Charlie Hicks – Author

An Indie author sharing thoughts ideas and experiences

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  • The Role of Your Muse in Writing Success

    So I had a brilliant idea about the how the next chapter for my next book TPOTN should run. (sorry no titles yet, as it will give away a huge chunk of the storyline.) I sit down at the computer and stare at the screen. My mind is whirling away with ideas, but as my fingers hover over the keyboard, somehow none of those ideas make any sense any longer. And so I sit here staring at a blank page on Scrivener and say very quietly to myself Bollocks! (everyone else is asleep it’s 11 pm.

    A Muse by Rosalba Carriera
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    Original public domain image from Getty Museum

    Yes my Muse has clocked off for the night and gone home. Normally this is the most productive time for my writing and I can produce some fantastic chapters. But tonight; No she has deserted me and gone home without a so much as a goodbye and a see you tomorrow. It’s not that I’m complaining because my Muse is fantastic, admittedly she works weird hours, but so do I if I’m being honest. So what am I to do? I sit here blankly staring at the screen, and nothing and I mean nothing is flowing from my mind tonight.

    Closeup vintage light bulb. Free public domain CC0 photo.
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    Now if you have read my previous blog about Exploring Whimsical Story Ideas and Inspirations, you will probably either think I’m:

    • Weird as Hell
    • or Likes to explore the paths least trodden.

    Now to anyone who knows me I absolutely adore the early works of Tom Holt, like Paint Your Dragon, Valhalla and my all time favourite Odds and Gods. And yes I know he wrote Portable door, which is very well written but just not as good as the earlier works In My Humble Opinion (IMHO). The scary thing is, is that one of my ideas ‘The three Unicorns of the Apocalypse’ is most probably very heavily influenced by The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse.

    So here I am sitting staring blankly, and I reach down and pick up my notebook. It is my go to place for ideas I’ve had, whatever I do it is with me. So I open up a blank page and start writing down the idea which has suddenly flashed in to my head. I mean it has absolutely nothing to do with the book I’m currently writing, but somehow, instinctively I know I’ve got to capture this fleeting moment of pure inspiration. Why may you ask? Well because tomorrow It will have flittered out of my mind and floated off into the ethereal background. But tonight it landed inside my head and I wasn’t asleep, I was ready with the essential tools I needed to capture this moment of pure inspiration. And so like Archimedes I have my moment of pure unbridled inspiration. Quietly I whisper, because everyone is asleep ‘Eureka’.

    Now comes the difficult part I re-read what I’ve just written down. And as usually I find that not only have I outlined the plot, but the main characters and the overall outline of the story in a 3 act 8 sequence structure. Now yo maybe asking why has this person done this, and to be honest I put it down to a couple of things.

    • My Autism is going hell for leather.
    • I’m hyperactive on coffee.
    • Or; the idea is so compeleling it just grabs hold of me and wont let go until I do something with it. **

    ** By the way it the third one if you were wondering.

    So your probably wondering where I’m going with all this. I had someone ask me what is the most important thing about being an Author today, and I instantly answered ‘Your Imagination’ I explained that a flash of pure unadulterated inspiration can come at anytime, and you need to be ready for them. That’s why I carry a notebook and pen with me all the times. The flash will happen and I will write it down there and then. Why because my memory is shite with a capital SHITE. TPOTN, is one of these flashes of inspiration which happened as I was listening to someone I was working with. They told me about the magic of their child’s first Christmas Nativity play. It didn’t matter to this person that their child was a sheep. What mattered was the magic of the moment. And in that brief moment an inspiration struck me, and I wrote it down. 2 years later it has been worked up into a fully fledged story that I’m currently writing it now. But that wouldn’t of happened if I hadn’t captured that fleeting moment on paper. Never take for granted any idea however insane it maybe, who knows it may be the next best seller and they could be turning it into a movie. So to summerise:

    • Inspiration can come at any time, be prepared
    • Your Muse may not be who you expect it to be.
    • No idea is rubbish.
    • And as Willian Goldman said “Nobody Knows Anything”

    To to close: Nobody knows what is going to be the next best seller, nobody knows what the public are going to react to. All we can do as writers is write what we feel is right in our hearts and souls. And sometimes the muse may leave us, but if we have been listening carefully and preparing for these fleeting moments of unadulterated inspiration we can have a stash of ideas which will carry us through when our Muse goes on vacation.

    Good night and I hope to see you again soon for some more mad witterings from my weird and wonderful mind.

    I highly recommend reading. (P.S. it isn’t an instruction manual but very insightful into the whole writing business not just screenwriting.)

