Some more on ideas

As I said in the introductory chapter; “Some books for writers merely say: “Ideas are all around you.” Whilst that is true, it is foolish just to leave it hanging there. There are ways that you can find ideas and even generate ideas with a little hard work and application of effort.”

So, then, how do we find ideas or generate ideas? If there is this goldmine of ideas out there, how do we start digging for nuggets?

In every case, the basic idea that is the kernel at the heart of each and every article ever written was inspired by something. There are a number of tricks, schemes or methods that can be employed to help us find an idea for an article. The following exercises are only some of them. Explore them, see what you ca do with them.

Listen to a talk radio station for 60 minutes. Record  it, if you want, but certainly make notes on every aspect of the hour-long segment of programming that you listened to.

Was it entertaining? Informative? Did any of the calls or the presenter say anything to you? Give you any ideas for future articles? Don’t forget the adverts. If the programming was broadcast on a commercial radio station, did any of the adverts give you ideas for future articles?

Look through the news pages of a daily or a weekly newspaper.

Study the stories.  Do any of them strike up the spark of an idea in your mind for future articles?

Here are three headlines taken from a British daily newspaper:

“Too Much TV can damage Bone.”

“Fresh Alert Over Irradiated Food”

“300 Million Year-old Forest.”

Let’s take a closer look at the first of those headlines, shall we?

Can watching too much TV damage bones? If so, how? And how would a person guard against this? Watch less TV? Take food supplements? If you did watch less TV, could you create your own entertainment? Would you need to ensure that whatever you replaced TV watching with did not have a potentially equally damaging effect upon the bones?

Sometimes we might see an article in a magazine or a newspaper that sparks off an idea.  It might be at total odds with the point of view expressed in the article. If so, that’s all to the good.

Ask other, perhaps older, members of your family if they have an interesting story, or if there is an interesting story to the family history.

In all likelihood they will say: “no” but that might not be quite true. For example I was told: “Nothing ever happens in our family!” I was told.. But a little gentle questioning revealed a tale of International espionage, the witnessing of a cold-blooded assassination on the crowded streets of Barcelona and a “skin-of-the-teeth” escape from the thugs of Franco’s Gestapo-trained secret police.

Not bad, for a family in which “nothing ever happens!”

The Edward De Bono method for generating ideas.

Edward De Bono is one of the world’s foremost experts on thinking and especially the field of lateral thinking.  He has devised a system for generating new ideas. The original concept featured a simple mechanical device which had two lists of words that could be combined randomly.

Professor De Bono explained that this could help to generate new ideas. In the interview which mentioned the concept the random selection of words presented “nude” and “chocolate.” Immediately Professor De Bono said: “Perhaps there could be a market for chocolates that are sold “nude” i.e., with less wrappings to make them more environmentally friendly. This was some 20 or 30 years ago before the concept of “environmentally friendly” products and wrappings became such a large issue and important issue.

Could such a concept help a journalist to create ideas for new stories?

Here are a list of randomly selected pairs of words, culled from a dictionary. Take a look at them. Could any of them be used to create a news story or a feature article?

OATH – LAVATORY

WET – FOOL

VISTA – PIECE

TREAD – ORANGE

LUGE – BRUNT

ONCE – KIDNEY

IT – GRADIENT

DOBRO® - EYELET

HOODWINK – DEMISE

DELIVER – BUSINESS

AGE - VISUAL

ACCEDE – UNBUTTON

Nonsense? Undoubtedly! However, allow them to get your creative juices flowing. Did the fact that someone was hoodwinked lead to their demise?  Can you get a  fool to come in form the rain?

Why not try experimenting with you own ideas? Your own random parings?

Claim and a challenge

In an Internet writing discussion group I once made the claim (perhaps rather foolishly!) that I could write an article on any given topic.

One person rose to the challenge. She asked me to write an article on her Brother-in-Law who, although an otherwise very sober, sensible and respectable businessman, always wears one red tennis shoe and one yellow tennis shoe. The last time that she could recall was to a wedding.

This is the article that I wrote and which she seemed reasonably pleased with.

Why would someone wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe to a wedding? Or even wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe at all?

It could be so that, should he be challenged, he could respond with the rather old an hoary joke: “Yes, and I have another pair just like it at home!”

Perhaps he feels the need to be noticed or to be different, but does not feel inclined or motivated  to make a real statement of being “different?” Wearing a red  and a yellow tennis shoe as an unmatched pair could be a safe way of proving his individuality. His own statement of uniqueness in a world bedeviled by uniformity and sameness.

Unless, of course, there is another reason that he chooses to wear such footwear? Perhaps he made a bet that he would wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe for a specific time? An unlikely idea? True. But more likely, it can be said, than the true story of the man who took a bet –and won it!- to walk around the world by himself wearing a heavy iron mask whilst he was pushing a pram with his belongings in it. So, taking a bet on wearing an unmatched pair of shoes would be a modest bet, when compared to a wager of such magnitude.

What makes the story of the man in the iron mask even more interesting is that, although he was a very wealthy young man, the terms of the bet forbade him from carrying more than one US Dollar on his person and he supported himself by selling postcards, one of which was bought by the then Prince of Wales. His weary trudge around the world was only interspersed with a “break” to volunteer to serve in the US Army during World War 1.

And tennisshoes –or the older tennis sneakers- featured in the fascinating life story of Dr Timothy Leary. Apparently two well-respected and well-known English philosophers wanted a psychologist in America to work with them to study the psychoactive drugs Mescaline and LSD with a view to having them used to help people.

They had been recommended to talk with Dr. Leary. Yet they were initially disappointed, put off by the fact that they needed someone who would  be a freethinker and capable of being radical, but Dr. Leary –at that time- wore a typically conservative business suit and sported a crew-cut hairstyle, much beloved of every conventional American male at that time, in the 1950s.

