Author: Leigh Roswen

Nature lover, Writer, Book lover, Photographer
Literaleigh

In and Out of my Comfort Zone

Leigh Roswen

IMG_3305In the past I have suffered from Graves disease which is a form of hyperthyroidism. I am fortunate that, for me, the drugs work and send the condition into remission. I have had 3 or 4 recurrences which just meant I had to go back on the anti-thyroid medication.

Before I was diagnosed and in the periods before the drugs could kick in, it could get pretty rough. The thyroid controls your metabolism which basically effects everything, your skin, your muscles, your heart, your temperature, your mind. One of the most disturbing effects was anxiety. Your body’s metabolism is in a state of flight ie heart pounding, sweating, shaking- your brain follows. My anxiousness didn’t so much take the form of panic attacks, more often a feeling of being inadequate and overwhelmed. Routine tasks became like climbing mountains. Driving, shopping even conversation became gargantuan tasks in my mind. I lacked any confidence in my abilities to extend myself beyond the most mundane.

In hindsight that experience has done me a favour. It has made me grateful for every opportunity I get to experience something new and challenging. I like to take on things outside my normal sphere, just to prove I can.

I’m not a risk taker but I do like to promise myself that at least once a month I can do something outside my comfort zone. I am a reasonably unfit introvert with perchance for procrastination so stepping outside my comfort zone may be other people’s norm. Some of the things I have done in the past few years to fulfil my promise to myself are:

-Sing solo in front of a group of people. (a WEA class – and it was voluntary!)

-Drive into the inner city of Sydney (So what! you say. I learnt to drive in regional areas so city traffic and parking freaks me out. I am yet to drive over or under the harbour)

-Take on ethics teaching to groups of primary children (I learnt so much but it was definitely out of my comfort zone for first 6 months)

-Go on long bushwalks (this is sort of in and out of my comfort zone as I love being in the bush but am reasonably unfit)

-Attend meetings and gatherings where I knew nobody.

-Got a puppy (I swore I would never own a dog as they are too much work and tie you down and I knew nothing about dogs. I was right.)

Of course there is other times when I like to indulge myself. A massage, a walk along the beach, reading a good book.

So hence becomes a new blog routine. Every month, apart from my other posts, I will do one called, In and Out of my Comfort Zone.

This month

IN: This is going to make be sound very spoilt – I got a new car. My previous car was over 10 years old so the difference in technology and comfort is mindboggling. Sometimes I just sit and imagine I’m in a luxury spaceship. I am thinking of moving my writing space out there. Comfort, privacy, music, 360’ view. What more could you want?

OUT: I signed up for my first NANOWRIMO. National Novel Writing Month. That is a challenge to write 50, 000 words in the month of November. Did I mention that I was a procrastinator and a slow writer? This is my worst nightmare and my most necessary kick up the backside. I have made myself accountable by joining up with some other local NaNo nuts for write-ins and progress meetings. I feel the pressure mounting. Sunday is N-day.

What are your INs and OUTs this month?

Book Reviews

We Were Liars

Leigh Roswen

By E. Lockhart               Allen and Unwin 2014           YA fiction

Score: 8/10                             Genre: Dark teen romance, Suspense

Cadence spends her summer breaks on the Sinclair family’s private island along with her mother, her grandparents and the families of her two aunts.

Cady her cousins Johnny and Mirren and the intriguing, handsome Gat form the band of summer friends called ‘The Liars.’ As they spend lazy summers swimming, boating and playing tennis Cady falls in love with the outsider Gat. Together the Liars observe the so-called ‘beautiful’ Sinclair family implode. Rivalry between the adult sisters spurred by the manipulative elitist grandfather turn family gatherings into ugly feuds.

Cady’s fifteenth summer will change everything. An accident, a head injury, and amnesia leave her grappling for answers. She aches to see the ‘Liars’ again and begs her mother to let her return to Beechwood island in her seventeenth summer. Will the Liars help her unravel her confusion? Will Gat still love her?

