life with booyaa

Next Friday, in case you haven't noticed, is the Royal Wedding. I am so grateful for the extra Bank Holiday which has given me a whole 11 days off work with just 3 days of my precious holiday allowance. But I haven't the least interest in the RW. What's more, I don't want to be involved in any of the local street parties or mass BBQs. So when @meandmybigmouth (Scott Pack, of The Friday Project and erstwhile buyer for Waterstone's) suggested spending the day reading a novel instead I jumped aboard.

Using the hashtag #royalreading Scott is rallying the troops to have a Right Royal Read instead.

So, are you going to join us?

But what to read?
It depends how much you can read in one day. I know I can read a 400 page novel in a day if I don't do much else. If you're planning to make cordon bleu dinner for your extended family you might want to look for something undemanding in the 200 page bracket, or a book of short stories.

I haven't decided for sure, but out of the books on my to-read pile it would be either Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ which comes in at a generously typeset 245 pages, or DBC Pierre's Lights Out in Wonderland at 313 pages. I'm also tempted by Ian McEwan's Solar at an achievable 304 pages.

If you've been enjoying The Crimson Petal and the White on telly—and who hasn't?—you could try the companion read to the novel, Michel Faber's The Apple, which at 200 pages is an easy to accomplish goal. I haven't read it but I understand that if you haven't read the original novel The Apple is full of spoilers.

Whatever you choose, a journey through your imagination will lift your spirits and turn a day off work into a day of pleasure.

I feel sorry for people who don't read good books, they're missing the chance to lead a second life.    - Scott Corbett

What did you do in your mammoth 11-day break, Loulou?

I built my husband’s new website, edited his content and made it look all pretty for him. Slept late most days, faffed around in the garden a bit, did some washing, went shopping. Read 3 books. You know.

Did you write any of the 10,000 words you said you’d write for your languishing novel?

Er...

I could kick myself sometimes.

Some time ago I took out six books from the library, all from the Chick Lit genre. I’d done my homework and chose authors who were popular and successful but I also tried to get a range of quality, because, let’s face it, a popular novelist isn’t necessarily a good writer.

I had a notebook by me as I read and I noted down characterisation, language, plot, place and anything that stood out, with the intention of having, at the end of the project, a solid idea of what was representative of the genre, what worked, what the magic formula was. This was, of course, as a way to get myself into writing one of these pink-covered books, with a suitably flowery pseudonym in cursive gold lettering jostling for attention with the Bestseller or Book Club sticker.

I never finished reading the sixth book. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t read another line. I still have the notebook and I have ⅓ of a first draft of a for-women, on-the-beach romantic novel. But I’ve abandoned the title Chick Lit. It’s come to mean anything written by women for women with some romance in it. It’s boy-meets-girl, boy messes up, girl flounces off, misery ensues, girl finds someone else, girl persuades herself she’s happy, ex reappears and turns her world upside down, fuss and bother, they get together again and are blissfully happy with wedding bells and baby booties on the horizon. Oh for crying out loud. It’s not such a bad plot in itself, it’s worked for everyone from Shakespeare to Margaret Atwood, but it needs some meat on the bones to make it work. Chick Lit has become, in my mind, eternally associated with low common denominator writing, and I don’t have time to read poorly crafted fiction when there’s so much marvellous stuff out there that I still haven’t read.

Romance is an old-fashioned word to use in the literary world these days, but I’m reclaiming it and putting it back where it belongs.

And would you believe it, I have just read something I had no idea was a romance until I started reading it, and it fits that sweeping story arc and yet is like nothing I’ve ever read before. I read it in one sitting, bar comfort stops and a lunch break, which I haven’t done since I discovered the Narnia series in the summer holidays when I was 7 and read the lot in the space of a week.

The novel I’ve just finished had the standard boy-meets-girl story line but with plenty more going on than that. The language was perfectly pitched, relaxed but not chatty, enough nicely crafted sentences in there to get a nod of approval, great pace with no flagging, lots of great background detail and colourful characters. It really was a marvellous read. And it was written by a man. A MAN!

