More than Writers

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any point in writing something that’s already been done. So when I was asked to write a Christmas Story with a unique twist I drew a complete blank. How can one write about the events of the birth of Jesus in a way that’s never been done before? A little trick they taught us in primary school was to write an existing story from a different point of view. When I see others do this, something magical happens. Things that were hidden in the background of a story can be brought beautifully into the light. For example…   The Donkey In the utterly glorious children’s animation "The Star", the donkey does not mean to end up with Mary and Joseph but he finds himself embraced and welcomed by Mary.  Later, when he has the chance to follow his dream or stay faithful to Mary and Joseph, he chooses them and inadvertently becomes responsible for finding the manger, lit up under the star of Bethlehem.   The Shepherds The incredibly...

  Whitish sand dampening along the coastal edge stretched for two kilometres and I just had to walk along it. Combining pleasure and exercise, motivated me to go right to the end and touch the 1km marker stone. It’s the Fish Hoek tradition anyway. That’s what got me to thinking about the milestones of writing. Rather naively, when I finished my first novel, I thought all the hard work had been completed. Little did I realise this was only a fraction of the writing process. While trying to stay positive and motivated during the 80,000 words, I hadn’t given a thought to the weaknesses both of myself as the writer and of the ‘completed’ work. I had given a passing glance to Google’s seven stages: planning, drafting, sharing, evaluating, revising, editing, publishing, without even considering these seven stages also contained a minefield of subtitles. Pitting my current WIP against these headings, I am forced to recognise that I am weak in several areas, the most prominent being ‘s...

A confession: generally speaking, I am a poet without form. So much so, that I can rarely enter poetry competitions, which often state a 40-line maximum in their rules. I am a poet of rambling free verse, cathartic thought, spilling across the page, then reshaped into something poetic, sharable. Despite my indiscipline, many say they enjoy my poems – they resonate, make them cry (they assure me this is a good thing). Occasionally, though, I am tempted by the challenge and discipline of writing in a set form. I adore a haiku and have shared my forays into those before. I periodically compose a sonnet, enjoying the restrictions of form and metre and the thrill of condensing my thoughts into an exact rhythm and rhyme scheme. It was Amy Robinson who introduced me to the Villanelle – a bit like a cryptic crossword puzzle for writers. They are such fun. I have written one (almost – more on that in a minute) for my church Christmas Carol service today, so thought I would take the oppor...

Decorating the Christmas tree is a bit like writing fiction. Come off it!? No? Perhaps? Well, maybe, with a bit of imagination.… Decision One: Choose a setting TREE: Living room, corner of? Pride of place in the hall? On the patio? Or wherever. Story: Snowdonia? Chicago? Lands End? The middle of the Atlantic? A place a bit like Narnia, though of our own making, of course. And so on. Decision Two: Assemble and inspect the characters TREE: Boxes are brought down from the loft, the contents examined with delight as memories are stirred. Ah, yes, Auntie/cousin/friend gave us that one; son/daughter/Mum chose that for us during a visit to South Africa/the Czech Republic/the pier at Southend. Etcetera. Story: Examples:  Commonly known as Ant, quirky, enjoys teasing people. Nancy, prim and proper, zero sense of humour. Digby, sings enthusiastically but has a limited range of notes. Operatic tenor, seriously talented, comes to stay. And so on. Decision Three: The the...

After a couple of months of posts about very technical things relating to fonts, files and other complicated stuff to do with self-publishing, I felt it was high time for a lighthearted post reflecting on the wonder of ACW and the wonder of Christmas all at the same time. So take a deep breath, put on your best singing voice, and join me in full voice for... The Twelve Days of ACW Christmas! On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me.... A nice set of stationer-eeee. A nice set of stationer-eeee. Because we writers cannot do without our stationery, can we? In fact, some of us cannot walk past a stationery shop without going in and buying that gorgeous new notebook, even though we have several hundred of the things at home. And we love to get stationery gifts. On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me... Two books I love... Two books I love... and a nice set of stationer-eee. Because we all love to read, and we especially love to read one another's work, with...

                  So here she is with a football.  I’m sorry that this post is rather later in the day than usual. I was out in the garden watching my puppy Flossie (a golden doodle) training for the Golden Lionesses when I thought ‘What a good subject that would be for a blog, when’s my next MTW one? Oh no, it’s the 15th today!’ She only started playing with the football over the last two days. But in that time I have noticed that her skills in dribbling the ball have greatly increased. It’s a bit too late to video her with the ball now, I tried, but because she moves so fast I can’t keep up. So why is this relevant here? Over my long life I have trained many people in many different skills - how to relax, how to overcome negative thoughts, how to be a clinical psychologist, how to begin to write, how to spell, how to read the Bible, how to crochet, how to sew, how to drive (that was scary - one of  my sons drove too fast from the ...

We are icebound again today.   Our front garden, all patio slabs, is a skating rink. Our next door neighbour has phoned to warn us not to risk going down the steps to put our rubbish out. I doubt the council vans will make it up our steep narrow hill anyway. Its tight turns have always reminded me of a mini alpine road; now it’s more like a bobsleigh run. So, no going out. Coffee with a friend, blood test, and a planned trip to buy Christmas decorations and rock salt all postponed. On top of yesterday’s Christmas services and market cancelled for the same reason. If only I’d thought to pick some grit up with the Christmas tree on Saturday. It’s easy to feel despondent. And I’m feeling more unanchored than usual this year. I’ve lost my usual Advent preparation routines. I’ve been focussed on finishing my MA modules with my first assessed submissions coming up. Nowhere at the university has any decorations up to mark the season. One person wore a robin jumper at our last semina...