Wonky walls!

I remember the first wall I ever built. A friend asked me if I knew how as they needed a wall built, but didn’t have a clue.

“Sure,” I said thinking ‘how hard can it be?’ How little I knew!

I knew the theory, I’d even done some building work, but the fact that what I had done before was more ‘pointing up’ and finishing jobs off. I’d never actually built a wall before!

It turns out there are two ways to build a wall, the right way and the way I did it (the wrong way!) and it was the wonkiest wall you ever saw!

See, if you want to do it the right way there are three key tools you need besides the bricks and cement:- A trowel, a spirit level and a piece of string to make a ‘plumb line’ and two of them I didn’t use!

You can imagine the result, the wall went up, but it was the ‘wonkiest’ most misshapen wall you ever saw! It still did its job, but the wall itself was ugly and wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it should have been.

I think back to that wall, and I cringe that I did that. I’d like to say that isn’t me, but the truth is it’s me all over! Rushing in where I should be taking things steadily and learning the ropes before hitting something like a hurricane, and that’s what I’ve learned the hard way should change.

How it works is the ‘plumb line’ is strung between two poles roughly a brick height above the last line of bricks. Using the spirit level you make sure that the line is level by making sure the ‘bubble’ in the spirit level is in the centre, once that’s there then the line is nice and level.

Once you’ve got that you can go ahead and start placing the bricks, first slap some cement on the brick and place it on the previous layer making sure that the bricks aren’t directly on top of each other but kind of halfway along (this gives the wall strength) and making sure that each brick just touches the string without moving it. This makes sure the wall is nice, straight and level.

Why am I writing about this? well last week we spoke about having a plan when building, just like we need a plan when writing.

But you also need the right tools, and just like a ‘brickie’ or bricklayer we writers have tools as well, tools we can use to great effect.

For us, words are the bricks we use to build the structures we call stories. The cement is the way we use the grammar, used properly it will build a strong wall that will not just last a long time, but they’ll look good as well. But what keeps it ‘in line’ and on track for where we want to go? The answer to that is good editing!

Spend time in writing forums and circles and you’ll come away with the idea that editing is all about cutting out the ‘fluff’ and pairing the word count down, that’s only part of the picture. See editing is about making sure that your story makes sense, can the reader follow where you or I want to lead them? that’s what good editing does.

Okay, I’ve rabbited on enough about this, I’d also love to hear from you folks as to what you think of that. take a moment to write a reply.

Also if you’d like to keep getting this blog then can I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter by tapping the ‘follow’ button, thanks.

By the way, if you want to see any of my novels here is the link to the series https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07R7D237H/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Thanks for taking thing trip down memory lane with me this week.

Until next time

Lawrence