A Brit Abroad: #2 -- How Safe is Brussels?

This is something I often wonder.  It's something I asked plenty of people before I came and it's something I get asked quite a lot by people who've never come here.  In fact, I recently asked it of a friend of mine.  He said that Brussels ranks within the top ten safest capital cities in the world.

Then again, he's Belgian and doesn't actually live in Brussels, so I think he's very biased and quite possibly wrong.  I'd be lying if I said Brussels was totally safe.  No capital city is.  I mean, during my first few weeks, I used to get on the bus and find myself facing a poster of a missing child.  That said, I don't usually feel my life is in danger when I'm trying to cross the road and I so far haven't been mugged.

On the other hand, I have been stalked a few times -- five at the last count -- and I've been cornered on or near the metro four times by people 'asking for my phone number'.  When I told another friend of mine, this time one who actually lives in Brussels, she looked at me like an alien and demanded to know what part of Brussels I'd gone to to get myself stalked.

If you're a female under the age of thirty and are walking alone, even if you're wearing high-waisted trousers and a hand-knitted sweatshirt, there are probably going to be some strange guys who will honk their horns at you as they drive past.  I have felt threatened in Brussels, but it's only been on those nine stalking/cornering occasions.  By far the worst of these was on a Sunday morning when I was jetlagged after a flight back from the Middle East and I'd forgotten to charge my phone before coming out.  I should probably say that Brussels is completely dead on Sundays.  All the shops are closed and there's usually not a cat in sight.  My phone was as dead as a dodo and I was on the metro with maybe two other people.  This guy came on and sat down opposite me, trapping my way out because he had really long legs, and initially started asking me quite innocent questions, like "can you tell me where the Gare du Midi is?" and "to get to here, what's the best route", so I figured he was a tourist.  Unfortunately, he'd been living in Brussels for a long time (or so he told me), and he recognised a slight English twinge in my French accent, so he started speaking to me in English.

Even though everybody understands English (or a little bit, anyway), nobody is ever going to butt in unless you're obviously being harassed in French or Flemish.  Even then, it's not common, as people tend to mind their own business on the metro.  He started hassling me, saying we could meet up, asking for my phone number, insisting for it again even when I said no, saying he'd give me his, asking if we could meet up for dinner at his place and if I fancied spending a night out, etc., etc.  I couldn't get off the train in case he followed me; everybody else in the carriage s'en fichaient; I couldn't ring anybody... and the last thing I wanted to do was stay on the train.  Trust me, if it hadn't been a Sunday, I would have tried to get out like a half-starved dog after meat.  Crowds, shops -- anywhere to lose myself in would have been fine... except it was a Sunday, so there was none of that.

The other occasions were marginally better.  I've discovered that it's best to pretend I'm Swedish and that I don't understand French or English whenever I get accosted like that now.  As soon as they realise they can't communicate with you, they tend to leave you alone.  And then you run.  You run far away as fast as you can.

So, yeah, Brussels isn't totally safe.  However, I feel a lot safer here than I do in, say, Paris or London.  Brussels is a lot safer than both of them.  To be honest, it's unlikely anything bad will happen to you in Brussels, although there are some dodgy areas that are worth avoiding.  As in, they're the kind of areas you don't go in after dark.  Definitely not without considerable powers of self-defence.  And I have to go through four of them every single time I want to go into the town centre, or return home.  There are six or seven really bad ones (four of which I traverse every day): Bockstael, Delacroix, Clemenceau, Gare du Midi, Gare Centrale, Mollenbeek... and Scaerbeek, which you don't want to go into in any time of day.  I think it's got a nickname to do with pick-pocketing and thieves.  So Scaerbeek is to be avoided.  The two stations might be a little hard to avoid sometimes.

When you take into account that I've lived here nearly a year, it's not surprising I've had one or two bad experiences.  If you're coming to live in Brussels, you can probably expect to have one or two too.  If you're coming for a visit, you don't need to worry at all.

TBG <3

Why Write? #2 -- The Most Important Thing to Know BEFORE You Start

Last time, I talked about the Spark of Something Other.  I just got back from the Queen Elisabeth music competition.  Admittedly, most of you won't know what it is even though it's famous worldwide and well over half of this year's competitors weren't even European.  This year, it was a competition for violinists, and dear lord were they astonishing.  I saw two of finalists performing and discussed a lot with the two people sitting next to me about the way that the pieces would be judged.  Something we all concluded was that, no matter how technically good the violinists were, what made the real difference to the pieces they played and the standard of their music was the Spark of Something Other -- the fact that they put their hearts and souls into what they were playing, and some visibly more so than others.  Out of the two competitors tonight, I know which one is more likely to walk away with the victor's crown because he was obviously throwing himself so completely into the music.  Anyway.  Enough of that.

This time, I'm bringing up something that, to be honest, I think is almost more essential to an author than imagination.  And believe me, without imagination, you'll get nowhere as an author.  Originally, I was going to leave this post until last, but I was told by a friend I ought to do it now (and that was two weeks ago).  Quite apart from anything else, I don't actually know how long this series of posts will continue, so I'm taking her up on her advice.

Looking around at a number of books (and films, for that matter) that we see/read nowadays, there are plenty that we at least think: "Oh, no.  Not another one in that series.  The first one/few were bearable, but seriously...?"  Or we scream up at the skies: "PLEASE!  NO!  NOT ANOTHER ONE!  WHY ARE THEY PERSECUTING US?!"  I see a lot of comments like "the Alex Rider series should have stopped after Scorpia", or "the Twilight series would have been bearable if SMeyer had stopped after the first book" (I disagree: the first one was bad enough), or "The Hunger Games was good, but the others were such a let-down".  There are people (I hold my hands up as one of them) who would have preferred it if the Mortal Instruments series had stayed as a trilogy.  It would have had so much more of an impact.  There are others who think that Pirates of the Caribbean should have stayed as one film.

