5 December 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under : ,

For those of you who think in sounds or words the problems you will face are vastly different from writers who are visual.

Now there are pros and cons to being an auditory thinker. Classically, most writers ARE auditory, but there are many successful writers who are also visual. Why is this so? Well, it goes something like this:

Auditory thinkers often have a "voice" talking in the back of their heads. By simply "tuning" in to this voice, writers who are auditory thinkers can splurge copious amounts of text. When they're in the groove there's no stopping them.

And therein lies the problem for most splurgers. They hate going back. They don't like editing or rewriting. They get bored and don't see - or hear - anything wrong with what they've written.

So these are some tips for those writers who are auditory:

1. Leave anything you've written to go fallow
2. When you go back read your work ALOUD - this somehow objectifies what you have written. You can often HEAR errors that you cannot with the eye alone.

Another issue that auditory writers have is one of structure. Auditory writers can produce great quantities of text and once "out" they often believe, incorrectly, that it's perfect. How can you overcome this?

1. Understand structure - think of it as the rising tempo of beats as you reach the climax/cliffhanger. The tension should be rising and the peak should be just before the end.
2. If you start with a bang then more bangs should follow!
3. Wait a few days or weeks and then go back and re-read what you've written and do it ALOUD! You'll be amazed by what you hear.
4. Find a good reader who gives great feedback - these people are the rarest people on earth! And listen to what they say, although whether you make changes must always be your choice!
5. Read about the art of writing fiction.
6. Keep writing
7. Keep rewriting

ZHZ

2 December 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under : ,

Writers who are visual often claim they have "writer's block". The reason is quite simple:

Visual people have hot and intense visual narratives running through their mind's eye: the moment they put a pen in their hand and touch nib to paper or fingers to keyboard keys their imagination flags. 

How is it possible to take a picture made up of a thousand words and start it with one word?

Actually, it's quite easy. You storyboard. That doesn't necessarily mean you draw something!

Take a story that you're writing, don't tell me what it is, I want you to go and play the story in your mind from beginning to end...

Go on, go and do it.

...

...

Have you done it yet?

...

Now go and do it again and I want you to count each "scene" that you have. If the story starts with a scene of a soldier returning home after the Iraq War call it the "Coming Home" Scene and that's No 1.

Go on...do it...

...
...

How many scenes do you have in total? One? A hundred?

The next step is simple.

For each scene, get a separate piece of paper (recycled of course!) and put the name of the scene and its number at the top.

Go on - do it!

...
...

Now that you have a series of scenes in order I want you take the next big step...ask questions...

Say we jump back to the first scene in "Coming Home" which is No 1.

  • What is the character wearing?
  • What colour are his eyes?
  • What is he/she wearing?
  • What expression is on his face?
  • How is he/she walking?
  • What colour is the door?

Get the drift?

You see, visual people arleady SEE the story. Once you start to ask questions, the scene becomes CLEARER and CLEARER.

Now go and ask all the questions for the first scene...
...
...

Done it?

Then do the next...

And the next...

What you are compiling is all the TEXT that you will need to tell your story.

...

Once you have done this, I can guarantee you that if I were to ask you to tell me the story it would simply ripple off your tongue. Now, isn't that magic!

ZHZ

13 November 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under : ,


Often, when teaching creative writing, this is the first question I ask.

Why is it so important?

I think that your thinking style sets out how you will write, the difficulties you will face, and knowing what style you think in will enhance your writing.

But what do I mean, by thinking style? Well, let me ask you another question!
  • Do you think in pictures?
  • Do you have a voice in the back of your head?
  • Do you see pictures AND hear sounds?
  • Do you simply feel things?
  • People who are pure visual thinkers will often freeze the moment the nib of the pen touches the paper.
  • Auditory thinkers will often write too much.
  • People who think in many styles will, depending on what mood they're in, write better or worse...
  • Kinaesthetic thinkers won't write unless they "feel" like it!

So what difference does this possibly make? Why it makes all the difference in the world.

