Storytime

My writing group has a different member hosting each month, which is a great way of running a group. There is variety, different perspectives etc. I was the host for our January meeting. January and November/ December meetings are different to our usual monthly meetings. The end of year one is a celebration of all that has been achieved. We look back on the year, reminisce over goals met and unmet, celebrate the successes and the near misses. Our January meeting is the one where we try to focus on what we would like to achieve for the upcoming year. Some members already have their goals planned and waiting to be achieved. Others, like myself, have no bloody idea...   The year is a blank page and I have to think on what I would like to do for the year. What I want to work on, continue with, experiment with etc... Often in January we do a goal setting exercise or three. This year I wanted to begin the year on a positive and (hopefully) beneficial vibe. I wanted us to

I do like to work to a schedule - or a plan. I like to be organised. Have an idea what I'm doing when. I work part time and for a long time my writing day was Wednesday, a day off. Simple. I would run a few errands in the morning, write the latest on this blog then spend the afternoon writing. Then it wasn't working. I found myself doing a bit of this.... I began to look after grandchildren more.  This, of course, is something  I LOVE ...but it does take away from free time writing. I also began to do this... Volunteering at Pakenham and District Toy Library. It's a great service, lovely bunch of families that come in...but once again it's chewing up the spare hours. Then there was this... Another grandchild, a grand son this time and of course we are so in LOVE with him. This meant (as with other grandchildren) lots of visits to ooh and ahhh and to offer a hand, shoulder, whatever is needed for the new parents. So my Wednesday's w

Just came back from a long weekend with my writing group- and once again it was a relaxing, nurturing, that much needed push in the right direction. Once again we found ourselves at the beach. As usual I went for walks (although this time no koalas were found - I had to make do with the odd wallaby or two, or four), took photos, talked and dreamed. There were great ocean views and stunning sunsets. We ventured further--- found some friendly faces some wonderful trees. And we wrote, we pondered, we discussed and debated. We workshopped and wrangled synopsis, edited and queried the joys of social media and which was right for us. I edited a whole manuscript while away---mind you it was hard work as the photo here clearly shows. I came home reluctant to face the real world. I wanted to stay and write, and think writerly thoughts. Be with people who know that talking about a book in process is like talking about family. But I also came back with a stronger focus

Hmm it's that time of the year when, as a writer, I begin to wonder what on earth have I done? I look at my goals for the year and even though there are notes, perhaps even scratchings on most of them....I'm still wondering what has been accomplished. My writing group last month also revisited their goals. It was an interesting meeting to hear how some have been working dedicatedly at knocking down their goals, systematically bit by bit. Some knew exactly what they were aiming for and what steps they would have to take to get there. Others were amazed at how different their actual accomplishments were to the goals they wanted to achieve at the beginning of the year.  And a few, who knew that this year would be unsettled for various reasons and hadn't made any goals were able to think of a few that could be achieved by the end of the year. But that is what is so fairy floss about goals. They are not set in concrete.  They are too easily moulded and reshaped, and whe

One of my goals for this year is to finish the YA novel that I began last year. I blithely stated - to my writing group- TO FINISH YA NOVEL. That was it. No word limit to hit, no date when to finish - nothing. Hmm perhaps you see the problem? With nothing definite I could write 10,000 words (is that really called a novel) and have it finished- first draft- by the 31st December. So, with the help of a writing buddy, we sat down and managed to cut this goal into biteable chunks. It was decided that because I write 'other stuff' as well as work on the novel- that a goal of between 700 - 1000 words a week was do-able.  And at first I thought, wow that's a lot of words. I mean I'm not solely focusing on the novel. I also write-  Poetry - short story- spoken word - book reviews (for work) - reinvent nursery rhymes and songs (for work) - non-fiction - not to mention editing, re-editing, final editing in the preparation for sending stuff out into the ether - and other s

I belong to a writing group, The Lazy River Writers (named after the restaurant/bar we first met not after our work habits!) and this year marks our tenth anniversary. Tenth I believe is tin- malleable yet with a strength that deceives. Fitting for the group. We began as a collection of strangers, brought together via a writing workshop run at Belgrave library. The tutor suggested that since we worked well as a group, we should keep meeting once a month. And so we have. Members have left, new ones arrived, some have left for a duration then returned. My husband often asks why a writing group? The answer is quite complex. Firstly it's for the support and understanding. All members of the LRW can relate to a month of rejections, even the nice ones. They understand the frustration when the words in our head don't magically appear on the page. They know there are the months when life intrudes and nothing gets written, those months when the best plans are tossed aside, or