Okay, my point: you need to know when to stop.  I can't even begin to stress how important this is.  Knowing when to stop is what will give you the maximum impact in a series, in a party, in a song, in social tact, in anything.  I was once told that the best parties are the ones that are cut off in full swing.  Why?  Because that's when everybody's enjoying themselves, so they go home with good memories.  How many of you have stayed right until the end of the party when most people have left and everybody who's drunk is throwing up everywhere?  It taints the good memories.  In fact, every party I've been to where I've stayed until an ending like that, I've always wished I'd left at one in the morning rather than waiting until three.  And all my friends say the same.  Same thing with a book.  There's no point spinning the story out just to get more money or what have you.  Maximum impact.  Who here's read Bakuman (it's a Japanese manga, for those of you who don't know)?  Ashirogi Muto, the mangaka pair that the story focusses on, come into conflict with the editorial department of the magazine they draw/write manga for, because their series Reversi becomes extremely popular and the editorial department want the story to be spun out and to continue for as long as possible.  However, the mangakas stick to their guns and insist on finishing it their own way in their own time at their own speed for the maximum impact.  They want to be the flagship for the magazine Jump, not by having something mediocre that continues for years and is popular because it's ongoing, but by having something so powerful that it's impossible to forget.  If you want an analogy, it's like the difference between throwing yourself at a door to smash it open and attempting to smash it open by leaning on it.  Bakuman itself is relatively short as a popular series go, but the manga series that made the mangakas of Bakuman famous, and by far the best manga I've ever read, is Death Note.

Now, I'm not saying stories can only have impact and be powerful if they're short, because that's not necessarily true.  I love a long book and I'm even happier if it's a series, but only if it's something of quality. Really.  Quality does not equal quantity.  If it did, we would have two different words and they wouldn't have two different meanings.

Knowing when to stop is what separates you from being an amateur writer and being somebody who packs the biggest punch.  This doesn't just apply finishing a book or series at the right time: it applies to finishing a scene at the right time.  Admittedly, it's less of a problem if the scene doesn't stop in the right place compared to if the book/series doesn't stop when it should, although being unable to control your scenes like that will probably lose you readers.  If you find yourself saying things like "my characters wanted the story to continue!" or "I realised that there was so much more of the story to tell..." -- wait.  Rewind.  "My characters wanted the story to continue!"  Er... who's capable of governing what you do in your life -- you or some fictional characters?  Get a grip and control them.  "I realised that there was so much more of the story to tell" -- er, sorry.  No, you didn't, and you probably need help.  Even a Pantser/Winger/Somebody-who-totally-wings-their-story-and-doesn't-plan-it of the highest order, and I'm one of these, can sense when the right place to end their story is.  And they'll know BEFORE THEY GET THERE.  If you're a Planner, there is absolutely no excuse.  You planned the story out.  Perhaps things didn't go entirely as planned, so you had to tweak the ending a bit, but that doesn't mean you suddenly decided you didn't even TELL half the story in the first place.  If you think you MIGHT want to continue your book/series, you have to leave enough loose ends to open up a plausible way to continue them.  And example of where this works, but where it was obviously back-written, is the Percy Jackson series after they start to incorporate the Roman half-bloods.  An example of where this works less well is The Hunger Games.  Now, I know there are major fans of the trilogy/first book/whatever, but I've spoken to a lot of people about these books, both in English and in French, and almost every single person has told me that it would have been so much better if the first book remained a standalone.  Actually, I've been told to read the first book but to avoid the others, especially the third, at all costs.

The other thing is that so few people seem to actually go back to their first book when they decide that their characters want to continue their story and actually check through the first book for a) a plausible link to the second that will maintain the power of the first book in the following ones and b) for details to make sure that there are no logical errors in the rest of the books (I can happily point you in the direction of Dana's excellent tumblr blog "Reasoning with Vampires", where you can see this in demonstration).  This doesn't happen with people who plan or know where to end their stories.

Also, as an author, particularly as a professional author, any writer ought to be able to keep themselves distanced from their piece of work.  If you're a writer, you can't edit properly until you've distanced yourself from your work (usually by leaving it alone for a few weeks before attacking it with a red pen).  If you're becoming emotionally attached to your characters to the point where you can't bear stopping to write about them and you feel the need to describe every day of their lives... well, let's just say that people are going to worry about you.  You need to be tough and clinical.  Don't let the characters rule what goes on in the book all the time.  And above all, don't let them ruin your lives.  If you feel yourself getting too attached to them, do something to stop that attachment.  Stick to your guns if you decide that the book's going to be a standalone, or if you build up drama for a huge fight, don't chicken out of the fight just because you don't want to even injure your characters.

I, personally, am terribly sadistic towards my characters.  As soon as I sense one getting more love than the others, or I feel myself getting attached, chances are said adored character will be killed off.  Now, I'm not saying everybody should do this, because quite apart from anything else it'll annoy the fans, but knowing when to stop and when you've gone too far is vitally important.  Continuing a series because you "realised" you "hadn't yet finished the story" or because "the characters wanted to keep going" is NOT an excuse.  It looks extremely unprofessional, batty and... to be honest, incredibly strange.  As an author, knowing your own story, being able to control the limits of your own story, and being able to control the characters you create is fundamentally important to writing a book or series for the maximum impact.

This post is getting long.  Until next time!

TBG <3