Words Unlimited

Beginnings and Endings

I’m teaching two courses away from Goldsmiths this autumn. One for those starting to write and one for those who’ve finished their novel and need start the process of final revision.

Write Time, Write Place, a one-week course in October, is based in a gorgeous old town house in Sineu, country town and old Roman capital at the heart of rural Mallorca.

Is Your Novel Really Finished? Is a workshop for writers of children’s novels, part of the British SCBWI's 2nd Conference for Writers and Illustrators in November.

Let It Snow

Enough already! It’s Friday and the media is still buzzing about the buses not running in London for part of last Monday. Okay, there must have been some people who had urgent matters to attend and I’m sorry and hope you managed to walk, tube, cab, hitch a lift.  But once in every two decades can’t we have a spontaneous day off?  ‘Don’t travel unless you have to,’ said the bulletins. Yes. Leave what transport there is for those who need it.  Meanwhile, think how nourishing that snow is for your writing; the quality of the light, the whiteness of the freshly fallen flakes coating the world. Mesmerising. This whiteness is the opposite of the usual scary blank page/screen on a Monday morning. I spent most of last Monday morning in a meditative state, watching my garden become transformed. I finally went up to write at about 3 pm – unheard of, my best writing is always in the morning – yet the words flowed.  Please let’s not spend money on snowploughs that never get used. Instead, why not fund a few more national play days?  I have a feeling it isn’t just writers who could use more ‘blank’ days, some white space …

 

 

 

Writing in the midst of things…

Need a clear day before you can even think of writing a word? That’s the fantasy… right now, I have builders/decorators at every turn repairing my house [long story, best not to ask … note: this work is not of my choosing!] - will I sulk for 7 weeks or will I carry on writing?  Extreme conditions to test out how much chaos/noise I can tolerate and still keep writing.  My office at the top of the house is now under attack and I’m re-located to a corner of the living room, under the window a builder is drilling out old pointing. For months, I’ve put off launching this blog [ yes, I’ll do it when I have a quiet few days] now I’ve done it in what I would have thought to be the worst conditions  -  a personal  triumph... 

Poet Jane Kirwan and I send each other weekly prompts to start a new poem. The deal is we email the prompts on Tuesday morning. We don’t open the email until we’re ready to write.  When ready, we have twenty minutes to freewrite anything - no limits - firing off from what’s in the mail, not consciously aiming for a poem. Over the next twenty-four hours we can tidy up this mess into something resembling a poem, or we can just leave the mess with more mess scribbled in the margins.  We then send each other our respective drafts and make initial comments. Today, I saved my twenty minutes until the drill was at full throttle. Interesting. Didn't hear it after a few minutes as I delved into the phrase 'threatening animals.' 

Welcome...

Welcome to Words Unlimited. Why the name? I want to talk about all things related to reading and writing. The process of writing fascinates me as much as the end product - the poem that comes from nowhere, the novel that takes months [years] of slog and persistence. Why do some projects seem to write themselves while others feel like driving uphill with the handbrake on, in reverse?  What are the strategies writers employ to keep on facing the blank page? How do we constantly push past the limitations and take new creative risks? How reading surprises and triggers new writing. I talk and write about these in my teaching, write endless 'notes-to-self' as I work on novels, poems, essays so it seems a logical step to start writing here. Writing, is in effect, talking on paper [or screen]. For a while I'm sure these posts will remain notes to self but I hope they might invite a dialogue with other writers.