writing lessons from my autumn garden

Posted on 23/10/2011 by inktuition

Let your writing bear fruit.

I was struck today by two great sayings that I always use to remind myself that I need to stay focused on my goal: namely, to finish writing my novel and get it published.

The first saying is: “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”; the second: “nature abhors a vacuum”.

The two came together today when my husband and I started tackling our back garden, which had taken on a jungly life of its own after the rain and sunshine of the last couple of months. Continue reading →

why feeling iSad brings up all my other losses too

Posted on 06/10/2011 by inktuition

I’ve never understood widespread mourning for a public figure. Famous people die, and I think it’s sad, but I’ve never felt the loss before of someone I’ve never met, yet who has touched, inspired and enhanced my life in the way that Steve Jobs has.

I may change my skirt length, accent colour, heel shape, belt width or lipstick shade to suit the season, but there’s one thing I’ll never change, and that’s my Mac. I may have put up with a PC when I’ve had to, but its clunkiness, slowness and downright unsexiness has me sprinting back (yes, even in my high heels) to my thing of beauty: my Mac.

I secured my first job as a journalist on one of those square, tiny-screened Macs, which somehow made writing an article as an intern feel so Continue reading →

Why the e-book argument is beginning to sway me

Posted on 25/09/2011 by inktuition

The headline How you can make a million writing your own e-book is irresistible. Just how do these writers do it?

I admit it is tempting to side step the agony of approaching an agent and to avoid the pain of rejection letters. At least, that’s what successful e-book authors tell us. They bash out a book in a couple of weeks, having picked a popular genre such as crime thriller or chick lit, get an eye-catching cover designed, and then sell it for a few pence online.

As someone who has laboured over every sentence of her novel, and still hasn’t finished it five years on, I do find it hard to understand how people can write books so quickly and sell them so cheaply. Quality of writing would be my main concern, though that doesn’t seem to trouble the Continue reading →

Weekly photo challenge: flowers

Posted on 26/08/2011 by inktuition

the dark heart of a tulip

are authors really having their last (w)rites?

Posted on 22/08/2011 by inktuition

I had a few minutes to spare on Sunday, and wandered into WHSmith where I lost myself in reading the blurb on the back of many of the paperbacks in the bestseller chart. It’s a while since I checked out what kind of literature is captivating the public, and it does bring out some competitiveness in me.

However, I may be rather too late to win the race to the bookshelves, if I’m to believe the bleak vision of the future of publishing painted by Ewan Morrison in his Guardian article Are books dead, and can authors survive? He gloomily predicts that “writing, as a profession, will cease to exist”, because writers will offer their work for free in a digital environment that increasingly provides free content. He argues that in the future writers “will labour under the delusion that Continue reading →

The quote that ALWAYS gets me writing

Posted on 19/08/2011 by inktuition

When I realise I’ve been procrastinating or avoiding writing my novel – finding distractions in my fridge, my garden or online, – I take a peek at a quote I have pinned up on my wall that reminds me there’s only so much fiddling about I can do. I can either get on with it, or spend the rest of my life wondering and wishing. I can pretend I’m not inspired, or wait for it to strike, or I can sit at my desk and write – and that in itself is inspiration.

This quote sticks a lump to my throat, trickles tears down my cheeks, and triggers my existential concerns. It also gives me a twist of guilt, and a wistful motivation to write the next chapter. Because time is ticking and I haven’t yet achieved by long-held dream of being a published author.

“The song I came to sing
remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing
and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true,
the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony
of wishing in my heart.”

– Rabindranath Tagore

confessions of a notebook addict who’s at a loss for words

Posted on 17/08/2011 by inktuition

I’m a notebook addict. I can barely pass a stationery store without looking in and seeing if my perfect notebook is out there that can hold my thoughts, ideas, inspirations (which often happen just as I’m about to fall asleep), and that will help me act on the brilliance of those insights. As a writer, I always have one of my many notebooks to hand. What happens with my plethora of pages is that I intend to have different notebooks for different moods, circumstances and surroundings. I therefore have:

brightly coloured folios in hardback for uplifting spiritual thoughts
a ‘gratitude book’ for the end of the day, to thank the universe for my blessings
my ‘observations’ book, where I log the conversations, mannerisms, annoyances and joys of the day
my ‘train book’, where I like to scribble whatever comes to mind, especially to rant about Continue reading →

does writing always improve with age and experience?

Posted on 15/08/2011 by inktuition

As I tussle with my novel that’s been in progress for the past five years, and berate myself for not having finished it yet, I take heart from a musician who has been writing songs for 19 years before releasing them. OK so Charlie Simpson – currently with Fightstar and formerly with Busted – is only 26, but he felt that he needed to accumulate enough ‘life experience’ to do those songs justice. Any earlier, and he wouldn’t have been in the right place for the lyrics to have meaning.

I admit to being a little concerned that my own novel, when it is finished, may be a little out of touch with where and who I am now. I wish I had written the Continue reading →

the healing power of a grief journal

Posted on 14/08/2011 by inktuition

Tears streamed down my face when I read about a woman who had lost her only child chart her journey through journaling. This post is really worth reading on Life Goes Strong, entitled Writing for Life: How Journal Writing Helps Heal One Mother’s Grief.

Writing really was therapy in this case, for Tamara Thomas, and the process took her through the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining and acceptance – and the tasks of mourning: to accept the reality of loss; to work through the feelings about that loss; to learn to live without the person you’ve lost; and to Continue reading →

rap star feels the therapeutic benefits of writing his life story

Posted on 13/08/2011 by inktuition

Writing down my ‘stuff’ – letting it flow on the page and then close the book on it – has long been my therapeutic secret. While it’s great to have a therapist with whom to share and pick over the darkest, most uncomfortable aspects of one’s character, there’s something about the easy availability and non-judgemental nature of pages in a notebook that are all-ears all times of the day.

Which is why it’s inspiring to hear how rapper Dizzee Rascal, in writing his autobiography with the aid of a ghostwriter, felt the process of telling his story was ‘like therapy’. He told the Evening Standard that he had lots of Continue reading →