More than Writers

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay   Some years ago – and golly, I mean about 35 years ago; where did the time go? – I went with a group of friends to see Les Miserables in London. A cracking show then and a cracking show now. Act 1 ends with one of the show’s barnstormers, ‘ One Day More ’, as multiple storylines come together, rebellion pours out onto the streets of Paris in 1832 and a huge red flag waves over the heads of the cast. At the bar during the interval, one of my friends looked around and commented, “You know, if that actually happened now, today, everyone here would be choking on their G&Ts.” One thing Les Mis does very well for a family-friendly musical is capture the simmering anger and discontent that underpins the whole story. Emotions we would rather not recognise, and if we have to see them then, well, we can say it’s just a story on stage. The musical opens as Jean Valjean is paroled after nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his...

  Photo by Dominik Bednarz on Unsplash  Welcome to the year 2075!   Do you think Earth will even still exist then or rather will us humans still be on earth by then? Personally I don't think so. I struggle to believe that we'll survive the next year let alone 50 years. Sorry to sound so grumpy but with all that's going on in the world at the moment it's hard to stay positive.   So why am I writing about a year 50 years in the future? Because it's the next challenge in the writers group that I'm part of : Write up to 300 words set in the year 2075. This can be in any style, fiction or 'non-fiction' but your challenge is to make it believable.   This is how I've started - ‘ Come to the Cosmos,’ they cried, ‘& Experience the Wonder.’ Will there be blackbirds? Bumblebees, blackberries, buttercups? Damsons, dandelions, Dormice and damselflies? Conkers and crab apples, poppies and plums? No. I’ll stay here then. This land has all I need. W...

 Life is a funny thing, isn’t it? You think you know what will make you happy, but God has such a different idea! When I started out as a writer, I thought getting a contract with a traditional publisher was a big deal—a dream. But following a mountain of hard work and dedication and the undulating peaks and troughs of disappointment versus hope, the dream came true.  God was definitely part of it. I remember when I was asked if I would write the book. I had so many misgivings but then decided that if it was meant to be, God would sort it all out. He has, but not in the way I expected. Once published, in my naivety, I thought that would be it! I was well on my way to publishing lots of books. Ha! How wrong I was!  Now,  I know I’m in a safe place here and can be honest about my writing worries. My book, admittedly a non-fiction that I wasn’t expecting to write, was published a few years ago. At that time, it featured at every New Wine and Spring Harvest event, but no...

Written on Thursday 20 th March. A pause in the endless ejection of pretty decent shirts I haven’t worn for n years, dust encrusted shoes, a loft full of forgotten museum exhibits, and a guitar last used when I tortured a congregation with I Wanna See Jesus Lifted High. Trips to the tip are a mixture of joy and sadness. So much has to go but it’s still in good nick. Maybe I can find the right recycling bin, otherwise ‘It’s Gehenna for you’, I say, as I launch another bag, box, or bin-liner into the unknown. All this busyness interspersed with an early morning run around Bristol’s Harbourside in glorious sunshine, it was still enough to listen to Frank Skinner’s excellent Poetry Podcast on Philip Larkin. Words in, rubbish out. And it made me realise I might be on to a parable of sorts. Or an analogy, or even a metaphor…I’ve never been totally satisfied the border between these terms is as watertight as President Trump would like his southern one to be. Plus the realisation th...

Image by Steffan Lewis from Pixabay Two nice things happened to me recently – well, not just two nice things, but things relevant to writing. I submitted four prayers for a prayer handbook and was delighted to hear from the editors that all four have been accepted for publication. The editors edited all but one of my poem-prayers, and I have to admit that their versions were better than my originals. Which just goes to show that we all need beta readers and editors! I’m gratified, though, that one of my prayers remains virgin and pristine – the editors were satisfied and didn’t think it needed any more work. Last Saturday I went to a Lenten Quiet Day at St Benedict’s Retreat Centre in West Malling, Kent. Our retreat leader, Gilly Fenner, who writes beautiful poetry, led us in meditation on two Bible passages, one of which was the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–8, cf Mark 9:2–13, Luke 9:28–36). We were given plenty of space to be alone with God during the day. I sat in...

                                                                                            Picture credit: BBC This morning, an invasion of dust got repelled from our home. I deployed the vacuum in anger and my better half showed the dusters some serious front-line action. I’m pleased to report we won the battle, if not the war. The last job was to empty the dust canister into the bin to be disposed of. Dust that gathers in our homes is a disgusting mix of dead skin cells, bacteria, the remains of insects and other delights. Yuck. Yet, according to Genesis 2, God formed us from nothing but dust before pumping some air into our lungs. Maybe dust isn’t meant in the literal sense here, I don’t know, but it shows God ...

During this time of Lent, I listened to a Sermon just a couple of days ago to do with looking at ourselves with regard to procrastination.     The Pastor asked us to think about the things we have been putting off, and try to put them into action this week.     Not all at once of course, but just pick out one or two things that have been on our hearts. One of the main things I could think about, was something that God spoke to me about quite a few years ago to do with starting a small business, using the gift he had given me.  I have come to understand that God speaks to us in many different ways, sometimes it can be with His still, quite voice, other times it’s a strong feeling that you just go with straight away, and that is how it was at the time I am talking about, it was so quick and positive, I just knew it was God talking because, for one, I had asked Him a question, and He gave me an answer there and then. He even gave me the name of the business to use....

  A few years ago, I was tasked with compiling and editing a newsletter for a Christian charity, and I asked someone to provide a story of 100-150 words, so when the piece I received was 300 words long, my first reaction was frustration.       However, once I began editing, it was a surprisingly easy task. As I condensed several words into one or deleted entire sentences which seemed superfluous, I felt a real sense of satisfaction. Without very much effort, I got the piece down to under 150 words without losing any of the meaning, and it was a much better and tighter story.       A lot of my writing time this month has been spent in a similar fashion, although this time with my own writing, which has been much more difficult, but still very satisfying.       I have been working on a children’s Bible reading resource , and the format has fixed word counts for each section – mostly 20-30 words, though in one section I...

  As writers, we’d all like to think our readers hang on our every word. In fact, we often have to work hard to get their attention. This is particularly true for news stories which are the chip paper of the future. Though health and safety may interfere with that cliché. After writing for the Christian Writer magazine, I was reminded that we’ve all got skills and knowledge from our past that we can use in our writing, and not always in the ways we’d expect. Last month I covered how to make your writing more visible for Search Engines , using my limited website design experience. In this post, I’ll expand on tips gained when writing news articles and press releases as a freelance writer. Even if you’re more into writing fiction, these tips may be useful for your next author event or to promote a new book, poets may want to highlight an appearance at an Open Mic event. It may be a useful angle for a short story or a plot line. If your writing is more Bible-based then maybe try w...