To Travel Safely is Better than to Arrive

Like many parts of the country, Huddersfield had snow this morning. Not that unusual, you may say, although for the past few years we've become more used to torrential rain in the winter rather than snow and ice.

You'd think by now we'd have mastered simple things like how to get our car out of the drive and onto the main road, but there was still a sense of danger as I struggled to drive my car down the hill out of my cul-de-sac in first gear, stopping every few yards, just to make sure I could.

When I eventually made it to the Springwood Car Park, a large long-stay car park at the top of a hill on the outer edge of the Ring Road, new hazards awaited me. For a start, the car park hadn't been gritted and so driving along looking for an empty slot became a perilous experience. Even driving extremely slowly and carefully, I was still skidding, much to the consternation of a group of students who were merrily walking down the middle of the car park, apparently unaware of just how much danger they were putting themselves in.

Trying to manoeuvre the car ninety degrees to position it in an empty slot was an act of faith in itself, but I made it. But new, unforeseen problems awaited me. I got my handbag out of the boot and was fastening my anorak, ready for my expedition to the ticket machine, when it suddenly dawned on me that my car appeared to be moving. I got back in, drove a little bit further forward and engaged first gear as well as using my handbrake, which seemed to do the trick.

There I was standing next to my car, making sure it was safe and stationary, when I felt something big and solid and heavy press against my bottom. It was the car next to mine, which was sliding backwards into me! Once I'd got myself out of its way, I studied it and it became apparent that this innocent-looking vehicle was on the run! Slowly, but surely, the driverless car was making its way out of the slot and down the hill. I stood by, aghast but helpless.

In the end, I decided my only option was to report it to the police, so I dialled 999 and reported it, giving them the registration number of the car and its location. Then I went off to college, hoping that when I returned to my car, I wouldn't be faced with a scene of carnage and twisted metal.

By lunchtime, when I revisited my car, the runaway had gone and the cars opposite it didn't have any visible dents, but the nifty little sports car on the other side was halfway out of its slot. But at least it didn't seem to be moving any further as by then the snow had thawed. Looking along the car park, I could see a zig-zag line of cars which had tried to make a break for it and were poking out of their slots. It was most bizarre and a phenomenon I had never come across before.

It just goes to show that when you think you've seen everything, there's still something new for you to see. And arriving safely at your destination isn't the only difficulty that you face when you're driving in wintry weather. Staying put is quite a challenge too!

Making Time to Write

If you've been checking this blog and wondering why it suddenly came to an end, I can finally tell you.

There's no big secret. I didn't win the lottery and jack it all in for a life of luxury in the Bahamas. I didn't meet a sugar daddy who whisked me off to Monte Carlo for some retail therapy. (I expect my husband's quite glad about that - though he might have been happy for me to win the lottery!) I didn't see the light and decide to spend the rest of my life meditating in a cave in the Himalayas.

No, I'm afraid my excuse for not writing is probably fairly similar to yours. I've just been too busy! Too many classes to prepare, too much work to mark, too many books to read for my PGCE. Throw in a touch of flu, give it all a good stir, and you end up with the perfect mix for sabotaging writing.

I must admit, I didn't realise I'd neglected my blogs for quite so long. I was shocked to log on today and realise that my last blog was posted on 7th October. I certainly didn't realise I'd been away for so long, and I'm suitably chastened by this discovery. I need to take myself in hand. Not so much a matter of 'Physician, heal thyself!' as 'Creative writing teacher - set a better example!'

So what have been the highlights of the last couple of months, writing-wise? I'd have to say the best thing about this time has been getting to know my new students and being very pleasantly surprised at the progress they've made in such a short time. I've been amazed at the fantastic work I have seen, even from students who claim they've never done any writing before. It's quite a humbling experience to come face to face with so much talent, and quite a privilege to be asked to nurture it.

The University of Huddersfield has been running a competition called 'Grist', and several of my students have entered it, from all three of my classes. It's been very exciting to see them polishing up their short stories, presenting them so beautifully, then sending them off - a bit like seeing your child go off to school for the first time, I expect. Good luck to everyone who has entered. All I can say is that I'm glad I don't have to judge the competition, as it will be a tough job to have to choose from so many excellent entries.

If you've missed the deadline for this one, don't worry - there will be plenty more competitions to enter in the New Year.

Research on the Internet - D.H. Lawrence

I spent a very pleasant morning at the University of Huddersfield having my library induction. Not only are the newly refurbished facilities top-notch, but it's also amazing how much we can use the library's wonderful resources without even setting foot in the place!

Today I'm going to share with you one of the resources that the librarian told us about - one that you too can use on the internet without having to be a member of the university library. It's Intute.

When you search for something on Google, you may end up with lots of references which aren't what you're looking for. For example, if you were to type in 'hairdressing', you wouldn't just get articles about how to do hairdressing - you'd get hundreds of adverts as well for hairdressing salons and products.

Intute is a site that has been put together by university librarians and academics, so if you use it to search for something, you know that somebody reliable from the world of education has already filtered the sites it leads to and checked that what you find should be useful.

I decided to use Intute when I got home to find some more information on D.H. Lawrence, whose short story, A Sick Collier, my Thursday night class had been studying. Intute directed me to a website run by Nottingham University, which has a famous archive of works by and about D.H. Lawrence.

Particularly interesting was the D.H. Lawrence Portal which you can access by typing in www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/ This provides a wealth of information about the author, his works, and his links with the East Midlands. It's a great place to look if you want to find out about his life or to see some of the collieries that provide the backdrop to his writings.

Another useful site which I found was www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/dhl-00.htm.

It's possible to read lots of DH Lawrence's works straight from the internet, including A Sick Collier, which was originally published in The Prussian Officer and Other Stories (1914). If you type the name of the collection into Google, you should eventually find the text of the stories.

Finally, if you'd like to read about some of the greatest short story writers, there is a very informative article on the mantex site: www.mantex.co.uk/ou/resource/story-00.htm.

Happy browsing!

Be Specific!

When we're writing, it's easy to grab at the first word that comes into our head. Take, for example, the sentence:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth.

How about being more specific about what type of fabric the cloth was made of?

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a square of silk.

Or:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in her damask cloth.

You could also give a fuller description of the cloth, by naming the colour, but again, a little attention to detail goes a long way. Compare this sentence:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a red silk cloth.

with this one:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a crimson silk cloth.

You can also play with the word order to add greater emphasis:

The fortune-teller wrapped her Tarot cards in a cloth of crimson silk.

Doesn't that sound more poetic?

Try making simple changes like these to your writing and see how they bring it to life.

My Fiction Feast This Weekend

This weekend, I felt like taking things easy after a very busy week and so I decided to catch up with some fiction from TV, a DVD, and a novel - consuming them, that is, not writing them!

The TV was tonight's instalment, the final one, of the BBC adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I did find it very moving, but all the way through the adaptation, I wasn't sure whether I found the girl tragic or just plain stupid. I don't know whether the book would be more convincing and whether some of the mentality of the central character is lost in the transfer to the small screen.

Then again, I suppose as a liberated, educated, 21st century woman, it's hard for me to really get inside the mind of a character from such a different society. I suppose we were meant to admire her idealism and her loyalty to Angel Clare, but some of the time I did feel she was making life needlessly difficult for herself.

The DVD I watched was one I had been given for my birthday back in February but not got round to watching. It was still sitting on the shelf in its sellophane, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it last night, especially as I'm making a point of watching French films regularly these days.

It was La Vie en Rose, the acclaimed film about the life of Edith Piaf. It was a fantastic film and the actress who played Piaf did an incredible job. I must admit I managed to soak with my tears all the mansized tissues I had in my pocket and I didn't want to break the spell by getting up to look for some more, so watching it was rather a soggy experience. In fact, I can't remember when I cried so much at a film. If you haven't seen it, I can thoroughly recommend it.

The novel I carved out time to read was a Medieval romance, A Knight's Vow, by my friend and fellow creative writing tutor, Lindsay Townsend. Again, it had been sitting on my shelf since last term and it was only when our mutual friend, Kimm, told us last week that she was in the middle of reading it that I thought I'd better get on and read my copy too.

I wasn't sure at the very beginning whether I was going to like it, but by the second or third chapter I was really caught up in the feelings of the central characters and then I found it very hard to put down - I began reading it on Friday and finished it on Saturday. Lindsay certainly knows her history (she studied medieval history at university), and the details she includes are fascinating. If you would like to read an extract, log on to Lindsay's website, which I designed. It's at www.lindsaytownsend.co.uk.

If you don't normally read fiction, why not make it your goal for the month to read a novel. You'll find it makes a refreshing change from sitting in front of the telly all evening.

'Christmas Comes But Once a Year!'

When I was young, the run-up to the Christmas season used to last about a month. Santa would arrive in the big shops, and we children would get excited about our annual visit to see him. The silver Christmas trees would appear on the canopy of McGills, the department store opposite my flat, just as they had the year before and the year before that - in those thrifty days it didn't seem necessary to change the Christmas decorations annually.

But over the years, shops have gradually extended their Christmas shopping season. When my son was small, I used to think it began at half term, in the last week of October. That was when the shops were beginning to stock up with Christmas cards and gifts.

