More than Writers

I didn't always look like this.   In fact, at the  beginning I had no headings, no pages, no chapters, no paragraphs and not even any words!  Can you believe that?  I had no shape or form whatsoever; no title, no cover design; nothing.  I didn't even have an author and certainly not a publisher.  How can you publish something that doesn't exist?   And yet, and yet I DID exist.  Yes, even though I had nothing to describe or define me, and no external being, I DID exist, because from the very beginning I was a spark in my Father's eye.  A gleam of intent; an idea that He would, one day, speak into being.   Sometimes the universe can seem like the darkest of voids.  As it was in the beginning when there was nothing, nothing at all. Blackness,, emptiness, a vortex of nothingness And yet, the Spirit of God was there, hovering and brooding. And it was then, in that sudden outpouring of creation, that I found myself present,...

No matter what you are writing, we will all want our readers to understand what we are saying.  Though we will all have different writing styles and a novelist doesn’t want to reveal the whole plot in chapter one, whilst a poet may employ the use of more metaphors and similes.  That’s all fine, whatever we write, it is our art form and can use a variety of creative writing techniques. However, when it comes to marketing the work that has cost us blood, sweat and tears, we need to communicate at a different level. Recently, whilst recovering from even more surgery, my wife was looking after me.  I made the comment, “I could do with a cup of tea.”  She replied, “Why don’t you just say, ‘can you make me a cup of tea please?’”  She was right, my comment was rather ambiguous and wasn’t necessarily going to result in receiving a cup of tea. So, how do we communicate to better improve our marketing and outward messages?  Let’s take a brief look at the 9 C’s ...

  I love words. I love that one word can have many meanings. It is one of the interesting quirks of the English Language, and I’m sure not exclusive to English. One word can even have both positive and negative usages. As writers we can ensure that words mean what we want them to mean using context. Context is so important. Take, for instance, the word ‘retreat’. Retreat (Verb) To withdraw from enemy forces as a result of their superior power or after a defeat. To move back or withdraw . Now I am a history lover, and that is partially the fault of my Dad, who is an avid amateur military historian. He has a room in his home set aside for his   obsession   interest. The walls are lined with thousands of miniature hand painted soldiers, of all eras – Napoleonic, Civil War, Roman Legionaries, World War II Infantrymen. The centre of the room is taken up by a battle board, on which, over the years, Dad has re-enacted many famous military engagements. In a mi...

I’m fond of Lent. I like the word as well as the season. When I was very young I didn’t know quite what it was (our family didn’t observe it), and had an idea that it must be something that was on loan, something lent . (The desire to explain an unknown word by the known started early, and has driven my whole career!) It’s a nice word, though. What is now the adjective, Lenten , which we think of as Lent + the - en you see in wooden , was actually the original noun and the original name of the season; Lent is a fourteenth-century shortening, like maid from maiden and eve from even (as in evening ). The word is inherited from the extinct Common Germanic ancestor of English, Dutch, German, and the Scandinavian languages. It’s derived from the root of long , and simply means ‘the time when the days lengthen’. In all the other Germanic languages that have the word it is simply the name for Spring and has no ecclesiastical connections. Old English shared this meaning, which survived ...

  What is it You’re Writing? by Rebecca Seaton Trying to put it succinctly. T his sometimes feels like the dreaded question. We feel like we’re supposed to have an answer. Not any answer either, but a clear, coherent answer on the nature and progress of our current project: this is often easier said than done!   This can come in different forms depending on the audience’s needs and expectations. The ‘elevator pitch’ is a common format: if you were stuck in a lift with someone, could you quickly and simply explain your basic premise? It should be about twenty words. A synopsis is more of a summary and this is probably intended more for a deliberate pitch, for example, when submitting work to an agent. For this, we want a bit more detail, it expands on the basic premise, allowing for themes, main events and principal characters to be highlighted.   However, not everything is easily defined. How confident are we with describing the genre of our work or its target a...

