Books - I'm writing a book ....

[beena]

Hi everyone,
SWIM is doing a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the moment and has been writing a lot of short stories and poetry as a result of that. SWIM hopes to write a novel some day in the not too distant future but before she does that she thought it would be a good starting point to try and put together a collection of short stories instead.
As a drug addict for 9 years herself, SWIM tends to write about what she knows, i.e. addiction to crack-cocaine and heroin. Although SWIM has tried many other drugs too. She has an idea for a book and would appreciate any input other drug-forum users might have/like to share.
She wants to write a book that is made up of short stories where the characters are all drug-users or addicts. But the stories in the book don't have to have huge narratives, rather she wants them to be like scenes that paint a snap-shot of what life as an addict is like. SWIM was thinking about the collection of stories that make up the book 'Dubliners' by James Joyce, which has a series of stories that try to paint a scene of what life is like in Ireland in the 19th century rather than having a major plot as such.
SWIM was thinking about calling the book 'Hotcakes' - which is drug slang for crack or perhaps 'Cracker-Jacks' which is drug-slang for Crack users and she was thinking that she might focus on crack use and users in Britain in particular. If SWIY's have any ideas about this, please let me know ... i.e. what do you think about the idea of focusing on one drug and drug users such as crack and crack-cocaine users in particular? Or do SWIYs think it would be better to have a collection of stories that was broader in it's remit: so, for example, stories ranging from those about cannabis smokers, to pill-droppers (ecstacy takers) in clubs, through to hard-core class A drug addicts?
What do SWIYs think about the title ideas SWIM has had so far? Hotcakes ? Crackerjacks ? Any other ideas?
Finally, SWIM wanted to know if there were any particular scenes that SWIYs can envisage or imagine making up the book? Are there any memories of events that have happened to you regarding drug-taking or addiction that you think should be included?
Some ideas that SWIM has had so far are stories or scenes that are based around the anticipation of a couple of addicts waiting for their crack dealer to arrive - the story/scene would show them rushing about excitedly, manically even, trying to get everything ready, make up home-made pipes, put ash on, get lighters ready, etc. Perhaps even getting so wound up they're getting on each-others nerves and bickering. They keep ringing their dealer up who says 'ten minutes', then 12mins later they ring and he says 'seven and a half minutes' so they wait another ten before ringing and he says 'three minutes' and so on until he finally gets there 40 minutes later or something. Then I'd show them having their first pipe and the reader would see them go from the manic excitement of waiting to having a pipe and struggling to even speak/get their words out afterwards. As you can see, it's not a huge story or narrative in itself but put together with other stories telling other drug-addicts tales...
I would have stories with different addicts in different positions: from a weekend user - a student in halls of residence perhaps - to a hardcore addict, homeless, living on the streets.
I could perhaps go back and revisit different characters again too - so I could show the part-time, weekend-using student starting to cut classes and have grades slip as his use is becoming more frequent and his behaviour more erratic.
Perhaps I could chart the progression of a relationship between a couple (a man and women) who live together and are also drug-addicts - show how drugs make them argue - tear their lives apart - but they've still got a deep love for each-other - or is it dependency?
Perhaps the long-term homeless man who is probably at the lowest ebb of addiction could be the one who gets into a rehab and gets clean at the end? the least likely to succeed could succeed, whereas the student who had it all going for him could be the one in the end who is just starting out really on the road to 'hitting rock bottom'. So, perhaps the individual stories/scenes could come together to have a strong plot after all ....
I dunno yet - i'm just thinking aloud - but some ideas I wanted to include were:
1) I want to show a couple who have a flat together and have material possessions (tv, stereo, pc, etc), only for them to loose them one by one ... perhaps I could keep revisiting the couple in different chapters and each time there are less and less possessions in the room!
2) I want to show addicts at different points of addiction and in different locations: so someone who thinks that smoking crack is something they can control to someone who has literally lost everything to addiction. I want to show addicts struggling to stop, to get clean, to others who enjoy using. I want to show an addict smoking on his own to others using in groups. Perhaps I could have a chapter done from the viewpoint of the dealer too? Perhaps I could show a chapter with a couple of addicts frantically ringing their dealer every ten minutes to a chapter with the dealer driving around in his car, taking his time, stopping for a burger king(?) and blatantly not giving a toss!
I could show how different addicts get their drugs - tales of shoplifting, prostitution, etc. Through to a group perhaps who are all on the dole and get their money different days of the week so support each-other - a co-operative of crack users?!
3) I wanna show the end of the night when crack-users run out of drugs and the so-called 'chicken-scratch'! Which is when addicts crawl around on their hands and knees looking for bits they might've dropped. On the other hand I could show addicts who use heroin after they run out of crack - cos it brings you down totally smoothly without the need for the 'chicken scratch'.
Well, as you can see, I wanna show all aspects of addiction and different types of addicts. Basically, I just wanna know if SWIYs have any input or ideas or thoughts about the above? Do SWIYs like the idea or not? Would SWIYs read something like this if they saw it in the shop?
Constructive criticism would be much appreciated ....
thankyou in advance. Beena.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good post
	Now this is brilliant news (davie xxx)