They were about to reject Dr. Leary as unsuitable, when they noticed that he was wearing a pair  of white tennis sneakers. They concluded that, although Dr. Leary seemed on the face of it to be conventional, that his footwear showed him to be capable of being different. Or what today would be called: “thinking outside the box.”

Incidentally their plans to have a properly controlled research programme into the possible use of mescaline and LSD to help humanity were thwarted, because one of Dr. Leary’s colleagues at the University Psychology Department was conducting secret tests on the possible use of LSD as a weapon under the control of the CIA.

These secret trials of LSD eventually lead to the deaths of a top American scientist and several US servicemen, all who had been given LSD without their knowledge or approval. 

But of course, you must understand that these illegal trials –arguably amounting to homicide, one might suggest- were perpetrated by people who wore sensible brogues or smart leather shoes. I doubt if they would have even dreamt  of wearing tennis sneakers with a business suit or wearing one red and one yellow tennis shoe to a wedding.

Perhaps we need more people to wear tennis sneakers with business suits? Or willing to wear un-matching tennis shoes?

Although the premise of that story was rather slight, a person who always wears un-matched tennis shoes, I was able to touch on such subjects as a rich man who took an improbable bet and won, the guru of the counter-culture Dr. Timothy Leary and dangerous CIA experiments that lead to the deaths of innocent, unwitting test subjects.

Anyone for grammar?

You might be surprised but I have decided not to cover the rules of grammar and the perceived wisdom of what is good or bad English in this short book.

Why? Because there are many good books (and several not-too-good books!) that are available on the market that purport to be able to teach you how to become an expert grammarian. But that is not the purpose of this book. However, here is a question for you. What would you rather be? An expert grammarian? Or a good writer or journalist?

I remember the puzzlement and frustration that I felt when, as a young teenager, I read a science fiction novel written by a man who was a professor of astronomy in his fulltime job.

He had written a figure of speech for one of the main characters and followed this with the really punchy tagline: “He said, rather ungrammatically.”   I read, and re-read that sentence many times, yet could not see which rule of grammar it had offended.

Eventually I showed it to my father –a journalist himself and certainly no slouch when it came to the correct use of English and English grammar- and asked him for his opinion on what rule had been broken. He read it through a time or two, scratched his head and then said: “There’s nothing wrong with that sentence that I can see. Perhaps this would be a good reason for not allowing professors of astronomy to write science fiction novels?"

This incident took place some 30 years ago. Yet all I can remember about the book is the pedantic use of English (which he might have been wrong about in any case!) by the author. An example of grammar being a stumbling block to the enjoyment of a piece of written work, one might argue.

However, there is one book that I can definitely recommend for journalists and writers. It is “Lapsing Into a Comma” “A Curmudgeon’s guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print – and How to Avoid Them” Written by Bill Walsh, the Copy Desk Chief of the Business Desk at the Washington Post, the book is an erudite and witty guide to the use of English for journalists. The one draw-back is that it is written primarily for American journalists, so does use American rather than British or Australian English (for example) although does contain some helpful hints for copy editors to “correct” British English for  American newspapers. It is published by Contemporary Books and has an ISBN of 0-8092-2535-2 at a cost of $14.95. Mr. Walsh also answers questions on the use of English via his website www.theslot.com

Writing. Not as easy for some as it is for others!

Writing is not as easy for some people as it is for others –and it is not usually always easy for all writers, if you see what I mean! There are many, many books available that seem to pretend that all you have to do is follow the exact instructions contained within their book –or writer’s course- and you will be producing masterpieces of fact or fiction within days.

Can this be true? Just because someone has a copy of Gray’s Anatomy which they have read from cover-to-cover, does this mean that they are automatically going to be able to be a doctor? Of course not!

But the advertising for a number of writing courses seems to suggest that becoming a writer is a way to make easy money. “How to write and sell two $$Million novels before breakfast!” “Why not be a writer and earn very good money?” I am sure you have read this kind of advertisement. And perhaps like me, you have even responded to them, once in a while.

But the truth is that the only real way to become a writer is to write. Yes, that’s it. Just start writing. It is my firm belief that nobody can make a writer out of someone who is not a writer, who doers not already have “writing” within themselves.

I recently debated this point with a journalist who argued that I was wrong, using the somewhat spurious notion that as a Primary School teacher can teach a child to write that this in someway proved that all people could be taught to write. Or, more precisely, to become a Writer.

This is, as I say, spurious. How so? A Primary School teacher does not teach a child to write. They can, however, teach a child to use the basic skills of writing, which is an entirely different proposition. Although there are visionary and farsighted Primary School teachers who can help to foster an interest in writing and storytelling, in much the same way that an art teacher can teach basic skills in drawing, composition, painting, etc. But an art teacher can no more make  an artist of the standard of Hockney (for example) out of a pupil who has not aptitude for art than a English teacher can make a Chesterton  or a Hemingway out of a pupil who has no interest in writing.

In short, whilst I believe that it is not possible to turn everyone into a writer, it is possible for everyone to be helped to write to the best of their abilities, which is, as I am sure many will agree, an entirely different proposition.

Should you take a writing course? It is worth considering. Some years ago I had a bad experience with a poorly-run writing school (long-since closed, thank God) but this should not let you be put off from taking a course in writing should you wish to do so. Some writing courses may be very good and able to help you a very great deal. They also tend to be rather expensive, too, as a properly run writing school (with tutors, examiners, etc.) are costly to run.

Others, however, are not really very helpful at all, or are very expensive rip-offs that are cobbled together by people who would be hard pushed to write an effective shopping list, let alone an article or a novel.

Just take a look at the advertising that the writing courses use. This can give an initial impression of how well-run the writing school is. Does it look professionally prepared? How is the copy of the advertisement written? For example, if you should see an advert that advised you that their writing course would teach you: “… the costly mistakes that you absolutely must NOT do…” what would you think? Would you want to be taught to write that well? Perhaps purchasing that course could be described as: …”a costly mistake that you absolutely must NOT do?” And sadly, that extract is a direct, word-for-word quote from an advertisement from something describing itself as a writing school.

