More than Writers

  Tomorrow, our annual family holiday will be over, and we will be leaving the stunning Lake District, getting back to the beautiful Cotswolds. Getting away with four children, all with various level of trauma, is an adventure in itself, and when a social worker wished me a lovely holiday just before we left, I laughed, until I realised she actually meant it. I chose to laugh again. Looking around our transformed caravan, now draped in kids’ clothes, toys and dog hair, I see the connection with being a writer. For example, we went on the Ravenglass-Eskdale Railway on a very hot day. We started the day with a drink and a snack at the Ravenglass station, then had a torturous forty minutes on a tiny train with the most stunning view, which my husband and I were determined to notice and enjoy. After a lovely lunch, we started walking towards the Stanley Ghyll, a stunning waterfall, but only made it to the first bend of the river, about two hundred yards from the station.   It ...

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I sometimes feel like I’ve been a writer since the last Thesaurus Rex (the wordy one) left the planet. I remember punch cards, folks. Younger readers, check out the Science Museum.  On the positive side is I have picked up many brilliant writing tips. Here I share the ten I’ve found the most useful. 1.  Get your story or article down first. You can’t edit a blank page. First drafts are just that - first and draft.  2.  Allow enough time for editing. Competition judges and editors (I’m both) can spot when someone hasn’t done this. It’s nearly always because someone has rushed a story in before the deadline. Assume you need more time than you think. This has paid off for me. Don’t be a member of the lastminute.com community when working on or submitting your stories. 3.  Set yourself a specific editing session for removing those pesky typos you somehow overlooked before. They happen! If it’s any com...

  WHERE TO GET WISDOM FOR WRITING by Olusola Sophia Anyanwu Writing requires wisdom.   It is so important.   No matter how wise we think we are, there is always room for more. Permit me to tell you a well-known story you might know to buttress this point… Once upon a time, the tortoise, decided that he wanted more wisdom. So he went around the world collecting all the wisdom he could find and storing it into two large containers. He thought it wise to keep them high up on a tree. As he laboured up the tree, using a rope to climb, the containers made the process very slow and tedious. A monkey noticed the tortoise struggling and offered help. ‘Look here friend,’ he called out. ‘Why don’t you use a ladder?’ he offered, nodding his head in encouragement. That was wisdom! The tortoise realised then that he hadn’t collected all the wisdom because it was impossible. Wisdom is limitless. Where do I get wisdom for my writing?   I share below where I have gained so ...

In two days time I will turn 60.  I will be celebrating and enjoying a weekend of friendship and fun which I'm really looking forward to. But while the balloons go up and the fridge gets full, I realise I'm at a good point to take a pause and reflect on my life.  Becoming 60 is quite a scary or maybe I should say, sobering thought that I will so soon be joining the ranks of the senior citizens of our realm.  Prescriptions will be free (yay) and I can get an OAP bus pass! (Although I already have a disabled bus pass so what's the benefit?)  I will also qualify for senior discounts at some venues (but that's been true for years as a disabled person too!)  And a big advantage is that I can order a senior half size portion of fish and chips to suit my smaller appetite ( What smaller appetite is that? )  But its time to celebrate not to be sarky.  Of course I know that today, 70 is the new 40, so I guess 60 just means I'll be in my 30's?   Except,...

Image by  Marius Berthelsen  from  Pixabay My last two blogs have focused on the characters we create April here and May here . Now here’s a little more on the theme of characters. I’ve been thinking about Apps lately. If you have a smartphone it will be packed full of Apps but is there an App to help with character development? There seems to be an App for just about anything and yes, there is an App for character development – more on that later. I’ve realised, you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their Apps. For instance, I have an App to play chess, a few Bible Apps, a metronome, one for my legal services, Screwfix, B&Q and a plant identifier, plus the usual social media array. You might deduce that I am a strategic-thinking Christian, who is musical and recently moved house. The house needs lots of refurbishment and the garden is a jungle that requires a lot of work and I share my progress online. What sort of Apps would any of your characters b...

 I am sitting writing this with tired feet resting on a cushioned footstall and a weary body luxuriating in a wonderfully soft armchair. There are piles of washing and unpacked bags all around me, but I am happy to leave them just where they are for now. I am exhausted. But my heart is full. Our Writing Kingdom Stories Retreat finished this morning. Barely a few hours ago. Sharing those few days away with like minded writers was special. We laughed and we cried. The sun shone and the rain rained. We eat too much, and slept too little. And God was so evidently with us. As it was a writer's retreat, I though I would have time to write this blog whilst we were away. As I was hosting and leading the retreat, I should have known better! So here I am struggling to express what I/we have just experienced and finding it very difficult. Not just because of the exhaustion. In these moments, when we have just returned from spending time with wonderful people and experiencing wonderful things ...

  I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or whether it says something about the type of church we are, but both our previous and current ministers claim James as their favourite book of the Bible. With it’s clear instructions on what it means to live a Christian life, I can see the appeal. There’s principles there, and priorities, we ‘simply’ have to apply them to our lives. Yet my heart sinks if someone suggests a sermon series on James. And when it comes round in my Bible reading I know it’s going to be a struggle. Because James is straightforward and I need a tussle. I want to be challenged or inspired by a Bible passage, engaged with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul. And importantly, I want my imagination to be involved. Stories speak much more powerfully to me than textbooks; fiction gets through to me in a way that non-fiction very rarely does. When I read a good story, when I relate to the characters and feel the emotions, then I am open to learning a...

  Writing Problems: Avoiding the Info Dump by Rebecca Seaton   An info dump? Sounds painful?! An info dump is the ‘dumping’ of a large chunk or chunks of information in a text. Why should this be avoided? By its nature, the info dump is clunky. This can put readers off as it’s dense and tedious to read. Unless you’re Tolkien, it isn’t generally very entertaining. I believe there are parallels with how God works with us. Although I would sometimes like to know more of God’s plan for my life, I have to accept His timing. While this can be frustrating, imagine what would happen if God revealed everything to us at once! Similarly, the author, who is essentially playing God with their reader, needs to reveal their world over time. We also don’t want to insult the reader by over explaining what they could easily pick up if threaded through the text.                                    ...

  I saw the discarded bag in the park. It lay on its side, empty apart from a water bottle. I recognised the bag’s logo: ‘Deliveroo’. I’ve never seen a Deliveroo bag out and about without a delivery driver before.  Where was the driver? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a trainer-clad foot sticking out from behind a tree. I hurried over to offer assistance, and – oh hang on, no, that’s not what happened. Let me pick up the story again: Where was the driver? I looked around and, at the bottom of the hill, saw a group of people hurrying away, glancing furtively over their shoulders. They must have kidnapped the driver. I pulled out my phone to call 999, and – oh hang on, no, that’s not what happened. Where was the driver? I took a closer look at the bottle inside the otherwise empty bag. Was it a clue? What could it mean? Perhaps the driver had managed to scrawl a note as he was dragged away, and stuff the note in the bottle, hoping that someone would find it. And I...