The brick wall represents the one thing I cannot
write: blurb for my novels. I can do hyperbolic, predictable hook questions:
Will she wise up before death hits her some more
in the struggle to break the pattern that will see her grow stronger or die…?
I did exaggerate that, but only slightly. It's because
I dislike the set up, the need to sell oneself and I daresay it's not uncommon.
There are too many people out there blowing trumpets they don't know how to
play, I don't want to be one of Them.
(Secret snob! And the ones I am thinking of are
enviably shameless so if you are worried that you might fall into this
category, you instantly exclude yourself.)
These books are portraits of ordinary people. Most
lives are odder than you think, when you look at them.
Is that a strap line though? Would I read anything
advertised so casually? So I have inadvertently set myself the task of
reinventing the blurb genre?
Cast an eye over the metaphorical blocks.
Think about the protagonist of the first book (logical
order, to counterbalance my confusion.)
Anya
is not her real name. She is a real person, interesting to me as someone
epitomising the choice to be strong even when times are dire. You don’t have to
suffer in order to find strength, that’s not the message I want to promote. I
loathe drama, actually. But for a story, conflict is useful. The plus side of
suffering is that you get to know how strong you are. You can get to develop
that strength. And, being a real story, it’s already been lived, so it’s a kind
of recycling really and although I do drag the reader through some horrible
moments they are never the focus. The constant renewal of a determined life:
that is the crux of it.
I
couldn’t have written this if I hadn’t lived my own ordinary life. Every day of
just about making ends meet means I know how it feels to be just one of
billions of people milling about the planet, getting by and getting stuff
wrong. Once you accept the humility of that, life becomes much happier. I don't
want to compete or judge, just observe, attempt to help.
Later
I will read through this, and pick at bits of it, and maybe I will chisel out a
doorway or at least a spy hole to the other side of the brick blurb wall.
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