More than Writers

I was talking last month about the dangers of a knitting retreat day. One of the dangers I wasn’t anticipating was the no show of one of my  key project patterns. It had decided to be a pesky out of line duck, and it stayed at home. The pattern was for knitted and crocheted hearts. The palliative care unit in my local hospital takes donations of pairs of identical crafted hearts to give to patients and their loved ones. This of course is an ongoing project. Which makes me feel better. But not much. Of course I could have googled it and asked the office nicely to make me some copies. But I chose to go with plan b. Square bunnies. Well… who knew how successful they would be… Read on for more about both these projects and lessons about writing I learned from them. As I started thinking about how to start this post a song appeared in my head. As they do. Possibly my favourite Cliff Richard song ever (duet with Cindy Kent of The Settlers). ‘Love is more than words’.   Anyone re...

Bad language, colourful language, swearing, profanity? Are they necessary? Mark Twain famously viewed profanity as a necessary relief, arguing it provided comfort "denied even to prayer" during trying times. He regarded it as essential, jokingly stating it was "more necessary to me than is immunity from colds", and maintained that one could still be a gentleman while swearing if done "affectionately." George Washington, the first President of America, famously condemned "the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing" in a 1776 general order to his officers, calling it a "vice so mean and low" that it detests all sense of character. Whilst the Apostle Paul frequently condemns "filthy language" and "corrupting talk" (e.g., Ephesians 4:29, Colossians 3:8), urging Christians to use words that build up rather than tear down. I know that this subject has been raised before, and I am sure that it w...

 So I had this idea for a novel. I thought I knew where it was going - who the villain/murderer was (I write crime novels) and my sleuth has appeared in three books so far. By now, surely I knew the main and a few supporting characters, the locations and the themes, well enough to just get on with it fairly effortlessly. I began on 27th October, just after the publication of the last book in the series. I wrote for an hour every weekday till 23rd December. Total 17,575 words. Not a lot, you may think, but by now (this is my 19th book) I know my process. I write very fast and very short for the first draft, basically getting the story down on paper before I lose the thread or the energy. And I keep a daily tally - word count.  And I print out that day's work and keep it in a folder, the mounting pile of pages a tangible encouragement. But then all that momentum fizzled out. I wrote again on December 29th and 30th. It was a week before the next attempt - a very paltry few words ...

Everything that we write is informed by who we are, what we believe and what we experience. As we often say in our ACW writers’ group, whether faith is implicit or explicit in our writing, we write as Christians. Our faith underpins our work. Even if we write characters that have very different worldviews to our own, the essence of the story, the underpinning moral framework and ‘feel’ of the piece, is going to be Christian. It’s unavoidable. And it’s one way in which real life informs our fiction. Another way is through our experiences, particularly our emotional life. Taking what we have experienced and putting it into our fiction is what makes our writing authentic and powerful. One of the teenage characters in my current work-in-progress has fallen out with her friends. And as I write about that broken relationship, I realise that I’m reflecting on recent events in my family life. The details are different, but the emotional fall-out is the same. It’s a universal theme: navi...

  What Would Jesus Do With  AI? by Sheelagh Aston There has been some discussion within ACW about AI along with a very thoughtful blog recently by Annmarie Miles. Here is another take on the subject. What would Jesus do with AI? Remember the 90s bracelet with WWJD? My version may seem an odd question, but it is a question that keeps niggling me. Without wishing to dumb down a very complex subject (which is far too complex to do justice to in this short blog) putting it very simply, one way AI develops is through being fed material to learn. This material is created by humans. For creatives and writers, our work is often being used without our permission or knowledge – or remuneration - to achieve this. The stark reality of the volume and damage to creatives has led the Society of Authors GB decision to launch a logo for use to state a book has been written by a human and not AI. Businesses are using AI for various tasks to cut costs and some individuals may choose to use i...

  Photo by Guillermo Latorre on Unsplash I wonder how you read the title of this blog? The word ‘bow’ is a heteronym (I think, but please do correct me!). A word that has different meanings depending on how it is pronounced.   I recently had a dilemma. I was due to speak at an event in Wokingham.  It had been booked in for a while. And then I received a health diagnosis, which might have meant I could not make the event. Or maybe it wouldn’t have meant that. I couldn’t say for certain either way. I dithered. Bottom line: I wanted to do the event. But people who had already booked in probably needed to know whether it was happening. Bottom line: I wanted to be honourable to them. I dithered. And Ali, of  Quench stepped in: “Let’s postpone.” It was a good call.   Bookshop staff are amazing, I am in awe of all they do. And I had the privilege of realising that ‘rescuing floundering authors’ is yet another string to their bow. This little blog has one aim: to cele...