[Jasim]

Wow, Swim remembers the chicken-scratch all too well.... What is worse is when you live in a very small apartment with a litterbox in your kitchen and the chicken-scratch results in smoked kitty litter.

[W!SE]

seems like a great idea. swim's dad just wrote his first book which was a series of short stories as well in a similar format towhat swiy mentioned.

swim also likes the ideas u shared and tjhinks it would be an entertaining read. cant type too much right now swim is pale in the face about to give in to a nauseous nod.

swim will check this thread another time. gluck

[Liffey]

hiya
I really like the idea, I'd buy that book. I like shorts but find them harder to write as every paragraph needs to do what a chapter might do in a novel. Every word is important.
I would say read as much as you can in the same genre, see how others do it. Sometimes it helps you to focus on what you want to write or what you might not want to write

good luck!

[Mammon]

Sounds good. If you could capture the feeling of standing outside, smoking a fag, looking at the moon and stars while feeling absolutely super-duper on opiates, it'd be something I'd like to read. They'd be no plot and I guess the story would have to be quite short, but there would be huge scope for lyrical writing and exploration of the character's consciousness. It'd be a massive technical challenge, but would be something I'd like to do if I could write.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks Jamal - you reminded me what this writing lark is all about!

[beena]

hmm ... yes, I guess writing about drugs or characters that are on drugs gives the writer a lot of scope to be really creative and challenge the conforms of narrative and structure. I'm starting to really think about this project and I may just think to hell with it and go all out experimental. Sometimes I think I get restricted by trying to think about writing something that is publishable, marketable, etc, when really that's not why I began writing or enjoy writing. This may be because the course I'm doing at university stresses writing as a career and to make money (it's called Professional Writing). Thanks Jamal, you've reminded me about why I took up my pen in the first place. I wanna write something unique that makes me happy and makes me want to read it: I lost sight perhaps a little but this could be a great project and if something comes of it then great, if not I'll have something that I'm proud of.

[discodave]

lol @ chicken scratch, funny swim never did that for heroin but has done it for cannabis (!) quite a few times in the younger teenage years.

the swimmers swim knew used to do mostly the following for their crack:

dumpster dive for credit cards and bank accounts
benefit fraud
shoplift computer games
steal luxury cars
ram raid designer clothes and wedding dress stores
robbing people at atms
scam doctors for pain kiillers and/or benzos
stealing cell phones (dealers often take those as payment directly around here)
burglaries

if they weren't crack heads they would have been pretty rich.

swim adds swim did not do the above themselves, officer. but really swim didn't; they had another way to get paid and didn't spend as much on it either. hope that gives you some ideas.

[superdupernaut]

That sounds great. If you get a chapter or so done I'm sure many (myself included) on DF would love to read. Keep us posted on your progress, maybe in the form of a blog?

