The times they are a changin'

At the moment I'm back working in the city in one of the high-rise office blocks. High-rise in Auckland isn't as tall as many other cities, and usually equates to around thirty floors. I'm on a floor halfway up with a great view of the harbour. The building is close to St. Matthews church, and from my window I look out at the top of the tower.

You get a different perspective of the city from that height, and I guess when the church was built in the first few years of the 1900s it would have been one of the tallest buildings in the city. Now, the church is dwarfed by many of the bland office blocks.

The only constant is change, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but change nevertheless.

Language is another of those things that is constantly evolving. Flicking through an Enid Blyton book recently, I was reminded of frocks and sixpences, and a world that no longer existed even when I first marvelled at the Faraway Tree and wanted to go on adventures with the Famous Five.

Text talk and abbreviations seem to be a totally different language, but I remember comments my parents made about my teenage-self and friends and our conversation, and then I think of some of my favourite Shakespeare quotations. It's the same language, but very different.

Busy is the New Rich

With the start of a new month, I've heard a few people making the comment, 'Where has the year gone?' With our third house move this year looming, I know where our eight months has gone!

It's been a busy year as we've sold, rented, bought and renovated. Added to which there is family, work, writing and that little thing called 'having a life'. The list is in no particular order, although 'having a life' got tagged on the end almost as an after-thought, as it's been for a while!

I hear you either tutting, or taking a big breath to tell me how much busier you've been. But wait a minute....

That second paragraph, while entirely true, was written a little tongue-in-cheek. I listen to people at work, friends, acquaintances and passers-by talking, and everyone is BUSY. Not just busy, but BUSY!!

We seem proud of the amount of hours we have to work and our lack of spare time. It's almost a badge of honour. A way of showing how important we are. No longer are we talking about the new car/sound system/television we have, but rather our lack of time to use these items. Even children aren't immune. They seem to spend their lives being ferried around to after-school classes/clubs/social events with weekends full of teams and sports.

I'm not sure if it's worse than it used to be, or if being on-call 24/7 with email, smartphones and gadgets makes it feel that way. If I could bottle something that solved our time deprived lives, and sell it, I know I'd make a fortune. 

There isn't really a one-size fits all solution. We have to find the answer ourselves. I think it begins with realising the effects this state of busyness has on us, keeping us in a state of near panic. If we're constantly running on adrenalin, we're not doing our physical and mental-selves any favours, and our decision-making capabilities are degraded.

Unfortunately, most of us aren't in a position to change everything in our lives. At the very least, I think we should stop for a few minutes at least once a day, and clear our minds of all those chattering thoughts that want to grab our attention. We should use the time to notice where we are and the things around us, and how we actually feel physically. In other words, to be exactly in that moment, rather than still continuing an argument we had earlier with someone, or still being angry with the driver who cut into the queue, or the other thousands of mostly inconsequential things that drag us away from enjoying NOW.

W.H. Davies wrote this poem in the early 1900s.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad day light,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Someone once said they doubted anyone would ask for the words, 'Wish I'd spent more time at the office,' on their tombstone.
 
It's a beautiful world out there. Appreciate it.

Set the Scene

In some books or films, the setting is so integral to the story that it feels like one of the characters. If the setting changed, the story would change.

As I thought about this an old Robert Redford film came to mind, (sorry but I can't remember the name). It's a cowboy film, and throughout the film the scenery is harsh desert giving a feeling of searing heat, and a decided lack of life.

In several of Daphne du Maurier's books setting plays an important role. Think of the gloomy threatening inn on Bodmin Moor (Jamaica Inn), and of the oppressive house, Manderley, in Rebecca. 

Heathcliffe is as wild as the Moors surrounding him. 

Lives Interrupted (for me) couldn't be set anywhere else but London. Kate has dreamed of living in London through her teenage years, and we see the city through her excited perspective. Whether it's the dingy arrivals area at Heathrow or the gloomy tube stations, she sees everything as new and exciting. Even having her bag stolen doesn't change her delight at living her dream. After the bombings, she views London in a very different way as she attempts to get back something of the person she was before.

My current book, Lies of the Dead, is set in a Cornish village called Poldrayth. The village is fictional, but based on a real place. The three main characters are two brothers and a sister. Tom, the older brother, is the only sibling who still lives in the village, and it has a strong influence on his character. He is steady, reliable and always there, just like the village. It has been the family home for generations, and Tom can't imagine living anywhere else. However, when his life is threatened there, it changes his view of the village.

The importance of place doesn't have to (and shouldn't) mean long paragraphs of description. The setting is seen through the characters, and affects their actions and the way they view the world. It makes them who they are. Someone who makes quick, rash decisions will view their surroundings differently to someone who is slower and methodical. A couple in love would enjoy a walk in a secluded setting, that same setting at night would have a totally different feel for a nervous person on their own.

Knowing our characters, and how they will react to their surroundings can have a huge impact on our story, indeed it can make the story. The whole basis of the film Crocodile Dundee is having the two main characters spend time in a vastly different setting to their usual one, and seeing how they react.

What is the setting of your book? If you changed the setting would if change the story? You don't have to change the setting of the entire book, but if you changed the setting of an important scene would it make a difference? It might move your story in a totally different direction.

If you're having difficulty with a scene, change the setting and see where it takes you.  I'd be interested to know if you've tried this and how it worked for you.