It is hard to discuss this book without giving spoilers – but I’ll try. Lockhart plays with language form, timelines, and character voices in such a clever way that the pages fly by. The setting of Beechwood Island with the four houses for the four families (map included) is a fantastic claustrophobic space to tell a dark tale. So why didn’t I give this 9 or even 10? Possibly because I felt a bit too manipulated by the plot twists. Also, I’m not one for ‘happily ever after’ but this ending is gut-wrenchingly irredeemable. I’m not sure I liked the feeling (call me a wuss) even though I appreciated the writing that led me to despair.

Recommend for: YA writers and teenagers. This may seem self-evident – it is YA fiction, but some YA’s have more general appeal. I think I would have appreciated this book more if I was an angsty teenager.

Use for writers: Where do I begin?

Creative sentence/paragraph structure: Occasional short repetitive sentences pack emotional punch. Particularly when describing the facade of the Sinclair clan. “We are Sinclairs. No-one is needy. No-one is wrong.”

Authentic and interesting teen voices: Cady’s feelings of love, pain and bitterness are shown in a raw and poetic voice. Johnny is flippant and likeable, Gat is serious and brooding and Mirren is sweet and insecure.

Setting: atmospheric, confined but never over-described.

First person present tense: creates intimacy and tension.

Changes in text form: emails, lists and my favourite; Cady’s increasingly bitter fairy-tale retellings – very clever and ominous.

Book Reviews

The Circle

Leigh Roswen

 by Dave Eggers         Knopf 2013               Adult fiction

Score:       6/10                             Genre: IT dystopia. Corporate intrigue

Mae has a shiny new job at The Circle, an information technology super company. The grand vision of its founders is total connectivity and accountability of all the world citizens via Circle accounts. Millions of static cameras, chips under the skin, wrist devices for messaging and the pinnacle of transparency – the personal video camera worn around the neck. Mae opts to go ‘Transparent’ and records all her work, personal and family life.

The technology presented in this book is entirely believable and fascinating however the characters were not. Mae is presented as an independent, risk taker (ie paddling alone in the dark, and having sex with near strangers) however in her role as Circle employee she is a gullible dupe. The cost of the insane workload and lack of privacy in her life mounts but Mae does not seem to have one iota of doubt in her role as The Circle poster girl. What does the rebellious, brillant Kalden see in her? And why doesn’t he take his own action against the Circle?

There are few chapter breaks in this book which makes the plot seem relentless. This may be deliberate to mimic the relentless nature of the constant texts (zings) and surveys thrust at Circle employees. I felt overwrought just reading about this communication overload. So why didn’t more of the employers have mental breakdowns?

Despite the flaws this is an important book to read about the totalitarian power which could be wielded by IT companies.

Recommend for: I would recommend this to everyone – for the warnings it contains. The lack of privacy is the main issue addressed but thankfully we are still quite a way from The Circle ideal of having everybody under surveillance. A more pressing concern for our society is the lack of downtime for individuals. In the Circle’s world everybody is always connected, always zinging, sharing and constantly seeking affirmation from others– often strangers. As I sit here on ‘holidays’ and my husband sorts a problem at work over the phone, my son texts and I check my twitter account I wonder if we are far from this dystopia.

I rarely use an e-reader, but for this text it seemed appropriate. Mainly because it suits the high-tech nature of the story but it is also easier to bookmark given the lack of chapter divisions.

Use to writers: Be careful not to contrive dialogue or character traits just to serve the plot. The characters should have believable motivations and human weaknesses. A great dystopian premise is not always enough.

Literaleigh

Creativity is mind-altering Part 3

Leigh Roswen

Talk to the stranger including that which lurks within

So here goes – ways to whip that imagination and those observational powers into shape.

Write it down: A writers journal is not an account of day to day life it is a random collection of observations, character ideas, snippets of conversation, epiphanies about life, the seeds of story ideas, funny incidents, interesting words and phrases. My journal would be gibberish to others but to me it’s an assurance that I haven’t wasted some good experiences or thoughts.

