I have started my writer’s journal yesterday (6th June 2022) and I was finding it insightful rethinking how my projects developed over the years and how I have grown as a writer.
Because I get so wrapped up in my projects I often forget to post on my blog, so I often do blog posts around two weeks in advance, just to help maintain activity here – because if I don’t, the blog goes quiet for three months at a time and I don’t like to do that!
Anyway, going back to my first paragraph of this post, I discovered that certain projects were bland when I originally started them – but over time, they fleshed out really well and morphed into something completely different, even character names changed to suit the new situations that ensued.
For example, I had a young child protagonist who was originally seven years old, she then became twelve and now the character is going to be fifteen. Simply because of how the story developed into something much different and my goals are very different today than they were back then!
I also only had around five characters that were friends of the hero and helped her on her journey; this grew to become nine solid friends and a small number of fly by helpful friends.
I decided the villain dies in the end and that so does the heroine too, but this changed, I leave no spoilers as to my current decision or you’d be looking for it in any book that sounds alike, when it gets published.
But what threw me was the fact that the book developed when I developed – I don’t mean creatively developed, I mean, its subjects developed with what was going on in my life at the time of writing…
The heroine was a runaway –then she was not.
I was a runaway at the same time this story originated in my mind, the characters plot of running away changed, when I no longer felt the need to run away in my real life.
This is a development I didn’t notice until I revisited the writing process to add to my current projects journal – it is interesting. I used to pooh-pooh the idea about creative people subconsciously putting their lives into print and that people psychoanalysed everything that wasn’t really there, but, you know… I think there is something about all of that!
If you write a certain theme, it’s because you think or feel or have experienced it in the past or at the present and it is coming out in your writing.
So be careful at what you are writing out there, I know a lot of real life bitches who tend to write a lot of romantic dramas where there are mega bitches and they just think, their work is set apart from themselves… but… hey… what will literary psychoanalysts say about you in the future, what will they see in you through your work?
It does reveal a lot – I have a writer friend who writes a lot of childish roles in her stories that are not entirely based around children and she struggles a lot with her inner child, she is trying to be mature, but she just can’t hack it and she doesn’t mind I am writing this, I asked her! But she found it amusing about how accurate this seems to be even with her!
I know another writer who always wanted to be a rock star or a Goth, but was always nervous to do so because of societal stigma, particularly within the Jewish community – so, they write those kinds of characters. Sorry I didn’t ask them about this, but being that they aren’t named… do they really mind? I hope not!
You don’t know it until you see it!
But you write yourself in everything!
Since learning this, it has kind of made me paranoid about what people will think about me… but then again… I am happy with who I have become and I am happy I am not who I used to be anymore, so I won’t stress too much!
I just don’t want the analysts to harp on about my mental illness all the time and look back on me with pity! I don’t like that.
The journal has been a revelation.
What is included in the journal is my journey and thought processes about what is happening in the book – any movies or books that influenced those pivotal scenes, are my characters actually a mock-up of say, my favourite movie characters? Yes, actually, I can see that a lot in my work! But it is unique enough to not come across as a total rip off! That’s very important!
I have even included lyrics which also helped me think of scenes, with references to the singer and the song name.
Why am I doing this?
Because these journals are on a work by work basis, when I get a piece of work published I have this goal that if I sell ten thousand books, I will send out to publish these snippets from my writers journal to show my readers how I got it done and what influenced me, because I don’t know about you – but I am a very nosy reader! When I read an author’s book, I want to know more about them as a person, what they think and what they like so I can see who influenced them! Because I love evolution!
Being a creative, whether you are a writer, song writer, musician, artist etc; you are going through an evolution which will influence and inspire other creatives in the future. This is exciting and I love this sort of thing! I am obsessed with evolution, particularly the evolution of the mind, culture and society!
At this point in time, there are hundreds of works by other people who have influenced all seventy nine of my nearly finished works, yes, seventy nine! There have been many things which have influenced me several times over in most of my works and those are;
Nox Arcana music, art and lyrics
Neil Gaiman’s works, particularly his prose and comics
Colleen Doran’s Raphaelite style artworks
Various wrestling shows with their gimmicks and storylines
Aurora Aksnes lyrics and music videos
Anne Rice vampires
Vampire movies in general
Modern gothic art, particularly by Anne Stokes
Tim Burton’s movies and artworks
Ancient myth and legends worldwide
Roald Dahl’s works and movie adaptions
Lady Gaga’s music videos and lyrics
Stephen King’s works and movie adaptions
Brian Froud and the Froud families’ artworks and puppet movies
The Mad Max series and franchise
Mafia movies and history
Max Brooks works and movie adaptions
Children’s classic bedtime fairy-tales
Marilyn Manson music videos
Queen music and music videos and adaptions
The Rocky horror picture show and its adaptions
Suzanne Collins works and adaptions
The Animals of Farthing wood
Watership down and its adaptions
Wind in the willows and its adaptions
Monty Python TV shows and movies
Terry Pratchett’s works and adaptions
Johnny Depp’s characters
Robert Downy Jr’s characters
Gabriel Byrne’s characters
Al Pacino’s characters
Bette Midler characters
Kathleen Turner characters
Pam Ferris characters
James Earl Jones characters
Bon Jovi lyrics
To name but a few, I know it’s really a lot, but its few in the real number of influences I have had over the years!
So you see – you are what you are and you can’t hide it!
Happy reading everybody!
tardycreative.com 
A writer’s thoughts
I have read somewhere in the past, that you are what you read and I believe that. The more I read the more defined my tastes have become, my skills, my genre leanings and this influences my writing and art.
With each good book I learn how I want to write and what I want to write about.
With each bad book I read, I learn how I do not want to write and what I dislike.
I do not believe that as a writer you must write things outside of your comfort zone, I believe you should be comfortable with what you are writing – although on an emotional matter, that’s quite different. You must write outside of your emotional comfort zone if you wish to write fear, pain and heartbreak effectively, unfortunately that means opening up your old wounds.
A lot of the time, I like to write about horror, trauma etc. and each time I do, I open up real and old wounds, this is why I often become quiet as a writer and have prolonged periods of not writing, whilst I emotionally recuperate.
I was once told that writers and artists generally go mad after a time and I believe it, we send ourselves mad for our art and stories because we are constantly reliving the horrors of our past for your entertainment and as a collective, we seldom are known or recognized for it.
I am not moaning about my lack of recognition as a writer and artist, because personally I think that’s my own fault. I think I am generally a lazy person and have not bothered to find myself a publisher or to advertise my work very much over the years at all. On the one occasion I did contact a publisher to see whether or not they liked an idea of mine, I was lucky enough to get a letter back within three weeks, but this terrified me, because they loved what I sent them and praised me highly for it; I never contacted them again, I was worried about becoming famous and at the time I was young and didn’t know about pseudonyms.
These days I am more prepared for whatever life throws at me because I will be totally blatant about what I can and cannot do and what I will and will not allow.
Other than twitter, my blog and magazines are there any other steps I should take to get myself known?
Please comment below.
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