It will dictate whether or not you're geared for:
  • Poetry
  • Plays
  • Short-stories
  • Comic Books
  • Screenplays
  • Novels
Which do you think favours visual thinking?
Which favours auditory thinking?

You don't need to be a genius to work this out.

And if you were a little confused, why are screenplays so different from theatre plays? Why, it's because they're more visual.

OK, you say, I know what style I have, but how can I improve my writing?

Good question! Now you're thinking!

ZHZ

11 October 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :

This is the one thing that if you do it, it makes all the difference in attaining your goals:

Visualise the end.

See it

Hear it

Feel it

Writing goals and aims down is brilliant, but also inscribe them, etch them into your mind and go over them again and again, daily, weekly, but visualise them, in fact I would suggest you:

Draw them

Paint them

The more vividly you see, hear and feel your goal, the more tangible, the more likely you are to achieve it, so go and dream and make them real.

ZHZ

15 August 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :


There's one thing, one thing alone all writers have in common.

It comes before a writer becomes...a writer. And it follows ever after.


It is a sort of being.


And in this being and fulfillment and song and motion the parameters are set for all the things that a writer will become later on.


Before a writer becomes a writer, they are first a

reader.


So read and read and read

And then perhaps you can write and write and write.



ZHZ

3 August 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :
Dear Writer,



here are some golden tips for shaping your writing, whether you're polishing a short story or a fifty book series:

1. Remove dialogue tags such as "said" - most of these are redundant or to put it another way, dialogue should speak for itself.

2. Delete weasle words such as:
  • very
  • little
  • pretty
  • really
  • almost
  • seem
  • even
  • that
  • up/down
  • in/out
  • tried to...
  • reached...

3. Use positive terms, not negatives e.g. instead of "he didn't come" write "he was absent".

4. Use concrete nouns. Stay away from the abstract.

5. Remove as many words ending in -ly.

6. Remove as many -ing words as you can.

7. Construct "active" sentences - not passive. If you notice yourself writing something like, "he was thrown by the horse", switch the sentence round to, "the horse threw him".

8. Reduce the number of adjectives.

9. Avoid prepositional phrases.

10. Show don't tell, that is, paint a picture, show me what you see, hear, feel and I'll become you. If you don't you'll just bore me.

Print this small list off and I guarantee you this, by following these guidelines you'll add zing to your writing.

ZHZ

16 July 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :

So where am I today in my wordsmithery? Well, I'd say I'm in the middle of lots of projects:

1. I'm writing the follow-up to the The Curry Mile .
2. I'm working on drafting my first screenplay...big budget.
3. I'm thought-showering another screenplay...small budget
4. I'm planning the next edit of a children's book

I've been in the process of moving house for the last couple of months which has meant everything's been up in the ether.

I write regularly, but changing my writing space has has affected my work and it is only today that I'm in a position to say that, "Zahid, I'm back on track, welcome back!"

Oh, it's good to be yourself ;)

ZHZ

28 June 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under : , , ,
One of the biggest challenges any writer faces is determining which "voice" is apt to tell his or her tale.

Now, when I talk about "voice" I'm not referring to "Point of View", that is, whether a story is told through a first person narrative, a third person omniscient perspective and so on. No, I'm referring to the character behind the voice. The "voice" itself could be told from different Points of View.

ROBIN HOOD STORY

Let me clarify: if I said to you that we're going to write a story together, you and me, out here in the lonely landscape of the imagination where dreams are formed into tales by writers, young and old, fledgling and experienced...and then if we spun away allowing characters and plot and locations to coalesce...and if, to speed things up, I were to suggest using the Robin Hood tale, but I wanted you to rewrite it set in today's world, in your neighbourhood, on your street where there's a fella called Robin and a lady called Marion and a vile person called Mr. Sheriff who rules the town...I'm sure, I wouldn't need to tell you anything more in order for you to spin your contemporary tale.