    Adventures in the Screen Trade: A personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting by William Goldman, ISBN 9780446391177

  • Exploring Whimsical Story Ideas and Inspirations

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    So last night I was still up at 2 am writing away on my next novel. And I looked at how much I had achieved since 10 pm. It was a bit shocking; I had completed 3 whole chapters, yet my mind was still racing away. That hamster was definitely going for on its wheel last night. But the strange thing was even though my mind was still fertile and raring to go, my body said to me. Listen up buster you’re not in your 20’s any longer, get some sleep or else.

    So, this morning after the dog insisted, I get out of bed so she could take my nice warm place for herself. (There is an Irony in this somewhere, but I buggered if I can find it.) I walked into the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea, safe in the knowledge that my dog was happily asleep on my part of the bed. On opening and shutting the fridge door, low and behold there she was sitting there, waiting with the Cat sitting next to her. It was like I had operated some mysterious teleportation device only known to Cats and Dogs. In my bleary haze from working late last night, I smiled and ignored them both. Surely if they can teleport to the kitchen in the blink of an eye, they can also work out how to open said fridge.

    A golden retriever sleeping on a bed. Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons

    This got me thinking about a possible storyline where Cats and Dogs traverse the world using a secret network of teleportation fridges. (See I told you I was tired). Yes, I know it’s a load of nonsense, but what I’m trying to convey here albeit very poorly, it that there are story opportunities everywhere. We just need to let our minds go for it. To not be afraid of going of at the deep end and seeing if the story will sink or swim. I have a notebook full of such bonkers ideas. In actual fact my next book is one of those bonkers ideas.

    But the best thing about it, is that it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like I’m having fun letting my imagination go wild and free range. It is very liberating to write like this. Not giving a real damn about the final outcome, just exploring the realm of possibilities; letting the preverbal hamster go free-range.

    A hamster running in a hamster wheel rat mammal animal. AI generated Image by rawpixel.

    And as I finish today’s blog I keep coming back to the underlying thought. Our writing doesn’t always have to be dull, sad, full of despair, it can also be a tool which makes someone sitting on a train or a bus, burst out laughing uncontrollably for no apparent reason to those around them.

    And so, I will leave you with a quote that has resonated with me from the late, great Robin Williams; “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy. Because they know what it feels like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anybody else to feel like that.”

  • Day 2 in my brave new world, and its all a bit scary.

    So, this morning I sat down and thought about all the things I had achieved yesterday. Promo material for current book sale on Smashwords. Promo material for the next book launch in August, setting up this blog site. Writing 2 chapters of my next book. And it dawned on me that I was no longer just an Indie author. I was a collection of all these other tasks, graphic designer, marketing, accountant, website admin and content provider across various social media sites. And It kind of scared me a little bit.

    I got into writing as a form of self-healing, my first 2 books were and are very much me getting unresolved issues off my chest. The next book is very different. I think I used the first 2 books to clear the air, to set the scene as it were for what was to follow. And in a way I’m glad that I have done that. I contemplated on those first two books and realised I was now mentally in a much better place than I had ever been for such a long time. Writing can be a therapy, but it can also be a restraint which if you are not careful can hold you back. I hope that it still is a therapy for me this time next year, I wouldn’t want it to become a bind that shackles me to a desk again and only lets me have freedom some of the time.

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    And as I wrote this blog post today, I thought about what my blog should become. It should be my journal, my point of reflection on the world around me and my part in it. Now I know this may all sound very philosophical, but it is by asking ourselves such questions and exploring where the thought process may take us, that we learn, we grow and develop as a person.

    I re-watched a video with Alan Moore, and he summed it up for me in a few choice phrases.

    1. That book isn’t going to write itself, you have to sit down and put one word after another, and keep going
    2. Set realistic goals, and if they are too much, adjust them so you are, not only happy in your work, but productive as well.

    So, in reflection, being an Indie author is empowering and offers a level of freedom I have never experienced before in my life. But it is also something which unless carefully managed, can become a beast of burden. I will need to think carefully about how I manage my time, not only to write but also juggle all these other jobs I have to do as well as living and supporting my family.

    And so I come to the difficult part of saying goodbye for now, I’ll be back, it may not be tomorrow, but it’ll be soon enough, and I hope to see you all here again.

    Vintage typewriter beside coffee cup.

  • From Tiny Acorns

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    So this is all new to me, and I’ll try not to babble on too much. So If you’ve found this page then your are either in the wrong place, or you intended to find my Author’s blog.

    So what do I want to use this site for. Primarily to inform my loyal fan(s) of what I’m working on, and to share the issues that as an indie author I may have along the way.

    This is an exciting new adventure for me, and I’m starting to realise that writing my books is actually the simple part.

    Yours Charlie

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