Evie Wyld is Booktrust's third online writer in residence.
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Five things that have scared me
Posted Monday August 16th 2010
by Evie WyldFollowing on from my last post, I’ve been trying to think and write about fear.
I started with a list of times I have been scared – obviously I’ve been scared a great many more than five times, but I was after a fear that I remembered almost physically, that even now, when I think about the event, still pulls at something in the pit of my stomach.
Here’s my list and where it went.
1) Camping with a girlfriend, and waking in the middle of the night to the sound of the zipper on our tent opening and then closing.
2) Accidentally swimming too far out near a sand bank, and trying to put my feet down only to find cold deep water.
3) Being followed by a man through the suburbs of Sydney on a very dark night on a street with no streetlights. He wasn’t making any effort to pretend he wasn’t following me or to pretend that he was friendly or sane.
4) Waking up in Thailand with a large spider or cockroach or something not good drinking out of my mouth.
5) A couple of years ago my parents planned a trip to France, leaving…
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What I think about when I think about being scared
Posted Thursday August 5th 2010
by Evie WyldFor the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to write about fear, and I’ve found it fascinating.
It’s made me realize that so much of my surface understanding of how fear is represented is connected to film: the cat hops down off a shelf when we were sure it was the killer making all that noise, we see the masked man in the bathroom mirror as the woman dries her hair, and so on until the inevitable loud noises and graphic violence as a short cut to that 'fight or flight' response we hear so much about. Much of finding an interesting way to think about writing about fear has been trying to write myself away from these familiar devices.
It’s been a similar process to when I was writing my first book, which has a section set in the Vietnam War. I was careful not to watch any Vietnam War movies, because I was worried I would feel led by them, that the language and grammar of war films would seep into my writing – so no choppers, clicks, gooks and no 'Sarge, I’m scared'.
Of course there are scary films that genuinely add to an understanding of what…
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Rules
Posted Friday July 9th 2010
by Evie WyldI’m on holiday.
I told someone in the shop I was just about to go on holiday the other day and they gave me a look, as if the idea that I had the sort of job one needed to, or even could, take a holiday from was utterly ridiculous. And I know what she meant in a way – after all, I’m definitely not in the bookshop, but have I taken a holiday from being a writer?
Before we set off I had a number of rules I was pretty certain I was going to stick to.
Firstly, I was going to rise before the sun was fully up, and I was going to walk up to the monastery on the mountain near the villa we’re staying at, around a 2-hour walk, and I was going to have breakfast there. Breakfast would be goats’ curd and honey and figs.
On my return I’d swim and then I’d do maybe a couple of hours work on my book, getting back into it gently before the real energy of working on it when I get home.
Other than that I would read, and in the evenings I would do light yoga.
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Terry is my new name
Posted Sunday June 20th 2010
by Evie WyldTerry is my new name.
Not my new name exactly, but the name I’ve given a character in what I’m writing at the moment.
This is exciting because for about 5 years now, every time I’ve sat down to write about someone new, it’s been Elaine for a girl, Jimmy for a boy. I like how Elaine sounds with an Australian accent - Eee-lane, the way your tongue moves around your mouth when you say it. The name Jimmy is good because it’s a child’s name, and there’s something very satisfactory about having a grown man with a child’s name. Bobby is good for this too, especially if the grown man is a little rough and grizzled. Frank sounds a bit like a slap or a bark, a nice strong one-syllable name that seems to someone shortish and a little heavy.
When I was younger and writing the bad stuff (see my previous blog) I used names that I thought meant something. Nearly all of my female characters were called Lilly, why? Because I was reading lots of Angela Carter and I remember that this cover of the Bloody Chamber was very exciting to me (sex and…
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Grubby Tools
Posted Monday June 7th 2010
by Evie WyldOne of the things people seem most interested in when they hear you’re a writer, after where you get your ideas from, is what method you actually use to write your stuff with. I think lots of people imagine a quill pen, hand-sharpened pencils, or a beautiful antique Olivetti typewriter. But for most of the authors I know, and certainly for me, it’s far less glamorous.
I was thinking about this last week; I had just come from Petitou, the café opposite Review bookshop where I work. I was talking to a Swedish friend of mine who is a freelance journalist and translator, and I noticed she has the same white Apple laptop as me. The difference is hers is four-years-old and mine is about 14-months-old. Hers is pristine, no dust on the screen, no scratches on the plastic on top, and mine looks like a toddler has used it as a playmat. Over time, I’ve convinced myself that if you have a white computer, that’s just what happens. It collects filth and pet hairs, and cleaning it would be a waste of energy better spent writing. Seeing hers made me realize this is not the case.