USING OTHER VOICES...FOR THE SAME TALE

And once you'd written you tale, if I asked you to retell the story using the "voice" of Tony Blair or Mother Teresa or Bob Geldoff or Angelina Jolie or Nelson Mandela, each time, the "voice" would be potent and the tale would change. And if instead of using famous people you were to use people who are friends and family, aquainances or enemies, you would imbue your fictional characters with real flesh. Sans doute.

IF YOU HIT A WALL...
If one of your creations is lacking in spirit think of someone who is spirited - they can be fictional characters from novels and movies or TV. If you need someone who is witty think of someone who embodies those characteristics and incorporate them into your creation.

Finding characters is actually quite easy: just open your eyes and look and feel and listen. After all what are writers other than conduits of the imagination?
ZHZ

7 April 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :

Novelists
invariably have to write a synopsis. It is true that many great writers probably never wrote one, but I can assure that agents and publishers always want to see one.

Many who have chosen the world of the pen as their journey, sometimes find it difficult to understand what a synopsis is, why it is the way it is, why it's even needed. Other writers wouldn't write home without it.

You could say that it's the literary equivalent of a business plan. And it is true that the map is not the territory, the synopsis is not the book.

Here are some questions:
  1. How do you write a synopsis?
  2. How long should it be?
  3. When do you write it?
  4. What makes a good synopsis?
  5. What makes a bad one?

I say forget these questions.

Think of it like this: have you seen or read the Robin Hood story. Well, tell me the story. Go on, say it out loud, write it down. Guess what, the telling is very quick. Now when you were narrating the story, did you describe the colour of Robin Hood's tights or the look in Maid Marion's eyes when she was flustered by him? No, of course not, because those are the details that aren't really the big pulsing themes of the story. And that's what a synopsis is: it's a gist. The easiest way for me to do a synopsis therefore is to tell someone else the story. That's it. Tell it to yourself, your cat, your dog, your spouse, your best friend, your mum. Anyone who'll listen and not quarrel too much with you.

And guess what: we do this sort of storytelling all the time when we're relaying information about movies, television series, soaps. We don't tell everything - we stick to the main points and that's it.

So if you think you've got a story, get a stopwatch and time yourself and describe it in 60 seconds. Your tale might go something like this:

The story's about a guy called Noah Jenkins and he wants to be an astronaut, but he's claustrophobic - it's a comedy. Anyway, he works in a dead end job in London that's slowly been sapping his life juice away - then one day the wife he's neglected leaves him for his boss. In a fit of helplessness and rage he signs up for a...

Is that so hard to do?

And once you've laid down the foundation that make up your synopsis you can edit and rewrite to your heart's content until it sings true. Of course, it still means you have to write the book...


ZHZ

7 March 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :
If you are a published writer then there is something I strongly recommend you do that could absolutely alter - for the better - your experience of the writing life.

I believe it's a sad world we live in when those who create entire worlds for others are paid a pittance, but such is our reality. For those of us who are writers we must do what we can to get by comfortably so that we can continue creating new worlds of words.

Firstly, join The Society of Authors. I cannot recommend that enough. They help provide legal guidance, access to databases of agents and so many other things, too many to mention here, but they are all listed on their web site.

Secondly, join the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. If you join the Society of Authors then your membership of ALCS is free. ALCS collects the royalties from your published work.

Each time your book, essay or photo is reprinted, photocopied, borrowed from a library it generates income. That tally of income is what the ALCS calculates and collects and repatriates to the writer...as long as they are registered.

The creative impulse which produced the work now in print accrues value. Writers rarely have a good business sense, although some do, and the advice they receive is lacking.

I know poets and authors who despite having been published many time have never registered with any society such as the two above. If you are amongst those who believe that you don't need to register with anyone, you're right: you don't have to.

But why not?

What do you lose?

For a few pounds each year you easily recoup the cost of membership and you can access excellent professional advice. Don't waste any more time: go and visit those web sites and decide for yourself whether you should join. I simply believe that you should continue to be rewarded for what you created which has now become become part of the world's inheritance.

