DRUIDS!

Am I shit?
​Should I just quit?

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There is a chance I am shit writer, and should just give up. We're all shit and most of us should give up. To answer this existential question I've turned to the 'experts' and pooled some advice...

Am I shit? Yes I am. Everyone is at first. Because in the early days, everyone’s shit. Human beings have to learn - that's not my opinion (though it is), there's a thriving training industry and education sector to prove it. Telling a story has many parts - can you drive a bus through your plot holes? Etc. The structure, the character arcs, the twists and turns, none of this comes naturally, so it’s gonna take time to hone your craft. We’re all shit at the start.

My burning question is, can anyone become talented?
Yay, conventional wisdom says yes! There was a whole trend started back in 1993 by Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer, from a ‘seminal study on deliberate practice’. These fellas found that accumulated hours of practice corresponded to skill levels (in violinists). This led to loads of books like Geoff Colvin's Talent Is Overrated and Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Gladwell coined the ‘10 000 hour rule’ which translates as anyone who works hard enough can become an expert in anything.

Literally EVERYONE says these hours are a must. Find the time that works best and never, ever wait for inspiration to strike. It’s hard!
“I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.” Elmore Leonard

But even if you write something shit (see above), keep going, then re-write it. After all, with 10,000 hours of practice, everyone will become an expert, right?
“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning”.  W. Somerset Maugham

Hmm, except that emerging thoughts say ‘nay’, practice alone ain’t enough. It’s necessary (‘cos naturally we’re shit), but it needs more. Now ‘people’ (mostly psychologists) say brilliance is created by a tapestry of influences, which seems fair enough to me. So Ericsson & Co thought that experts could be made by “prolonged practice, and that differences in the levels of expertise are the result of differences in amounts of practice”, then along comes Brooke Macnamara, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, stating:
“When it comes to human skill, a complex combination of environmental factors, genetic factors and their interactions explains the performance differences across people.” from the Guardian. 

Ericsson & co naturally dispute her study’s findings, but what makes people want to achieve? What events and experiences have shaped us to really, really want to tell a story? Regardless of the arena, that’s got to be the primary motivating factor, right? I guess we’ll see when AI’s start writing books or music, but it's not a stretch to agree that how passionately we want to write, and what meaning our stories have to us factors into quality - on top of the hours and years and decades of practice.

I’ll give another example. One of the few established routes into screenwriting in the UK (which is a heavily bolted door, with chains, and a Cerberus guarding it) is via ‘the soaps’. Now I like a hospital drama but generally I’m not a fan of soaps. What are my chances of getting onto Eastenders? Zero. They appreciate that someone who isn’t passionate about the subject is going to make a poor writer.

So, we’ve practised, we have passion, what next?
Editors!
Readers Digest says "Editors are useful to authors because it’s almost impossible to be objective about one’s own work. As the creator, writers may be “filling in the blanks” of what’s actually on the page versus the vision in their head, and when you’re deep in the forest of your story it’s hard to see the path through it."

When we’ve got our stories to the shiniest we can make them, we need a critical eye. Have you got the ruthlessness to “murder your darlings”, as advised by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch? Despite the frustrations of writing, his metaphor wisely tells us that the twists and turns we find fascinating might be… boring. Or overly complicated. Or too narrow focused. Or, God forbid, completely irrelevant. It takes a cold but caring professional eye to cut. I have made the mistake of thinking “I’ve done this for years, I don’t need an editor” (usually when I’m skint), and the results is ALWAYS ... shit. I notice this when I return to re-read something years later, with the unimpassioned distance of time. Eek.
“To write is human, to edit is divine”. Stephen King
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OK, I’ve practiced, I’m passionate, I’ve hired an editor, I’m tip-top! BUT NOTHING’S HAPPENING!!!

​The ‘net is full of “what makes people succeed”, and there are some commonly occurring traits. 4, in fact (paraphrased).

Dream Big
Stay Motivated and Active
Never Give Up
Expect it CAN Happen.

Luckily I’m an optimist! I believe most of us can achieve our dreams. I have all of the above steps in abundance, and I have the ridiculous notion that it’s only a matter of time (which has sustained me for years, admittedly with peaks and troughs).