But this year, I was rather shocked to discover that my favourite local garden centre was already setting up its Christmas displays before the kids had even gone back to school after their summer holidays! Lots of other shops seem to be getting in on the act, too - even Lidl!

It seems a bit of a shame to me, as it's hard to stay excited about Christmas when you're thinking about it for a third of the year, instead of just a month. But on the other hand, what about those people for whom Christmas doesn't come just once a year? People who may be having their Christmas celebration at an unseasonal time?

It might be because the family can't get together at Christmas, so they're rescheduling it to fit in with them. Perhaps someone isn't sure that they'll still be alive and well enough to celebrate Christmas in December, so they're making the most of the time they have left. I have even heard of someone who is so mad about Christmas that they celebrate it every day of the year! I don't think I could cope with that much Christmas pudding though!

Why not use this as a trigger for your writing? You could write an opinion piece about how we've lost the spirit of Christmas by having the shops full of Christmas tat for months on end.

Or maybe you'd prefer a short story about someone who is celebrating Christmas in an unusual setting or at an unusual time of year. You might have a central character who is obsessed with Christmas or one who hates it and can't wait till it's over for another year. What would happen if they were thrown together?

One thing is sure - if you want to submit your Christmas story to a magazine, you'd better get a move on. Magazines really do start planning early for Christmas.

'You Shall Go to the Class!'

One of the most frustrating aspects of teaching in adult education is that for part-timers like me, who are paid by the hour for the classes we actually teach, our teaching hours and our income depend on getting enough students to enrol for our courses.

One of my courses had particularly low numbers this year, and we spent the last fortnight fearing that we might not be able to continue as the powers that be had told us our course would be cancelled unless we got more students. It was very frustrating both for me and for the students not knowing whether we would only last two lessons instead of twelve.

Fortunately, we have been given a reprieve and allowed to continue until the end of term, which is a great relief. We'll now be able to settle down and get on with the work we want to do without worrying about numbers and fretting over people who've not turned up to the class.

It's a bitter-sweet victory as we know that our survival probably means that another course will have been cancelled instead of ours and one of the other tutors will have lost some of her income. But we're glad the decision went our way.

Apparently, one of the factors which swayed the powers that be was the fact that the students were prepared to put an advert in the local paper at their own expense to try to attract more class members. It was regarded as proof of their commitment.

As far as I'm concerned, it's an indication that you should never say never - miracles do happen! Sometimes it does pay to take the initiative, even though you may feel like a small cog in a big wheel.

Settling In

We've had two weeks of adult education classes now and I'm starting to settle in and get to know my students. We're gradually sorting out the awkward admin work that eats into lesson time, making sure that everyone has filled in an enrolment form properly and paid their fees.

Practical niggles are being resolved too, like the fact that one classroom I teach in at a local secondary school has no board rubber. I have endured two lessons where I had to wipe the whiteboard with tissues, a laborious and messy process. But now I have managed to get a board rubber of my own from the adult education centre. I shall keep in my briefcase, on permanent standby.

It's really exciting to hear my students read out their writing to the class, especially if they are new to the course. I'm constantly surprised at how inventive they can be and how different everybody's writing is.

Already we are getting used to working together and all my classrooms are filled with the sound of laughter. In my view, a class that is relaxed enough to laugh is a class that is relaxed enough to learn.

I'm getting used to my PGCE class too - to being a student as well as a teacher - and I'm finding it useful. Not only do I have the support of my tutor and fellow students - it's also a handy place to find a well-qualified plumber or electrician if you need one!

The belly dancing enrichment classes have also restarted so I'm getting a physical workout at college every week as well as a mental one. I look forward to the return of my waistline.

I hope that you too are settling into the new term, as a student, a teacher, a parent. Education is a precious resource. Let's cherish it and make the most of it, whatever our age.

Strong Writing - Find a more Effective Word

One way you can make your writing stronger is to choose a powerful, interesting word, rather than a weak or overused one. Yesterday we looked at how we can improve our writing by choosing our verbs carefully. Today we're going to see how we can use a thesaurus to find just the right adjective.

A thesaurus is a book, rather like a dictionary, which helps you find words which have similar meanings. I'm currently using the big Collins Thesaurus A-Z which has a RRP of £25, but was on sale in WH Smith recently for £6.25. Let's use it to find alternative words for strong.

Under strong, we find fifteen basic meanings listed: powerful, fit, self-confident, durable, forceful, extreme, decisive, persuasive, pungent, highly-flavoured, keen, intense, staunch, distinct, and bright. The Collins Thesaurus lists several alternative words for each of these definitions of strong, and also includes opposites for several of them.

In this posting, I'm using strong to describe writing, so the best synonym, or equivalent word, from that list of basic meanings is forceful. Its given alternatives are powerful, intense, vigorous. So instead of saying,

You can use a thesaurus to make your writing stronger.

I could write,

You can use a thesaurus to make your writing more vigorous.

But if I was describing after-shave instead of writing, I might want to use a word that is listed under the pungent option, as these are more appropriate for smells and liquids: powerful, concentrated, pure, undiluted.

If, on the other hand, I wanted to describe a person who had a strong character, I might look at the self-confident option, where I would find determined, tough, brave, aggressive, courageous, high-powered, forceful, resilient, feisty, resolute, resourceful, tenacious, plucky, hard-nosed, steadfast, unyielding, hard as nails, self-assertive, stouthearted, firm in spirit.

So you can see that by looking up just one simple word, you can find numerous others which may give you the exact nuance you are looking for. Using more telling words (another one I found in the Thesaurus) will also make your writing more engaging and memorable.

Strong Writing - Choose Powerful Verbs!

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it's the adjectives you choose, the words that describe things, that makes your writing vivid. But sometimes you can make your writing a lot stronger by choosing verbs that are powerful and descriptive.

Take these two sentences for example:

The cheerful man walked down the street.

The man sauntered down the street.

Which sentence do you think is stronger? Although the second sentence doesn't even have an adjective and it's one word longer than the first, it's much more effective. Not only does the word sauntered describe the way in which the man walked - it also suggests something about his mood.

Compare these two:

The man walked home unsteadily.

The man stumbled home.

The second version is more economical. It expresses the same idea as the first sentence but in more neatly, without having to use the adverb unsteadily. (Remember, an adverb is a word that describes a verb.)

So when you next sit down to write, make your writing strong - choose powerful verbs!

Free Writing Booklets in The Guardian and Observer

It's that time of year when the newspapers are giving away freebies to try to get people to buy them regularly. It's been particularly useful for me and my class this week because The Guardian and The Observer have been giving away booklets every day about creative writing. They contain many handy hints, food for thought and writing exercises.

On Saturday 27th, The Guardian is also giving away a 110-page guide to English - another very useful free gift for my students. From time to time we discuss grammar and punctuation. There are always a few things that catch a lot of them out, so it's useful to do some revision.

Let's hope that all this talk of creative writing will inspire more people to put pen to paper and try it for themselves - or sign up for creative writing courses and discover the joy of discovering writing in the company of other like-minded people.

So do buy The Guardian this week or if you know someone who's a regular Guardian reader, ask them to let you have the creative writing guides. Happy reading!

After the Milestone - The Post-100 Posts Post-mortem

Yesterday's post was actually a milestone, and even I didn't notice! It was actually my hundredth blog on Blogspot.

I feel as if I should have done something to mark the occasion, like giving away a Renault or blowing out the candles on a cake. No doubt if I scoured the internet I would be able to find an animation of a cake with a hundred candles on it, but I'll make do with giving myself a pat on the back.

To have sat and blogged for a hundred days (even with holidays and a few gaps in between) is quite an achievement. It shows commitment, stickability, ingenuity, which are all qualities that a writer needs.

Anyone can claim to be a writer. Anyone can claim to have a book in them. But it's applying the bottom to the seat and knuckling down to write, day after day, that gets the work done.

I hope you're managing to apply that sort of stickability to your own career as a writer. Keep going, even when you don't feel like it. Turn your writing into a habit and soon you won't have to force yourself to sit down and write - it will become your pleasure, your daily fix of creativity.

Expect the Unexpected!

First of all, to those readers who have been logging on this past week expecting to see my daily blog, an apology! I've had a really busy week with PGCE tests, my new writing classes beginning, and a job interview, all in the same three days! By the time it came to write my blog, I was either still preparing lessons or absolutely exhausted.

But things are now back on an even keel, I hope. I've met and settled in my new students and welcomed back my existing ones, so the classes are starting to gel and I'm getting back into the swing of teaching. I should know by the end of the week how numbers are shaping up and how many students I am going to have in each class.

We've already had some very enjoyable lessons and it's been interesting for me to put some of the new ideas from my teacher training into practice, like an icebreaker exercise that my tutor used with us. I've adapted it to suit creative writing students and made it lead into another activity in which my learners assess where they are so far in their quest to learn to write and where they would like to get to in the course of the year.

I really like my PGCE tutor, Fran Valentine, and she has already been very supportive to me when I was preparing for my job interview. My referee, Gabriele, who used to teach me German, has also been a great help. I also feel much more at home in the college now, and not so much the new girl on the block.