Stimulus-free time: Ideas are allowed to blossom when you are not being bombarded with other stimuli. I am an avid podcast listener but there is times when I turn everything off and let my mind roam free. Go for a ipod-free walk or do a mundane house chore in silence, drive with that radio off. This is not just beneficial for story ideas but for sorting through your current project. For instance I have found that these times allow me to have almost have a birds-eye view of my overall novel and see inconsistencies in structure and characters.

Free writing: I’ll admit to not using this tool for a while as ideas haven’t been so much my problem as the discipline of writing my middle-grade novel. However I have found this useful in the past for short-story ideas (which sometimes grow into longer forms). The idea of free-writing can be a bit daunting ie creating something from nothing. So I mostly employ a semi-free-writing approach and start with a word, or a phrase or a character. These can come from the innumerable websites/ebooks/apps that offer writing prompts (see some links below) or maybe something from your own journal. Allow yourself to write unstructured rubbish for 10 minutes, longer if you are getting in the flow. Nobody else will see it. Put it aside when you finish and reread at a later time. You may find a gem amongst the refuse and you’ll almost certainly find strange musings that you didn’t even know you were capable of.

http://awesomewritingprompts.tumblr.com/

http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

http://www.oneword.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ideas-for-writing-creative/id529876147?mt=8

Deliberate observation: make a decision for a period of time to be deliberately observant. Ask yourself questions about the people and things in your environment. Yes, public places like airports and cafes are fascinating. Why does that middle-aged couple appear so awkward with one another? Why is that man in arrivals looking so worried? Why are those children so fascinated by their food they’ve being served? Why? Why? Why?. But you don’t have to be in a public place. Even driving I sometimes play a little game. What sort of person would have a confronting car sticker like that?? How can that young woman afford a car like that? Look at that toy truck sitting on the balcony of the high rise. What sort of life would that be for a child?

If you find yourself staring at people with your mouth open or edging closer to people to catch their conversation you are becoming a bit creepy but anything less than this is fair pickings.

Deliberate Engagement: This one is the most difficult for the introverts among us. I won’t say – walk up to a stranger and start a conversation, because that’s not always easy. But, at least, next time a casual conversation starts or a joke is shared with a person in a shop or on a train be receptive to continuing that conversation. Ask a question of that person give something of yourself. Before you know it you may learn that that man or women has a fascinating story to tell. A story that is outside your normal sphere of existence. I find it very sad when people think this type if interaction is somehow odd. Recently I saw a women start talking to a couple on train station. She was an older women and looked a little untidy but what she was saying about the day and the train made perfect sense. The couple just stared at her as if she was an alien. When she walked away they remarked in a loud whisper “You get some real weirdos around here!” (You do indeed. Rude ones as well!) It takes nothing to be polite and there is much to be gained from learning other people’s life experiences. Be endlessly curious and judge not by appearance alone. Some of the people I have talked to in this way have been African refugees, ex-sporting champions and young world travelling backpackers.

Thus ends my ramblings (for the time being) about a creative mind. Now it’s time for you to ramble or even offer pithy comments to show me up. Do you find any of the above techniques useful? Have you had a chance encounter with a stranger that has broaden your horizons?

Literaleigh

Creativity is mind-altering Part 2

Leigh Roswen

Extrapolate Extrapolate

What I like about creative pursuits – any creative pursuits, is that they make you view the world in a different way.

For a short period in my life when my children were little I dabbled in watercolour painting. For the same reason as intricate adult colour-in books have become popular the gradual building up of layers of water colour took my mind from the fraught world of child-rearing to only what was on the palette before me. This self-imposed therapy was deliberate but what I wasn’t prepared for was the difference painting made to my visual perception. I began to see shadow and shine, light and shade that had previously gone unnoticed. I registered the sharp shadow on the inside of a cup that would require a straight-edged swath of grey paint or one side of a softly sunlit leaf translated to an area dabbed with white.

I went walking with my friend the other day and her particular form of creativity is photography and scrapbooking. We came across a colourfully graffited wooden gate which I would have passed without a thought. But she immediately saw the juxtaposition of the bush and the gate and its potential for a cool photo-shoot with her two teenage children.

