sit back and think through intricacies of plot and nuances of character. The 100,000 words (the length of the average novel, apparently)  will fly off the keyboard and arrive on the publisher’s desk to an enthusiastic welcome. Your summer in the south will be rewarded by both critical acclaim and best-seller status.

Yeh, right.

The truth is, writing in the south of France is as difficult as writing anywhere. Perhaps more so.

The range of displacement activities is vast. There are friends to catch up on. There are markets to visit. There are sights to see. There is lunch.

Kingsley Amis famously forced himself to write 500 words each morning and would not take a glass until he had done so. For him, this served as a useful discipline, and also an incentive. For me, it is an example.

It is coming up to midday and I have written a couple of hundred words of the novel, and come to a full stop. Literally. It’s not fully-fledged writer’s block, but my protagonist won’t do what the plot requires him to do.

I am loathe to give up on either. But something will have to give. But not right now.

Instead, I am now embarking on this blog. It’s a quicker way to the quota. And it keeps me writing which, without client-imposed deadlines, is something of an issue. In the south, they have several words for mañana, but none of them communicate the same sense of urgency.

I see that from Word that I have now written more than 300 words. Add that to the 200 of the novel earlier, and the quota is complete.

Plus it’s midday. Mañana.

Today from the everysmith vault: Hot Tuna from 1988, with guests Paul Kantner and – briefly – Grace Slick. Paul introduces Grace as “my ex-wife, the mother of my child and the devil incarnate” before they sing together on Wooden Ships. You can find the show on Wolfgang's Vault. JimiK, I commend it to you.

13 Comments
JackB
12/6/2014 05:53:50

LOL. God luck with finding a resolution.

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Michael
12/6/2014 07:41:18

Let your character have his/her head. The plot will develop appropriately or not. Nice blog.

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Mark
12/6/2014 08:22:39

Are you being smug or looking for sympathy? I would certainly love the opportunity to fail to write 500 words in the south of France!

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Allan
12/6/2014 09:47:05

You've got me thinking about the number of writers who are working or have worked down your way. There are huge numbers now, of course, doing the Peter Mayle bit but I can only think of Graham Greene, Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton as writers who moved consciously to this part of the world in the same way as did Picasso, Matisse etc.

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Ellie
12/6/2014 09:51:52

Somerset Maugham?

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Sean
12/6/2014 10:05:10

So sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. Very sad. As for writing, if my protagonist won't do what I need them to at that point in the story I move forward or back and start a new chapter where they are in a new place/time. This usually jogs things along and can have a fantastic impact on where they were when I ground to halt elsewhere. I try and aim for 1,000 in a day, on the days I write. Bon chance.

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DavidH
13/6/2014 01:50:19

I don't know whether this helps Max, but it has just provided me with an epiphany. Thanks.

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Max
14/6/2014 00:00:04

Thanks. That worked. For the moment anyway!

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Philip Jolley link
13/6/2014 12:45:59

What about the "The Sox" !!!!!

I hope you are dining well.

Regards

Philip

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Max
14/6/2014 00:04:02

As the current standings in the ALE are the precise opposite of my pre-season projections, I am keeping stum re the Sox for the moment. Great win last night though. Dining well. Trust you are too. Mx

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Don
14/6/2014 04:24:28

Agree. The characters are always the driver. As for the plot, take Chandler's advice: start a new chapter with a man entering with a gun in his hand!

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Doctor D
15/6/2014 19:32:56

Maybe time to (re)read Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing? For a chuckle at the very least...

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Max
16/6/2014 02:13:22

If it sounds like writing, rewrite! True. A version of murder your darlings. Which I always do at the beginning of the following session. Interesting how often one can simply delete rather than rewrite.

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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