September 2017

September 8, 2017

Fran features: Federation of Writers (Scotland) – September

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Fran features: Federation of Writers (Scotland) – September

I’m delighted to be this month’s featured writer in the Federation of Writers (Scotland)  September 2017 newsletter.

The Federation is a collective of enthusiasts of the written and spoken word and welcomes writers of any complexion into its ranks: poets, writers of prose and short stories, bards and lovers of the spoken word. To quote from their header:

The Federation of Writers (Scotland) is an organisation dedicated to making the written and spoken word available to the public of Scotland, with respect for diversity and recognition of additional support needs.

The Federation is run by volunteers and membership is free. It is very easy to join the FWS by visiting the website, which is a mine of useful information and contacts. A monthly newsletter offers a comprehensive round-up of events happening around Scotland and includes a very useful digest of submissions being sought and upcoming competitions.

Each month I look forward to catching the latest news.

Anne Clarke generously gives her time to organising the monthly newsletter and sending it to our IN boxes. However, I first met her in person, when, at the invitation of the Events Convenor of the FWS, Rose Ann Fraser Ritchie (who also facilitates our writing group, Thistle Scribblers), she came to the Thistle Foundation’s Edinburgh Headquarters , to share some of her poetry with us and to hear about the writing that Thistle Scribblers enjoy each week.

I was so inspired by hearing Anne read her own poetry. No-one needs special or particular qualifications to express themselves, and poetry, that sublime form which can say so much with a few words, hints at the complexities of life in ways that few other mediums for self expression can match.

Thanks so much to Anne Clarke for featuring me this month, and for all the encouragement I have been offered by the Thistle Foundation and the Thistle Scribblers.

 

 

 

 

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September 6, 2017

Valuing my time

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Valuing my time

 

When it comes to selling my books direct to the public, I’m shy – I find it difficult to charge the full cover price without blushing. Interesting question from this reader follows – Why?

In the past, it has been because when I see the cover price and consider the outlays, I say to myself, ‘That’s enough of a mark-up….’ or more usually, ‘That’s enough for me just now…’

But hang on. What about the value of my time? That intangible quality, that gift from Heaven knows where, which, when we are young we seem to have so much of. From a vast, pale canvas, a cavern to fill with our plans and dreams, as our years pass, time seems to kaleidoscope alarmingly into something bright and precious… It shrinks imperceptibly, brightening up with the power of our focus to something so valuable.

And writing my books has literally taken years of my time. Time I will not get back, that has been and is precious to me. Investing in this desk-computer-word-count business means I have not done other things I wanted to… All that is worth part of the price too, is it not?

When considering prices, wholesale discounts and the rest, it is so tempting to say, ‘It doesn’t matter…’ and feel a bit wilted afterwards at yet another example of self-sabotage, that classic, painful opt down.

At least I know what to do about it. To counter any more erosion of my self-belief, this important principle, a mere two pounds here and there, may not seem much, but it feels good to ask, unashamed, for the full cover price. There is no storm waiting at the end of that private battle, only more confidence. Only more certainty in knowing that I’ve compromised enough, enough now, and that time is too precious to discount.

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September 4, 2017

Still writing memoir

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Still writing memoir

Unless we are employed by the media or by those who pay us to write, writing our memoir has very little to do with tangible rewards such as money or fame.

But the intangible rewards are worth a mention… These include

  • Re-evaluating the self and everything we think we know about our lives. That daunting idea begins to unfold with the very first words that hit the page, and goes on for the whole period during which we may call our work unfinished, challenging us constantly to reconsider, both the good and the bad.

  • The sheer joy in doing something we have thought of doing for years and finally get round to doing. With all the records we’ve been dying to set straight for years, now is our opportunity to finally have our say. How liberating!

 

  • The space to dump emotional garbage we have been carrying around for years. What a joy it has been, to finally discard rubbish that has lain around clogging up my heart for decades. What a joy to admit all the small and larger secrets, the things we loathe, love and can’t be arsed with. What pleasure to find and refine our authentic voice, to speak true. After all the twisting, aching pain, there is a real sense of coming home to something better and more anchored.

 

  • The rearrangement of our perspectives. An inevitable consequence of going into all our memories and back out again, is the awareness that the process itself has altered our perspectives. That process is unavoidable, as we come up close and personal. We meet all our significant others with more love, acceptance that is, of itself, worth all the agony. That knowledge, that coming to terms is not something we can gain, except by writing about it, spending the time which forces us to re-evaluate.

So, with all these good and worthy aims spinning around in our ideas box, next time we take a look at the hows of writing memoir, which is the question this series started with.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

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September 1, 2017

The longer we leave it

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The longer we leave it…

We all have these key moments, when we have to do what it is staring us in the face, or go stir crazy.

Like the time I decided, ‘Right, I have to write my memoir. I have to do this, or I’ll die. And, it might kill me in the process – from embarrassment, anxiety, exhaustion, sadness – but God dammit, I’d rather die trying, than die of boredom and depression and regret. If writing this – and going through hell – is what it takes, then fine! I’ll take that chance.

Life always gives us challenges. And the longer we ignore them, block them out, dodge them or make excuses, the harder will be the next tests we face. Similar challenges form a pattern that may be very familiar, and will tend to revisit and repeat, until we get the message that, yes, we do have to deal with this head on. The longer we prevaricate, the greater the challenge grows, just to test our resolve. We have to take our courage in both hands and clamber aboard. The longer we leave it….

But such challenges are offered for a reason: perhaps to allow us to recognise and rework a defeatist pattern, to teach self worth; even, sometimes, to resolve issues have haunted us forever, such as a pattern of failure or settling for painful compromises, never allowing our true colours to shine bright.

In my next non-fiction book, Making Miracles, which is set for release in 2018, I share my dream diary, in the writing and re-reading of which, I recognised repeating patterns that have persisted over lifetimes. These I had to take on board if I wanted to make progress in this life. Luckily, I did, in the nick of time.

So let’s follow our dreams, people! The world needs folks with courage and faith to do what they know they have to. Let’s live like today is our best day.

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