ZHZ

29 February 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :

A quick rundown of some stats on the running of my website www.zahidhussain.co.uk - as of today, I'm getting visits from 41 countries around the world which is absolutely amazing.

I have no idea how people from Iran, Japan and Washington State in the U.S. are hearing about my work. I am agog.


ZHZ

28 February 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :
I write every day. I don't write from nine till five, simply because I can't - I work full-time and the little time that remains is all I have to offer my muse.

I wanted to share some of my world with you...few writers are willing to open the door and let would-be writers into their abode.

As I've said many times before, before I became a writer I was a reader. I want to see new writers emerge, like a leviathan from the deep, water spraying the air in all directions, passion and enlightenment, horror and discovery in its rippling serpentine flesh, the leviathan's teeth flashing without pity and gouging a mark into the fabric of our...

So, here I am, keyboard keys at fingertips, clackety clack, clackety clack.

This is how the storyscape looks today. I'm in the middle of the synopsisdraft of the next instalment of The Curry Mile. It's obsorbing work. I call it synopsisdraft, because it's both a synopsis and a draft. It's evolving. I'm discovering the layers of the story, identifying gaps, weaknesses. I'm meeting characters. I've established the story's "voice". The draft, currently named "T.S." has a distinctive tone...I've set a deadline for the completion of the draft. It's a challenge, but once I've got the synopsisdraft out of the way, then I'll really be writing!

I'm going to be out till quite late tonight, but I have a daily "numberofwords" target that I have to meet before I hit the sack. The number is very low. It's ONE. That's right. ONE word. The truth is, as soon as I start writing, I usually far exceed the target. It's all about getting the pen to touch the paper, my fingertips to touch the keyboard keys. That's it.

Rampant writing,

ZHZ

23 January 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :
I'm going to reveal a big secret, perhaps the biggest of all. It's as sharp and tingly as a slap in the face, it's simply this:

Writing is not writing.

"Eh?" You gasp, "Zahid's lost it this time. He's joined the Circus of the Lunatics".

Let me explain.

Writing is not about taking a pen in your hand and writing.
Writing is not about sitting in front of a PC and typing.
Writing is not about sitting with a Dictaphone and speaking out your thoughts.

Writing is the process by which you fling your imagination into the real world.
In fact, some of my friends would argue that it isn't even that - it's just your imagination codified. And some of my friends would argue that it isn't even the imagination - it's simply channeling what you see, hear, feel, think and touch.

A few days ago I was delivering a creative writing workshop to some young women. I told them to absorb what was around them. I asked to them to look and to keep looking. I asked them to seek patterns and ask questions and to never stop.

When you realise that writing is not simply the physical act of writing, but the fusion of imagination, observation and downright curiosity it's amazing what happens to you. When struggling to describe a scene, sit back and let yourself sink into the scene in your head and describe it. Voila, it writes itself.

Writing is simply daydreaming onto paper.


ZHZ
Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :

I am a firm believer that Writer's Block doesn't exist. Or rather, I choose to believe it doesn't. However, that's only partially true: it's true for me, but it might not be for you. Like many things, it's all about your state of mind.


If I could guarantee that with the click of your fingers you could hit that zone inside yourself, that prefect place where writing is born, unleashed all by itself you'd bite my right arm off.

And like the best things in life, you can have it absolutely for free.

"But what about me?" You cry. "I'm different. I can't do that! My mind goes blank".

Rubbish. You kick yourself in the shins and you say it smarts, of course it does. You slap yourself in the face - of course, it stings. You convince yourself you've got no imagination - of course, you won't have any! It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"I've tried all that positive thinking," you insist, "it doesn't work!"

Who's talking about positive thinking? I'm not. I'm talking about a mindset not mind delusion. I'm not advocating talking yourself into believing something that isn't true. Give yourself a chance to succeed.

