Creative writing: how to begin
For me, there are two essential ingredients when it comes to setting out as a creative writer: time and space. And by creative writing I mean poetry, short stories, novels and children’s writing: everything involving the use of the imagination.
I’m afraid that when someone claims they don’t have time to write I simply don’t believe them – it’s a question of making time. PD James
Kenneth recommends you find a quiet place to write.
started writing when nursing a dying husband: he needed cared all through the day. There was a part of the night when finally he went to sleep and she had the chance to put pen to paper: so that was what she did. If we are serious about wanting to write we will do – we will make time.
For many years I lived in Dunkeld close to the entrance to the cathedral. When friends heard my address they would roll their eyes and say: ‘What a place to be! And you’re lucky enough to be a writer!’
Except it wasn’t that easy. The truth is that the modern world invaded even that rather idyllic corner of Scotland. First, there were the thousands of pilgrim feet and voices: I was driven mad by not being able to find sufficient quiet. My former wife watched a great deal of television: it was a tiny flat and the distant murmur of low voices maddened me because
I couldn’t concentrate. But it was she who suggested (probably to stop the grumbling) that I should have a cabin built in my mother’s garden in Aberfeldy, a place where I could hide away to write. After considering the idea for a few days, I realised she was quite right.
When finally sat down to start working in that incredibly simple shed among the trees, the words simply poured from the pen. I will never forget what those first days were like. Poem after poem appeared as though by magic on the page. For me – and after long years of leading creative writing sessions, I would suggest for the vast majority of others too - the finding of real quiet makes all the difference. But it doesn’t have to be a hideaway in a garden, it can be a living room or a bedroom or an attic – just at a time when others in the household are asleep or absent.
There are few rules for creative writers, but this is one I have discovered: we are
Iall larks or owls. We’re either attracted to the very early morning or else it’s the late evening. I have yet to meet anyone who’s said they’re drawn to the mid-afternoon (what I term the hammock time), though in actual fact that’s exactly when I did write in the Aberfeldy cabin. I’ve come to believe strongly that you’ll use the time you’re given; if that’s what you have, then in due course you’ll adapt to that rhythm.
But what I quickly came to realise in my cabin times was that I couldn’t simply turn on good writing like a tap. We go into our creative space weighed down by the modern world. We live lives beset by emails, phone calls and text messages. We are all expected to respond quickly.
I think creative writers are generally very poor when it comes to practice writing. Visual artists, actors, singers and musicians: their creative lives are dominated by practice. Why should it be any different for those from the writing community? What do
I mean by practice writing? Describing the view out of the window; going back into memory to try to capture a moment as evocatively as possible; imagining a dialogue between two certain characters – there’s no end to the possibilities. What practice writing provides is creative grounding. It brings us from being all over the place in our minds to give us creative focus.
What this practice allows us to do is to start then to pour ourselves into what I like to call deep writing. It creates a kind of doorway. So the real writing can begin.
Kenneth Steven is bestknown as a published poet and he writes and presents many poetry-related programmes for BBC Radio. He’s also a Scottish novelist and children’s author. He’s written two books on writing, and led workshops and worked as writer in residence both at home and abroad. Visit his website:
www.kennethsteven.co.uk