A writer on writing – How I write
How I write
I do not have a standard way of writing. Usually I write from an inspiration. Sometimes I plan meticulously. Often I write a stream of consciousness.
- Torture – was thoroughly researched. I spent ages checking out the Quran, quotes, factions, terrorism and torture. A lot of that was not pleasant reading. I mapped out each chapter and wrote it slowly.
- Anthropocene Apocalypse – was written in sections. It was a series of my personal observations and thoughts that stemmed from my life and travels around the world and personal witnessing of the destruction of the natural habitat around the world.
- Sorting the Future – came from a dream. I was on board the Marco Polo and had a weird dream about aliens who came to Earth on a mission to save nature and intelligence, equipped with rejuvenating machine and advanced technology. It was a bit of wishful thinking. I wrote the first draft in five days in one long stream of consciousness. It just flowed. The rewrites took a lot longer but I tried to keep the light touch and flow and think I have been successful
- Ebola in the Garden of Eden – was mapped out very carefully with the plot sorted. I had the outline written out but did not write it for about twenty years. When I did it came out as one of my best Sci-Fi novels
- In Search of Captain Beefheart – was a memoir of my life with Rock Music. It charts my love of Rock from my first singles, albums and gigs through to now. It straddles the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. I did not want it to be a boring chronological run through but I had this idea of a quest that brought it to life. It is my most popular book.
- A Passion For Education – this was another memoir. I wanted to put my philosophy of education down in black and white but I did not want it to be a boring academic book. I had the idea of explaining why I believed in the various aspects of my reasoning through anecdotes and experiences that brought it to life. It tells the inside story of Headship. I have had many people not in education tell me how interesting they found it. That was good. I wrote it in sections. It was easy to do. The content provided the structure. I had to marry the anecdotes and stories to the theory.
- Danny’s Story – is a story about a house I lived in in the early seventies. It was full of characters and incidents. I sat on it for forty years. I could not think how to write it in an interesting way. Then I read John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat and it inspired me. I saw a way of doing it. I fictionalised myself and the characters so that they were removed from it. It flowed out ion one great stream of consciousness that worked for me. I am now going through and knocking the raw, rough descriptions and sentences into better shape.
As you can see – I tend to suddenly get an inspiration and that is it – I’m off. I write hard and fast until it is complete. I then hone. Sometimes I plan and map. Sometimes I research. But often it comes pouring out of my head in one long splurge. All I have to do is get an insight into how to structure it. It’s like pouring cement. When I get going my mind churns. I find myself waking in the night to head off to the computer to write another section that has materialised in my sleep. I have been known to write through the night for twenty four hours without a break.
I have written 57 books.
Here’s a few of them:
These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!
They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.
Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97
Stanzas and Stances – £5.59
Poems and Peons – £4.33
Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98
Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60
Vice and Verse – £4.15
Science Fiction books:
Ebola in the Garden of Eden – paperback £6.95 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)
Green – paperback £9.98 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)
Rock Music books
In Search of Captain Beefheart – paperback £6.91 Kindle £1.99 (or free on unlimited)
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Other selected books and novels:
Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings – a book of anecdotes mainly from the sixties and other writing.
More Anecdotes – following the immense popularity of the first volume I produced a second
Goofin’ with the cosmic freaks – a kind of On the Road for the sixties
The book of Ginny – a novel
In Britain :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461306850&sr=1-2-ent
In America:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin
In all other countries around the world check out your regional Amazon site and Opher Goodwin books.
Being a history major, I never took any writing courses, so I’m sure I break all kinds of rules and guidelines. I write from a very skimpy outline – by the seat of my pants. I’ve tried to detailed outline approach and found it killed my creativity. That kind of outline worked well for me when I wrote research essays, but not for my two sci-fi novels or my two non-fiction books. I think our approach to the writing process is fairly similar.
Hi John – yes I’ve tried all types of ways. It all seems to work for me. I just enjoy writing and have a head full of ideas.
BTW – just received your ed book today. I’m interested to see what you have to say. Looks good.
I always used to start something and then never finish except perhaps my poems. Have finally sent off my novel, a nature saga for the 21st Century. Inspiration came and then a first chapter and the plot then flowed with a journey of animal characters across Western Europe. But I don’t see it as a children’s story. You should really promote Ebola for young people and scientists to read and anyone going into education should read your Headteacher memoir. Marketing is the thorny issue. Keep going Opher!
Thanks for the encouragement Georgina. I keep doing my thing. Marketing is the bugbear. I am not good at it and don’t seem to get motivated. I prefer to write.
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
This is how I do it.
This is so interesting! It’s like a behind the scenes for your writing!
That was the intent I’m glad it worked.
It did!
I’ll have to do some more then.