Other than that two things happened this week that were unexpected. The first was the arrival on my mat of a crime writing magazine, Crimewave. I had subscribed to it quite some time ago, received one or two editions and then nothing for ages. I resigned myself to the fact that it must have gone bust, as that is not unusual in the world of specialist publications.

But it has returned, even glossier than ever. I shall look forward to reading it and I am especially pleased because the very first story in it is an extremely short one that I can use with all my students.

The second surprise came today. We'd had a family trip to Holmfirth to enjoy the sunshine and have a latte in our favourite cafe there. Browsing in one of the charity shops, I found a very solid-looking mahogany CD rack, which seemed the perfect solution to our storage needs. My husband thought we didn't have enough room to fit it in, but I assured him that we would.

I was right. There was the perfect spot for it in our living room, between the fireplace and the existing, overstuffed and rather rickety CD rack. I proudly manouevred it into position and prepared to load it up with CDs only to find that they wouldn't fit on. It was actually a cassette rack! A very handsome cassette rack, but no good for CDs or DVDs.

So if you live in the Huddersfield area and you need a cassette rack, e-mail me on gale.barker@tesco.net and you can pick up a bargain. Otherwise, it will be going to another charity shop next weekend.

Thomas Hardy

This has been a good week for lovers of Thomas Hardy. Earlier in the week, there was an excellent documentary about his life and work on TV and today the BBC started its three part adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The BBC, as usual, has done an excellent job.

Interestingly, Thomas Hardy first wrote novels like Tess as serials for magazines, and the editors would omit some of his writing because it was considered too scandalous. This was especially true of Tess, and of Jude the Obscure which dealt with subjects that were taboo in Victorian England. He did, however, reinstate some of the censored material when he published the stories as novels.

In his attitudes to sexuality and morality, he was probably out of kilter with his age. But he stayed true to his vision, in spite of the public outcry. It would have been easier to take the easy path and go along with what his publishers wanted, but he wasn't prepared to do that.

Would his books have been so powerful if he had only written what the establishment was prepared to hear?

Writing is Like Love

When they discover they are expecting another child, parents sometimes wonder how they could possibly love it as much as they love their existing offspring. They worry that there won't be enough to go round more than one child, but when the new baby arrives, they usually find that their love quotient per child hasn't been reduced - they have even more love to give.

Writing is like that. Your ability to write increases the more you do it. It isn't as if you have a set number of words inside you, 100,000 say, and once you've used them all up you'll have nothing left to say. You write more, you get more to write about.

Of course, it's a good idea to keep feeding your creativity so that the ideas you have to work on are good quality ones. But commit yourself to writing and the ideas you have to write about will automatically multiply.

Confessions of a Creative Writing Teacher - Why I Love Marking

A lot of teachers regard marking as a necessary evil, something that goes with the job but which encroaches on their precious free time. But I love it!

Marking my students' writing is one of the best things about the job. Being with them at their classes and teaching them face-to-face is pretty terrific too, but as I can't teach seven days a week, marking is the next best thing.

I think creative writing must be one of the very best subjects to mark as every piece of work is unique and every student has their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses and their own unpredicable learning curve.

Even if I set everyone the same task with the same stimulus material, I end up with stories that are totally different from one another and all fascinating in their own right.

Of course, you get to know people through their writing, more than you would through their maths or their IT homework. You get to know their interests, their preoccupations, their attitudes to life, their past. And it's all fascinating.

I used to wonder how my friend used to always remember the names of all her creative writing class members, because when I'd been a member of a class or group I might still not know everybody's name even though I'd known them for years! But once you've read and marked a student's writing, you not only remember their name, but you build up your own unique understanding of them as a person.

That's why, when I begin teaching again next week, I can't wait to get on with some marking. Bring it on!

Progressing in Fits and Starts

It's a well-known educational truth that people's learning doesn't follow a nice, even, upward line. We often progress in fits and starts. Sometimes we'll seem to be making really good, fast progress, then suddenly we'll appear to get stuck at a certain level for a while, then again we'll start to progress rapidly.

It's a bit like the way children grow. Any parent will know that sometimes a child's clothes will seem to last for ages, then all of a sudden they outgrow everything. I see that when I compare my son with his contemporaries. For ages, my son will be the tall one in the group, a good half-head taller than his friends. Then I'll see them all again a couple of months later, and they'll have nearly caught up with him.

Progressing in fits and starts can be a little bit disconcerting when you're trying to master a new skill. It's all very well when you feel as if you're making rapid progress, but it can be really frustrating when you hit a patch when you appear to be stuck or, even worse, when you appear to be sliding backwards. It's especially worrying when you don't understand why you've ended up in this stuck patch.

This is something that affects creative people too, both when we're learning our new craft and when we're practising it professionally. It would be lovely if everything were predictable and we were so in control of our creativity that we could maintain a steady output, nicely spread over the year, with spaces for holidays.

But in real life, it just doesn't happen like that. All we can do is be grateful when things are going well, when we are full of ideas, when we are working fast and delighting ourselves by our output. And when we hit a plateau and things aren't going too well, the best thing to do is not to worry about it.

Remember that change is one of the constants of life. Our mantra for the tough times must be 'This too will pass.' We will become more productive; the barriers to our understanding will be lifted; eventually, we will be on an upward trajectory once again.

Have faith - and trust in your creativity!

Off the Beaten Track

I'm sitting writing this at five past four in the afternoon, which is unusual for me. Writing my blog entries is usually something I do in the evening, often at ten or eleven o'clock at night. It's a sort of winding down activity for me, a chance to reflect on the day when I'm in that hazy half-awake state before I get ready for bed.

Today my routine will be different because by the time I get back from my salsa classes at ten o'clock Andy Murray, the Scottish tennis player, will be playing the final of the Grand Slam and I shall want to watch that. So here I am, at least six hours too early, feeling a little bit uncomfortable because I've stepped outside my usual routine.

But I know that in this case, the change will do me good. It will be exciting to watch such a momentous tennis match, even if Murray doesn't manage to beat Federer. It's interesting for me to sit down and write a blog in the middle of the day and see how I cope with it and what the result will be.

Going off the beaten track in any aspect of our lives throws up new challenges and new possibilities. We let forego the safety net of our familiar routine and leap into the unknown. It might be a big leap, like jacking in our job and going to work in a lumberjack colony in North Borneo. It might be a little leap like buying a vegetarian lunch instead of our usual burger.

The big leaps, like the move to North Borneo, may be too much for us to cope with, so it's often better to begin with a smaller jump, like taking a different route to work, reading a different newspaper or signing up for an evening class in a subject we've never tried before.

We can gradually expand our comfort zone and become more flexible in our attitudes and our activities. Flexibility is a useful attribute to work on as the only thing that's certain in this world is that change happens. The more comfortable we become with it, the easier it will be to cope with it when it is forced upon us unexpectedly, if we face a bereavement or if we suddenly lose our job.

Flexibility is also an extremely useful quality for a writer to have. A person who is flexible and can adapt to different circumstances and settings will probably find it easier to be imaginative because he will be used to seeing things from different angles. Being able to accept new people and new situations also helps us to see them for who they really are instead of falling into the trap of making an assumption about them and making our view of them fit in with our pre-conceived notions.

There! I've taken my small leap for the day by writing my blog in the afternoon. Tomorrow I take a slightly bigger one by beginning my PGCE (teacher traing course). Wish me luck!

Do Clothes Make the Man?

My son's new school term begins tomorrow and he's going back with a new suit, even though he's only 14. The school reviewed its uniform policy last term and decided to ditch the familiar blue blazers and grey or black school trousers or skirts in favour of black suits to be worn with an orange and black school tie (to match the school's new orange logo).

It struck me that it must feel slightly odd for a teacher to be confronted with a class full of young teenagers who are sitting in black business suits. But then it must feel even more odd for the staff at Eton whose pupils wear frock coats and wing collars.

That got me thinking about the clothes that people wear and the sort of judgement we make about them because of the way they dress. I remember one lady I knew in Buckinghamshire who was a farmer's wife, salt of the earth, but she dressed a bit like a bag lady.

She once went to look at a show house and the estate agent was very snooty to her, as if to say, 'There's no point in showing you our houses as you wouldn't be able to afford them.' Little did the estate agent know that this middle-aged lady with scruffy hair and no make-up owned a farm that was worth ten times the cost of the most expensive show house!

Some actors say that if they want to get inside a character they are going to play and really understand them, then they need to wear the character's shoes. Once they get used to the feel of the shoes, they know what the character's walk will be like and then everything else falls into place.

How could you use some of these ideas when you're creating your own fictional characters? Could you make a person look and dress contrary to their type, so that they are an enigma to the people they meet? Could the character have a particular item of clothing or a particular accessory that is the key to understanding them?

What is it about them you need to know or imagine for them to really come to life in your mind?

Enjoy Your Talent, However Small

This morning I was back at Music Centre to play in two bands, along with a dozen or so adults and several hundred children - not to mention the parents and grandparents who had brought their children along and who sat and listened to them play for an hour and a half.

I have some musical talent, but it's relatively modest. I didn't start learning clarinet and saxophone till I was in my forties. I don't pick things up as quickly as I used to and my fingers are clumsy, but I have a fairly good ear. I know I would be better if I practised for an hour a day on each of my instruments, but I can't see that happening in the near future.

