The Writing Process Blog Tour

I was introduced to the Writing Process Blog Tour by my editor, Susie Wild, who has shared her process on her blog:

http://susiewild.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/writing-process-blog-tour.html . This is a great way to connect with writers and read about their writing process and other stuff, and then you can sigh and think, "Great, I’m not the only one who’s weird, or pressed for time", or even, "Hey, I’m just as fantastic as everyone else!"

Thank you Susie, for inviting me on the tour. Here are my 4 questions:

What am I working on?

It took me seven years to complete my first novel, The Normal State of Mind. I hated this question for seven years, but now it is my favourite one! I am working on the edits and finer points of the novel, for it will be published sometime later this year! 

Polishing my reading skills in India

I was in India recently, did a book reading in Mumbai, where I read my short story from the anthology, Rarebit – New Welsh Writing. In a way, I was preparing myself for the book launch of my novel, The Normal State of Mind. It’s good to work on reading aloud, facing the audience, calming the nerves and having witty and clever answers ready to go. It all takes a lot of practise and I am working on that!

I have just had an essay, my first foray in writing non-fiction, accepted by Riptide Journal. I’m looking forward to the edits and preparing the piece for final publication.

At the same time, I write short stories obsessively. I’m just polishing off a couple to be sent off to competitions.  Once all of this is done, I’ll work on trying to impress an agent. Who knows, it may take another seven years!

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

What is my genre? I’m not really sure. A lot of my writing is inspired by my own experiences: travelling, immigration, the whole Diaspora thing. I like writing about women’s issues and society. Instead of focussing on the negatives women face, I like my female characters to have some fun. I like them to be spunky, outspoken and not downtrodden, sacrificial souls.

Why do I write what I do?

There’s no answer to this one. It’s like asking, why do you eat fish curry and rice with your fingers? Is there any other way to eat it? I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pencil in my hand. I wrote ‘poetry’ in serious green ink when I was six or seven. I wrote journals and diaries detailing every moment

Barbie Girl doodles

of my angst-ridden- forever- heartbroken teens. I wrote reams of letters to my boyfriend at sea. And then I wrote reams of letters to everyone in my address book when I married and set sail with him. I am an obsessive writer and an obsessive doodler of Barbie doll type girls. They adorn my journals and pages, these women with unrealistic eyelashes and legs. I write about women. I write about life. I write about food and sex. I write about love, and country. And separation. And reunions. I write about me, disguised in the forms of my characters. Their dreams. My dreams. Their beliefs. My beliefs. They all merge into one idea. I just write to express myself. Is there any other way to do it?

How did I choose the theme for my novel, The Normal State of Mind? I had an image in my mind. Two women wading through the Mumbai floods, trying to make it to safety. I knew I had to write about them. But who were they? I knew one of them was a widow, because she was crying as she passed by her husband’s workplace. And the other? I wanted to write about someone I didn’t know much about. Someone I wanted to know well. I got friendly with a lovely girl, who’s a lesbian, when I lived in Cardiff. She was struggling with the title of ‘lesbian’. She said she was a normal person. And that stuck in my head. I wanted to write about her. And the struggles she had to face. Then I thought about homosexuality in India. How did people go through life dealing with their identities in such a conservative society? I wanted to find out more, discover more about life. The diversity of life. And the definition of normal. Who defines normal? And who is normal? Certainly not me. I want to be special, and write about special things.

How does my writing process work?

My writing process has had two distinct periods: Pre-parenthood and post. The pre period was very unproductive, and basically I was a lazy writer. Great ideas, lofty ambitions, and an abundance of time. Result: Nothing. Post-parenthood: Sleepless nights. Baby blues. Feeding. Working part time. No time to spare. Therefore an urgency to write whenever I could spare some time for it. Result: Something. Writing was ‘me time’ as I couldn’t go out and do other stuff. And I was desperate for the ‘me time’. It kept me sane. And so I wrote. And wrote and wrote. Also, the times spent nursing, rocking baby to sleep, washing bottles, changing nappies, all helped with physical labour, freeing up my mind to think up all sorts! Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t neglect my kids! But motherhood really helped me focus and be constructive and good with time management, all that I was rubbish with before.

I now have two young girls, and finding the time to write gets trickier by the day. I write sporadically, as and when I get free time. That’s usually at night when the girls are in bed. But I’ve worked out a way that I can start on an idea of a story in my mind, and work on it mentally for days before I get the opportunity to actually write it down. I have to say though, Cbeebies is a good babysitter for an hour or so and sometimes, I can write in the mornings. When I have to work on edits etc I wait for when both girls are in school/pre-school and I ignore the housework and get down to it. It is a constant battle with finding time to write and do the housework etc. My house is not the tidiest. If you do wish to call on me, please do give advance notice, I’ll push the toys behind the settee and stuff the un-ironed clothes into the wardrobe.  

But jokes apart, I read a lot, listen to the radio, the news especially and the World Service. Ideas evolve from the day-to-day happenings. I don’t drive and use to my advantage, eavesdropping on buses.  Supermarkets, airports, markets, schools: there’s a story everywhere. I listen and watch and day-dream and imagine, and roll them all up and give them a spin in my brain, let them stew/fester/boil/steam for a while, and out comes a result. A story.

It is my privilege to introduce Romy Wood, who will be on the tour next week. 

Romy Wood: Romy is a recovering secondary school teacher. She has an MA in The Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing from Cardiff University and lectures in Creative Writing for the Open University. She writes novels because they are easier to write than short stories and poems. She drinks too much Coca-cola, likes to win at Scrabble and walks the tightrope that is Bipolar Disorder.Word on the Street is her second novel.  http://romywood.co.uk/

Previous stops: Carole Burns,  http://offthepagebook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/writing-process-blog-tour.html and Ivy Alvarez: http://dumbfoundry.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/my-stop-on-writing-process-blog-tour.html