Here's what I advise:


  1. Take some time out with yourself where you won't be disturbed for an hour.
  2. Close your eyes and imagine a time when the writing flowed, all by itself, zen, effortless
  3. Cherish that memory and look and hear and feel that moment
  4. Now, heighten that memory: can you remember what was in the background? Was there music, was it the light, was it warm, was it cold?
  5. Now open your eyes.
  6. Take a pen or use your keyboard, whichever you feel is right for you and write down the memory of that moment
  7. Now close your eyes again and remember that moment again: feel it, see it, hear it
  8. Once you've identified the triggers, recreate them, the environment, the ritual or whatever it was that put you in the zone...
Does it sound too easy? Perhaps it is as easy as that. Know thyself. It isn't about copying what J K Rowling does or what Steven King does: it's about understanding what makes you tick. So go and tick tock, tick tock.


ZHZ

15 January 2008

Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under : , , ,


They say that the novel is dead. I don't think that's true. However, I think it is acutely accurate that the novels which writers like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky wrote won't be written again. Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, strong and distinctive voices of the past, will forever resound in our ears and their tales will flicker into life on our television screens. But those works will not be repeated.

I am a passionate reader. Sometimes it hurts that I am unable to read more, because of the fleeting minutiae of life that interferes, hinders me from imbibing the offerings from the past, be it fiction or non-fiction.

There is something about these two great Russian writers that I find puzzling, intriguing, rapturously rewarding and it echoes in the realities of writers today. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were contemporaries. And they form what I call the Tolstoy-Dostoyevsky Spectrum.

On the one hand Tolstoy came from a privileged background, he preferred stories that erred towards genteel fantasy and he didn't plan a thing: characters appeared and shaped themselves on the page. Dostoyevsky, ill, penniless, preferred stories that were planned, plotted, pruned before he even lifted the pen to write his first draft and he wrote in a fashion so dark...he was almost luxuriating in degeneration, blood, hate, war.

They were contemporaries and yet not only does their subject matter differ, but their styles too and their lives were so different that they could have lived on different planets. And these two men are amongst the greatest Russian writers - nay, the world.

So if you are sitting there, your eyes flickering from side to side as you read these words I want you to be clear that if you know that there is such a thing as the Tolstoy-Dostoyevsky Spectrum then you'll find that you can write anything in any way that you want. After all, they did.

ZHZ
Posted by Zahid Hussain | File under :
Before the advent of the typewriter and way before the PC, writers wrote with pens and pencils and everything was simple. Now you there is a plethora of software and geeky devices to help catalyse the writing process. So much easier you'd think and yet oddly so much harder. So which is it to be: pen or keyboard?

Let me tell you what I've gleaned from fellow writers. I've heard virtually every variation beneath the heavens:

  • Some write and rewrite longhand and and then pass their musings to a typist
  • Some write their first draft longhand and then get it typed up - and then take over
  • Some writer their first draft by hand, type it up themselves and continue rewriting
  • Some jot down their initial musings longhand and once a plan is fixed they jump to the keyboard
  • Some start straight onto the keyboard, rather like someone using a typewriter
  • Some start on the keyboard and then print and edit by hand
There. So many variations and sometimes a writer varies dramatically from pen to keyboard. Does it matter? Actually, something matters, but I don't think it's whether you're using a pen or a keyboard.

At different times in the writing process a writer has to think and behave differently. The initial musings might need to be mulled over carefully. Once the first draft is in progress it's important to keep flowing, to keep going. Whichever process keeps you in that state is the best for you, whatever that might be.

I know people, who with their eyes focussed on some fantasy can plot novels the size of Lord of the Rings. As soon as they put a pen in their hands, poof, it's gone, all gone. The muse has fled and there's nothing that you can do.

Now this is the really important thing. A pen, a keyboard, whatever you might use, is simply a device to record what's happening. It's simply the device that takes your thoughts and transfers them to the page. It's irrelevant what you use, just keep flowing. Let it gush. Sometimes, thoughts may not come and you might use another instrument to release the imagination like chocolate or a walk in the park.

So in answer to the question: keep your pens handy and keep the keyboard close by. When the muse takes you use what will keep you flowing whatever what that might be.

ZHZ