Battle of the Block

I’m not a massive believer in writer’s block. I know that when I get stuck it’s my own silly fault. I’ve blocked myself.

Then again, I have been struggling with some copy recently that I’ve been putting off because I didn’t know what to say. As I see it, if I don’t know what I’m talking about my readers sure as hell won’t.

I discussed the main thrust of the story with everyone I came in contact with over the past month at length and it made sense. But when I went to write it I couldn’t do it. Is this a form of block?

Something seems to be going on in between the workings of the mind and writing what’s going on in there, down.

Block or not, it’s got something to do with being precious about every word – something I ignore well enough when I’m writing news when no word must be wasted. When writing features I sometimes forget. It makes me recall something novelist Hanif Kureishi said in a two minute exchange we shared at the Cheltenham Literature Festival several years ago.

He said: “When you take your cap off your pen, it makes you stop and you see your mother. You consider, ‘what will mother think?”

I’m not conscious of doing that exactly. But I am concerned about what it is that gets in my way and freezes me now and again.My current ineffective way of dealing with it is to avoid writing for as long as possible. Left unattended in this way it risks growing into depression or mania, which in turn leads to writing something incredibly mediocre. And mediocrity is not to be celebrated.

Fellow writers - we must find a cure. Or is there one I’m not aware of?
Answers on a postcard please.

Boxed in a Byline

Journalists see things that even the discerning reader will miss. I’ll explain.

A friend who works on a national daily came over with that day’s paper last week. She’s on the news desk – not as a journalist but as the office’s glue - aka admin assistant.

She doesn’t get many opportunities to write. Granted it’s not on her job spec, but she’s been NCTJ qualified longer than me and does push ideas regularly. I push her to do this too. Maybe she’s not pushy enough.

Then again its harder to get your stuff in on a national. I wouldn’t cope – writing on a daily basis, not sleeping all night for praying that it will make it only to buy the broadsheet the next day to see your 150 words spiked.

Back to point – she had two bylines in the paper of the day. One of them was in a box, the obscure contents of which I could tell required a bright spark’s initiative to glean.

She said: “I feel silly having a byline in a box. Nobody’s going to notice it, or they’ll just wonder what it’s there for. It’s stupid”

I disagreed. It’s important. I always notice names in boxes. When you’re at the bottom of the food chain you’re not just interested in the words in the press but who wrote them.

I also note joint bylines. Those situations when you see a story written by xxxx AND xxxx. The ‘and’ is the equivalent of the person in the box. That person is the assistant to the lead writer. They did a lot of background work and their name appears at the discretion of the journalist that wrote the story.

It always pleases me when I see this - the underlings getting a chance. That boxed byline was me this time last year. And I almost cried the first time my work made it into print but my name had fallen off.

It's not stupid.

Political Scribbles

An artist, illustrator and comic-obsessed friend of mine, Chris Rainbow does a monthly cartoon for Blueprint magazine for architects and designers.

See image above and: http://www.wdis.co.uk/blueprint/

He says: "My work is at various times drawing, painting, collage, digital imaging, hand drawn text, comic strips, reportage, political cartooning, observational drawing, murals, graffiti and peculiar scribbling."

His political if poignant satire are my favourite bits.