‘There are no days more full in childhood than those days that are not lived at all, the days lost in a book.’ – John McGahern With this, I fully agree, and indeed, would extend the sentiment to adulthood. It is also what I have been doing myself since Christmas. Of course, the holidays always […]

‘Write about something you know and care about’… …and ‘write like you speak’. Two pieces of advice gleaned from Maeve Binchy’s biography last week. Ok, so it’s not exactly rocket science, but it helps to be reminded of these things, I think. It takes me back to last week’s note on emulating other people’s writing, or being […]

As my last post of 2013, tradition suggests that it should perhaps be both a reflective one and one which looks ahead to the year pending – 2014. I did, however, do most of my reflections of 2013 in a previous post, so am instead going to consider what I hope to achieve throughout the next year. A […]

Snow by Walter de la Mare No breath of wind, No gleam of sun – Still the white snow Whirls softly down Twig and bough And blade and thorn All in an icy Quiet, forlorn. Whispering, rustling, Through the air On still and stone, Roof, – everywhere, It heaps its powdery Crystal flakes, Of every […]

‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year…’ The Christmas tree glitters proudly as the fire blazes merrily in the hearth; the wind buffets the house but finds no way in to penetrate the cosy calm of the lamp-lit living room, where you might just find a writer scribbling away the hours; her little dog […]

On a cold winter’s night which followed a day of ferocious gales and stormy seas – when the wind tore through the north coast and the rest of Northern Ireland and left havoc in its wake – I really wouldn’t have been criticised for staying inside beside a nice cosy fire with my little dog. However, I had, rather ironically, […]

This week I bumped into a friend from my writing class of last year and discovered he has just written a play (despite multiple demands on his personal life at the moment) and, upon reflection, it has spurred me on to reinvigorate my own writing. Writers read and readers write, but sometimes it’s easy to get cocooned into one […]

This time last year I was immersed in weekly writing classes up until December, which not only inspired and encouraged creativity through the exercises we were set and the advice given, but also created links with other local writers and generated critical feedback. Indeed, the course inspired this blog and encouraged me to write short […]

In the past week, and it has only taken a week because ‘life’ will get in the way, I have been immersed in a fairytale and, as someone who has written their own fantastical tale, I could claim research into the children’s book market as my excuse for doing so. But I won’t. For you […]

Having ended my last post with reference to the fact that a ‘real writer’ is one who does just that and is spurred on by ‘the process’ of writing rather than the accolades which surround the successfully published writer, it led me to wondering this week about the motivation in writing and how to keep […]