So I'm happy to sit in Junior Band with my saxophone next to a ten-year old and a twelve-year old, knowing that although I may be better than they are at writing university essays about music and I have a Dip. Mus. after my name, I don't have their natural talent. And I know I'll never play as well as their dad who is a very gifted professional saxophonist and composer.

But to me, it's still a great thing to be able to make music with other people. It's thrilling to sit and play as part of a large band and hear the wonderful sound we make together and realise that I'm part of that too. It's great to have something to work towards and people to share my interest with. It's fascinating to discover new music and revel in the sheer delight of it - and I can't wait to play the 'Pirates of the Carribean' medley again in Intermediate Band!

If you're just starting to write or you're beginning writing classes or workshops, maybe you doubt your talent as a writer. There are so many fantastic books that have been published, so much wonderful poetry, powerful plays for stage or television. Where you are seems a long way off from the achievements of these marvellous writers. How can you ever hope to bridge the gap?

It's easy to think it's all too difficult and you're too ordinary. You don't have that magic something that all these famous writers have. You'll never have books in the bestseller lists or write plays like Shakespeare.

But think of yourself as joining in the music. Think of yourself as a small part of a big band in which everyone is playing different instruments. Alone, you may feel feeble and inadequate, but when you join forces with others the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When you write, even in a small way, you are part of the symphony of words and creativity that is formed by writers everywhere. You are adding your own unique sounds, your signature flourishes to it, and your contribution helps to increase the total creativity of the universe.

So when you sit down with your pen and paper and worry that you may not have what it takes to be a writer, don't worry. Be happy! Enjoy your talent, however small! You may not know it, but really, we're all playing the same tune.

Rain - Reasons to be Cheerful

Today in Yorkshire we've had torrential rain for most of the day, and I gather it has been even worse in some parts of the country. I spent the afternoon trailing round town with my son, looking for the last few bits and pieces he needed to take back to school with him and getting very wet in the process. Even with an umbrella, it wasn't very pleasant to be outdoors.

But it looks as if this extremely wet weather is set to continue for the foreseeable future, so we might as well put it to good use. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, as they say. Let's think about some reasons why we should be cheerful about this rainy weather and grateful for it. Doing so will certainly stretch our imagination, so let's treat it as a warm-up exercise to increase our creativity.

I'll get you started with a couple of fairly obvious reasons:

We can be grateful for the rain because...

...plants need water to grow
...it will keep the reservoirs topped up.

It's your turn now. Try to come up with ten reasons why we should be grateful for the rain. Not only will the activity develop your creativity, it should also make you feel a bit more cheerful and happy to be alive, rather than miserable and fed-up.

How My Death Saved My Life

Now that's an interesting title, isn't it? Fortunately, it doesn't refer to me and my life - it's the title of an autobiography by the American speaker, author and visionary, Denise Linn.

I encountered Denise Linn through listening to broadcasts on the internet from Hay House Radio. Denise has a regular radio show which I really enjoy listening to on my podcasts and she's one of my favourite broadcasters, lovely and warm and empathic and full of joy.

I did know a little bit about her life as she'd talked on air about the incident which provided the title for her book. When she was younger she was shot by a sniper and suffered horrendous injuries as a result. The medics thought that she wouldn't survive the attack and had to fight to save her life.

What I knew nothing about was her extraorinary childhood in which she had to cope with a mother who was a paranoid schizophrenic. It makes riveting reading, hearing about her turbulent early years. It's a real miracle that someone who endured an upbringing like hers could manage to turn into someone so calm and cheerful, who could help and inspire so many other people.

If you like biographies, or if you are interested in spirituality, healing or mysticism, I heartily recommend this fascinating book.

Creating New Writing Classes

Some creative writing lecturers drift on from year to year with basically the same class full of basically the same people, shedding one or two students from time to time, picking up a couple of new ones. I might be in that position tomorrow night when the enrolment takes place for the course, 'Continuing to Develop in Creative Writing', which is a follow-on class for my last year's Open College of the North West students. Most of them are keen to return, although I'm very pleased that I already know of a few new people with some writing experience who are going to join us.



But today has been the day for forming completely new classes, two brand new classes, both on 'An Introduction to Creative Writing', but one a daytime class, the other an evening class, and in two different centres. It was a fascinating experience to meet so many new students all in the one day and to hear about their reasons for wanting to write and their writing aspirations.



There are the makings of two very nice classes. I hope we manage to recruit a few more students to ensure that the classes will be big enough to run, but we've certainly got a really good core of very interesting people. It's been really useful for me to be able to meet them all and talk to them before the first class so that I will be able to tailor my teaching to their needs and preferences, even at Week 1.



Meanwhile, I've been continuing to market my courses. It's a curious development that institutions can no longer afford to publicise their adult education by sending out a prospectus to every household in the locality - if we tutors want to make sure we have students, we need to be pro-active and do some marketing for ourselves.



I spent part of Monday morning getting my son to help me design a poster using the Word Processor so that I would have something that I could give to libraries and shops to spread the word about my courses. I gave out some of them on Monday and Tuesday to various venues.



I happen to have sent a copy to one of my students, a graphic designer, who very kindly produced a much more professional-looking flyer for me to use, based on the information I'd provided. Thank you, Mark. Your word has been much admired in the Adult Education Department and my boss is now encouraging the other tutors do do their own marketing too! I'm a trend-setter!



So I spent this wet and windy afternoon driving round Huddersfield, exploring parts of Almondbury which I'd never been to before, taking even more of the new, super-duper improved posters to other venues. I hope the flyers will prompt a few more people to enquire about the courses and enrol for them. Time is running out, in that my last enrolment session is tomorrow evening, but it will still be possible to enrol after that by ringing The Manse Adult Education Centre.

I was delighted when one of this morning's new students produced one of my posters from her bag and told me that the librarian at the Central Library had given her it when she asked if there were any creative writing classes available. That one obviously did what it was meant to do - and I'd only handed it in to the library less than 24 hours beforehand!


To all my students, returning and newly enrolled, and to all those of you around the globe who are starting or continuing with writing courses this term, may you have a very happy and rewarding learning experience and develop in your craft!

Autumnal Images for Writing

Here in the north of England, it's just starting to turn autumnal. The darkness is falling earlier; we're finding the mornings darker too; and the leaves are starting to turn to their familiar seasonal shades of red and gold. It's the time of year when we may remember the line, 'Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness' and feel like writing a poem of our own.

To write a poem about autumn, why not go for a little walk in a park or a tree lined street and observe your natural surroundings. Pay attention to the little details like which trees are starting to turn first. In my garden, it's usually our Norway Maple that's the first to blush red and shed its leaves.

Listen to autumnal sounds like the crackle of feet on dry leaves (or with the weather we've had, it might be the swish of windscreen wipers as cars drive through flooded roads!) Most of our local children will have gone back to school by the end of this week. We saw a couple of children running round a shop this afternoon, giggling non-stop. What sounds do you hear from a school playground the first week when the children go back to school?

Jot down some words or phrases that come to mind and see if you can come up with words that reflect the sounds of autumn. 'Crisp' is one that comes to mind - it conjures up the crunchy sound and texture of dry leaves on pavements and also ties in with idea that apples are ripe for picking.

Good luck with your autumn poem - e-mail me your finished work to gale.barker@tesco.net and I'll display the best ones on this blog.

Word Games for Everyday Life

I was driving along the other day with my family when we spotted a driving school car which had the school's name on the top of the vehicle. It was 'Pass with Pete'.

'It's a good job he wasn't called Fred,' said my husband, 'or else the driving school might have been "Fail with Fred"'.

At this point we all came up with more and more outrageous names for a driving school based on people's names. We got as far as 'Carnage with Colin' and 'Massacre with Miranda.' It's amazing what you can do with alliterations!

We all had a good laugh anyway, so it brightened up what might have been a rather routine journey home.

When you're driving or walking around this week, see if you can spot any signs with alliterations like 'Pass with Pete' and set yourself the challenge of coming up with some unorthodox variations. You never know, the game might even spark off some ideas for a short story.

Have fun!

Do Something Different This Autumn - See a Play

It's that time of year again when theatre and concert brochures are landing on the doormat as establishments send out their new programmes for the Autumn Winter season.

I used to often have a season ticket for a couple of theatres and I always enjoy seeing what's going to be on, although I don't have quite so many free evenings these days to go to a play or a concert. It's certainly difficult for us to find a time when the whole family is free to go to something unless we're on holiday.

But I know that when I do manage to see live theatre, it's usually an enjoyable and memorable performance.

If you've never been to see a play or haven't been to one for a long time, why not have a good look at the brochures you receive and make a point of booking for one? It's very likely that you'll wonder why you don't go to the theatre more often.

Make Room for Your Creativity

Even in this so-called 'paperless' age, writers seem to collect more bits of paper than anybody - books (which take up huge amounts of space, especially if they're hardbacks), notebooks, print-outs of their own writing, notes, scraps of paper with interesting web addresses written on them, leaflets, newspapers and magazines collected for research.

The trouble is that it all very quickly accumulates and before you know it you can hardly find space to sit at your computer because of the room that all the bits of paper are taking up. And you can't easily go through and chuck out the oldest bits because they're hidden behind the newer ones. So the problem gets bigger and bigger.