So, Mr David Nicholls and your One Day, you have totally swept me off my feet and restored my faith in the romantic novel. Thank you so much. I shall get on with writing my own now, confidence renewed.

As Virginia Woolf said, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write." Well, I'm looking for a room of my own.

Our flat is too small for a desk, let alone a study, so I end up sitting on the sofa or putting the laptop on a breakfast tray in bed which isn't conducive to long periods of typing. Plus I get distracted by washing and tidying and, oh yes, the Internet. Until I have my own study in a corner of my house and can shut myself away, I'm looking for somewhere I can go and concentrate.

requirements
a bright uncluttered space
natural light
a desk and a comfortable chair
peace and quiet
needed on Fridays only

extra nice
easy to get to from Surbiton (on the District Line or a short bus ride from Waterloo would be great)
comfy sofa with a great view or a garden/nearby park for thinking time
a room all to myself

don't need/want
Internet
A buzzing hub of entrepreneurs
Office services (I don't need: someone to answer the telephone, meeting space, PO Box etc.)

If you have something which ticks most of the boxes then let me know. I am open to suggestions (your unused garden summerhouse? That could work!) Try me.

Answer in the comments and I'll be in touch (the email address you leave when you comment won't show on the site but I can see it, so that's how I'll contact you).

Thanks for reading.

No, I didn't know there was going to be a part two either, but after a number of chick lit authors contacted me on Twitter or via the comments on my first chick lit post I got to thinking I should perhaps have expressed myself more clearly.

Nicola May contacted me via Twitter and offered to send me her latest novel to prove me wrong. I accepted the challenge and have started reading it. I'm not reading it very fast because I'd already started reading my latest Jo Nesbø and I'm enjoying being scared half to death.

But I'm using this moment, before I finish Nicola's novel and write my review of it, to attempt to clarify what I had intended to say.

I don't think there's anything wrong with romance novels. I like women writing for women. There are times when something not-too-challenging is just what the doctor ordered. Those are key features of the chick lit genre as I understand it, and I’m not arguing against the validity of any of that. But for me It’s not all about the plot, it’s about the quality of the writing, and that’s where I run into problems with the genre.

I originally encountered the term chick lit applied to Bridget Jones's Diary. Now it may not be literature but it's well written, with good grammar and a varied vocabulary. The plot has enough twists to keep you intrigued and it's funny. Yay! Go Helen Fielding! Then along came the hordes of pink-covered paperbacks that women pick up in the airport en route to their annual week of sunbathing. And it seems to me that chick lit is now a term to describe any book written by and for women with a romantic storyline and — crucially — writing of exceptionally low quality.

While I was trying to pinpoint what it is that annoys me so much, I read around to see what the consensus is on the definition of Chick Lit. I found this article in the Guardian The chick-lit debate: light doesn't have to mean stupid and wasn't swayed until I read:

So I take issue with those who dismiss all chick-lit as poorly-written fodder for the dim-witted reader. There are some appallingly bad books (as I discovered), but that's true of every single genre.

That was my lightbulb moment. “True of every single genre.”

So, thinking back, it reminded me of a novel I gave up after page 3 a couple of years ago. YummyHubby doesn’t read much but a while ago there was a fantasy series he really got into so I tried reading one thinking it would be fun. But where YummyHubby doesn’t notice that the writer has used the same adjective three times on one page, or that there’s a string of poorly constructed sentences that make you work harder to understand the narrative, I notice this stuff and I find it intolerable. He glosses over it, taking in the broad strokes rather than the details. I get pulled into thinking how hard it would be to have written it coherently in the first place.

There’s our proof that it’s possible to come across poor examples in all genres. You could say that perhaps I’ve been unlucky and come across some of the worst examples of the chick lit genre, but I did my research and chose popular and respected authors. In most of the novels I read for my project I found clunky writing, out-of-character actions and weaknesses in the narrative.

