More about Scargill... by Annmarie Miles
I loved reading Georgie Tennant's post on our time in Scargill for the ACW Odyssey weekend. I had thought I might do a similar post, but she summed it up so well. I hope you've had a chance to read it.
I was so looking forward to the weekend. Meeting Adrian Plass was such a buzz. I read the Sacred Diaries as a new Christian, 25 years ago and they helped me navigate this new world I found myself in. What a joy to get triple prizes, with Bridget Plass and Nick Page also sharing wisdom and making us laugh. I was soaking it up, until... Bridget dropped her bombshell and told us about our challenge, which we would be doing in groups.
Now I love nothing more than a crowd, but when it comes to writing, I would never consider myself a good collaborator. I've only done it once, with a wonderful writer who loves silly stuff like I do. I enjoyed it, but it was difficult. I always thought the only reason it worked well was because I knew her and could push her about a bit. All the things that make collaboration difficult, I've got them in spades - pride, comparison anxiety, crushing self-doubt and an inferiority complex.
I was nervous when our group first got together. We introduced ourselves and found there was a wonderful variety of genres in the room. Eyes darted around the room and there were some nervous smiles; not only from me. Then someone started the conversation, I can't remember who it was but we were off and running. We shared ideas, took some time to each jot initial ideas down, and were able to put together a plan quite quickly. I still wasn't sure if I would fit in and if we would blend and... fifty other concerns filled my mind. But I went to work on my little bit and asked God for help.
If you read Georgie's post mentioned above, you'll see that we were encouraged by Nick Page to be humble, to pay attention, to be courageous... I applied these things to what I was writing, and to my feelings about our collaboration. When we got back to put our individual efforts into one piece, I COULD NOT believe what we had done. It was thrilling to be part of it. A ten minute piece, prepared in less than 24 hours. And we were just one of 9 different groups, all working to bring their writing together.
I learned such a lot, and am so grateful to Bridget Plass for the push, and to the 'Running Out' team for the blessing of collaboration. I'd nearly do it again... maybe :D
Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
I was so looking forward to the weekend. Meeting Adrian Plass was such a buzz. I read the Sacred Diaries as a new Christian, 25 years ago and they helped me navigate this new world I found myself in. What a joy to get triple prizes, with Bridget Plass and Nick Page also sharing wisdom and making us laugh. I was soaking it up, until... Bridget dropped her bombshell and told us about our challenge, which we would be doing in groups.
Now I love nothing more than a crowd, but when it comes to writing, I would never consider myself a good collaborator. I've only done it once, with a wonderful writer who loves silly stuff like I do. I enjoyed it, but it was difficult. I always thought the only reason it worked well was because I knew her and could push her about a bit. All the things that make collaboration difficult, I've got them in spades - pride, comparison anxiety, crushing self-doubt and an inferiority complex.
I was nervous when our group first got together. We introduced ourselves and found there was a wonderful variety of genres in the room. Eyes darted around the room and there were some nervous smiles; not only from me. Then someone started the conversation, I can't remember who it was but we were off and running. We shared ideas, took some time to each jot initial ideas down, and were able to put together a plan quite quickly. I still wasn't sure if I would fit in and if we would blend and... fifty other concerns filled my mind. But I went to work on my little bit and asked God for help.
I learned such a lot, and am so grateful to Bridget Plass for the push, and to the 'Running Out' team for the blessing of collaboration. I'd nearly do it again... maybe :D
Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
Comments
Post a Comment