The most frustrating thing is if you want to put your hands on something you've written or some notes you've kept, but you can't possibly find them in the morass of material. It means that it was a waste of time to keep the stuff in the first place.

Do you detect the note of frustration here? Do I sound as if I'm taking more than an academic interest in this subject?

Yes, as you may have gathered over the past few weeks, I have been having an almightly de-clutter and file-in. I have so much stuff that the job has taken me several weeks, time when I could have been doing other useful things like sending stories off to magazines or writing articles for Triond.

But I knew the job needed to be done and if I didn't do it now over the summer holidays, it would be a long time before I had the time to tackle it again. So I have stuck at it.

A lot of the time the situation seemed to be getting worse rather than better. I'd done quite a good job of acquiring box files and sorting out lots of my papers into them, but the trouble was that I still had nowhere to put them.

Today I started to empty some more bookshelves to clear some space for them and for a while I seemed to be surrounded by so many tottering piles that every time I turned round I was in danger of starting an avalanche.

However, some of the stuff that's going to go is now sorted out - books for the charity shop in a box, singing books for my son to try to sell at school in a nice strong carrier bag, at least one bin bag of junk in the wheelie bin. I'm getting there, gradually.

I know I have to press on for these last few days as time is running out. The first of my college staff meetings is tomorrow morning (yes, I know it's a Saturday!). Then next week I have three sessions of enrolling students for my new classes and the week after that my In-service PGCE (teaching qualification) begins, so it will be all go!

I'm determined that I start of the term with a place for everything and everything in its place. Not only will it mean that I have a better chance of finding what I need for my classes, but I will also know where all my ongoing pieces of writing are, so it will be easier to carry on with it, or tackle new pieces.

Psychologically, too, it will be much easier to work in an orderly, tidy room, and it will be better for my asthma too if I don't have so many dusty old papers around me. You will appreciate how much of a hoarder I am if I tell you that I still had photocopies of music we used for school concerts when I was at grammar school back in 1975!! There's no way I'm ever going to need those again, and you can carry sentimentality too far!

Maybe you're better than me at keeping your workspace orderly. Maybe you live in a bigger house with lots of cupboards where you can stash away all your bits and pieces. Maybe you just don't accumulate stuff the way I do.

But why not spend a few minutes thinking about whether you could make a bit more physical space for yourself to be creative? A little bit of time spent having a de-clutter could give you more mental space and energy in the long run.

Bonus Features of the Collins English Dictionary

The dictionary I mentioned yesterday has some interesting bonus features. If you buy the dictionary, you are given a special 4-digit serial number with which you can access the online version of the dictionary and thesaurus or get downloads for your desktop.

So not only do you get a splendid and very useful dictionary, but you also get online resources with it too.

I've had great fun with the dictionary already. Yesterday, in my Writing Wizard blog, I included a word quiz based on words that can be found in the dictionary. Do log on to Bloglines to have a go at the quiz. You can find it at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/GaleBarker. It's the entry for 26th August 2008. The answers to the questions can be found in the entry for 27th August 2008.

Get to Love Words - Buy a Dictionary

Do you remember a few months ago I wrote about how I'd bought a fantastic huge Thesaurus in a sale at a bargain price? Well, today I bought the dictionary to go with it. It's called Collins English Dictionary and it was on sale in WH Smith for £6.25, which is fantastic value as the original recommended price was £25. That makes a saving of 75%.

There are 1040 pages of definitions plus a further 47 pages of other information - everything from British and Canadian Prime Ministers to Member States of the EU and even several pages about music. I love it! I could sit and read it all day!

It reminds me of the time when I got my first school dictionary back in the 1960s. My primary school class had learned to read sufficiently well to be issued with a dictionary as well as a reading book.

What we were given was an etymological dictionary - one which gives the sources from which the words were derived. I loved reading about these, especially the Latin and Greek words and I was delighted when I was eventually able to learn these languages for myself.

Meanwhile, at the tender age of 6 or 7, I'd read the dictionary every night the way other kids read comics - two or three entire pages at a time! I was fascinated by all these marvellous words, and I still am to this day.

Here are some of the words I've enjoyed reading about today. Perhaps you'd like to look them up in your own dictionary or in one of the online dictionaries you can find on the internet.

mojo - zucchetto - Chiltern Hundreds - percipient - sloop - lubricious - raddled

Creativity in Action

This weekend, I've been at some concerts at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester. They're part of Chetham's International Summer School and Festival for Pianists. It's a fantastic event which attracts pianists from all over the world and the daily recitals are given by top-class concert pianists such as Peter Donohoe.

Last night, I happened to be sitting next to the Festival's artist-in-residence, Brian Dunce, who was sketching the pianists as they played. It was fascinating to be able to watch a professional artist at work, and I felt it gave me a different insight into the creative process.

Non-artists like myself would be tempted to go for what we consider to be the essential details: the shape of the head, the nose, eyes (almond shaped, of course!), mouth, teeth, the way a child does when drawing a person.

But the professional artist starts with something that is quite amorphous and gradually refines it, altering the contours, marking in the eye sockets, taking into account the bone structure. He examines his subject to see how the various parts are proportioned. Slowly, bit-by-bit, the portrait takes shape.

Another thing that interested me is that the artist experiments. He makes sketches of the face, the body, the pianist's hands on the keyboard. He jots down notes for himself of little details he wants to remember, like the colour of the person's tie, or the way the pianist holds his hands. Sometimes, he will sketch the same thing several times, trying each time to get closer to the essence of his subject.

Then he goes away and reflects on what he has done, and works on a painting which he bases on all of his drawings. It is as if he has been exploring the person he is going to paint, getting to know them, working out how best he can represent him. When he's at the sketching stage, nothing is fixed - it's all trial and error. He's going to have a go and see if something works, but he won't be too upset if it doesn't.

That seems to me to be something that we writers could incorporate into our creative process. Give ourselves time and space to experiment, to try things out. Don't feel we have to jump in at page one of our grand novel and keep writing till we get to the end. Get the feel of what we are writing about.

Let ourselves gradually get to know our characters, explore our settings and the emotions we want to convey, try things out till we discover what will work for us in this particular creation. Eventually, like the artist, we will put it all together and end up with a finished piece of work.

Write to Music

Some people like to have something playing in the background all the time when they are working, writing, or studying - the TV, radio, music. I prefer silence, as a rule, as I am so fond of music that if it were playing, I would be tempted to stop what I'm doing and concentrate on what I'm hearing instead.

But music can play an important part in your writing routine by helping you to relax, by putting you into an inspired, creative frame of mind, or by getting you into a particular mood.

Why not try writing to music this week? Put on a different type of music each day you sit down to write and see what effect it has on your creativity. Don't forget to make a note of what you listened to and how it affected your writing. Does it make any difference whether you are listening to the music through headphones?

Here are some suggestions to get you going:

• Beethoven's Eroica Symphony
• Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto (especially the end section which is less familiar to most people)
• The Magic Flute by Mozart
• The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky
• Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet
• Anything by Abba
• Traditional or folk music, such as Scottish country dancing music, Irish jigs
• New Age ambient music
• Brass band marches
• Gregorian chant

If you find a piece of music that particularly affects your writing or which you enjoy writing to, write a comment at the foot of this blog and share it with me and my readers.

Happy listening!

'To Boldly Go...'

There are times when only a split infinitive will do. 'Boldly to go' doesn't have the same ring to it; neither does 'To go boldly'. But 'To boldly go...!' Now you're talking!

There's no place in writing for timidity. Writing is where you take risks, try things out. If something doesn't work, it doesn't really matter. No one ever died from bad writing!

You can always edit what you've written afterwards if you really think you went too far, pull yourself back in. But if you don't take the risk in the first place to breathe life and fire into your writing, it will be much harder to put right.

Timid writing is bland. Timid writing does nothing for the reader. Timid writing does nothing for you either, because inside of you is a powerful man or woman with fantastic ideas that are bursting to get out, if only you'd stop sucking in your stomach, crossing your legs, and trying to keep them all safely inside.

Give yourself a break. Be a free spirit for once. Let your imagination, your pen, your computer keyboard take you to voyage in unexplored realms, to feel powerful emotions. Set off on your journey with nothing like Dick Whittington with your imaginary bundle on your back and hope in your heart, and see whether the streets of the imagination really are paved with gold.

There's a whole big world out there.... inside of you... waiting for you to explore it. Go boldly, my friend!

Clearing a Path to Be Creative

You know how there are some days when you feel as if you are surrounded by muddle and chaos but you just can't summon up the strength to do anything about it and other days when you set to and get on with sorting it all out.

Today was one of the days I felt like sorting it all out. I felt I'd been given some bonus hours as I was meant to be going swimming with my son, but he didn't feel well enough to go. By that time, I'd made an excellent start of clearing out my In Tray and Pending Tray which had both been full to overflowing for months. In fact, I found some useful things in there which I didn't know I had.

I was delighted to see empty space there for a change, and now that I've bought several more box files, I actually have somewhere to put the things I need to keep.

