Tahir’s Comments (group member since Jun 18, 2012)

Tahir’s comments from the Q&A with Tahir Shah group.

Not sure if this answers your question -- but, I think it's important to be following your gut, and not a path that's conjured from what you imagine will provide celebrity, success, or whether. I watched my father working when I was a child. I never hardly once heard his typewriter stop clacketing downstairs in his study. All the while he wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote... and I understand now that he knew what he had to do and that if he kept going for long enough a full picture would emerge. Much better to not look at the full picture often, but keep focussed on the near horizon.

I write material that interests me. It's that simple. It has taken me a long time to stop pleasing editors and to start pleasing myself... and I find that the more i please myself, the more books I sell.

I was never a fan of having my work reviewed in newspapers. It's very hit and miss and I am thrilled that newspaper reviewing is dwindling. There is only one reason to try and get such reviews -- to get a quote to slap ion the back of the paperback.

Re Marketing: i think blogs, Goodreads, Reddit, social media, all play a part. And getting good work out there, because good work -- work that you wanted to write and not what a publisher wanted you to write -- rises to the surface.

When my work is ready I get a warm sensation down my spine. It's the moment when the dots all join up and I know that the effect has been created. I usually write a day's work, correct it in the evening, then again the next morning before writing the next block -- and then during my editing process I'll go through it many more times, making tweaks and changes that telescope in scale. Reading work through many many times tells you whether it's good -- ie if you are still amused by your own work after reading it 25 times, it's right.

I think what interests me is assembling a story that will channel a reader's attention in a particular way, rather like the way an artist will control a viewer's sight and experience. The better the artist, or the better the writer, the more skilled they are at this technique. And, importunely, a writer can disguise material so that its value only becomes apparent after some time.

Journalism was so useful to me -- and it still is -- because it enabled me to experiment with creating up specific situations, or building up layers. I really recommend writing blogs as well, because you can get material out easily. The important thing is to write a lot. Do that, and the muscle becomes stronger.

Hi Borut,

I set off on the journey of TRAIL OF FEATHERS without knowing very much at all, and was constantly surprised by what I found. I never expected to find that the tribes were taking ayahuasca, but was so very very fascinated to learn of its importance in their world. Purposefully, i did very little research before embarking to Peru because i didn't want to be channelled in one direction. I wanted to be ready for anything.

Yes, I like cheap BLACK AND RED NOTEBOOKS. I also have a very very good memory for detail.

Before writing TIMBUCTOO I spent two years researching the period. I made about 2500 pages of handwritten notes. And I bought about a hundred books on London at the time, the Regency, the Regent, Africa, Timbuctoo, Exploration etc. And what fun I had!

Hi,

Yes, I do research, and I plan... and would rate planning as critical, even if you don't use the plan when you sit down and write the book.

That's important tis to know what you are writing, and not do wordage for the sake of wordage. And, so important is to keep going and not to judge yourself. I think it's better to get the manuscript out with a few uneven patches than to dwell on every inconsistency as you go.

Another thing I swear by is not to show it to anyone until it's done and dusted. When it comes to writing most people (however well-meaning) don't know what it means to write the book. Only you can appreciate that.

Lastly, believe in yourself and write for yourself, and for no one else.

As few months ago I saw a documentary about food in the USA called FOOD INC. I recommend it to anyone. It was very shocking to me... especially the statistic that in the US there are only 13 slaughterhouses for the entire country. They are massive, as big as car manufacturing plants.

And watching that documentary got me thinking -- that the food the industrialised world consumes is of a lower and lower standard. Mix this with the fact that people do less and less exercise, and use more and more prescription drugs... and the fact that they have become detached in a single generation from the world their ancestors knew. This cannot be a good thing. We will continue for a while -- like a frog boiling in a pot without realising it -- but gradually, societies will break down. And, if you ask me, it's already happening.

Hi Ulrika,

I've been interested in cannibalism for a long long while -- since studying about 'primate cultures'. I first came across examples of cannibalism in our time time in the mid 80s when i was at university in Kenya. It struck me as fascinating that most societies have at one time or another eaten people, or parts of people. But, in our world, cannibalism is the last taboo, or one of them. I don't think it's right to eat people, but just that we have forgotten that it was so normal until relatively recently.

I am horrified by the power of the media in telling us who is important and who is not. I rail against footballers, actors, and celebrities of most kinds because I think they are usually very dysfunctional people. (Yes, Amadeus Kaine was dysfunctional, too, but he had a genius at the same time). I wish we would reward polymaths in society and the ordinary people who are the glue that bank our world together. We could all live without the celebrities, but not without the train drivers, the fire fighters and the nurses etc.

Thanks Toni,

Writing EYE SPY got me thinking a great deal about us all as well as myself. I liked examining what makes us tick as a society, and how idea of what revolts us and why. You are so right that Kaine's behaviour was wrong wrong wrong, but I am fascinated by the idea that he was the one man alive who could save society's sight at a time when he was its greatest villain.

Thanks Janet, I had wanted to get people thinking about what shocked them. And, although i don't go in for horror, I think it's fascinating to look at how we react to given situations and to what society expects us to be horrified by. It's so wonderful to question it all, and I hope that EYE SPY stirs the pot and makes us all think.

I know, it’s curious isn’t it, that Christianity mentioned what could be regarded as cannibalism? I find myself wondering whether this wording from the Gospels is part of an ancient tradition which pre-dates Christianity.

Thanks for the question, Toni. What's important is to finish a work so that you can hold the manuscript in your hand... It sounds obvious but I get a zillion emails from people -- and meet a zillion more -- people who tell me that they want to write a book, or that they are writing a book. That's all well and good but most of the never finish the book. My rules to finishing a book are:

1. Buy a good comfortable chair.
2. Make a plan.
3. Make a routine... even if it's only 1000 words a day, or half that.
4. Write every day. No excuses, until it's done.
5. Don't rework dramatically until you have the full manuscript.
6. Don't bother anyone else about your project until it's finished and edited by you, and preferably by a pro editor as well.
7. Believe in yourself.
8. Write for yourself and not for anyone else.
9. Follow your gut instinct.
10. Write about what you are interested in.

This topic is for your questions regarding Scorpion Soup, which was released as both a limited edition hardcover and as an ebook in early 2013.

This topic is for your questions regarding Eye Spy, my latest novel, which was released as an ebook in April 2013.

I read a variety of work... I adore autobiographies and biographies because I think it's so interesting to isolate key moments in someone's life. The moment when failure was flipped to success. Love good fiction, too, but am horrified at how much written work these days is badly written and badly edited -- and, again, that comes down to cuts in the publishing industry.


TS