More than Writers

  Another writer shared recently that the date for her monthly post on the More Than Writers blog always seemed to come around unexpectedly, despite it falling on the same date each month – I definitely related to that!       Before I knew it, we were into November and my post was due, so, struggling for inspiration, I browsed online to see if there were any notable events this month. I had heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which stopped earlier this year, but I learned that November can also be referred to as National Life Writing Month – rather than writing a novel, people focus on writing memoirs or stories from their own lives.       It is a topic I’ve been reflecting on recently. Our minister recently moved to a different church, and, at his commissioning service, an extract was read from a book that his new church had compiled recounting their history. The extract was from the 1960s, but apparently the book goes bac...

  I must admit I was a bit reluctant to go. I was exhausted and had many shelved tasks at home that I’ve been putting off for far too long. Maybe I felt like a child expected to turn up at a family event where I didn’t fit in. Yet I shouldn’t have been surprised to have been blessed by attending the ACW Autumn Gathering in Egham last Saturday.   It was lovely to meet people whose comments I read on Facebook or LinkedIn posts. I also came away with a fresh impetus to get back to my writing. Although it was not one of the many interesting insights that were shared that stuck with me most, but an almost throw-away comment by the ACW chair, Jane Walters. Jane shared how she had returned to drawing and painting but acknowledged that the output was not well formed, as if a child produced it. Her comment inferred that we can gradually improve a skill we enjoy. For me, I was drawn to recall the Bible verses (Mark 10:13-16) where Jesus welcomes and blesses children. He commends tho...

  I have just written a ghost story, Victoriana , for Hannah’s 3-Minute Scares .  I submitted it as a sound recording of myself reading it aloud.   All so very different to writing to a word count. Hannah’s Bookshelf appears on North Manchester FM internet radio every Saturday afternoon.   Hannah Kate regularly invites writers to submit seasonal pieces (Halloween, Christmas, and others such as Lammas), and she also invites book reviews, all as 3-minute sound recordings.  My piece was broadcast last Saturday (25 October) and if you missed it and would still like to hear it, it's on Mix Cloud . When writing something to read aloud, elegant punctuation and formatting are not necessary.   Even spelling mistakes are allowable, because… ssh… nobody will know.   And, my bad habit of missing out words isn’t a problem, as I find I add them automatically when speaking it.   Of course, those who write by hand don’t need to type up the story at all. ...