More than Writers

  It might seem crazy but one of the most helpful things I read last year was a book that told me to put it down. Not in an audible voice, as that would be reason to seek medical intervention! The suggestion came from the author, who in no uncertain terms told the reader to stop reading and put the book down. Right now . That’s not a strategy employed by many authors. In fact, most authors employ a whole range of techniques to captivate their readers with the express intention of keeping them hooked for as long as possible. Suspenseful cliff-hangers are commonplace to keep us page-turning into the next chapter and the next title in the series. The book in question was “Tides and Seasons” by David Adam, a book of prayers and reflections in the Celtic tradition. No suspenseful cliffhangers here. Instead, the author simply reminded the reader that we don’t have to go searching for Jesus or strive to find his presence anywhere other than where we are. Reading, writing, work, leisur...

  I’m gallivanting a lot these days, what with my trip to the Netherlands not that long ago, and a Writers’ Retreat coming up in a couple of weeks. Last week was spent in Somerset where we have a caravan. My sister and cousin came over for a few days, to see the sights of Somerset. Whilst researching the best places to go to, as my sister likes a very full programme in the holidays with as full an itinerary as can be managed in daylight hours, I came across Lorna Doone. I found out that we were near the Lorna Doone Valley, which may or may not be a much later invention, but it was a lovely outing. As I’m getting all the research ready for a historical novel myself, I was intrigued by Lorna Doone. I started reading it, and some of the things he mentioned sparked my interest, as I haven’t really written a proper historical book before. It seems like the author has woven facts and fiction together in a way that feels right. To me at least. We visited what would have been the main ...

Image Credits:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images I see March as a hopeful month. I admit I’m biased. I had my 60th birthday a week ago. This year also marks my thirty year anniversary of taking up writing seriously. But March is lovely, whatever the weather does, because with each passing day, there are more and more signs of lighter evenings, spring flowers emerging everywhere and so on. It is a month to lift the spirits. And, of course, Easter often falls in March though not this year. Easter is the definition of Hope Springs Eternal because our hope is eternal. As writers, we’re not always hopeful, are we? The rejections, the never hearing back (publishers, agents, competitions), the setbacks do take their toll.  It’s why we need the support of other writers who know this writing journey for what it is - hopeful, tough, and a right roller coaster of a ride. It’s why ACW is so important.  If you don’t know anyone in the writing industry when you’re star...

Photo by  JESHOOTS.COM  on  Unsplash I’m writing a follow-up to the excellent blog piece by Brendan Conboy on 26th March: https://morethanwriters.blogspot.com/2026/03/are-you-offended-by-bad-language-by.html , but with a slightly different slant. Brendan writes about how he left a secular open-mic poetry event early because he found the language and attitudes offensive. It’s normal for a Christian to have heightened sensibilities to the use of swear words or disrespectful attitudes. This comes from our upbringing, or in my case, learning about the faith and following the example of others.  But what is the line that a Christian writer shouldn’t cross? Is it acceptable to include topics such as immorality, violence or explicit sex in our fictional writing? Or should we skirt around and allude to them? Some would argue that these things should not form part of a Christian writer’s story. And yet, they are a part of life. If we don’t include them because we are a ‘Chris...

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...

  As I pulled out of my driveway early one morning, I heard a crash and a searing metallic scrape. I stopped quickly, jumped out of the car and surveyed the damage. I’d managed to turn slightly too sharply out of my driveway and catch the edge of a low lying wall on my passenger side. Pieces of wall lay scattered over the end of my drive. That was an unpleasant and expensive start to my day! It has got me thinking about walls though. Not the walls of separation and division that we see all over the place and which are often difficult to tear down, but walls of construction. I’m sure most of you have seen a dry-stone wall. They divide fields in patchwork patterns, especially in the north of the country. These walls take skill to build and last for many years. They have good foundations and are made using a variety of stones. Each stone is handled by the wall builder and distributed with care and precision throughout the wall. These walls are not held together by mortar but ea...

  Where would be without words? I don’t know.   Perhaps we’d all be painters, ceramicists or sculptors, channelling our creativity into visual pieces to either display to the world or to hide in the back of the cupboard depending on our personality, outlook, connectedness and opportunities. As it is, for writers, words are our tool of choice and my head is full of them for most of the day. Perhaps that’s why these art works caught my eye on display at a South African winery last year. Their creator, Maurice Mbikayi was born in the Congo in 1974, gained his BA in Kinshasa and his MA in Cape Town.   According to his website he ‘interrogates the proliferation of technological commerce in our geopolitical system.’ Quite. He’s intent on making the point that resources for twenty-first century technology have required the sort of mining in Africa that has benefited multi-national companies and big corporates but done very little for local communities.   By using discarded ...