Today I’m taking a little bit of time out from writing Phase Three to write this instead. Partly that’s because this blog is (gulp!) a month out of date, and partly because…

Yes! I’m not into cake – strange I know, but true – so the above is exactly what it looks like: my lovely girlfriend Laura stuck a bunch of candles into an enormous tomato [one of my favourite things – that’s tomatoes nb, not candles, which tend to coat the tongue a bit I find] and rested it on a bed of [another of my favourite things] pistachio nuts.

Mmmmm. Pistachio nuts. 🙂

This post is mainly by way of an enormous THANK YOU – to anyone who happens to be reading this, but particularly to the people who have been sending me kind and lovely messages over the last month or so, whether via the Black Tat Guestbook, the Tim Guestbook, Jagmat’s MySpace, my Facebook, LibraryThing and Bebo profiles, or any other way they’ve managed to reach me. I’ve had my nose pressed pretty firmly to the Phase Three grindstone lately, and your encouragement is VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.

As, um, a token of gratitude – for whatever it’s worth! – I’d like to present an old short story of mine that I recently dug up from the archives and dusted off. It’s called Tongues and Other Parts. You can find it on the ‘Who Is Sam Enthoven?’ page of the Tim website, or just click here.

While you’re in a links-clicking kind of mood, check out the Black Tat Reader Art Page, where (if you scroll right down) you can see a beautiful butterfly that looks like it’s come straight off Esme’s wall – thank you, Daisy-May!

And now, also via my Bebo page, here’s an excellent bit of Q&A that neatly sums up exactly what I’ve been doing (and feeling) for most of the last six weeks, and probably will be for most of the next. Take a bow Beth, who says:

grr
i am a little annoyed with you at the moment
i am trying to write a short story (but it is turning into a long one)
anyway you write good books and they are really cool and i can’t write anything good. the plot either goes too fast or too slow. when i try to leave a bit of mystery in my characters it ends up that we don’t know enough. it is very annoying.
on second thoughts it’s not your fault it is just a bit annoying!
grr
p.s. Any tips??

Beth, I know what you mean: writing is incredibly frustrating sometimes. If it’s any consolation, I don’t really feel any different! I’m working on a new book right now, I’ve got lots of ideas for it, I’m very excited about it, but when it comes to /writing/ the d&mn thing it often feels as though all I’m turning out is SLUDGE! The difference between what you want to do and how a thing comes out first time is just infuriating. I’m sorry to tell you there’s no easy way around it. It’s always like this!

But at the same time, YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT: if you’re determined enough; if you learn to ignore (or trick) the critic in your head that tells you that everything you do is rubbish; if you /keep going/.

You learn how to write by doing it. You can only get better by failing first. Once you /finish/ a story, get to the end somehow, then you can go back over it and change it and polish it to make it better. But you can’t polish something that doesn’t exist.

In short, Keep Writing! Best, Sam

thank you i will keep trying!

tell me do you always know were the plot is going in your stories?? do you have to have an ending set out?? what are you working on now??
bibi
beth

We talked about keeping going, right? A planned-out plot can really help with that. If you know what’s going to happen it’s much easier to work towards it. You can also fill a story with things you’re really looking forward to writing (eg destroying the Houses of Parliament, in Tim!) And it helps give your story a structure, a satisfying shape – rather than just hoping that it’s somehow going to come together as you go. I plan my stories as carefully as I can, working out as much as possible before I start writing.

HOWEVER: there’s always a point where you realise that a lot of the answers in a story just aren’t going to come until you’re in the thick of it. The story I’m on right now basically involves nine young people who are stuck together in a small room – trapped there by something horrible. It was hard to know how those characters were going to interact (and who would survive!) until I started writing the scenes.

Still is, tbh! I’d best get back to it.
Chin chin!
Sam

Russell Hoban, who is one of my favourite writers, once said: “A writer at a desk is nothing very heroic and yet you have to find ways of feeling heroic because the effort required certainly is.”

Aside from the kindness and encouragement of others, current ways for me also include: rereading (again!) TRANSMETROPOLITAN, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson; interviews with and dvd commentaries by John Carpenter; sushi; remembering to come out of the house and meet people who aren’t imaginary on at least a semi-regular basis – and listening at least twice a day to this. [NB: the LastFM playlist link in the post below broke about a week after I posted it, and now even if you click through to my profile you can only hear clips – why??]

Back to the bathysphere. Wish me luck. 😉

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Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Me and THE WEBSPHINX would love to hear from you! Drop us a line at the Tim, Defender of the Earth Guestbook for current or Tim stuff, or The Black Tattoo Guestbook for Black Tat stuff. First (or demon-!) names only, please. 😉