Tuesday Talk Becalmed Seas and Uncharted Waters

The Doldrums is an area of ocean that, because of the prevailing sullen winds, sailing ships were liable to languish, becalmed, for days on end often with fatal consequences if the drinking water ran out. For an author, a spell of the Doldrums is much the same: languishing with no idea what to write, which rapidly disintegrates into can't be bothered, which then turns to consider giving up altogether.

But is this something that affects Indie writers more than mainstream I wonder? 

I think it is. I've heard from quite a few author friends and acquaintances lately who have said more or less the same thing: "I just can't seem to get the enthusiasm to get on and write, and the necessary  marketing is weighing me down."

For indies, I think this is because we are on our own. No agent or publisher to coax (ok push!) us. No contract deadline looming, no one to encourage or enthuse - unless you're lucky and have a family member to support you - but even then, for indies, an encouraging spouse is not quite the same as the professional publisher or agent. This is because from initial conception to publication - and well beyond - everything is down to us, and, alas, all too often for little reward.

For me, the actual writing is not the problem - I have ideas for stories by the bookshop-load - but the 'giddy-up' to get on with it is often somewhat lacking because there is always that, "oh what's the point?" element nagging (unreasonably) at the back of my mind. 

It does help to know I'm not alone... many indie writers feel the same!

I've been lucky, the Sea Witch series was recently picked up by US publisher Penmore Press - although that has brought its own doldrums and meant sailing into uncharted territory regarding the mammoth task of re-editing and getting the books reformatted and 'out there' in their new 'colours' (to use another nautical term). While exciting, this process is proving to not be easy-peasy plain sailing. So far we only have Sea Witch out as an e-book, although Pirate Code will follow soon. The delay is frustrating, but there is a lot of work to do, (as frustrating as it must have been for those sailors stuck for weeks in the middle of the ocean with no wind to get things moving...)  The delay is because the files for these first books in the series are old (2007) and technology has advanced a lot since then, so the re-formatting fell well and truly into the doldrums - my huge appreciation to Penmore Press for sorting out the muddle, unfortunately, it all took more time than either of us expected... we are sailing onward now though... hopefully under full sail with a following wind...

So what are these Doldrums? Possibly the most famous association is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) 

"Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink."

The mariner up on the mast in a storm.
One of the wood-engraved illustrations
by Gustave Doré of the poem.

Wikipedia explains: "The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous, windless weather, is the area where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal equator, though its specific position varies seasonally. When it lies near the geographic Equator, it is called the near-equatorial trough. Where the ITCZ is drawn into and merges with a monsoonal circulation, it is sometimes referred to as a monsoon trough, a usage more common in Australia and parts of Asia."

Situated slightly north of the equator between the prevailing trade winds, the Doldrums is a notorious region of calm winds, and it is assumed that the common term for feeling low, lethargic or 'down in the dumps' - In The Doldrums - derives from the seventeenth and eighteenth century sailors who experienced this natural phenomenon. 'In the doldrums' was specifically associated with these sailors aboard becalmed sailing ships, but it seems that this assumption is actually the other way around: the area, 'The Doldrums', got its name from the word 'dol' or dull, and 'tantrum' meaning petulance, so The Doldrums were named for one who was dull or lazy - the area was named after the phrase, not the phrase after the area.

This didn't happen until around the mid-1800s when ships' logs noted as being 'In The Doldrums' referred to their location rather than their becalmed state, so the oceanic region became named as 'The Doldrums' by mistake.

There is a reference in The Physical Geography Of The Sea by Matthew Maury (1855), where he states: "The 'equatorial doldrums' is another of these calm places. Besides being a region of calms and baffling winds, it is a region noted for its rains."

Lord Byron used the phrase in 1824 as a nautical context in 'The Island'

"From the bluff head where I watch'd to-day, 

I saw her in the doldrums; 

for the wind Was light and baffling.*" 

*baffling winds = a variable wind that shifts often, making progress for a ship under sail nigh on impossible.

Patrick O'Brian's novel, Desolation Island, one of the Jack Aubrey series, (1978) features the Doldrums - as does the movie Master and Commander (based on O'Brian's books).

So beyond my own doldrum frustration of temporarily being becalmed by the necessity to re-edit the Sea Witch Voyages and the general doldrum feeling by several indie writers, you will not find my Captain Jesamiah Acorne lounging around waiting for a wind In The Doldrums - as his adventures are set in the early 1700s, well before The Doldrums became known as The Doldrums.

Pity, I had an idea for several scenes depicting just that... oh well, back to sitting with my feet up and pretending that thinking counts as working...

buy the book
viewBook.at/SeaWitch

Or how about catching up with Jesamiah's prequel adventure - the story of how he became a pirate?

Buy the book (e-book only)
http://viewbook.at/WhenMermaidSings

Or my non-fiction book about pirates...

buy the book
myBook.to/PIRATESTruthTale

I promise you'll not be becalmed while reading any of them, but absorbed, engrossed, entertained...