Realistically, will I ever support myself financially as a writer? I don’t know. I bloody well should ‘cos I’m brilliant. But another thing that’s happened along the way is I now can’t not write. It’s so entrenched in my daily routine that my fingers itch and my brain fizzes when I’m not telling stories, it’s become my cathartic routine to make sense of this mad world.
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“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” – Richard Bach
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Screenwriter and novelist.
Female centred, socio-political storytelling across worlds and genres, with a heavy dose of fantastical...
​RHR Handley’s stories straddle crime, history, supernatural and occult, horror, fantasy and sci-fi (but not all in the same story!). Meticulously researched, often over years, then outrageously extrapolated; pacey thrillers that embrace strong female protagonists.

Published books: Inheritance, a YA fantasy with epic forces of darkness (and dragons); a short Twisted Christmas horror; Fallen, a thriller/horror of fallen angels and the occult. Next up – DRUID OUTCAST, a self-contained story, to be part of a series, set in AD350 incorporating myth, magic and legends of Northern Europe and the Druid order - due late spring 2022. Hot on its tail, book II of Fallen.
A native Londoner, immensely proud parent, ardent traveller and (nowadays) fair-weather motorcyclist. Former Microsoft professional, screenwriter and novelist. Eternal optimist! 
 FALLEN downloads are continuing - slowly but steadily. Please drop a review on Amazon if you enjoyed it.
Delighted with the reviews over on Amazon for Fallen
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Very pleased to have a short story in this anthology of Christmas horror ...
More brilliant reviews over on Amazon - and a comparison with the Grand Mater, Stephen King!!! ​
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My Twitter
My Facebook
​Novels available via my Amazon page here 
​Useful Links:
​Script Angel
​Red Productions (accept unsolicted scripts!) 
BBC Writer's Room - script archive
Screenwriting Goldmine
Amazon studios 
1000 Black Girl Books
Phil Barron  If you need a laugh (and bit of insight!)

​FALLEN now available to order on Amazon
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A supernatural suspense novel coming soon to Amazon...

​Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/RHR-Handley/e/B088X4TL6B?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

Uruk. The first recorded city, 2,000 years before Christ.

But Uruk was not the first ever city. An older city existed in Mesopotamia – until someone invited devils in. Ripped apart in a bloodbath, it was razed to the ground and all traces were scrubbed from the records. It was not the first time the ungodly had reached out for humanity, it would not be the last. As humanity organised into societies, we continued a deadly dance with devils as empires ascended on waves of blood… but our understanding of the cost grew, and organised religions forbade our intercourse.

Some call these devils the Fallen, and organised religions, united in a secretive army called the Order, stands sentinel against them. The Fallen and the Order search for the one who can permanently open the door between worlds and let them in; the one fallen angel who repented. Danyal.

And both sides suspect that 22 year old Danni is the human host to a dormant Danyal. Kidnapped at birth by a rogue monk from the Order, raised on the run and perpetually hunted, she’s adept hiding, even as technology makes evasion harder every year. But now her adoptive father is dead and the net is closing.
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Stalked by the priests and fallen angels, Danni must confront her extraordinary skills. Her innate knowledge of all languages, her ability to cross between worlds, her Sight and her baffling memories, with the uncomfortable feeling that she is a host for something other. As opposing hunters close in on their prey, Danni will pick a side in the battle between heaven and hell.
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!Kindred Spirits: Filming finished, in post-production. https://www.billhutchensfilms.com/films
 BIG thank to Queensbury Pictures and Fright Fest for selecting me for the New Blood workshop with the fabulous @twisted_twins @JHandorf @_HeatherBuckley & @QueensburyPics’s Giles Edwards and Paul Smith
A passionate writer with a particular love of crime, history, sci-fi and outright fantasy. I believe art ‘should’ shine a spotlight on society and I am happiest writing stories and characters that challenge perceptions.
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Writing since around 2003, I work closely with Script Editor, Hayley McKenzie, on all my projects. I also co-write with Delphine Bergsma (see below).

Click here for our co-write, Behind Closed Doors
​Hadron (formerly Collider) - in development, website pending
Novels available via my Amazon page here
Please browse my projects and drop me a line via my contact-form if you’d like my CV!

A Londoner in my bones, but a lover of travel, I spent a decade traveling (in Australia, the US, Central America & Europe); my trips are shorter now but equally ‘needed’ in my quest for knowledge and thirst to people and culture watch.