In the same way writing has changed my perception of the world. Outings, emotions, conversations actions, interesting objects are potential grist for the mill. Scenes play out in my head as I drive the car or sit in a café. This heightened awareness is not always present but when it is it can add depth to even the mundane. After all what is more interesting sitting in a train carriage mentally giving everybody relationships, occupations, goals, or just seeing them as a faceless crowd.

Story possibilities are everywhere, you just have be honed to recognise them – then extrapolate. I’m not always switched on to be ultra-observant but sometimes it is interesting to be forced into this situation. This was perfectly demonstrated by an exercise I did in an Australian Writers Centre course some years ago. The presenter asked the class to write a mini story about an event that happened the day before. She was strict about this – it had to be from the day before the exercise. The results from my fellow students amazed me. Even those, like me, who thought their lives were basically boring and uneventful. There were poignant stories of family relationships and atmospheric road trips. In one story a simple act of baking a cake became a moving tribute to the writer’s mother. I wrote about my son’s apparent failure to gain entry to local high school advanced class. He had previously been assured that he would gain placement by a teacher at the school who’d looked at his results, so this was an unexpected blow. As it turned out later in the day we found out he did get in – it was a clerical error. The ups and downs of emotions that day made for the basis of a story. Furthermore a family discussion about other times clerical errors have sold us short led me to extrapolate to a fantasy element. So in my story there became a curse on our family name which made it disappear from lists and people’s consciousness. I’d never have thought of this if I hadn’t been forced to retrospectively look at my day with the eyes of a writer. That exercise only involved ONE DAY in our lives how many story ideas could we mount up if we did that exercise every day.

By listening to interviews with great writers I have often noted they are masters of extrapolating small observations. An example which always sticks in my mind is presented in an interview with Irish writer Colm Toibin on Selected shorts (see link below). He introduces his beautifully written, subtle story ‘A Priest in the Family.’ This is a short story set in a small Irish town told from the point of view of the mother of a disgraced priest. The whole idea for the narrative originated from a mere single image that came to Toibin. This was an image of a priest pulling up his socks. Now a picture like this may flash through the minds of us mere mortals without a second thought. In more finely tuned minds small acts can become nuanced with greater meaning. As in this story the town’s Father pulling up his socks becomes a symbol of unspoken truths, discomfort and the need to set things right. Listen to interview http://www.selectedshorts.org/search/blog?s=a priest in the family (almost worth it if for Toibin’s lilting accent alone) Unfortunately the story itself is no longer available to listen to online but I would recommend Selected shorts as an good podcast for those interested in adult short fiction http://www.selectedshorts.org/podcast/

Have you ever had a small observation expand into a whole narrative?

In the next blog post I will explore methods to facilitate your imagination and record it.

Literaleigh

Creativity is mind-altering: Part 1

Leigh Roswen

I’m starting to plot my dreams

I am an amateur writer, a hobbyist but I’d be lying if I said that getting a novel published or placing in a major short story competition wasn’t my ultimate aim. But if somebody could see into my future and tell me that I am never to gain this level of success would I still write? Yes. I would.

Because I like what creative pursuits do to your mind. I like the way they rewire the brain to see the world in a different light. I love words and stories and so writing is the perfect fit for my creativity. But any artistic pursuit can sharpen your perceptions and make you more appreciative of the amazing world around you.

I am in a special (I was going to say unique but that would be presumptuous) position to recognise the difference between the creative mind and the non-creative one because you see for over fifteen years of my life I worked in a job that sapped all my imagination. It required that I hunch of a microscope for seven hours a day and scan stained slides for precancerous and cancerous cells. This work required expertise and high levels of concentration but at the same time was extremely routine, repetitive and non-social. It was like a process worker checking intricate items on an assembly line but with higher stakes. By the end of the day there was no part of my brain left for roaming free. Not only didn’t I write during that time but I didn’t read either (except for bedtime children’s stories) I wanted all my spare time to be spent doing things non-myopic.

