More than Writers

  I haven’t done any proper writing over the last two months, too busy doing other things: composing the 31 December More Than Writers post and this post gathering content for a volunteer newsletter for my local Foodbank, and editing it posting on my own blog for the Insecure Writers Support Group trying to integrate Stripe on the ACW website cooking entertaining family uploading images and text on to my church website jotting down my pizza recipe for the church magazine gathering together articles for our own village’s ‘notes’ section, for inclusion in the local community newsletter. No.   Not writing at all.   By my chair I have a folder in which I’m attempting to write planning notes for my next novel.   Have I picked it up even once?   No!   I also have short stories and flash sitting unvisited on my computer, waiting for editing, which are going nowhere, certainly not to any editor.   This is what I call ‘proper writing’ and, assuredly, I am not doing it.   But, wait a minut

  I’m writing this blog at Schiphol Airport, in the Netherlands. That’s also my excuse if my grammar is...different! I went to the Netherlands for a very short weekend as it was my mum’s birthday celebration Saturday. It also happened to be a weekend filled with book reviews and blogs, so great planning... I had a late afternoon flight Friday. Balancing passport, boarding pass, bag, coat... It made me wonder how we ever manage to fly places with four kids! Somehow, I thought, as I was waiting in line, being responsible for others makes you more competent. As if you have to be on your toes all the time, whereas travelling by yourself doesn’t seem to hold as many responsibilities and therefore it all gets more difficult. Glancing around at my fellow travellers, I wondered who would make an interesting character in a story. Most people looked slightly shell-shocked, simply following where others walked, like me, I realised, picking my coat off the floor again. It made me think about m

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos   This is probably an apt title for this post given January seems to be the longest month of the year! How do you motivate yourself to keep going with your writing? If you’re earning from your writing, there is an obvious motivation to keep going but most people, I find, have times where they’re tired and writing is harder to do. The darker times of year don’t help either. I know when I’m tired my creativity drops. No real surprises there but it’s taken me a while to figure that link out. What can I do? Be kind to myself and just write something as I know any writing makes me feel better. Doesn’t matter if it’s 50 or 500 words - I know I’ve got something down. Just knowing that gives me a much needed boost.  When I’m not tired and am in the zone, I just keep going and going and going like the old Duracell bunny. (Younger readers - this was a famous advert from years ago which ran for ages, much as the bunny itself did, a

  Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us - Ephesians 3:20 During my poetry event in December 2022, I was amazed at the way my invited guests reacted when I read Joseph’s Dream. I have decided to share it with you all.   It is written to encourage anyone whose dreams have not yet being realised as time flies by but to remember that God’s plans will prevail as long as we hold Him in trust.           JOSEPH’S DREAM When life happens, You think of your dreams.                                                    Those dreams of splendour, Inspired by magnificent desires. Great goals to achieve, that Overcome limitations, And challenges, And rising to the ladder top, Of glory, and shinning down On all who are below, Like a king in majesty.   When life comes in the way, What can sway it away? Who can tell it to go away? It makes family shun your dreams. They hate you for th

I wonder how many of us quake inside when we come to that moment of having to revisit what we've written in order to edit it?  I've always known I'm quite an avoider.  If I feel tired at the end of my meal, its no problem to me to leave the plates on the table and go to have a snooze and of course avoid the washing up!   But washing up doesn't make me quake inside. Its just a job I don't fancy doing.   We all have jobs like that.  To my shame I can think of quite a few!  Gardening, Decluttering, Sorting my admin and finances...I easily escape from all these tasks because that's what they are, tasks that I dislike but I've got to do.   But as much as I try to avoid them, they don't make me quake inside. So what is it about editing my own work that does make me quake?  It's that little voice inside that tells me, even before I start the editing, 'Aha now you'll see how rubbish you are.  You think you've created something so special but no o

As many of you know, I can usually plan well ahead and I often post this blog a good month in advance of when it is due; that is until the unexpected happens.   Having spent most of the last month in hospital, I now struggle to write a single word.   My head, as usual, is full of words and ideas, yet few are coherent. So, expect this to be a very short blog.   In case you are wondering, I have just had a triple heart bypass.   This was complicated by the fact that I am also a kidney transplant patient.   More complications came in the form of contracting Flu just before emergency surgery, followed by a chest infection, which was not diagnosed or treated prior to coming home Pain has been a constant companion, yet over the last few weeks, I have experienced many positive opportunities to share about my life and how God still values me. I regard last month as another chapter, I just need to write it.   I am referring to one of my current works in progress (WIP).   ‘I’m Still Valu