I also managed to deal with most of our shredding mountain, another job that nobody seemed to want to tackle. Heartened by these two small victories, I feel better able to get back to sorting out my study, which has been my big holiday task. I'm starting to identify things I can get rid of to make way for the things I really do need to keep and want to keep.

All this might sound like a purely physical pursuit, but I happened to be listening to a CD by Sonia Choquette today which talked about the need to get rid of what you don't need or love or find beautiful to make way for all the new things that are going to come into your life, whether they be relationships or job opportunities or objects. Clearing out is also a spiritual activity and one that relates to our creativity.

We sometimes talk about being 'stifled'. We can be stifled creatively if we don't leave ourselves they physical and mental space in our lives to exercise our imagination and our creativity. Cramming every moment of our lives with work and activities, leaving no space or silence to listen to our inner voices stifles our self-expression. How can we express ourselves if we haven't ever listened to what it is we need to express?

So I am happy to persevere with my mission to clear a pathway to be creative. Perhaps you could take a step towards this too, whether it's deleting hundreds of e-mails from your in-box, getting rid of some old newspapers, or forging ten minutes to sit and be silent with your thoughts.

Summer Writing - Go with the Flow

Summer Down Time

One of the nice things about summer, even when the weather is atrocious as it has been this year, is that for most of us the pace slows down. Students and teachers are on holiday and lots of people find their work changes pace because so many of the people they normally interact with are away on holiday.

Since I got back from my holidays, I've been feeling quite chilled out and laid back. I'd done most of the things on my To Do list before I went away, so there isn't anything really urgent that will make me feel guilty if I don't rush and get it done. It will be another couple of weeks before things start to hot up again.

So how am I reacting to not being under pressure? Normally I enjoy having a deadline and really put a spurt on, but this week I'm enjoying going with the flow. There are things I could be writing or sending out, there is more de-cluttering I could be doing, but there's no rush.

Time to Be Creative

One of the things I've enjoyed is the chance to use my creativity in a slightly different way. I've always enjoyed words, languages, writing, but never really been one for craft work or art. But since I began having Reiki treatments, I've become a lot more passionate about colour and a lot more interested in using it. So I've been using my hands and being creative.

Making My Wish Box

The first thing I turned my hand to was a Wish Box of my own. It was something I'd read about in a sprirituality/self-help book. The idea is that you get a box, decorate it, and fill it with lots of things that express what you wish for yourself in the future.

I'd been collecting bits and pieces for it since last Autumn, but they'd been sitting in a big carrier bag in my study doing nothing for months. But this month I finally got round to doing something with them.

I took an ordinary brown box and used coloured card and paper to cover most of it, then embellished it with lots of paper stickers and epoxy stickers, the sort you can buy for making greetings cards or scrapbooks. I decided to make the outside of my box express my wishes too, so I used stickers of things I want in my life such as cats, musical instruments, butterflies, musical notes and even words such as 'Reiki' and 'salsa'.

Once the outside of the box was as I wanted it, I set about filling the box with all sorts of things that had meaning for me, like a little dancing shoe to show that I want to keep on dancing, angel Christmas tree ornaments to symbolise spirituality, and special cards I'd received that show how much I'm appreciated. I even added rose and lavender scented pot pourri to enhance the overall effect and little silver cut-out angels, stars, and hearts.

It will be interesting to open the box in ten or twenty years time and see how many of my wishes have come to fulfilment. Meanwhile, I have it sitting in my study and I can look at it every so often and remember all the special things and people I have in my life and all the things I still want to accomplish and experience.

Creating Boxes for my Instant Writing Exercises

Having done that, I decided to decorate some other cardboard boxes so that I can use them with my students for instant writing exercises. If you've been following my blogs for some time, you may remember me writing about my Box of Delights, a lovely brown suede box which I filled with lots of objects for an instant writing exercise then tied up with a big shocking pink bow.

I thought that there are lots of other prompts I would like to use for writing exercises this coming year, and it would be fun to make colourful, inspirational boxes to put them in, so I've decorated boxes of various sizes with paper and stickers, so that the containers will be a source of inspiration as well as the contents.

I know I could have used the boxes as they are, but what fun is there in a Nike trainers box? I'd much rather look at my decorated version. The task has tested my ingenuity too, as I've had to work out ways to cover up the labels and the Nike symbols. I've certainly enjoyed the exercise and I hope my students will find the boxes fun too, and they will give them even more pleasure when I produce them for instant writing exercises, filled with all sorts of stimulating things - objects, pictures, cards...

Find Your Own Way to Be Creative

If you've got a bit more time on your hands than usual, maybe you could try being creative in a way that's new to you and see what effect it has on you. You've nothing to lose, and you may surprise yourself by how much you enjoy a new activity. Your new-found creative imagination will provide a boost for your writing as well, when you eventually return to it.

So go on! Be creative! And have fun!

An Inspirational Non-Fiction Classic - The Monk who Sold his Ferrari

I love books with intriguing titles and this one certainly has one - The Monk who Sold his Ferrari. It's by Robin S. Sharma and it's subtitled 'A Spiritual Fable about Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny'.

It's ideal reading for anyone who feels oppressed by the relentless demands of the rat race but hasn't yet figured out how they can stop being a rat. It tells the tale of a hard-nosed, driven trial lawyer who has a health crisis and goes off to find himself and recreate his life by studying the traditions of the East.

It's a fascinating, thought-provoking, and inspiring book, which packs a lot of wisdom into a charming and captivating story. If you feel jaded with life and resent the fact that it is passing you by, this is definitely the book you need to read to set yourself on a more positive track.

Even if you don't have a Ferrari to sell, it will help you to identify what is really important in your life and how you can work out a balance for yourself which will help you find enlightenment, health and true satisfaction.

The Boleyn Inheritance

You might remember that I wrote a couple of months ago about how I'd been reading Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl for our Writers' Novel Reading Group and how I'd really enjoyed it, even though I didn't expect to.

I took advantage of some down time on holiday to read the sequel to it, The Boleyn Inheritance, which continues the story of Henry VIII and his wives after the death of wife number three, Jane Seymour. It's told from the point of view of three characters. One of them, Jane Boleyn, appears in The Other Boleyn Girl, as she is the unappealing wife of George Boleyn and the sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn. The other two are new to us - Anne of Cleves and Katharine Howard.

It's very interesting to see how the author switches viewpoint between the three and how our views of them and our sympathies change as the story progresses. Our attitude to Henry VIII also alters throughout the book - although for anyone who has read The Boleyn Inheritance, we don't start off with a very good opinion of him in the first place.

I found this book gripping and managed to read it very quickly. I think I probably enjoyed it all the more for having read about the events that happened before it. It would be interesting to hear how it would come across to someone who begins with The Boleyn Inheritance instead of The Other Boleyn Girl.

Reading both books has certainly given me a totally different understanding of the history of Henry VIII. I think I can probably even manage to name the queens in order now, as well as identify what happened to each of them. In fact, my knowledge of English history has increased incredibly quickly, a very useful by-product of a couple of very entertaining and absorbing reads.

A Pause for Thought

Remember what I said yesterday about how you sometimes need a break? Well, I'm taking a few days off to relax with the family and gather my strength for the coming term.

I'm looking forward to getting on with some more writing when I get back - I have lots of ideas for articles - but I'm very relieved to be escaping the grand de-clutter for a few days!

I've made a lot of progress, but there's still quite a lot to do and I'm getting to the stage where I'm started to lose things that I had right under my nose a couple of days ago. I think that means I need a break. I need to say 'Stop! Breathe! Rest! Clear your head!'

If you're short of things to read, you could log on to Triond.com and call up my Profile page which will link you to lots of other pieces that I've written. Of course, there is quite a sizeable back catalogue on Blogger too, so do read some pieces I wrote earlier, if you haven't already done so.

Normal blogging service will be resumed on Monday 18th August. Till then, goodbye and take care...

Gale

Do You Need a Rest from Your Writing?

It's something that often happens when we've been working intensively on a project or struggling to meet a dealine - once the pressure's off, we slump, our brain seems to close down, and we feel as if we're incapable of doing anything. How can we manage to write books, create poems, finish a thesis ever again? Even the thought of it makes us feel exhausted.

The truth is that sometimes we just deplete our energy reserves and we need to have a rest and build them up again before we attempt anything else. This applies especially if we've been involved in a creative endeavour in which we have been digging deep and giving of ourselves, not just going through the motions of showing up at work every day and putting in a set number of hours.

So what are we to do if we find ourselves in that position, feeling we ought to be writing, but not having the physical, emotional and mental energy to do it? Listen to our bodies, give ourselves time and space to recover. Do something undemanding, reduce the amount of stimulation we are exposed to or do something which is a complete change.

Today I watched a one-off drama I'd recorded some months ago called The Good Samaritan. It was light-hearted, entertaining, undemanding, and very, very funny. It was just what I needed after a hard week of de-cluttering and filing papers.

You might like to go for a walk or a swim or do some yoga. Go and visit some friends you haven't seen for a while. Do something with your hands, like making cards or jewellery. Anything to help your body and mind make the shift from the high octane gear that you've been operating in to a more gentle, restorative frame of mind.

So if you feel you need it, have a rest - you'll be glad you did.

