This has been a quiet week, so just a small post to keep the process going. After driving the one and a half hours to Mansfield, via the back roads and seeing a little koala along the way, I attended a writer’s workshop at the Mansfield library. About 15 of us gathered in the room to, as one person put it, “learn to write a novel”. Not sure this can be accomplished in a series of 4 two-hour workshops, but that’s the plan. There was lots of talking about technique and some useful tools for planning out your novel, which I think I can use. We did do a short sprint writing exercise which really highlighted how different people’s approaches to things can be.
The topic was ‘apples’. My focus was on the feelings that apples bring up for me including times as a child peeling and cutting apples in the kitchen with my Mum, sitting beside the warm wood stove and the smell of apples cooking, creating feelings of warmth and belonging. Others had so many different takes on apples. One woman wrote about permaculture and saving the world through sustainable agriculture, another related the apple to Eve and the fall, leading to the patriarchy and misogyny and yet another wrote about a murder through poisoning via an apple. It was apparent that every person sees the world in a very different way, meaning for me that every person has a valid story to tell, and that the number of stories in the world is as varied as the number of people.
I came away from the session feeling somewhat invigorated and also with some useful tools to help structure my story. The writer who was leading the group also does online writing sprints via Facebook, which I am planning to join. Still procrastinating a bit, as I just can’t seem to get myself going on the novel, and I know I need to plan to write on a daily basis regardless of what drivel tumbles out, this is the secret to writing: as always – just do it.
On a positive note, our website is live, if anyone is interested in having a look. www.bluetopbiz.com.au This is a work in progress, but as it stands, this will do for now. My business cards and flyers have arrived, so now I need to start marketing my services around the local community, by using notice boards and some letterbox dropping and of course, networking. Comfort zone – gone.
Sue's next thing 