A key point here is that whereas other genres are understood to have a range of quality, chick lit is widely perceived to have just one, exceptionally low, standard. I say that there’s no smoke without fire. For some reason that I don’t understand, the chick lit publishers have waived the usual requirements and are pushing novels through without a decent editor culling and correcting and tightening holes in the plot.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a valid market. From the sheer volume of chick lit novels piled up on bookshop tables nowadays I think it’s safe to assume that I’m in the minority and that tens of thousands of women in the UK do enjoy chick lit. Great. Good for them. However, I think it’s sad that an emerging genre which started off as liberating and fun, and finally a place for women writers to feel welcome and their readers to feel unashamed that they enjoy a romance, has ended up bringing upon itself more criticism than admiration, and in some cases outright contempt, all for want of some basic standards.

To avoid upsetting anyone, I could say, as my Mum would, ‘Whatever floats your boat.’ Or I could admit that my tolerance level for sloppy writing is exceptionally low (it’s true). I still wonder, though, why the publishers of chick lit choose to publish such poorly-written novels. The genre is synonymous with poor writing for a reason. I just don’t see why it has to be that way. You can sell a touching, funny romance of just under 400 pages with good grammar and a solid plot, so why not do that? What does the genre gain from its bad reputation? Nothing. So why is nobody working hard to fix it?

Thanks to Nicola for sending me a copy of her novel.

First impressions were good. The cover isn’t pink! It’s attractive, with a cute illustration. Inside, the paper is great quality and the addition of a matching bookmark is a lovely touch.

Onto the novel itself. There are some funny moments and the premise — twelve jobs in twelve months — gives the storyline a focus which makes it different from the usual simple romance tale. It also provides lots of opportunities to meet new characters and is an excellent pretext for putting the heroine into a range of interesting situations. It’s got some of the hallmarks of what I understand to be chick lit. There are plenty of exceptionally attractive young men in the story, there are references to real brands of clothing and cosmetics to which we are supposed to aspire, celebrity gossip magazines, reliable girlfriends and white wine.

I really tried to like the novel, and the premise, as I said, is great, but the writing style and lack of attention to detail spoilt it for me.

The tone of voice is casual to the point of being over familiar. I winced, too, at some scenes which could have been handled more delicately. I also felt uncomfortable at some of the characters’ speech styles, which this review covered very well, I thought.

There were gaps in the readers’ knowledge hastily stuffed with a one-line explanation because the rapid movement of the plot didn’t give the author time to develop an atmosphere and let the events unfold. Equally, there were characters to whom we didn’t have time to warm because the narrative whisked us on, and yet we were definitely meant to like them. There’s much talk in the book’s blurb of ‘eccentric characters’ but the most important characters in the story, Ruby and her main love interest George, are one-dimensional and you never really get to know them or understand them. You come to know secondary and lesser characters much better. The heroine’s neighbour, Margaret, is probably the most rounded character.

There were too many basic editing lapses. Commas all over the place, repeated use of expressions in consecutive paragraphs, incorrect use of vocabulary and time and again I was hauled out of the narrative by poor editing and clunky sentences.

So, in conclusion, there will be women who read this and laugh where I winced, find the familiar tone entertaining and not notice the clunky sentences that annoyed me. There’ll be thousands who enjoy the ride and don’t care about the bumps along the way. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me.

I’ve seen a number of positive reviews for the novel and it looks like it is going to do well. I’m very happy for Nicola and hope her self-published work proves to be successful enough for her to keep writing. It’s a brave thing to self-publish, and I admire her guts and tenacity.

Find out more from Nicola's site: www.nicolamay.com

I work from home, on my own projects, one day a week. That makes it tricky to get into a routine and stick to it. Monday to Thursday I have a room full of people around me, a stream of emails, instant message windows and Skype calls that combine to keep my day hopping from task to task. Though it’s often chaotic if you look too closely, there’s an enforced structure. I get to the office by nine, everyone breaks for lunch around 1, and at 5:30 I start wrapping up. In between I have a list of things I need to do that day, or perhaps at some point that week, and emails throughout the day alert me to further tasks that need addressing.

