Back in the Saddle - Getting Back to a Writing Routine

Are you about to start something? Thinking of going back to something? Putting off going to a class or a group because it's a long time since you've been and it seems too much of an effort to get leave the house and get started again?

It's the time of year when we traditionally get back in the saddle, return to classes, resume hobbies that we stopped for the summer. My adult education students will be returning to their creative writing classes this week, and that got me round to thinking about how much harder it is to get started again than it is to simply keep going.

A couple of years ago, I was physically very active as I went to several dance classes a week, as well as swimming regularly and using my rebounder at home every day. All that went by the board this past year as I had a very heavy schedule of work commitments that clashed with my usual classes and often kept me at work on the computer till nearly midnight.

When I was in a regular routine, I automatically took part in my various activities without giving them a second thought. But having had a break, I am surprised at how difficult I am finding it to get myself back in the groove.

Take my salsa classes, for example. Every week, I say to myself, 'I must go back to salsa this week,' yet I always seem to find some excuse to put off going. Yet if I am to get fit again, I know that good intentions are not enough. I actually have to go to the class, put on my dancing shoes and get dancing.

I have come across lots of writers who have this sort of problem. They are going to write a novel one day. They really are. They have a really fantastic idea, but they just haven't got round to putting it on paper yet.

The trouble is that the vast majority of them never will. Being a writer is not just about having talent or imagination. It's about getting down to it. Putting pen to paper. Starting to write and keeping going till you reach the end of the novel. And then going back to the beginning and reworking it all until your book is in its final form.

It's a lonely business being a writer. Many people find it really difficult to shut themselves away and sustain a long project to the very end.

That's where writing classes and writing groups are invaluable. Once you have made the initial effort to go along and get involved in one, you look forward to going back, week by week or month by month, spending time with your fellow writers and hearing what they've written. It also spurs you on to make progress with your own writing so that you have something to share.

So if you've always wanted to write that novel, but never got round to it, why not join a writing class? Did I mention that I have room for a few more students in my Advanced Class? It's on Thursday evenings from 7 - 9 at The Manse Adult Education Centre in the centre of Huddersfield. Give the Centre a ring - (01484) 437150. Ask for Gale's Thursday writing class.

Meanwhile, I'll just go and dig out my salsa shoes...

Freeing the Writer Within

Recently I came across some rather ancient cassettes about creative writing that I'd bought way back in the late 1980s and I've begun to use them with my classes. The one I've been using this week is Natalie Goldberg's Freeing the Writer Within, which is a recording of a workshop she led back in 1988 based on principles about timed writing which she explained in her legendary book, Writing Down the Bones.

I had read Writing Down the Bones many years ago and it was one of the books that influenced me the most when I began to write. Basically, it's about how to let your mind have free reign when you're writing, so that what emerges is powerful, authentic and real. I find her approach refreshing compared with lots of creative writing advice, which can become formulaic.

If you haven't read Writing Down the Bones, do give it a try. And if you come across the CD version of Freeing the Writer Within, do listen to that too. There's nothing like hearing someone's voice when you have only read their words on the page. And another thing that my students really enjoyed was being able to join in the timed writing exercise, read out their own work and discuss it, then listen to what the workshop students in America had written. It was very interesting to compare our responses to the pieces of writing with theirs, and to hear the advice that Natalie gave.

'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.