I know people who would claim that a “swipe file” is cheating but I don’t feel that way.

A “swipe file” is a collection of lines you have read, heard or seen.  Basically anything which tickles your fancy.  For example, recently I wrote in a post that I had overheard in the shoping mall one small girl say to another (possibly her sister) “I didn’t slap you, I just high-fived your face”.

The chances of me remembering that particular phraseology in a few months is remote so I have it written into my “swipe file” for later use.  I may not ever use it or I may re-work it but it is now one of the tools I have available to me to make more of my writing become alive.

That’s what a swipe file is, a memory jogger.  You cannot create real world dialogue without hearing and using what you hear but you cannot remember all of it so you need to begin your own swipe file.

The phrase comes from the copywriters world.  They all, well the professional ones at least, have their very own swipe file.  There is no point in using some one elses as what they like will not always mesh with what you like and you cannot write with integrity and honesty unless you are writing from your own experience and research.

If you try it almost always comes out false and fails to spark the imagination of your readers.

Reading a a book review recently I found another which I really liked, I doubt that I can ever use it but you might be able to.  It is apparently a Dorothy Parker quote – “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force.” 

How good is that?  I am always impressed by strong but off key humour.

In this caase the reference was to a book written by Harold Bloom.  This is not a name I know and, having read this article, I am not inspired to follow up.

Apparently the eminent Bloom has declared J.K. Rowling cliched and Stephen King an “immensly inadequate writer”.  Since both of them have clearly outsold him by 100s of thousands it is apparent that the masses, who actually pay for the books they read, don’t agree with him.

The article is actually about the ridiculous idea that we should only read those books which are deemed to be of literary value.  What a load of cods-wallop, you should read as much and as varied a range as possible.  The value of a book is not what some learned but ignorant professor has decided it is, no the value of a book is what it means to you individually.

No-one can tell you a book is good or not only you can do that and it’s really only relevant to you.  You may have gathered that I don’t particularly like book reviews.  Several years ago I was given a book for Christmas, this is not an uncommon present for me and I love it, which was subsequently given a 21/2 star rating in a book review.

The person who gave me the book came to me quite concerned that they had given me some crappy tome.  I was able to assure them that the book in question was actually a pretty good read and I couldn’t agree with that particular reviewer.

The review did have one positive result though, I stopped reading that persons book reviews since they clearly didn’t have the same tastes in reading that I have.

So there you have it, build up your swipe file by reading with a pen a paper alongside you.  It’s not plagiarism because you’ll most likely not ever use the phrase exactly and in any case it’s only one line. 

Go gettum, you deserve the success.