HUGO Cabret - One of the best modern stories for children

Brian Selznick's sumptuously beautiful graphic novel for children, The Invention of Hugo Cabret  (2007) ticks all the boxes for a truly great story of all time. It's protagonist, the mild, earnest, mechanically-minded Hugo is an orphan who lives between the walls of a Paris train station, circa early 1900's.

After his drunkard uncle disappears, Hugo continues to wind all the station clocks, keeping them in perfect working order, so as to remain living in a forgotten corner room, high up among the giant cogs and wheels.

But the station master has other ideas. He means to catch Hugo and send him to the orphanage - a tidy solution to his problem of who should look after this child.

Hugo has one love - clockwork. He is not only fascinated, obsessed, but has the skill to repair anything. After all, he maintains all the station's clocks. But his one passion is to repair the automaton sitting in his room; a forgotten relic saved from the museum fire which killed his beloved father. The automaton is somehow a connection to that lost father, to a happier past. Hugo is certain that if he could just get the mechanical man working, there would be a message from his father. But Hugo doesn't have the pieces he needs to fix the automaton, so he begins stealing them from the toy store at the station, owned by the gruff and unforgiving Georges Melies.

Hugo befriends Isabelle, Papa Georges' daughter and together they not only find the lost key to bringing the automaton to life, but reignite the hope and passion of a forgotten film maker and automaton collector - Georges Melies.

With actual footage of early silent films, and photographs from the era, The Invention of Hugo Cabret transports the reader to a beautiful Victorian setting, shrouded in the romantic mystery of the age of steam.

 The story was adapted for film with exceptional skill in 2011, producing a fine moving picture of this wonder-filled adventure astonishingly true to the book's original appearance.
Insightful casting included Ben Kingsley as Georges Melies, Sasha Baron-Cohen as the station master and the talented Asa Butterfield as Hugo Cabret. The movie Hugo offers a glimpse into a fascinating past, based upon the real life story of Georges Melies and the real life existence of automata, some of which survive in museums today and can be seen on youtube. Franklin Institute demonstration
And this one, of infamous French Queen Marie Antoinette playing a harpsichord. marie antoinette automaton

And here, a short film (in French) about the glorious 'androids' of Jaquet-Droz of 1700's. including this 240 year old mechanical boy, (containing almost 6000 miniature parts) who writes and draws. Jaquet-Droz automaton boy Astonishing!
An informative and fascinating short documentary on how the film version built their automaton man can be found here: automaton from HUGO movie

In this age of violent cartoons, sexualisation of children everywhere and the ever diminishing innocence of childhood, this is one story that refuses to be trivialised.

 Selznick doesn't gloss over the problems of that era. It is obvious that Hugo has tremendous courage to survive in a world which sees him as an inconvenience, but in his quest to find that hidden message from his dead father he finds something unexpected - a loving home of his own.

What constitutes 'writing'? Are we lying to ourselves?

So, you have this dream, a beautiful, sparkly dream where you sit down at the keyboard and the words flow from a pristine font deep inside, stories fully formed... Ah!

Seems a world away from the dishevelled form slumped in front of the computer struggling through bleary eyes and a headache to skid in to a deadline, hitting 'send' at two minutes to midnight.

So, when we chat to each other, as writers, do we lie? Gloss it up? Tell the truth? Cos doesn't everyone else seem to be doing so well, churning out books, gathering piles of publishing contracts, smiling blissfully at their bank statement?

Er, no. A select few may have this experience, occasionally. I've known writers who struggled for YEARS before getting a single contract and then had their career take off, when they are in their fifties. The vast majority of writers in my circle of acquaintance struggle with the exact same issues I do:

• Constructing a bubble of time in which to work that is separate from work, family, friends
• Focussing on what they were supposed to be doing in said bubble of time, without being distracted by kittens and baby hedgehogs
• Being organised and then actually sticking to the plan
• Not expending considerable time and energy on the perfectly cleared desk, dust-free house and clean, shiny car before settling to write

So, I ask, what constitutes actually writing in any given day? Is it going through your notebooks collecting those stray bits you want to use? Is it updating your blog? (like I'm doing now) Is it doing publicity stuff for your last book? It is emails to other writers discussing writing stuff? Is it reading well informed and interesting blog posts? Connecting on LinkedIn etc? Reading your journals? Following leads? Submiitting to a publisher?

I'm sure everyone would have a slightly different answer. Here's what I think, seven books down the road,with two more to come out this year - as long as you are writing something, towards any project, it counts.

One of the most valuable writing exercises I do is putting together a synopsis for a publsher. Nothing gets you in a knot faster than having to summarise your entire book into a single page, or even (hold your breath) one sentence! But it's a brilliant process. The clarity is astonishing.
So, what do you think?