Develop as a Writer - Become Curious

I mentioned yesterday that it's good to be curious when you meet people and helpful to ask them about their work. But actually, it's good for writers to be curious about all sorts of things. That's surely one of the defining attributes of a writer, curiosity, nosiness, a desire to know about things and find out about how people think.

You can be curious in any situation at any time. Take, for instance, a simple walk round the streets where you live. There are all sorts of things to notice and observe, from the flowers in the gardens to ladybirds on leaves, people's various sort of cars, alterations or extensions they have made to their houses, their style of furnishing, whether their houses and gardens are well cared for.

Observe and ask yourself why things are so. For example, if you are on a street of beautiful gardens and there is one house which looks really out of place because the paintwork is scruffy and the garden is overgrown, ask yourself why it might be. Who lives in a house like that?

Could it be someone who is elderly, no longer up to the physical tasks required in looking after a home? Could it be someone who has had to leave the country in a hurry and hasn't been able to sell their house? Could it be a young single parent struggling to look after sickly, premature triplets?

When you finish your walk, make notes about what you have seen and what thoughts you have had. Keep them in a safe place as a resource to inspire your writing.

Give Your Characters an Interesting Job

As well as providing a locale for your characters and a suitable name, another thing you can do to add interest and depth to your writing is to provide them with a suitable occupation. It's all too easy to plump for obvious jobs for your characters - doctor, nurse, teacher, waitress. But there are many other jobs you could choose for them which have not been so overused in fiction.

How about a nail technician? A pharmacist? A dog handler? A court stenographer? A website designer? A graphic designer? A surveyor? Remember, you can always give your character a job that's unusual for their gender too to make them even more intriguing. What's to stop your surveyor from being female or your nail technician from being male?

There are lots of websites you can look on which advertise job vacancies. You could look in the appointments pages of your local newspaper to find some more. Or spend an hour or so browsing round the offices of a careers adviser - you'll find enough jobs to last your characters years! You'll also pick up some real life facts which will make them seem more realistic too.

Another thing you can do is be curious about people that you meet. If you get chatting to someone on a bus or at a party, ask them what they do, and if it's a job you don't know much about, ask them questions about it. People love to talk about themselves. Make notes afterwards about what you've found out, and perhaps get their contact details.

Or you can seek out people and ask for their expertise. I was once doing some research about how dentists train and what it's like to be a dentist, and my own dental surgeon gave up his lunch hour to chat with me. He gave me some marvellous anecdotes that I'd never have thought up myself. I also rang someone at one of the university dental hospitals, which resulted in a very interesting visit to the department - more interesting things to spot - and he even rang back the following week with lots more information for me.

These days it's even easier with e-mail. It's a cheap way of communicating experts and if someone doesn't want to answer questions, he can ignore your request without you having to suffer the embarrassment of being knocked back on the phone.

So why not give it a go? Find your characters an interesting job. It will make your job as a writer that bit more rewarding too.

Finding a Place for Your Characters

I talked in an earlier blog about how you can find names for your characters by using internet baby name sites, random name generators, and telephone directories. But this week one of my students said she has trouble finding place names for her stories and asked if I had any advice about how to go about this. So here goes...

The most obvious sources of place names are an atlas, a guide book, or an internet site which deals with geography. But the range of places available is vast, so it might be useful to find some ways to narrow it down. Here are some questions you could ask yourself:

• Is my story set in a rural area, in a large city or in a medium-sized town?
• What sort of landscape do I envisage for the story? Is it lush? Tropical? Arid desert? Heavily built-up and industrialised?
• Is a sense of tradition going to be important for my characters? If so, what sort of place would have the traditions that will affect them?
• What sort of character traits will my main character(s) have? Are they traits that are particularly associated with certain nationalities?

If you still feel stuck, you could try the old trick of opening the atlas at a suitable country or continent and sticking a pin in it.

Sometimes there is something in your character's description that leads you to give them a certain home town. In a play I was writing with my partner, Kimm, we had a character who wasn't interesting enough, a young woman who had fallen into prostitution in London. Kimm wanted her to come from a middle-class family and to make peace with her parents at the end, but I was against this.

It seemed we had come to an impasse, but the solution came very unexpectedly when I was at a writers' workshop one evening. The task we were given was to list some items a character would have in his or her bag or pockets and then work out what that told us about their character.

A couple of items gave us a new insight into our character and led us to give her a completely new identity, name, and place of origin, and also added a totally new dimension to the drama. The items were a brightly coloured embroidered belt and a pair of sandals (even though the play was set on a snowy Christmas Day in London).

From those two clues, our character became an educated girl from an Eastern European country who found herself working as a prostitute in London because she had been tricked into going there to find a new life by some human traffickers.

To find a town and a name for the girl we did some research on the internet into the phenomenon of human trafficking, found out where lots of girls in that position came from, then researched to find a country which was in the European Community as we wanted her to have the chance to make a new life in Britain once the play was resolved.

So if you're feeling stuck in a rut with your characters, try doing some little exercises or playing some games to discover more about them, then do some research to give them an appropriate identity. If all else fails, try conversing with them. Ask them who they are and what their life is like where they come from. You'll be surprised at what you might discover!

Write Your Future Life Story

I was de-cluttering my study this afternoon and came across some papers from more than a decade ago. They were from some discussions and tests I'd had with a university careers counsellor about what would be a good career for me when I went back to work after spending time with my baby son.

The careers service did the usual sort of thing - analyse your strengths your preferences and your qualifications, and then come up with some suggestions to suit you. It was very interesting looking back to see whether I had changed, whether my hopes and ambitions had altered, and whether I still wanted the same thing now as I did then.

To cut a long story short, I didn't end up in the career that was suggested as the best fit for me, which was a citizens' advice adviser, but I did end up with two careers that were also a highly scoring fit - FE teaching and writing - both of which I'd been involved in before.

The really intriguing thing is that lots of people believe that the way to make things happen is to write them down. If you want to create or manifest something for the future, what you do is write about it as if you have it or are doing it, and imagine very strongly the emotions that you will feel.

It's an appealing thought and possibly worth a try. Whether or not you actually manage to bring this future into existence by doing this, it will surely clarify your preferences and your intentions, which can be no bad thing.

So instead of writing the life story of your past, try writing about your future. Imagine what you'd like your life to be like in ten years' time and write about it, feeling the associated emotions as strongly as you can. Don't worry about whether your future life is feasible or try to figure out how you could possibly bring it about. Just imagine it and feel the emotions you would have if you were living that life.

Then put your life story away somewhere safe. Don't forget to look at it when the ten years are up and see if your life has turned out the way you imagined it would.

Writers Just Want to Have Fun!

We writers have been partying! Our severely disabled, but seriously fun-loving class member is 40 today, and we arranged a surprise class party for her last night at the house of one of her fellow students.

She arrived with her carer, who had told her they were going out for a drink at the pub, to find several of us already gathered and the house festooned with banners and balloons. There were sausage rolls, quiches and pizzas heating in the oven, biscuits and traybakes on plates, wine uncorked, and a birthday cake secreted in the kitchen - it had been specially designed for the occasion by another class member who is very talented at cake-making.

Our guest of honour was delighted and we all settled down to eat, drink, chat and laugh uproariously. There were enough funny real-life stories trotted out to fill a dozen magazines, about everything from cats and dogs to how we met our partners and encounters people have had with the college ghost!

We distributed presents and cards, toasted the birthday girl with bubbly, and chatted about class. A good time was had by all.

We await with eager anticipation our next opportunity for a class knees-up! Meanwhile, everyone has gone home with copies of the college prospectus so they can sign up for next term's class. If you live or work in West Yorkshire and would like to come to one of my classes, you can download the adult education prospectus online from www.huddcoll.ac.uk.

You'll be very welcome at any of the three courses I'm teaching next term, especially if you've a big birthday coming up! In between writing fantastic pieces, winning awards, and having work published, writers just want to have fun!

Going Too Far - Exaggerate in your Writing

You want your writing to be memorable, so how are you going to make it so? Are you going to stick really closely to real life or are you going to make your writing larger than life? What sort of a character do you think your readers will be intrigued by, one who is mousy, quiet, careful, or one who is over the top, melodramatic, wild?

To illustrate this point, I'd like you to think of five characters from literature that stand out in your mind. List them and jot down why you think you remember each of them. Then take a piece of your own work that isn't quite working. Think of a character that you could exaggerate in some way and make them much bigger and more exciting. Go really over the top - think of what would be reasonable then multiply it by five. Be bold and brave!

If you have someone sympathetic who reads your stories, you could let them read the before and after versions and see which one they prefer.

Using Music and Memories in Your Writing

Last week I went to see the film, Mamma Mia! which is based around the music of Abba. I really enjoyed it and was very impressed at the way they managed to weave a story round the music, or weave the music into a story.

It reminded me of another way in which music is woven into the fabric of our lives. The music of Abba played a significant part in a momentous day in my life, the day I got my final degree results at Durham University. It was a strange sort of day, one full of normal routine, yet in another sense not at all normal, because we knew that the results would be posted on a board in County Hall that evening.

The countdown began earlier. We'd been told to check a board outside our department at lunchtime to see if we were going to be given a Viva Voce - an exam in which you are questioned in person about your subject and the answers you gave in the exam. No one wanted a viva - by that stage, we'd relaxed and forgotten most of what we'd written in our finals papers.