When this period of my life ended I had a lot of catching up to do. I read adult and children’s classics and the latest bestsellers. I slowly, tentatively began writing. I had to learn from the ground up. My free-learning 70’s education hadn’t taught be much about grammar and punctuation* let alone active voice, point of view or plotting (what did I learn in English?).

An amazing thing happened. The world became more interesting. My mental health improved. I enjoyed the company of my own mind and its meanderings. I also enjoyed the company of others more. I listened more. I became more empathetic. Even bad times have their up-sides -they provided experiences and character insights that could be stored in my writer’s toolbox.

My daughter is an amateur actress and comedy writer. She’s had some tough typical 20-something problems to deal with since leaving home, no money in a rich city, relationship dramas, big nights out that go wrong , witnessing colleagues abuse various substances and the inevitable dramas of house-sharing. On these topics our conversations often start quite fraught but somehow we always end up looking at the incidents at distance as if viewing a play that was put on for our individual benefit. We use phrases like ‘It was interesting to see how people act in those circumstances’ ; ‘It was a struggle but I’m glad I experienced it’ or even the less subtle; ‘It’s great material for a sketch.’ For my part I listen eagerly to the language my daughter uses and the conversations she relates. Should I ever write my YA novel these snippets are precious insights. All this may sound callous and voyeuristic but the ability to see creative value of a situation can remove the sting from confronting events.

I had a strange experience a few nights ago I had a dream, a crazy irrational dream as is normal for dreams (I’m not a believer in dreams having any real meaning, symbolic or otherwise) Somewhere in the middle of this dream I became aware that it was poorly devised. My subconscious rebelled. This wasn’t a story, let alone a good story. My writers mind required consistent characters and a resolution. I began shaping the dream into some sort of logical plot. It was still a wacko story, which I realised when I woke and wrote it down. It involved my family moving to a rough neighbourhood and me trying to convince them it was for the best (we’ve got a northerly aspect!)despite the neighbours having continuous wild parties while wearing animal heads (analyse away). However the memory of the writer in me invading this dream then vainly attempting to plot it fascinated me and was really the only thing about the experience that was significant. Writing has rewired my brain to see potential stories in many places even during my sleep.

Children, in general are natural storymakers, although I worry that the screen age is having a deadening effect (that is a whole other topic). As adults we get bogged down with day to day responsibilities and often abandon our imagination.

There are plenty of my peers who have taken to the latest diet trends and adopted regular exercise routines in order to boost their health but I think we sometimes overlook the value of exploring the imaginative part of our brain for our own well being

Many of you who are creatives may have been so all your life so you may take all this for granted. But if you reflect would you be same person without that outlet? Those like me who have come to creative pursuits later I would love hear if it has changed your life.

My next few blogs continue to explore this question of how creativity can alter the mind in a positive way and how we can extend our powers of imagination.

*OK, I know some are going to say after reading this I still haven’t mastered grammar and punctuation. But believe me I am better than I used to be.

Book Reviews

The Children Act

Leigh Roswen

by Ian McEwan              Published 2014 (Vintage)             Adult Fiction

Score:         9/10            Genre: Law, relationship and ethical drama

Fiona, an ambitious, childless family court judge makes ruling on whether Jehovah’s Witness boy should be forced to take a blood transfusion to save his life. Book explores the fraught consequences of her decision against the backdrop of her own troubled marriage.

Moral dilemmas abound in this book, motivating this reader to ask the questions; Would I have made that life choice? That ruling? Reads like a fast-paced BBC law drama episode as quite short at 55,000 words. Minor plot qualm – the way the revelation at the end was exposed – seemed a bit contrived. Thought-provoking but not high- brow.

Recommend for: Everyone but especially those interested in ethics and easily digestible books. Book clubs will find many discussion points arise from the choices Fiona makes both in her private and professional life.

Use to writers: Demonstrates how tight writing can fit meaningful plot, character development and backstory into a short novel. Clever combination of broader ethical/legal issues with personal character stories ie Good example of how to keep reader’s interest on several levels.