The Sound of Thoughts

I received an email from a friend this morning. It had eight or nine photos of groups of people in various locations – sitting in a café, a restaurant, by a beautiful painting in a museum, at the beach, at a game, driving around the city in a convertible.  The point of similarity in each of the photos was that everyone was totally absorbed in their phone. 

The quote at the end of the email said, "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots." Albert Einstein.

I’ve been away for a few days in Sydney - a mixture of work and fun. Sydney has a population of approximately 4.6 million people compared to Auckland at 1.5 million, and as I mostly work from home and live in a sleepy coastal suburb, I really notice the difference in pace and energy in my surroundings.

I love visiting Sydney for this vibrant, enthusiastic atmosphere, and it gives the writer in me an opportunity to people watch and listen to snippets of conversation.

I think you can tell a lot about a city by watching the residents early in the morning. At Circular Quay people exit the ferries from suburbs on their way to work. The weather was hot and sunny while I was there, and what better way to get to work than by cruising past the Harbour Bridge and Opera House on a ferry. Walking across Anzac Bridge from Darling Harbour another morning, people were walking, jogging and running to work.  The monorail runs above the bridge and later in the day (when it was close to 30 degrees) the only shade on the bridge was immediately under the monorail. There was a trail of people (myself included), like a line of schoolchildren following their teacher, walking across the bridge in this sliver of shade.

One of the things I noticed is how plugged in we are. On the city streets during the peak commuter times the majority of people wore headphones, and the same was true of most people at any time on the underground. I like to listen to music on noisy flights, and I need music with a good beat when I’m running (it’s the only thing that keeps me going!), but I also love going for walks with just my thoughts as company, and I wonder in all this world of noise we have, whether we’re losing the capacity to enjoy quiet times.

Time Goes By...

Little people view time very differently to taller people. 

'Are we nearly there yet? How long will it be?' 

'Half an hour.' 

'How long's half an hour?'

Another conversation.

'Can we get on the plane yet?' 

Once on the plane. 'When it's taking off?' 

Once in the air. 'When will we be there?' 

'An hour.' 

'How long's an hour?'   

And so it goes.

I'm mostly an organised person, and was born with, or acquired at a very early age, an aversion to being late for appointments, meetings, planes, trains or similar. I have no problem turning up late(ish) for informal social gatherings, though my husband has difficulty with even the possibility of lateness for anything *sigh.* 

Time is a very fluid substance - holidays fly by, a job you dislike doing takes ages. The little people think that December goes by soooo slowly, while adults feel the opposite.

Truth is we each have 24 hours in every day, minus the 6-8 hours we spend in bed. It's how we allocate and use our waking hours that makes the difference.

Years ago I used to teach a time management, clean desk/office course so I know all the talk, though that doesn't necessarily correlate to perfect actions. 

I wouldn't win a gold medal for procrastination, but I'd be a good contender for bronze. There are good days when productivity is high, and there are those, let's just call them, not so good days.

What's the difference between them? 

A plan and some goals. They can make the difference between activity and productivity.

Perspective and Being Too Tightly Zipped

I've just spent a few great days in Sydney. Your thoughts on that statement will probably vary depending on what part of the world you live in. Sydney is just under four hours flying time from Auckland, and is one of our closest destinations. Although that's further than Paris is from London (for example), it's a popular place to visit for a short trip from New Zealand.

I love visiting Sydney, and have considered moving there on a few occasions, though the things I love about it are some of the things that put me off moving there. It's a vibrant, busy, bustling city, and these days I prefer the quieter life.

There is a popular quote that says travel broadens the mind, but does it?

I think that if we have an open mind to begin with, then travel will challenge our assumptions, and give us new ideas and views of people and cultures. While it possibly won't change our beliefs, it should give us greater tolerance for others. But, and this is a big but, we have to have the right frame of mind, and a willingness to change our perspective.

My mother always said that some people were too tightly zipped into their own skin to look at situations from a different perspective, and unfortunately that's still true.

I believe that as people there is more that makes us similar, than makes us different.

I stood for a few minutes enjoying a view within listening distance of a French family. The parents were with their youngest child, who was about three, while two older boys played with a ball. The mother said something, and the three-year-old replied with, 'Pourquoi?'

My school French managed to make our most of the mother's answer, and again the child replied with the one word. This went on for a few minutes until the mother gave up, and passed the conversation onto the father, and I moved away smiling.

Pourquoi is French for why, and I'm sure every parent has had more than one why conversation with a toddler. They can seem never ending when you're in the middle of one!

The ferry trips across the harbour to Manly were lovely, and even at night it was pleasant to sit outside and watch the city lights.  The gardens and park along from the Opera House were filled with hyacinths and tulips, as it is a good 4-5 degrees warmer than here in Auckland, but it made me realise that Spring is just around the corner.

It's all about perspective.

Keep Moving

One of the simplest ways I've found to get over a slight mental stumbling block, whether on my creative writing or non-fiction, is to move away from the computer.  Often it's just the equivalent of a walk to the water cooler.  For me this is to the fridge, or tap to fill my water bottle.  

I can't count the number of times I've mulled over a section of dialogue, the assessment questions I need to create, or a topic for this blog with a white fog drifting through my head.  I walk away from the computer and something comes to me.  It's like magic.

I change my perspective and my thoughts change.

I like that thought on a bigger scale as well. Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.

For a while every time I've thought about my WIP I've thought about how stuck I am with the plot, and yes, I'm over the 'losing the plot' jokes!

So I'm taking my own advice and changing my perspective. After all I'm only stuck if I decide I'm stuck and don't try to move forward.