[Liffey]

I think writing for you is the most important part of writing, maybe Im naive and like to think all writers write for themselves, bollocks to if its publishable or not. It is nice to have money for it tho...

[libertalism]

Yea swim knows the chicken scratch for cannabis to . Usually with luck , after a 5g's bag he is able to find one enough for one or 2j's and when there is nothing on the floor he searches every baggy that he has cleaned for over a milion times to find some thc.
Same for tobacco , smoking dried shit that has been lying on the table of the desk or on the floor ( usually covered with hair, dust , cookie crumbs and more things that are probably rotten ) for months , smoking pulp from tobacco bags wich have been there for even longer..
Swim thinks he probably should stay away from the real addictive substances hehe, or atleast for now.

Reputation Comments on this post:

that's gross

[seeingred]

Some advice, hope this helps. There is a website called wordclay where people can publish lengths of work however long, it does the formatting for you. Someone just puts their writing into microsoft word and then can it to their wizard. They also have an online bookstore, where people can purchase the book, you can also choose the cover etc. and the book is perfect bound. I published a book of 400 or so poems and the book turned out awesome. Be sure to number the pages and include your name in the beginning, good luck with the writing venture. I hope it works out for SWIY. It's completely free, Print On Demand, but you do have to pay for the books printed.

[beena]

Just to update: SWIM is calling the book Crack City Stories and has worked out four of the stories or scenes that are going to go in it:

1) Seeing Red - A young man who has just recently stopped taking drugs and is struggling to stay clean is going about his daily business but everywhere he goes and looks he sees things that remind him of crack and make him crave a pipe. For example, a red car makes him think about his drug-dealer's car, a red lighter he borrows of a kid to light his cigarette reminds him of the red clipper lighter he always used to have a pipe with at home, etc, etc.

2) Crack Psychosis - A couple smoking crack together. The girl is suffering with paranoid delusions and is convinced her boyfriend is swapping the gear for 'fake' stuff and everytime she goes to have a pipe she is smoking plastic or bread or something, anything other than crack! It ends up in a huge argument and the boy flies into a rage. The bottles of water they are using as makeshift pipes to smoke crack on get smashed against the walls and they've covered in water, tearing each-other to pieces. (well, I never said these stories were gonna be nice!)

3) Anticipation - A person or a couple of people (friends or boyfriend and girlfriend, I dunno at this stage) are waiting for crack and their dealer to arrive. To are pacing the room, can't settle, etc. Then their guts start to go from the anticipation of it all: both ends and they're both dashing for the loo every couple of mins until the dealer arrives. This is inbetween phone calls to him in which they get various facile responses such as '7 mins', followed by '3 and a half mins', then '2 and a quarter', etc. (has anyone else ever experienced what SWIM's boyfriend calls 'Yardie time-keeping'?) The pair are in a complete state of nervous anxiety and energy by the time he gets there.

4) The chicken scratch - a couple of crack-heads manically searching the room at the end of a nights-session of smoking crack cocaine, frantically looking from bits of crack that they've convinced themselves the other has dropped at some stage during the night.

Well, like I said when I started the thread the whole point of this collection of stories is that they're not really stories at all but more like scenes where the reader enters the life of an addict at a certain point and leaves at another. It's experimental really so it might seem a bit strange or unappealing to some of you but if anyone else can 'get' what i'm trying to do I would appreciate any constructive criticism. Also if anyone has experience of crack smoking, addicts or addiction and would like to suggest some more 'scenes' that could be represented in Crack City Stories that would be great. Any contributions that are used in the final book will of course be accredited.

[EyesOfTheWorld]

I would suggest includng at least one section where a drug users life turns out well, and not necessarily through rehab/12 steps etc, or even sobriety. It is possible to be a drug user, even an addict, and have a normal life, or develop one. I really like the ideas you have so far, i just think adding something like that to balance it out a bit would be good.