Looking Forward

Wishing everyone a happy new year seems a little ironical this month as we head towards the threat of tighter restrictions, so perhaps a wish for a productive new year would be more appropriate.

During the coming months I will try to put forward some ideas to make us all feel more positive about our achievements, however small they might appear.

As writers we often have to wait patiently for recognition of the merit of what we have produced.

That’s one of the advantages of belonging to a writing group such as ours. You know that feeling: it’s one in the morning and you have just finished the last thousand words of your masterpiece or put the final twist at the end of your latest short story. But what now?

Family don’t always share your enthusiasm, (especially if they have just got to sleep or have an early start in the morning).

Friends can sometimes muster a word of congratulations but sometimes is not always right now.

So, who’s likely to be burning the midnight oil? Who is likely to share and understand your euphoria? Who has experience moments like this?

Of course, it’s your fellow writers.

They know the frustration of trying to find a receptive audience for your new baby and the long waits for shortlisting. They have probably known the angst of demands for rewrites and rejection letters bouncing through the letter box.

So, if you are writing or planning to write or even just trundling through lockdown with the seed of an idea fighting to surface, do seek out other like-minded people. Even if you can’t meet in person at the moment, it’s good to know someone supportive is there at the end of a phone line.

Must go now. I need to share the news that I’ve written a blog post before midnight.

Next month… I will be looking at how we plan (or don’t plan) our writing time.

Just an afterthought if you want a challenge:

We try not to pad out our writing by adding unnecessary words but those who might know better do not always conform to this idea. Perhaps you can find an example?

This one was on BBC Radio 4 this morning:

It was only a very short meeting with Dominic Cummings, ten minutes in length.

Might we have imagined that it was ten minutes in width or ten minutes in height?