And then on Friday my day stretches ahead of me like arctic tundra. Without signposts I’d get lost. I still do, to be honest, but much less than I used to. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, but my 21 days are never consecutive. It still takes discipline and organisation every time. Neither is my strong suit.

I’m sure you’ve all been there. You stay in bed just a while longer. Leisurely shower. Linger over coffee and toast. Lose an hour in the time sink that is the internet (in my case, particularly Twitter). Oh look, there's nothing in the fridge for lunch, I’ll just pop out and buy some stuff. OH MY GOD IT’S 3pm AND I’VE DONE NOTHING YET!

So, to counteract that, I have added in a few safety nets. These are a way to track the passage of time as an anti-procrastination measure, a reminder for things with a deadline, and a to-do list for that day’s tasks.

Oh heavens! Is that the time?
One thing I’ve used for years, not as a time management tool but for pleasure, is a Tibetan bowl chime which strikes on the hour, every hour. It’s a beautiful sound, not a nag, but it does remind you that an hour has elapsed and it’s easy to make a mental note if you think you’re procrastinating, or not getting as much done as you’d like. If I’m at home I use my alarm clock’s hourly chime function, which is on by default in our house. (Best alarm clock ever) Or I use a dashboard app on my Mac which recreates the hourly chime of the old OS9.

get your own
If you use a Mac then get the ProdMe dashboard app for Mac. It’s no longer supported, but you can still download it here.

There’s an iPhone app called Chime, or search for it in the App Store. It’s a very simple hourly chime and a beautifully made app, but I don’t like the sounds they’ve included. I find the zen clock and dashboard app are both harmonious and relaxing, and therefore preferable.

Don’t forget!
I have tried out a number of reminder apps on my iPhone since last year when my migraines came back, after many years without them. I was advised to stretch my neck, change my focus and get up and move. The ones I’ve settled on have different functions, but I do like Alarmed. It’s easy to set up, has an automatic snooze that you can set once an hour to remind you to have a glass of water, or a one off event plus a nag feature which keeps going off until you to make that phone call or write that email. It’s immensely flexible so will serve most people’s purposes.

get your own
Alarmed is free, with pay-for add-ons. Again, it’s in the App Store, or search for reminders for your platform.

Making a list, checking it twice.
I use TeuxDeux for my non-office days. It’s beautifully simple and attractive. You assign your tasks to a particular day (plus a handy someday section) and cross them off when you’re ready. But the beauty of this app is its day focus; you only see the current day’s tasks (not true of the web version) and here’s the real cunning, if you don’t cross a task off your list it moves to the following day. So if you set yourself say 5 things to do on Monday and you only accomplish 3, you’ll see on Tuesday that the remaining 2 have rolled over, in addition to the other tasks you’d set up for Tuesday. Can you imagine what it will look like by the time you get to Friday? This app has allowed me to learn two things. One is that I overestimate how much I can get done in a day, or over a weekend. The second is that it’s a gentle enough nudge for me to accomplish some of those tasks without making me feel overwhelmed — stress and deadlines send me to an unhappy place and ultimately to procrastination.

get your own
You can read all about it here: teuxdeux.com. I use the iPhone app, but you can use it in your browser on your Windows phone/laptop and I’ve heard they’re making an app for Android and maybe Blackberry, so you’re all sorted. It costs $2.99 which I realise some will think is pricey for an app. I have no problem paying for someone else’s expertise and this is a beautifully executed app. If you use a task list manager that is bloated, over-featured and confusing, then try it. It’s the price of a big cup of coffee. You’ve spent more on a shirt you’ve never worn, amirite?

If you haven’t yet found something that works for you, then do keep trying. You’ll crack it eventually.