How do you know that even if an advert or a glossy course brochure is perfectly written that the course material will be any good? After all, perhaps they hired a professional copywriter to prepare their advertising material but did not use him or her to prepare the course material? That is a very fair point.

Some large libraries have writing school material that is available to study within their reference sections. And joining a writing circle will certainly be useful. Tales of woe and tales of success will abound. Check with your local library or in the Writers’ Handbook for details of writers circles or groups.

As well as learning to write by correspondence course, many writing courses are based at accredited colleges and universities. Their courses will be absolutely first rate, won’t they? (Pause for hollow laugh.)

Well, perhaps not. The quality of their courses will vary from establishment to establishment. The truth is that they depend largely on the quality of the lecturer or tutor. Several years ago I took a course in creative writing, as I thought it would help me with my writing career.

In truth, the course was an utter waste of time. The tutor had no idea how to hold the interest of a class (in the course of the semester, she lost three-quarters of the class) had no idea of how to impart information, was rather hazy on how to structure a story, was inept when it came to course structure and showed herself unable or unwilling to follow the rules laid down for the assessment of work. She was generally clueless all-round,  poor soul!

Instead of turning people on to the possibilities of creative writing she turned off many members of the class.  By chance a few years later I met up with someone who had taken her course several years before I had. She it transpired that she had been the same, then.  How had she been given the position of creative writing tutor? Chiefly on the basis of an especially dense and badly-constructed novel that she had written. And she was American which the head of the department liked, being a lecturer in American Studies himself.

Once again, check with fellow members of a writing circle. They will be able to advise you which writing courses in your locality are worth pursuing and which are best avoided.

Almost everyone has indulged in creative writing of one sort or another, in their lives. You think not? Ever written a love letter? Written to Granny? Prepared a business plan for a bank, perhaps? Then congratulations, you have written creatively!

You can hone your skills. What else could you write creatively? Short stories? Poems? A novel?

Or perhaps you could become a journalist instead, as I did? Some cruel people might suggest that much of journalism is, in itself, creative writing. But that’s another story, to coin a phrase!

An article and a critique of that article

Do you remember a time when the streets in your town, village or suburb town were kept clean? When there were enough street lights to keep the streets well-lit and safe for women to walk along alone? When flooding was not caused in heavy rain because drains were cleaned on a weekly basis?

When roads were properly surfaced? When pavements were well maintained? Do you remember when public buildings were looked after properly? When there were enough trains to satisfy public demands? When buses were cheap and plentiful? If you do, then you are probably over 40.

Because prior to 1974, that is by-and-large, what happened in the vast majority of our towns, cities and villages. that has been the fate of many urban areas since 1974?

The advent of the Heathite 1974 Local Government Act. This act put an end to the urban district councils and the rural district councils that had served Britain so well since their creation in the late 19th century.

Whilst it may have been true that the system could have benefited from some minor adjustments (due to changing demographics) the truth was that the changes enacted by the 1974 Local Government Act were driven not by a desire to reform but by a narrow-minded wish to drive through ideological changes.

One must remember that, especially in the 1970s, the political scene in the United Kingdom was beset by the economic theory that: “Big was Beautiful” and that “Big was Best.”

The term “Economies of Scale” was bandied about with something that used to be called “gay abandon.” People would try to look as if they knew what they were talking about and say: “Economies of scale. That’s what it is all about. We must put an end to small and inefficient local government units. Instead, we must introduce large and efficient units of local government.”

Were the previous smaller urban and rural district councils really all that inefficient? In the small, but busy market town in which I lived, prior to 1974 if a resident of a council house had a problem with the house, all they had to do was ‘phone up the office, or pop into town and visit the office.

A person who had been a resident of a council house for many years said: “It was really simple. We just went to the office, told someone there what the problem was and they would say: “The lads are out on a job at the moment. I’ll tell them what you need doing as soon as they come back.” Chances were that the job would be
done later that day or early the next morning.”

“What happened when the 1974 Local Government Act was put into force?”

“Oh, that was a nightmare! They centralised all the housing workers in an office ten miles away. If you wanted a job done, you had to phone them up and tell some kid there that you had a problem. They were supposed to tell the repair team to get the job done.

“But usually, nothing happened, so you had to keep calling time after time after time. It became a real nightmare! From getting a job done in a matter of a day or so, it became so bad that sometimes even a very simple job would take them up to a year to do.”

I remember speaking to a manager at the district council housing department. He suddenly, in the middle of the office, lost his temper in a very spectacular way.

“I am sick to death of this bloody department! I am especially sick to death of these lying, conniving little bitches that work here! Well, work is too strong a word for what they do! All they do is answer calls; lie to people when they ask for repairs to be done! They never bother to tell anyone about the calls that they take! They never bother themselves to fill out work report cards, so as a consequence of their bone idleness, the repairs are never done! And of course, because they never give their names to the callers, the poor sods don’t have a clue who they spoke to, so they can’t make a complaint!”

He then turned to some stunned looking member of staff who was carrying a folder and shouted: “And walking round carrying a folder stuffed full of old paperwork might impress some people, but it doesn’t impress ME!”

In quieter tones he said to me: “It never used to be like this when I worked for one of the smaller urban authorities. Everyone knew every one of the clients we had, so they built up a rapport with them. But now, well, there are hundreds of staff and thousands of clients, so the incentive to actually give a damn has gone.

“Most of the staff here just turn up for their wages, they don’t care about the ethos of public service. It’s not a concept many of them are familiar with. I am only talking like this because I am so sick of working with this bunch of deadbeats that I am taking early retirement. I am finishing later this week and I have wanted this shower to know what I have thought of them for several years.”

Up until 1974 the local urban authority (controlled by a comfortable alliance between Conservatives and some fiercely independent independents) had collected and recycled waste paper and had ensured that the streets were properly swept every day, and that each drain in every street was cleaned out every week by a large road sweeping machine.

