The Writing Coach

Thoughts (and objects) to pack in my Barcelona suitcase this year

Tomorrow, early, I head off to Barcelona, my fifth trip to the Catalonian capital, my favourite city, London-excepted. 

I first celebrated this city in words when I made my first ever entry on this blog here in 2005.  Then again, I wrote about an incident in the Picasso Museum here.  As the city has always been such a huge source of inspiration to me, I'm excited to visit again, to see what it will uncover within me this time.  Though it's true, the Picasso book that I wrote of in the latter blog post has not yet materialised, I know there is still something there, waiting to be uncovered.  I've been toying with the idea of studying art history for some time, indeed I've recently been looking into the idea of an MA in the philosophy of art, though given my current commitments, I'm dreaming a couple of years into the future I feel...  All the same, I know that art will play a large role in my future life.  I hope to make art and to write about it and have made a small start this year by taking art classes with the wonderful artist Stephanie Wilkinson.   My current novel, in the final stages of development, also has an art -history sub-plot involving Modigliani's last mistress Jeanne Hebuterne.  So, given all this, what thoughts (and objects) am I packing in my suitcase this year?

10 Insights from a Writing Life

A couple of nights back, I was rifling through the filing cabinet, looking for the Anne Tyler essay mentioned in the previous post, when I came across this sketch.  I was thrilled to discover it as it brought back great memories of the time when I appeared on-stage at the Dartington Festival alongside my former teacher, Sir Malcolm Bradbury and my friend, the novelist Louise Doughty.  We were debating that thorny old subject - 'Can creative writing be taught?'

Well, I certainly believe that good writing can be facilitated.  Indeed, a few weeks ago, I was standing in for Sara at her 'Novel in a Month' writing course, a course linked to the Nanowrimo idea that if one freewrites, it is possible to write an entire draft of a novel in 30 days.  There are some links here to the idea that I propose in my eBook so it's a subject that I'm familiar with, even as in general I take my time over novels, having produced, on average, a novel every 4 years for the past 20 years (yikes, is that how long I have been writing...) 

I began the class by asking if there were any areas in particular that the students would like to cover and one person asked if I might give a list of '10 insights into the writing life' that I have garnered during the course of my writing career.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was unable to come up with a list of 10 off the top of my head.  But I promised I would think on it, so here, for the 'Novel in a Month' people and for everyone else, is my list of 10...

Productivity for Writers - a free teleclass

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. . . . Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." E.L. Doctorow

This quotation echos my beliefs about the organic process of writing.  It also says something important about the need to get words down, if we are to really 'be' writers.  Productivity is such an important part of the process, yet why is it that so many of us procrastinate so endlessly about putting pen to paper or 'getting black on white'?

If you would like to become more productive as a writer, please join me and a group of fellow writers, next Wednesday at 8.30pm UK time.  I will be running a free teleclass on the subject of productivity that will touch upon:

• Passion - how passion for your subject affects output
• Focus - how to achieve it
• Boundaries - saying 'no' to other demands to allow time for our writing
• Time Management - how to prioritise our writing in the midst of a busy life
• Habits - how regularity breeds success
• Commitment - how do we achieve it?
• Fear - that nasty little blighter
• Confidence - we don't write if we don't believe in ourselves, so we need this stuff!

I'm so looking forward to connecting with you on this call.  Please do e-mail me  if you'd like to attend and I will forward you details of how to dial into the line. All are very welcome and the class is totally free and obligation-free and it is a great opportunity to connect with fellow writers who are facing the same challenges in relation to getting productive and inspired. 

Those who wish to take this class further may consider signing up for the Creative Vision Writers' Group.  This group launches in September and is limited to 12 places.  Others may wish to join the Writing Coach group on Facebook which I have just made open to all.  Some great conversations will be starting there shortly and I'm sure it will provide a good way of keeping in touch with those that you meet on the call. 

I look forward to 'meeting' you on the call next Wednesday. 

Still just writing

Over a year ago, I took the decision to stop writing this blog and to put my writing focus back on my fourth novel.  Now I have completed a (near-final) draft of that novel, I'm back and I'd like to take a moment to fill you in on what's been going for me in the intervening year. 

When I asked myself that question 'what have I been doing?', Anne Tyler's phrase 'Still Just Writing' immediately came to mind.  This phrase is taken from an essay she wrote, one of my favourite essays that I share with many of my clients.  In the essay, she writes of the many tasks that get in the way of writing, the daily, repetitive things that prevent one from reaching the blank page.  Tyler writes so eloquently about 'interruption' and what has always inspired me most about this essay is the fact that, though she has clearly led a life full of interruption, she has also, somehow along the way, produced many wonderful works of fiction.  What strikes me most, whenever I read her words, is that it's actually ok to be interrupted, just so long as we always return to the work.  So long as we lead a 'writing life', so long as our writing continues to be a pull for us, we will, in the end, produce many works.  To be honest, given the many interruptions that have come between me and my writing over the years, I'm still astonished that I have produced five novels:  the first, unpublished and stacked in the attic somewhere; the second and third published in the UK and abroad; the fourth, not published in the UK, but having been translated into Dutch and enjoyed in the Netherlands and the fifth - the manuscript of which sits on my desk, awaiting revisions.

From 'Small Stones' to a three-book deal

An interview with poet and novelist Fiona Robyn

Today the Writing Coach blog relaunches with a new interview with Fiona Robyn, who is one of our new consultants at the Writing Coach. 

I first met Fiona through the internet, as I admired the authenticity of the writing on her blog and we met soon afterwards and became firm friends.  I am thrilled today to relaunch this blog with an interview with Fiona to celebrate two-fold.  Firstly to celebrate the publication of her poetry book 'Small Stones' based on her blog of the same name.  But secondly to celebrate that only last week she landed a three-book deal with the wonderful Snowbooks.  Her three hitherto unpublished but complete manuscripts will be published in 2009 in March, May and July respectively.  The first novel will be 'The Blue Handbag', followed by 'The Letters' and then 'Thaw'.  You can find out more about Fiona's book deal here.

'Small Stones' is a wonderful concept and I so admire the way that Fiona finds a 'small stone' each day, a small poetic moment that she shares with her readers.  In my interview with her (the first in a series of interviews with authors) I asked her about that book and also about her experience of publishing and the wonderful three-book-deal.

JL:  Fiona, how did the ‘small stone’ concept come about?

FR:  I was driving home from the seaside trying to think of a name for a new blog I wanted to create, and the phrase ‘a small stone’ just appeared.  I don’t think I even know what it meant to start with, and I definitely didn’t think it was a very exciting name.  I tried to think of something else but it was insistent!