There were two reasons students might sit a viva. There were those who were on the borderline between failing and passing their degree. If they did well in their viva, they could tip the scales in their favour and secure a pass.

The other group consisted of those who were on the borderline between two classifications, for example, they might have a high 2:1, but their viva could push them up into a first class degree.
I didn't think I was in danger of failing, but I did think I might be on the borderline between classifications.

Eventually our lecturers filed out and the list was pinned on the board. My name wasn't on it. But I was amazed to see my philosophy lecturer give me a big smile and a thumbs up as she passed me by. What did that mean?

I reckoned she must be letting me know I'd done well, but exactly how well? Did she mean I'd got a first? Or was it just a good 2:1? The agonising thing was that I had a few more hours to wait to find out which it was.

I went home to wait for results time, but I was full of nervous energy, even more so now after that enigmatic thumbs up! I was starting to hope I might have got a first, but I didn't want to count on it and end up disappointed.

To burn up some of my nervous energy, I put on my favourite Abba LP and danced along to it, all the while wondering what the next few hours would bring. I knew that if I got a first I'd be able to study for a Ph.D. so there was a lot riding on that result.

Eventually we headed for County Hall to check the results boards. At first there was nothing up for my subject, so that meant more hanging around. When the long-awaited sheet of paper was finally pinned to the board, I could finally breathe. There was just one first class honours degree awarded in my subject and there at the top of the list was my name. I'd done it! I'd got my first and come top of my year as well!

Whenever I think about that day, that wonderful day, the music of Abba always comes to mind. The two are inextricably linked in my memory.

How about you? Is there a particular song or singer that is linked to a memorable moment in your life? Your first kiss, perhaps? Or a marriage proposal? Moving away from home?

If there is, dig out the music now and have a listen to it. Then write down your own story using the music to anchor your memories.

Contrasting Emotions in Your Writing

I was thinking today about a couple of real life experiences which gave me a jolt because of the way in which strong emotions were contrasted.

One was my memory of Princess Diana's funeral. Like many other people, I was deeply affected by her sudden death and was really upset in the run-up to her funeral. I found the day of her funeral very emotional, heart-breaking, something I knew I would remember for the rest of my life.

On that day, there was a huge outpouring of grief in London. It seemed as if the whole country had gone into mourning for her.

So it came as a shock to me to see wedding cars arriving at the house of one of my neighbours up the road. I realised that for many people this was a desperately sad day, a day of mourning, but my neighbours were celebrating the wedding of their only daughter.

I found it very hard to reconcile the two. How could they possibly go and enjoy themselves at a wedding when The People's Princess was being buried?

When the bride set off in her wedding finery in a posh limousine, I knew that the family must have been planning this special occasion for months, years even. It was due to a quirk of fate that it coincided with the funeral of The Princess of Wales. No one could have possibly foreseen her untimely death.

Another occasion which was also full of mixed emotions was the day my best friend gave birth to her first child. As promised, her husband rang to tell me the news and give me details of the baby, her name, birth weight and so on.

I was surprised to hear he didn't sound at all happy considering he'd just become a father, so I asked him if he'd been up all night at the hospital. It was then that he told me his mother had just died. She had been seriously ill in hospital for quite some time, but had held on just long enough to see her new grandchild come into the world.

So my friend and her husband found themselves preparing to bring home their newborn baby and arrange a family funeral at the same time.

This is the way things turn out sometimes. It is very difficult to reconcile mixed emotions like these at the time, but can you see how for a writer they could add depth and complexity to a plot?

Life isn't all ha, ha, hee, hee. Let our writing reflect that.

Using Contrasts in Your Writing

Today has been a day of contrasts, weatherwise. This evening it was very warm, dry and close, uncomfortably so. I've been flinging windows open all over the house, but even that didn't really help to cool the place down.

Then about half an hour ago, the heavens opened. We had a torrential rain-storm, so loud you could hear the rain battering on the ground. It was a complete contrast, but obviously what we needed to cool down. We suddenly went from warm and humid to torrential rain in a heartbeat.

You can use striking contrasts like this in your writing too. You can lull the reader into a false sense of security or a state of torpor, then BANG! Everything changes! Suddenly there is a threat or a crisis or danger.

You can use this contrast technique in lots of different ways. You can have a sudden change in the weather; an unexpected incident; even someone suddenly falling in love.

In the Latin work by Virgil, The Aeneid, you get these combined. There is a thunderstorm during which Aeneas and Queen Dido take shelter in a cave and suddenly become a whole lot closer!

The main thing is that all of a sudden, everything has changed, everything is different.

Your characters will be thrown into turmoil by the sudden change and it will also unsettle your readers and make them curious to find out what it going to happen next.

Spend a few minutes thinking about a piece you're in the process of writing, about to write, or one that you've been working on. Think about how you could introduce a startling contrast to really things up. Then write or rewrite your piece using this contrast.

Keep your original idea or draft so that you can compare your versions and see what a difference it has made introducing a contrast.

A Summer Story or Poem

Let's stick with the holiday theme and think about a story or a poem you could write on the theme of summer.

Begin by thinking of some words you associate with summer and make a list of them. Here are a few to start you off: sand, sunshine, sunglasses, aeroplanes, holidays.

Think of a setting - it could be by the sea, in the country, in a city, abroad, travelling.

Think of what the weather is like - is it hot and sunny? Rainy?

Think of the characters that you can see? What age are they? Are they adults? Children? Are there any adults in the scene?

Think of a sound you hear.

Think of a movement.

You should now have enough ideas to start you off writing a poem or a story. Happy writing!

What Your Character's Suitcase Reveals about Him?

It's the time of year when many of us are packing our suitcases and heading off on holiday. So I thought it would be fun to think about what our characters will be putting in their suitcases.

The contents of a character's suitcase can reveal a lot about their personality, both to your readers and to you yourself. An interesting exercise you can do if you've got a character that hasn't quite come to life is to describe their suitcase or handbag and its contents.

The first thing that will tell us something about them is what sort of bag they have in the first place. Is it an expensive Louis Vuitton piece of luggage? A backpack? A poacher's bag? A battered leather briefcase? A shocking pink vanity case?

Then the actual contents will give you even more clues as to their personality, their situation, their likes and dislikes, their preoccupations. If you list them, you'll be surprised at what you discover about them.

I did an exercise like this about a character from a play I was writing, after I realised the character didn't quite work. It yielded all sorts of information about her background - as a result of that exercise, she even acquired a new nationality, a perilous situation, and an entire family!

So if you have a character that isn't quite fully-formed, try the suitcase exercise and let your character surprise you.

Six Things to Think About When You're Revising Your Writing

So far, we've been concentrating on first drafts, getting the words and the ideas out of your head and onto paper. But the time will come when you have distanced yourself enough from your writing to be able to look at it with fresh eyes, and that's when it will be time for revising.

So what do you need to do when you're revising a piece of your own work?

1. Read it out loud so you can hear if it uses rhythm well or whether there are any sentences which need to be rejigged to make them flow better.
2. Make sure that the piece has a good structure, a proper beginning, middle and end.
3. Check that it all makes sense.
4. Look to see if there are any sections that could be strengthened, for example, by using more colourful vocabulary, by adding details, by introducing the senses of smell, taste, and touch.
5. Ask yourself if your characters are compelling and convincing. If not, what could you do to make them stronger?
6. Make sure your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are accurate.

Lists! Lists! Lists!

People are always interested in lists. In fact, you can buy books which consist entirely of lists, such as The Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information by Amy And Wallechinsky and David Wallace, The Top Ten of Everything: The Ultimate Book of Lists by Russell Ash; Ultimate Book of Lists by Michael Cader.

I used to have letters printed in magazines which were based on lists, and there is a website called listverse which contains lots of lists of odd things. One of my favourites in RJ Evans' article Top Ten Bizarre Coffins. They really live up to their name. The pictures are incredible.

When I'm searching for some books to buy on Amazon, I enjoy the lists of books that readers have compiled on Listmania! I often come across books I wouldn't have known about otherwise.

Making lists is a fun thing to do as a warm-up or to fill in spare moments while you're waiting for a bus or for the kettle to boil. We played this game in my writing class recently and really enjoyed it.

It was particularly interesting when people wrote about 'Ten things I would rescue if my house were on fire'. Most people chose things that were irreplaceable like their insurance policies, their wedding photographs and items of sentimental value.

But one of the students was intent on saving the contents of his kitchen, including the washing machine, the fridge, the freezer, and even the bacon and eggs he had in his fridge!

Have fun! Read a few lists. Then maybe write some of your own.

Explore the BBC Writers Room

There are many resources for writers on the internet these days, but one of the most useful is the BBC Writers Room.

It provided tons of invaluable information: what the BBC is looking for from its writers; how to submit work to the BBC; interviews with famous television writers; scripts from BBC dramas, comedies, children's drama, radio drama, and radio comedy; you can even download special software for writing television drama called Script Smart.

You can read about various competitions and initiatives which are about to take place and keep up to date with the latest opportunities for new writers.

It's well worth a look and you may find it so absorbing that you linger there a lot longer than you thought you would.