  There is a scene from the original animated version of the film The Jungle Book , that is probably one of my favourite movie scenes of all time. And it lasts for less than a minute! Four vultures, supposedly drawn to represent the four members of The Beatles (they were actually asked to voice the vultures but declined), sit in a tree discussing what they are going to do. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can watch the clip here https://youtu.be/MGTWmrnPdgk Image courtesy of disneyclips.com The dialogue (in Liverpudlian accents) goes like this:          Buzzie :  [to Flaps]   Okay, so what we gonna do? Flaps :  I don't know, what you wanna do? Buzzie :  Look, Flaps, first I say, "What we gonna do?" Then you say, "I don't know, what you wanna do?" Then I say, "What we gonna do?" You say, "What you wanna do?" "What we gonna do?" "What you want..." Let's do SOMETHING! Flaps :  Okay.

  I am keeping a journal. It’s for one main reason. Our memories are getting poorer, and we often struggle to remember when some important family event occurred. Sometimes we can’t remember what we did at the weekend! So it has become really useful for jogging my memory. There is nothing elegant about the journal. It’s not electronic, for a start. I’m parsimoniously using up old notebooks and exercise books that had lots of blank pages. I’m scribbling down the key events of each day just before going to bed. The handwriting is hurried and scrawly. There often aren’t proper sentences, just phrases. There are abbreviations all over the place. But setting myself such a low bar means that it actually gets done. The journal’s now nearly four years old, having been begun in February 2019. Though we were already deep into (dare I say it) the political darkness of this era, I naturally had no idea when I began it that the journal would record the Covid pandemic and then a dreadful war in Europ

  Making Connections by Rebecca Seaton God is all about connection: with Him and with each other. What does that mean for us as writers?   With members of my writing group Connecting as a writer is important: - for criticism. We can’t always see the wood for the trees. An honest friend will tell us if the plot is confusing or the tenses jarring. - to share. We exist in relationship with others. Although there is a valid therapeutic element to writing for ourselves, sharing work can also be significant. ‘Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.’ (Matthew 5:15). Consider as well who is ‘in your house’. This could be immediate family and close friends but could be much wider. Joining a writing group we choose to connect with people who will have an opinion on our work. But be open to accepting connections through others. I was recently introduced to an author I had never heard of and w

Never did I ever think I’d write a blog about Formula 1. But here we are*. "Hello?!" The blank page on my computer screen called to me. I frowned at it. "You’re supposed to be writing a MTW blog." I frowned again. "I need some words," the blank screen continued. I frowned at it some more. "Um, that was a hint…" I frowned even more. It sighed. "I’d spell it out, but I can’t." I raised my eyebrows. Not funny. Well, maybe a bit funny. "Please? Type something? Anything?" So I did what anyone would do, and typed the name of a website to order my nephew a model Formula 1 car for his birthday. I’d already done my research. I’d dutifully looked at cars, trying to pick one that my nephew would like. I’d asked my dad, and my brother-in-law, whether a Lando Norris was a good make of car to get? Photo credit: unsplash.com ALT: A yellow racing car When they stopped laughing, they told me that Lando Norris is n

  Let’s start at the end I’ve recently become fascinated by story endings and epilogues, conclusions and codas, post-scripts and denouements. A good storyteller knows how to end a story well. We may gasp in shock or sigh with satisfaction, but we know intuitively that a well-crafted ending is a powerful thing. How did the narrator or their story survive? Moby Dick and The Handmaid’s Tale give some interesting options. What eventually happened to the protagonists? Animal Farm tells us how low the pigs really go. Did she marry him? Readers of Jane Eyre will understand. Is there going to be a sequel? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ends on a cliff-hanger, with the death of a beloved character. Is there a reveal or twist? Max’s supper is still hot in  Where the Wild Things Are  – why is that? What about Jesus as storyteller? The purpose of the stories Jesus told was not in entertaining his listeners, although parables could certainly do that. On the surface leve