Getting Inspiration

When I visit schools and libraries I spend my time telling stories and sharing my love of books, reading and writing - the idea behind this is to let the children know that reading and writing is fun. I also spend a lot of time answering lots questions about myself and writing - among other things this helps show that I'm human (for most of the time) and helps satisfies their curiosity about writers and writing. Questions range from - 

• What's your favourite colour?
• Where do you do your writing?

to things like 

• Where do you get your inspiration?   

The first two are easy.... the inspiration question often isn't so easy. Quite often what the poser of the question means is a combination of -

• Where do you get your ideas?

and 

• Where do the words that you write actually come from?

I have answers for all of these - some more satisfying than others. But every time i get asked the questions I always wish I had a better answer... the problem is, it's difficult to say where all ideas and words come from without simply saying Out Of My Head...

I've had a book idea rattling round inside my head for a little while now - I know characters and settings and bits of plot and conversation etc but I didn't quite have the words to start the story... and to be honest it was starting to get a little frustrating. 

This morning, however, whilst carefully putting our wedding invitations into the postbox round the corner, the opening words came to me. I don't know what triggered these words off - there was certainly no one around that resembled the character that I'm writing about, nor was there a building similar in any way to the one in the story... but the words still came to me. Perhaps they came because I wasn't looking for them - Who knows?

All I can say is that I'm glad they are here... It now means that I can start the story at a good place. The beginning. Always a good place to start I think...

Getting on with it

Over the past year or so I've not written much in my on-line blog/diary (this thing you're looking at here) and to be honest I haven't done anywhere near as much writing as I should have done either. There's no real excuse for this - even though I might say that time is tight and its hard finding time to write things etc... 


Yes, I've been busy doing school/library visits/workshops/storytelling sessions and other things but it's still not really much of an excuse - Being a writer you really only have to do one thing, and that's write. After a verbal, and well deserved, kick in the pants from my lovely lady last night I am definitely back on the saddle as it were. 


Today I have been (and still am) working on a picture book story that I intend to finish for tomorrow. The story has been stamping and stomping, baring its claws and gnashing its jaws for some time now (it is about dinosaurs so what do you expect) and trying to get out. I know what the story is... But it's now always as simple as that. A story in itself can be a very simple thing - Boy meets Girl and they fall in love etc... but what makes a story a story is the way it is written i.e. the voice that is used to tell it - and then there's pace, language and much, much more...

Sometimes you need to write, write, write, and sometimes you need to step away and give it a minute....


Phew... 
There...
I've given it a minute....back to the writing now...


Follow me on twitter @damianjharvey or my lovely fiancée, Vicky @Vics2273, to see what we're up to now...


  

Out and About... Schools... Libraries... Puppets and Muppets...

Phew... I've had a mad few weeks visiting schools and libraries all around Great Britain as lots of people celebrate World Book Day. It's been utterly exhausting but great fun... I've met thousands of excited and enthusiastic book lovers, hundreds of keen and enthusiastic teachers, assistants and parents, dozens of lovely librarians (though none as lovely as my lovely lady of course :-) ) and one most excellent puppeteer - The Amazing Marcus Clarke. 


I've got lots of pictures to put in my diary and lots more to say, but right now my head is ready to explode... 

Yes... EXPLODE!!!! 

There's a story that just needs putting down on paper (or on my laptop)... So STAND BACK...

I'm going to do a little writing to release the pressure and then I will be right back (or should that be WRITE BACK) with more news....

Car Trouble and a Great School Visit

Had a good day yesterday at the Lamplugh School in Cumbria talking about writing, sharing stories and showing how I go about writing a story. There were lots of great ideas flying around and Class One had lots of fun working on a story together (about Captain Fancy Pants the Pirate) and writing stories of their own. Class Two came up with a horrible old woman called Mrs McFeegle that I'm sure Roald Dahl would have been proud to include in one of his stories. 

I had about three hours to myself between the last session in school and an evening session with parents. In this time I'd planned to go and get something to eat and perhaps do a bit of writing on my laptop. Unfortunately, however, it was raining so heavily that the tiny roads around school were full of huge puddles. Driving through one of the puddles my car decided to stop and have a rest - and wouldn't get going no matter what I did. I thought I was going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere (200 miles from home)... luckily the car dried out and I got it going again just in time to chug back to school to meet some of the lovely parents that were keen on helping their children write stories - not sure if I managed to offer any good advice but it was a nice evening.


Just made it home in time for a quick bath and then straight to bed. Phew!!!


Today I'm catching up with lots of emails, letters and a bit of writing... More schools in the week to come.

It's been too long...

since I wrote in my diary and lots have people have been telling me off about it.


I'm back now and have lots to tell you about and lots to keep telling you about. Over the last few weeks I've been busy working on some new stories and visiting schools and libraries. A new picture book story has gone to my agent and is now sitting with a publisher awaiting a yes or a no - always a nail biting time (but while I'm waiting for their thoughts I'm busy working on new stories).


Before half term I spent a few days visiting schools and want to say a BIG HELLO to everyone at Aragon Primary School in Morden. It's been great reading all your letters and looking at the Mudcrust pictures you have drawn.

Library Visits

I've got lots to tell you about in my diary but haven't had chance to do it yet... but here's a quick bit of news before I fill you in on what's been going on...


Today we're off to Rhuddlan Library for a session at 10.30, and this afternoon we're going towards the coast to visit Rhyl Library for a session at 2.00. Everyone's welcome so if you're in the area why not pop in.


See you soon....

Waterloo Sunset and Ironing out the Kinks

Just in case you thought I'd completely disappeared I thought I should let you know that I am definitely still here and am very busy writing... I'm currently ironing out the kinks in chapter one of my latest book. I'd love to tell you what it's called but it hasn't got a proper title yet. So far it's called MUM... but that is definitely not going to be the finished title.


I really should make more of an effort to keep up with my diary writing but it can be difficult at times :-(   Perhaps that could be my New Year resolution... Write more in my diary... Hmmm... I'll have to think about that as I'm sure there are far more pressing things to resolve. Such as FINISH THE BOOKS I'M WRITING!!!


On Saturday Vicky and I spent a lovely morning at Buckley Library where we met the award winning crime writer Martin Edwards... a very nice man whose mind is full of murder and deceit - all fictional stuff of course. Martin kindly signed a copy of one of his novels for us - Waterloo Sunset - and we can't wait to read it...

Saturday night was Vicky's brothers 40th birthday - Happy Birthday Chris - and we spent the night partying.
 
Back to work now... I'll write soon...