By 1976 this drain cleaning had been reduced to once a fortnight. Then it was still further reduced to once a month. I can’t for the life of me recall exactly when the district council decided to completely stop the cleaning out of drains, but stop this vital service they certainly did.

Of course, without any cleaning out of any kind, the drains began to silt up. Some drains in the area are so badly silted up that plants and even in one drain a small shrub have began to grow. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as a former drain?

This has caused much flooding of parts of the area, which have never experienced flooding before. And the pantomime show of council members and officers wringing their hands and crying out: “Oh, dear! How can these floods during times of heavy rain ever have started to occur?” is amusing, in a sort of “Dick Whittington meets Kafka” sort of a way. Unless your home is one that has suffered from flooding as a result.

And there are in the area pavements that have not been resurfaced since the early 1970s. Just think about that for a moment. There have been the last few moon landings, shuttlecraft launches and disasters, The Falklands war, two wars in Iraq, at least six different prime ministers and in that 30 plus years, some pavements in some
of our towns haven’t even been re-surfaced once.

But in the name of all that is good, why? Why is this the case? Because the 1974 Local Government Act created large behemoth ‘non-local’ authorities that were so divorced from the areas that they were supposed to serve that they never bothered to do the simple things. Such as clean drains, sweep streets, look after street lights and maintain pavements. It almost seems as if there came into being a culture of indifference to the squalor that their policies created and a calculated, cruel indifference to the lives of the electorate.

The indifference was brought home to me in the early 1980s, some six or so years after the creation of the megalithic authority that had replaced the former urban and rural district councils. The council had, due it must be said to the ineptitude of its own officials, made a complete mess of the rent payments of a disabled man who was in his mid 90s. The statement that was made to the press said: “We are aware that there are some problems with this rent account. If Mr Bloggs would like to come to the housing offices, we will explain the situation to him.”

How –or why- they expected an elderly man who was totally disabled to make a 25 mile round trip by a non-existent public transport service, so they could explain their mistakes to him was never made clear. But it did bring home to me the fact that the area the council covered was so vast that it seemed unable to effectively provide the services that the residents of the area have paid for through their very expensive rate bills.

Just after the enactment of the 1974 Local Government Act there was a cynical joke doing the rounds that did sum up one of the problems that we are still feeling the effects of: “What is the difference between a Clerk of works and a director of operational services? - About five times the salary.”

The gravy train that was set in motion has sapped a great deal of the resources that should have been available for basic core services. Such as cleaning drains, maintaining roads, resurfacing pavements and looking after housing.

The critique of the article

Writing this article proved not to be quite so easy a task as I had at first thought. Whilst the concepts are fresh in my mind –after all, I had experienced them at first hand, as it where, whilst trying to look at the various drafts from several differing points of view, I began to become aware that I needed to understand that not everyone who would read the article had lived through the events that I had described.

I therefore had to examine the article and to remove some items and words and also to explain some points in ways that I hoped would be clearer. Ways in which I hoped to be able to help the younger reader who had not been born in the late 1950s as I had, to understand that, for example, road drains were cleaned out every week (as a matter of course, not just because they were blocked) and streets swept clean on a regular basis.

I also detected a hint towards the hyperbolic in my writing. Perhaps using three long words when one shorter word would have served my purposes equally well. In fact, would probably have served my purposes much better.

It is all too easy, I now realise, to lose one’s reader in a sea of over exuberant writing, meaning that the point or points one is trying to get across and to explain are lost to the reader, no matter how well-intentioned the concept behind the article.

There is very little –or perhaps no point at all!- in writing something that, no matter how worthy the concept, completely loses the majority of the readers. I have come to understand that it is far, far too easy to lose readers than it is to catch their attention.

It is said that the first sentence is the important one. Catch them with that and you have them to the end of the article.

Having examined my work, my article, from the perspective of a reader (or at least as close to the perspective of a reader as it is possible for the author of the article to get) I finds that the first sentence is important. But then, so is the next one, and the next one and… well, I am sure you get the picture.

Whilst it is true that it  is easy not to attract the attention of a reader with a poor opening sentence it is even easier to lose them through a poorly structured body of an article. Some of the subsequent paragraphs, if you will.

I have struggled with this article, I have to admit. I realise that there are several different ways to see an article. From the point of view of the author, the editor and the reader.

A writing assignment

This is A writing assignment I completed for a writing course I did a few years back. I am sharing it with you as I thought it might be of interest. Can I suggest that you write a piece about your home town? It will be good practice.

I sometimes go to Birmingham. Although I am a Brummie by birth, it has been many years since I have actually lived in that city, so I was fairly sure I could observe the life and the various rhythms of this multi-cultured city in perfect, total anonymity without any fear of being interrupted. I had, of course, not counted on something I really should have known about, had I thought beforehand.

I settled down in a Wetherspoon pub. I like Wetherspoon pubs. You always know where you are with a Wetherspoon pub. Wide, open spaces, no music and good, cheap beer and good, cheap food. Clearly ideal for a writer.

It was a quiet pub in a street just off New Street in the heart of Birmingham’s financial district.. I chose a peaceful vantage point so that I could keep an eye on the inside of the pub and the outside, at the same time

I contentedly supped my pint. This particular daytime drinking was OK, as it was purely for research purposes only and for one fleeting moment I idly considered putting it down on my tax returns as a legitimate item of expenditure! I decided to indulge in a little people watching.

The clientele of the pub were a mixed bunch. Over there were an elderly couple sipping coffee and eating sandwiches. They both looked frazzled and grim-faced. Apparently they should have arrived somewhere else six hours previously, but British Rail, Virgin, Railtrack or whatever flavour of the month name our beloved rail transport providers are using these days, had only just managed to get them to Birmingham New Street, about 200 miles short of their destination. They had not wanted to remain in the confines of the station. Understandable. Have you SEEN New Street station recently? They had used their Wetherspoon pub guide to find the nearest Wetherspoon pub.

