More than Writers

  What are your bad habits as a writer?  Do you have your own set of overused words?  I do : ‘all’, ‘suddenly, ‘eventually’, ‘then’’, ‘now’ and ‘lots’ .  I’ve known this for a long time.  ‘All’ seems to creep in ALL by itself.   We have close friends in Texas who include ‘Y’all’ in almost every sentence they utter but I’m not Texan and in my writing, ‘all’ has no real purpose.   I probably use this word frequently when I speak and I may be setting down on the computer the words I would say.   (But who knows?   We cannot play back our speech.) ‘Suddenly’ and ‘then’, I find myself using as link words, often to join two paragraphs, even when an event isn’t in the least sudden, as in ‘Then, suddenly, over a period of months, she realised she was falling in love with him.’   Aargh!   ‘Eventually’ also.   ‘Eventually, the bus arrived and …’ into the next scene at home.   I find myself asking why ‘eventually’?   Why w...

  I like history. In the Netherlands, it was taught through stories, with the teachers being fantastic storytellers, otherwise, they would lose their audience. It was a great way to learn about kings and queens, invaders and troubled times. Living in a house that is more than two hundred years old makes you wonder about the people who were here from the beginning. Those living in a small, poor village, making a living through weaving and farming. I love reading cosy mysteries, and for a while, I have wanted to write a murder mystery. What better place than this lovely Cotswold village with the views, woods and small lake? The chapel attached to our house was built in 1801, and there must have been controversy surrounding that, surely? Then there are the various mills at the bottom of the hill, where people worked closely together. The site of the 1830s murder, the cottages have been demolished. So there we are, plenty of ideas. Then I realised, I know nothing about that time. G...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos Regardless of what the weather might be doing by the time this post goes out, we can say hurrah, spring is now back with us (well at least it is here in the UK!). I love the lighter evenings though the darker nights of winter do encourage me to stay at my desk longer and get more writing done. But there is something about spring which simply lifts the mood and I was wondering if you use that as part of your characterisation. Can you show us in your stories how a character is “lifted”? Can you show how spring affects them?  A reader will sympathise with a character who loves the spring flowers but is prone to hayfever (good potential for a humorous piece there I’d have thought. Bear in mind this is written by someone with a beautiful lilac in her garden which has a heavenly scent. Said writer can’t resist having a good sniff. Said writer ends up sneezing for ages afterwards! You would think said writer would learn...

  What in the world does that mean, you might ask?   I gave this thought, got out a pen and wrote out all my commitments, achievements and responsibilities as a writer in 2022. This is what it looked like: ·          Author events / book launch [live and online] - 5 ·          Published books - 3 ·          YouTube channel – [8 videos]100   more followers ·          Writer’s conference   -1 ·          Completing poetry anthology –   50 more poems ·          Reviewed 30 books ·          Responded to 365 MTW posts ·          Twitter – 2,000 more followers ·          Instagram – 12 posts, 70 ...

For as long as I could remember I'd been there in the temple courts. From the hopes of aeons past when I'd been hewn, planed, shaped and formed with hands that seemed to love me and respect the mighty tree I had once been, I'd become a table, a resting place, not for feasting or study but for every indignity imaginable.  Rough hands would push me into place; animals of all kinds would shove against me. Birds were chained to hooks that were roughly jammed into my once beautifully carved surface and with others flying overhead, I'd soon be covered with their filth.  Every day I was bombarded by the cacophany of human and animal cries, shouts, bleats, grunts and screams.  Yet I'd been created for worship in the temple.  I'd been carved with love and given dignity and the hope that I had a glorious destiny.  I would be carrying the very vessels of worship.  I would be a bearer of the presence of God.  As the days went by I became more and more enraged with...

I am just about to publish my 11 th book and know that I should be looking forward to an exciting book launch but I always have mixed feelings at this stage.  Does anyone else feel like this or am I being weird? I didn’t bother with an official launch for my first three books, partly because I was so naïve and also because I struggled somewhat to call myself an author.  It just felt too pretentious to bother with a launch.  By the time I had finished writing my 4 th book I wanted to celebrate but it was during the lockdown, so I launched on Zoom.  I’ve used Zoom ever since, though some books have still slipped out without any form of celebration. Why are we so reluctant to celebrate our own successes?  Why can it feel so alien?  I am getting better at this and this time, for my 11 th book there will be cake.  I’ve never even bothered with this before, I mean how do you share cake online?  I guess you don’t, so that means there will be more ...

 I came across a challenge I had not had anticipated in the writing of my current novel. My third novel, like my second, is a spin off from my first, The Healing . This time there is actually an overlap in the ending chapters between the third and first book. So suddenly as I got towards the end of the story I found myself rewriting scenes that I had already written and that have been previously published! Now I was having to write them again but from another characters perspective. I found it to be a really interesting experience. I actually decided to copy and paste the scenes from the original book to use as a guideline, and then worked through the scenes line by line.   In some ways it was constraining as I felt I had to keep to the dialogue particularly. I really, really, REALLY wanted to rewrite some of it, and I gave into the urge in a couple of small instances! (No-one will notice, surely?) But mostly I kept to the dialogue and of course to the settings. What I had t...