Photo credit: www.ahnaziegler.com via unsplash.com ALT: An ash cross on a person's forehead Reader, my time has come. 22 nd  is often a fairly insignificant date, unless it’s your birthday or similar. Not for me a blog topic pre-chosen, unless of course Christmas Eve Eve Eve ever takes off. As for Easter, the last time it fell on 22 nd was 1984 and the next time will be 2057. But today, 22 nd February 2023, marks the beginning of Lent. Rejoice with me, I have a pre-chosen topic. According to Wikipedia ( here ), three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent   are: Prayer (justice toward God) Fasting (justice toward self) Almsgiving (justice toward neighbours)   What could these three mean if we apply them specifically to writing? Prayer (Justice towards God) :   All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16 Bringing Him into our writing. Asking Him to guide...

There’s something odd in the biblical story of Gideon. Every time something important happens, a certain motif emerges. It’s almost as if it is deliberate. We meet Gideon as he is hiding under an oak tree in a narrow winepress, furtively and no doubt uncomfortably trying to thresh wheat out of sight of the invading forces. It is rather important to him that he isn’t found. Chaff is getting between his toes and the stalks are tickling his ankles. This is the moment an angel appears and tells him that despite appearances, Gideon is a mighty warrior and God intends to use him to save Israel from the enemy. Gideon is a little doubtful. He wants a sign and brings the visitor an offering: a goat and some hastily made bread . A little later, having torn down his father’s false altar and received God’s Spirit, he summons some warriors and considers how he will know for sure that God is committed to saving Israel through him. He comes up with a plan and lays out the fleece of wool. ...

If there is one aspect of leading such an ACW-affiliated writing group that takes a massively disproportionate time of time to prepare... it's the ice breaker! If you're not careful you can spend hours and hours choosing the perfect way to metaphorically hit ice with a hammer. So when I do stumble across something, I save it in a little folder on my computer so I can whip it out later like a pro. (In fact, I've never figured out if I should open our group in prayer first and then break the ice or the other way around? Comments please!) So far I have found inspiration on social media, googling and (surprise, surprise) the occasional book. Social Media Following the hashtag #memesforwriters on Instagram can either leave you in stitches or lost down a rabbit role for so long you lose track of what's really funny anymore. In fact, in the search to find an example to post here I just wasted about 10 minutes of my life till I found one that made me laugh out loud.  (credit to...

  Meetings were restricted to six people, the day before my first writing group meeting was scheduled. Six people arrived. It was fun! We did a basic writing exercise, swapped our news, and our hopes and dreams as writers. Then came lockdown which introduced me to zoom meetings. At first, I felt shy and distant from my writer friends. It helped because every other social contact was on zoom as well and I soon got used to how it worked as a programme. Gradually I got to see the benefits of zoom. You didn’t have to go out in the cold especially if you were feeling a bit under the weather. You only had to make one cup of coffee. You could even wear your pyjamas if you wanted.                                     M eanwhile we became affiliated to ACW and our meetings were sort of validated. Over the past three years our mailing list has grown. Whilst not deliberately seeking them, we have one...

You might have noticed that I recently posted into the ACW Facebook Group that I have signed a contract with Kevin Mayhew, for them to publish my first devotional, “The God Who Sees You,” sometime this Spring. Grateful thanks to all who celebrated with me so generous-heartedly. Every comment meant so much. For my More than Writers post this month, I thought I might take a (slightly humorous) look at the 10 stages of writing a book, hoping that, those ahead in the journey might console me that they are normal, and those a few steps behind, might take solace from my experiences, and draw strength from them, for their own writing-publishing journey. 1. The Irrepressible Idea This is the very beginning of the process – the little spark in the night / shower / random conversation (delete as applicable) that won’t go away. It has you reaching for a notepad at 3a.m, jotting down random words, in the hope they will make sense in the morning. For me, this idea came in Lockdown, when I was ...