Outside the pub very well dressed young men and women wandered in and out of the new Mini-Sainsbury store. These, I realised, were probably inhabitants of the new exclusive apartment complexes that have been springing up in and around Birmingham these last few years. £ 800,000 or even £1,000,000 can buy you a fairly substantial gaff. If I won the lottery, I thought, as I returned to my vantage point, perhaps I would buy one and move back “home.”

“Ello” a rich, Brummie tone. “You mind if I join you?” “No, not at all” I said. He sat down at the table and said: “You are people watching, aren’t you?”

I suppose I could have denied it. But, perhaps it was because I was relaxed by being amongst fellow Brummies, or perhaps it was that sense of impending Nirvana that one can only find in either true spiritual enlightenment –or at the start of a second pint of IPA- I decided that honestly really was the best policy.

“Yes, I said. I am. Do you do it?” A shock. The words that came from my mouth were almost pure Brummie in inflexion. My partner who hails from Plymouth is amazed how that when I have been drinking alcohol the long-dormant Brummie accent will reassert itself, and colour my speech patters. I think it frightened her, the first time it happened.

“Yes, I am. I am a writer myself and I use people as my raw resource, if you like. Something to do with me time, like. Took it up after I got made redundant. The last time, that is.”

I sympathised with him, but wondered at the incongruity of coming 35 miles and meeting a fellow writer. Are there possibly more of us than I had thought possible?

“That’s interesting. I am a writer, too.”

“Oh, God! What a coincidence!” He shouted, his voice becoming a little shrill towards the end of the sentence. Even though in normal speech my Brummie accent is nearly totally wiped out by over 30 years of living in Shropshire, I still carry the mark of Brummie speech. The rising at the end of the sentence. My wife  reckons that this is only really noticeable when we are out shopping. Apparently the price of items in many shops is met with an almost supersonic, agonised shriek of “HOW Much?!” There was also the Brummie habit of bringing religion into every conversation. Oh, God! Yes, we do that, us Brummies. One of the reasons why it is called the Holy City, apparently.

So, rather than people watching, we chatted. Of course, as often happens to me, the coincidences mounted up. We had both been born in Ladywood, literally just round the corner from each other, our parents had both taken us for the Brummie traditional Sunday walk down the canal towpaths, and our fathers had –although we never did work out if they had met- worked at “The Rootes” in Birmingham. My father in the stores, his as a tool fitter. A job at “The Rootes” had been seen as a job for life. That remark (I honestly can’t remember which one of us made it) set us off in fits of giggles. After all, the concept of a job for life, or for any substantial length of time is as alien as anything else we could imagine.

We talked about our writing, local writing groups, and the various magazines for writers, and the styles that we employ. His, historical realism, mine current reality.

We both also established that we were traitors. We supported neither Brummie team, but both followed the fortunes of West Brom. As we left the pub we shook hands. At the bottom of Bennetts Hill where it joins New Street, He weaved his way to the Central Library –soon to be closed and re-located due to concrete fatigue, and I turned left and crossed the road, marvelling as I always do at the older Brummie’s method of crossing the road in the teeth of heavy traffic. They just put their head down and scurry across, as if not catching the eye of a driver will stop him from running them over!

Is it the beer I have consumed, or the fact that I grew up outside of Birmingham? I wait, patient and sheep-like where New Street joins Stephenson Street, where the ramp goes up towards the station. I cross the road, and as I amble up the ramp, I must have a really idiotic grin on my face, as I pass these people, these Brummies still lucky enough to live in the city that I love. One day, perhaps I’ll move back. No. I realise that I won’t. But it is a nice pipedream, all the same.

Then I had to find out how many times I had to make the New Street dash. Where you have to run up and down several sets of steps as they change the departure platform for the train home. This time, rather strangely, the train arrives at the designated platform and on time. Almost scary, that. I snooze on the journey, I realised that I’ll probably suffer in the morning, but it would be worth it.

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Those kind, wonderful people at Amazon allow you to download a free Kindle reader from their website.

But not only that, they also have a vast library of free to download Kindle books available on Amazon, too!

Besides which, there are many, many really interesting books (fiction and non-fiction) that are available in the Kindle format that are available at very modest and heavily discounted prices.

Just visit www.Amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk (or the Amazon site appropriate for where you live) to find out more.

Or you could check the Amazon search box on Be That Writer.

These free Kindle books are, of course, suitable for a stand-alone Kindle reader, too.

Search for best beer writer launched

Have you got what it takes to be the Beer Writer of the Year 2011 and win a cool £1,000?

The British Guild of Beer Writers has today announced the launch of its annual competition for beer writing, giving writers about beer the fantastic opportunity to enter their work in seven different categories, with one of the category winners to be named as the Beer Writer of the Year and receive the coveted Michael Jackson Gold Tankard Award.

The competition is open to writers, broadcasters, photographers, poets, illustrators, designers, webmasters and bloggers whose work has broadened the public’s knowledge of beer and pubs.

Guild chairman Tim Hampson said, “We received over 400 entries to the Awards last year – a record level that reflects the vibrancy of beer writing in the UK. We look forward to receiving another bumper crop of articles, books and blogs about beer this year, and to rewarding those whose work is judged the best.”

Nominations and entries are being sought for seven categories:

Molson Coors’ Award for Best Writing in National Publications - prize £1,000 & £500
For the best writing or broadcasting aimed at a general audience, published in the national (and international) press, consumer magazines, books, national television and radio.

Adnams Award for Best Writing in Regional Publications - prize £1,000 & £500
For the best writing or broadcasting aimed at a specific local or regional audience, published in local and regional newspapers, magazines, radio, television and CAMRA newsletters.

Fuller’s ESB Award for Best Writing for the Beer and Pub Trade - prize £1,000 & £500
For the best writing or broadcasting aimed at the brewing and pub industry, published in trade and company newspapers, newsletters, magazines, reports and websites.

Brains SA Gold Award for Best Use of Online Media - £1,000 & £500
For the best use of blogs, websites and social media, whether that be writing or use of other tools such as video or social networking.