  I’m reading a book called ‘The Thought of Thomas Aquinas’, an academic monograph that costs £69. It doesn’t sound like a gripping read, does it? Yet, despite some quite difficult philosophical passages, it is actually very interesting. Thomas Aquinas (1225—1274) was the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages, and possibly the greatest theologian of all time. We probably owe far more to him than we realize — in some cases, negatively, through rejection of his ideas! However, I’m not here concerned with his theology. I just want to share some things that Brian Davies, the author of the book, has to say about Thomas Aquinas as ‘saint and thinker’. I think some people might find these encouraging from the point of view of Christian writing. Brian Davies says, firstly, that Aquinas was enormously inquisitive.  He is always asking ‘Why?’ or ‘What?’ One might even say that Aquinas’s whole system rests on a question. This is because the most important element in his ...

  Magpies, not Body Snatchers by Rebecca Seaton   I made it! But not alone.   As John Donne said, ‘No man is an island’. Writers need others for inspiration But to what extent is drawing from others a good thing…or just plagiarism?   In school, we encourage children to think of themselves as magpies when they write: taking small things, inspiration and ideas from their peers. This is a big part of going to writing events for me: many events have included activities which have inspired my writing and sent me in new directions. Talking to other writers is often a good way to get out of a rut! After all, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another’ (Proverbs 27:17). Otherwise we would just keep doing the same thing. Body snatchers, on the other hand, are different. They don’t just take the pieces you can spare, they take all that you are, the ‘body’ of the work. Once they’re done, there isn’t going to be anything left over for the original user! T...

  https://www.signature.org.uk/student-support/ “Are you going to do it again?” Last weekend, I was at a conference. During worship, I usually sing-in-sign, as I am deaf. As we sang the first song, I was aware of a girl (8) beside me, copying my sign language. It was beautiful. When it came to the second song, I felt a hand tap me. I looked down, and she whispered; “Are you going to do it again?” I bent down: “Yes I am. Are you going to do it with me?” She nodded. God is Faithful (Deuteronomy 7:9) I remember writing God’s Calling Cards , a book that combines personal testimony, Bible thoughts, and meditations. With the deadline about a week away, I had a manuscript with a glaring gap. All chapters in the book were to end with a meditation. And all but one did. During the days that followed, none of my usual inspiration go-tos helped. I walked in the park, I took bubble baths, I ate chocolate. And the gap remained. The night before the deadline arrived. I can...

  I had not heard of the term flash fiction before I joined ACW, although I had consumed many short stories. It has been encouraging to read about members who enter competitions and have these short pieces published. There is a real poetic craft in communicating depth while keeping the word count short. How short? As short as you like. According to legend, Ernest Hemingway wrote the following famous six-word short story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Tight and poignant indeed, whoever composed it.   You might also want to try your own minimalistic six-word story, or perhaps aim for a little more information with a 50-word mini saga . Twitterature is a great portmanteau term for a 280-character story fit for Twitter. If you have a good one, post it in the comments. Flash fiction refers to stories of only 1000 words; short, but sufficient space for structure, emotion and key elements and to allude to a rich narrative and possible twists. It is an art. I often mark 1500...

  Right Brains Love A Snow Day Last week, we had a snow day. Not just a bit of slippy ice but a proper can't-move-the-car, no-chance-of-getting-to-school, thank-God-we-went-shopping-already kind of snow day. At least two feet of snow and precipitation still falling.  So after a lazy lie-in followed by a bit of sledging and snow angels, the kids and I snuggled under our biggest blanket with a mountain of snacks and watched back-to-back DreamWorks movies.   Thanks to my many years experience of being able to block out child-related noises (whining, squabbling, tinny music... you know the kind of thing) I was able to perch a giant sketchbook on the arm of the sofa and doodle out a few ideas, I had been desperately trying to generate for the past couple of weeks.  You see, I recently moved out of my home-office into a rented office in a shared building (run by The Message Trust in Sheffield). Somehow, the newly painted, echo-ey, white walls had simply stared ba...

I’ve never been one for contributing to anthologies. Maybe it was because of a not so good experience with a secular writing group about ten years ago. On that occasion, I contributed a ghost story for children. The sales income went to the editor/group leader and we were pressurised into buying copies for our own families. We signed forms but I didn’t really know what that was about. The heat was on. Some members of the group were willing to part with £400 to buy into the system. The group leader had speaking events throughout the year and would take the copies to sell them there. Of course, knowing what I know now about the difficulties of getting published, it really wasn’t so bad. Maybe the problem was that I had only just began serious writing and this seemed so mercenary and fiercely competitive. I had joined the group to improve my writing but I didn’t learn anything about the craft. I just felt under pressure all the time. I left.  More recently I have contributed to devoti...

Isn’t it both terrifying and exhilarating when we step out of our comfort zone into the unknown? It’s something we have to regularly do, as writers and in life. I have several memories of doing just that and am about to embark on another scary-exciting adventure. At the tender age of 22, mid-way through my teacher training year, I flew for the first time. Most people might take a short hop somewhere – Edinburgh? Dublin? France? – for their in-sky debut, but not me. With my becoming-serious-and-about-to-be-my-fiancé boyfriend, I got on a plane bound for Zimbabwe, to see his homeland and meet his family. Two memories stand out. The first was on the plane. Over excited and not-a-little nervous, turbulence over Europe had me becoming intimately acquainted with the inside of a paper bag. The second was soon after arrival. I went out to the separate out-building of my husband’s parents’ house to have a much-needed shower. He escorted me past the enormous Rhodesian Ridgeback prowling ...