writing

BACK IN THE SADDLE

/ Edwina Shaw / 2 Comments
horse pulling overloaded cart

how it feels some days

So what have I been doing all this time? Putting too many things in my wagon – that’s what!

Most days I sail along but others, I must admit, I feel a bit like the poor horse in this picture.
I’m teaching narrative at the University of Queensland, and yoga to the performance dance students at the Queensland University of Technology (yes I’m a yogi). I also teach both writing and yoga privately and edit other people’s work,as well as marking homework, looking after my family and keeping the household reasonably hygienic. And helping out my sisters with their small children and new baby.

I’ve also been busily organising a family trip to Europe to visit relatives – a first for all of us. Very exciting.

This has meant not much time is left for my own projects. I have a new short story half-written, and have gone part of the way through reading and marking up the draft of Dear Madman I wrote at Varuna. Oh how I long to return there to have some uninterrupted time to sit and ponder and immerse myself in the Madman’s world so I can better whip the manuscript into shape. A novel is a huge thing, you need time and space to hold it properly in your mind, to be able to figure out how best to bring it to life.

Today I have to agree with Toni Morrison,

“We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations. I’m not sure we deserve such big A-pluses for that.”

She’s right. I’d rather have an A+ for finishing Dear Madman. An A+ for prioritising my own work.
Find some time for your writing today. See how good you feel when you do!

Oh, and Child of Fortune (the Cambodian novel of many names), is being read at a few major publishers as we speak. Getting a major publisher and some royalties coming in is one way to make sure my own work comes first. So cross fingers.

CREATING A CHARACTER – DOUGGIE

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment

 

Thrill Seekers

Thrill Seekers

 

When Ransom Publishing first sent me the cover image for Thrill Seekers I burst into tears. Not just because my book was finally coming to life but because the young man in the picture looked so much like my brother Matty, who was the inspiration for the character of Douggie. The expression on his face, his eyebrows, even the shirt he’s wearing.  An old friend who’d known Matty thought it WAS a photo of him. It was scary. I knew then that as a writer I’d done something right, that the person who had created or chosen this image had the same vision of Douggie that I did.

When starting to write Thrill Seekers I knew I wanted to have some sections from Matty’s perspective. But I was a middle-aged woman. How could I get inside the head of a young man with schizophrenia?

Luckily I had few old notebooks of Matty’s where he’d written some poetry and diary entires. I used his own words in the story “Douggie and the Paparazzi”.

 “And now I”m going to sing a happy song.”

Using Matty’s own words as inspiration, I found that once I started writing in first person, I soon found a voice other than my own coming through. Matty’s obsessions about his looks and stardom were easy and fun to write about. More difficult to witness, and to write, were his battles with deep despair when he wasn’t flying so high and realised his predicament as someone with a serious mental illness.

Writing Douggie’s stories helped me understand Matty better and also allowed me to share my soft-hearted, courageous brother with the world. Because he was brave, and funny, but mostly brave. In the face of a crippling illness he never gave up. I hope that his spirit of resilience shines through in the book.

The best part about writing Thrill Seekers was using the power of fiction to change the ending. In my story, Douggie, and through him Matty, lives on.

Matty

Matty at thirteen