Budweiser Budvar John White Travel Bursary - prize £1,000 plus trip to Czech Republic
For the best travel-themed beer writing (or beer-themed travel writing) or broadcasting. Entries can be from national, local or regional media, books, trade publications or online.

Shepherd Neame 1698 Award for Beer and Food Writing - prize £1,000
For the best writing or broadcasting on the subject of matching beer with food (an area formerly dominated by wine). Entries can be from national, local or regional media, books, trade publications or online.

Guild of Beer Writers Award for Corporate Communications – prize trophy to the winner
For the best writing/communication in a corporate environment. Entries can be for in-house or customer magazines, internal or external websites or corporate films/video blogs. This is a new award for 2011 and has been introduced to recognise the excellent work to promote beer which is produced by or on behalf of brewers, pub companies and other related organisations.

Winners to be announced at a prestigious beer banquet:

The winners will be announced at the British Guild of Beer Writers annual awards dinner. The event is being held on 1 December at the Park Plaza Riverbank in central London and will, as in previous years, be one of the beer industry’s ‘must attend’ events. The hotel’s chef will be working with experts from the Guild to create a beer and food matching menu to delight and challenge the 200 dinner guests.

The judges:

Judges are drawn from the worlds of journalism and brewing. Chair of judges is Simon Jenkins, winner of the 2010 Beer Writer of the Year title, who is joined on the panel by: Fiona Matthias, executive editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Martin Ross, journalist, writer and home brewer; Martin Kellaway, founder of Wharfebank Brewery in Leeds and Joanna Copestick, who has commissioned and published a number of books about beer.

How to enter:

Full details of how to enter will be found on the British Guild of Beer Writers website - www.beerwriters.co.uk/awards.php. Entries should be received by the closing date of Friday 9th September, and must have been published between 30 September 2010 and 31 August 2011.

FACTFILE:

Michael Jackson (27 March 1942 – 30 August 2007) who was known as the beer hunter, dedicated over 30 years to discovering, recording and then sharing the world’s finest beers in his numerous books, articles and TV broadcasts. He was the first Chairman of the British Guild of Beer Writers.

www.beerwriters.co.uk

Research, how it can be applied

Research can find us some absolutely wonderful ideas.

Several years ago I was researching some microfilms of news papers from Victorian England. A story caught my attention. There had been some riots and an Irish labourer had been murdered by a rioting coal miner.

From the reports in the paper -and some other research of contemporary documents I was able to put together the following story:

A Victorian Murder

In January 1848, 150 years ago Francis “Frank” Cunningham, an Irishman living in Wellington, Shropshire, died from injuries received on Christmas Eve 1847. He had been attacked, beaten and stabbed by a gang of colliers from the nearby mining village of Ketley.

He lingered until 12 January when he eventually died, despite the best attentions of Mr Steedman, a respected and much-loved surgeon of the town.

The inquest was held in The Kings Head public house in High Street, Wellington on January 14th.

From the evidence presented it is clear that the attack and murder had what we would describe today as a racial motive. -Although, in truth, it must be remembered that some of the colliers of Ketley at that time had a rather unfortunate passion for attacking anybody in Wellington, so it is probable that the fact that Mr Cunningham was Irish might well have been merely an excuse for attacking him, rather than an actual reason.

The collier who struck the fatal blows was George Taylor who was arrested the next day, Christmas Day, 1847.

From the evidence given at the inquest it became clear that on that night there had been a major dispute between members of Wellington’s Irish community and some of the colliers. One collier, Enoch Pritchard, was seen lying on the street with wounds to his head. -He had appeared to have been struck with an instrument similar to a poker.

Meanwhile outside The Kings Head, Frank Cunningham was found by his landlady Honor Fynan and fellow lodgers Mr and Mrs. Owen, a Welsh couple. Mr Cunningham had been mortally wounded.

Evidence was given that Frank Cunningham had merely gone outside to get a can of water. Unfortunately, there was a dispute between colliers and Irish navies in the street outside at the same time.

Although Frank Cunningham had taken no part in the dispute, collier George Taylor had crossed the road to where Frank Cunningham had been standing under lamp outside The Kings Head and addressed him thus; “You are an Irish bastard, too.”

Taylor had then struck Mr Cunningham. The only response from Mr Cunningham had been; “I have done nothing to you boys.”

He had made an attempt to go back into his lodgings but Taylor and other colliers had grabbed him. The others colliers helped Taylor to attack him, holding him down on the road. They also turned on Edward Owen, Mr Cunningham’s fellow lodger and attacked him, too, when he intervened and tried to rescue Mr Cunningham.

At the same time there was another fight taking place at Parker’s Beer Shop, which was also in High Street.

Whilst fellow colliers were holding Mr Cunningham down and beating him, Taylor pulled a knife and stabbed him “a number” of times.

The other colliers were horrified by what they saw, and one of the other colliers, Thomas Murrill, had taken Taylor by the collar and dragged him off Mr Cunningham. But by then it was far too late. Taylor had already struck the fatal blows that had changed him from a street brawler to a street killer…

When Taylor was taken by Police Superintendent Baxter of Wellington police the next day, on Christmas morning, he found Taylor still had the knife on him, and noticed that it was covered by poor Mr Cunningham’s clotted blood, as Taylor had not even had the sense to wipe off the blood.

Normally the close-knit mining community would have been tight-lipped and have claimed to have known nothing. But this was different. For Taylor had gone beyond the pail. He had murdered someone. And worst of all, he had committed the murder on Christmas Eve.

John Onions of Ketley, made a statement that he had heard Taylor boast on Christmas morning that he had been involved in a fight with the Irish in Wellington on Christmas Eve and that he had stabbed one of them.

A deposition by Frank Cunningham was read out at the inquest. He stated that he had no quarrel with anyone on the night in question and took no part in any of the rows, having; “gone out of doors for a certain purpose”, but could not identify anyone who had attacked him.

The inquest jury, having heard all of the evidence, decided on a verdict of “wilful murder” against Taylor and of “aiding and abetting” against Thomas Murrill. On the Coroner’s warrant they were committed to Shrewsbury Gaol under the custody of Superintendent Baxter. According to press reports in The Wellington Journal Mr Baxter had been; “indefatigable in getting up the case against the prisoners.”

Writing. Is it what we do, or what we are?

I would have to argue that writing is what we are, more than what we do. Fish swim. Writers write, perhaps?

As One of the best Irish writers of the last century, George Bernard Shaw, said on writing: "Writing was as natural to me as the taste of water in my mouth."

A question that I have been asked several times is: "How do you find so many things to write about?"

There are many ways to find ideas for articles. In my articles that I will publish here over the next weeks, months and years, it will be my aim to share some of these ideas with you. Please refer back to the article on Be That Writer listing a variety of ideas for article. I do not intend for you to slavishly copy these. I hope they will act as a catalyst for dozens of different ideas of your own.

I will also share new developments with you and websites that I feel will be of interest and of use to you in your future writing.

Incidentally, should we write about things we care about? Of course! Else why would we want to write?

But how should we write about things we care about deeply, are very passionate about? As dispassionately as possible.

Why? Because of we care so very passionately about something, we must not risk wrecking our chance to communicate what we care deeply about.

Some years ago, there was a film maker / director. A writer in a film magazine praised the director because he was so committed and involved in the subjects that he was filming.

How could this author tell? Because he used a small, hand-held camera and, when he was filming something that especially  upset him, the audience could tell. How so? Because his hands shook so much that sometimes it was not really possible to see what he was filming, properly.

Let's pause at that point and analyse what was written.

The author of the article thought that the shaking camera showed how committed the film maker had been to his subjects.

My view of this is radically different. It is my belief  the film maker actually showed scant regard for the subjects and the people he was filming.

If he was shaking so much that he could not control the camera, how was that showing regard for the subject matter?

His shaking detracted from the subject, although it did make some people hold him in higher regard. "Look at me! Look at how passionate I am. Am I not wonderful?"

In a word, No. He was not.

Why am I mentioning this? Because it is easy to fall into the writers version of this trap. Tendency to overwrite, to try to build something up that does not need building up, to exploit the story of someone for the greater good, whatever that might be!

We need to be dispassionate in our final copy. Why? Because if we are not, we risk allowing our passion for the subject to destroy it.

And if we do not make our writing readable, we run the very real risk of being self-serving, writing for our own selves. This might make us feel better but does little or nothing to help anyone else.

The Writer's tools. Words.

As writers, words are our tools. A good workman (or woman) always keeps their tools sharp and in good repair.

How do we keep the words we use sharp and in good repair?

You must ensure your books are kept in good, clean condition, in as much as you can.

Make sure that you have several good dictionaries. An old one to look up previous word usage and two modern dictionaries.

Also have two or three dictionaries of quotation so that, if you want to use quotations in your writings. Some people rely on memory. DON'T! This can really spoil the effect of an article, if a quotation has been poorly remembered.

Also it is probably just as well to have a guide to correct language use, in case you need yo check up on something that you are unsure of.

An encyclopaedia is useful, too. In fact, have two or three, one a small "pocket" sized issue.

Do you have these on your computer or do you have them in book form?

Well, I have tried both. And after several incidents of computer freeze, I decided to go back to using "real" books. After all, have you ever had a "Windows error" when holding a book in your hands? No! Me neither! Now, of course, there are E-Books and E-Book readers such as the Kindle, etc.

Also, you need to keep your mind sharp. You can use crosswords, word games and the like. This helps to sharpen up your mind and the way you use words.

Death of a Newspaper: News of the World closed down

The News of the World newspaper has been closed down after 168 years of publishing. It was launched in 1843. Early in the century before last.

The reason? Revelations that journalists on the News of the World and private investigators hired by them had hacked mobile phones of rape/murder victims, their families, the families of terrorist outrages and the families of dead war heroes.

Advertising by top UK firms had started to be pulled and the Royal British Legion had withdrawn the special status enjoyed by the News of the Word as its fund raising partner.

The decision was taken at the very top of the News International corporation.

Apparently journalists and staff on the paper were upset, dismayed and angry at the decision. Now, perhaps, they will be able to imagine how upset, dismayed and angry their victims were...

There are some things writers should not do. The problems at the News of the World and other tabloid papers who used the same techniques (Daily Mirror to name but one) will be a good indicator as to what these are.

That's Business: Luxury Magazine Title to Launch in Birmingham

That's Business: Luxury Magazine Title to Launch in Birmingham: "69 Magazine LTD – publishers of youth fashion title, 69 Degrees Magazine - has announced plans to imminently launch a new luxury title in th..."

Add some Global Culture to your writing CV?

Culture Odyssey is a new site dedicated to Art, Culture, Travel, Sustainability and Lifestyles for over 200 Countries from around the world. It’s the web's newest global community that celebrates humanity, the natural world and environmental sustainability. It is a place for you to inspire others with your artwork, travel stories, projects and imagery. Share details of events and upload news, video and reviews of your favourite places.

If you are interested in adding Global Culture to your CV this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Culture Odyssey is looking for a number of intern copywriters to join their Global Editorial Team at www.cultureodyssey.com for a given period of time. This experience can be office based in Milton Keynes or home based and work full or part time managing a designated region of the world or preferred range of categories.

Their global network produces and edits short articles and sources images that are inspiring, informative and above all, current. They produce an extremely high standard of written English and a fascinating insight into global culture and experiences that offer their readership a no holds barred and insightful perspective for any of their country specific landing pages.

For further information please email info@cultureodyssey.com

(EDITOR: But do remember what Dr Johnson said about writing for free...)

How to Be a Writer

Stewart Ferris' book, How to be a writer is both small and very short. It is also, however, one of the most useful books on writing that I have ever bought.

Ferris is quite clearly a professional writer. He writes no more than is required to put over his point. It is broken down into three sections covering preparation for writing, practicalities of writing and technicalities of writing.

It covers every possible aspect of how to start writing, for the very beginner, to the more advanced writer.

Ferris covers the need for a place to write in, the tools of the trade, (pen, paper, word processor, Ferris really does get right down to the very basics of the craft of writing) how to edit your various drafts, how and when to seek an agent.

He also touches on how to approach different types of writing, comedy writing, fictional writing, writing for the stage, for radio. For the screen (large and small) how to write factual articles, writing songs, whether or not to bother with writing classes or courses, tips and techniques for dealing with writer's block, and so forth.

He also deals with self-publishing, how to enter writing competitions, how to… well, how to be a writer.

I have been a professional writer for 25+ years. Have I learned anything from this book? Oh, definitely. And at £4.99 Be That Writer can heartily recommend it to any writer, at no matter what stage they are in their development as a writer. It is published by Summersdale www.summersdale.com.

Words, Words, Words

David Crystal, the author of Words, Words, Words, is an academic. But he is much, much more than being "just" an academic. David Crystal loves language and words. And this approach shines through this book.

In Words, Words, Words, David Crystal makes it crystal clear (no pun intended) why he believes that words matter to each and every one of us very much indeed. And the book is very easy to read, to understand and to use.

He looks at all types of words. The familiar words that we all know. Less familiar words that perhaps we should know, older words, newer words.

He points out that some people who put themselves forward as protectors of the English language are often no more than pedants. Or even worse! He even shows that some of them are just plain wrong.

He quotes an example of a friend who thought that the increasing use of the word "gotten" (as in "my dog had gotten out of the garden" was "the beginning of the end" for the English language.

Far from it, points out David Crystal. For the word gotten was employed by none other than Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales! David Crystal makes the point that "rather than approaching an end, we seem to be going back to the beginning." His friend also seems unaware of the old phrase "ill-gotten gains".

The book is an eclectic one and, as I said, his love of the English language shines through it, on every page. It covers loan words, the lore of words, wordgames, wordplay, how one might discover the history of a word, how words are built, how to estimate the size of your vocabulary, dialects (and how to get involved with them) etc., etc., etc.

If you have even a passing interest in words and the English language, then this book is for you. It is published by Oxford University Press and is available in hardback at £12.99.

(EDITOR Every writer needs this book on their bookshelf. Be That Writer can thoroughly recommend it.)

You CAN make money by writing for the specialist trade press

What is the specialist trade press? It is an exceptionally large and nebulous mass. It consists of hundreds of thousands of titles, some small, some large, published all over the world and covering thousands and thousands of fields of specialist knowledge.

What subjects are covered? Take the following examples:-

The garage industry, roadside recovery industry, coach tours and coach holidays industry, the bus and coach manufacturing industry, the vehicle salvage industry. And those just happen to be five magazines published by the company I write for!

Much of the work done on specialist magazines is done by freelance writers who have specialised knowledge on a particular subject. My employer uses freelance writers who have shown that they have these special attributes:-

They understand the brief they are set.
They can write well and write at speed when necessary. It’s no good “choking” and getting all precious about refusing to work at speed. An article that is perfect in every way yet arrives one hour after the magazine has gone to press is useless. However, an article that is reasonably good and arrives one hour before the deadline is perfect. Why? Because it is there! Have good contacts in their industry Understand deadlines and stick with them.

In order to be able to write for the specialist press, you have to understand the field that you will be writing about. There are general writers who can turn their hand to writing about almost any subject under the sun. There’s nothing wrong with that. Writers who can turn their hand to researching topics that they might not have heard of before and turning in readable, accurate copy are worth their weight in gold. But there are instances where this type of writer will not be able to get a commission, being overlooked in favour of the writer who has a specialism and a good knowledge of a particular industry or a particular field of endeavour.

For example, let’s suppose that a company that makes a particular type of equipment for the MOT industry has introduced a new type of engine analyser which can do the job in half the time. In order to write a proper article about this new piece of kit, a writer would have to understand a great deal about the garage and MOT industry. He or she might even have worked as a skilled MOT tester themselves before deciding to take up a career as a writer. And there are such writers out there with the specialised knowledge and the ability to write clear, concise copy every time it is required.

What specialist knowledge could you call upon to draw upon to write for the specialist trade press? Gardening? Architecture? Stamp collecting? A particular sport? Coin collecting? Knitting? Fashion? Amateur or professional photography? Sky Diving? Chicken breeding? Horse care? Motoring? Fish keeping? Dog breeding?

These are, of course, only a tiny portion of the many types of specialism that us ordinary folk might have.

What could you earn? This depends. Some fields of expertise are so rarefied and esoteric that the magazines that cater for them are read by so few people that the magazines can really only afford to offer modest payments, including or only a complimentary copy of the magazine. Often these magazines, although very well produced to fairly high professional standards, are almost labours of love, with the editorial staff receiving little or no remuneration.

However, some magazines are mass market publications and can afford to pay vastly more to freelance specialist writers than can their poorer cousins.

How much? How long is a piece of string? £100 for 1000 words is a good basis on which to start. However, the fee that you can command will depend upon your abilities to work within the four guidelines I have outlined within this article. And something else.

Let’s suppose that a leading figure in the industry you are writing on is an elusive person who rarely gives interviews and is known for being notoriously difficult to interview. Let’s suppose that you have known him for years and that you both get on very well. If you can approach an editor and say: “I can gain you an exclusive interview with X,” don’t you think that you would be paid substantially more than £100 for 1,000 words? Or that after the successful publication of the article, that the grateful editor would funnel more equally lucrative work your way?

A new magazine was launched not so long ago. After the first issue a writer with good specialised knowledge of the field called the managing editor and said: “I want to write for your magazine.” He sent in his CV, was commissioned to write one article as a test piece, really and a year later his articles are regular and very popular features in the magazine.