Friday 10 February 2017

The Epic Awakes ...

Remember The Epic?  I went on about it for weeks - about how quickly it was growing, how new characters kept introducing themselves, how the story - or rather stories - kept developing themselves.  I think I got to something ridiculous like 50,000 words before I put it on the backburner, where, I am ashamed to admit, it has been ever since.  In fact, it has been there so long it is a wonder it isn't frazzled!  But this morning I reached for the folder again and now I am looking at it as if it may be something akin to Pandora's Box.  So, as I write, let me go through the contents.  Wish me luck, I am reaching for the folder now ...

Hmm - a red Silvine Exercise Book bearing the title "The TRACKLANDS Project". Lots of notes.  A poem - the Tracklands decree that begins If you're mouse, you can't friend cat.  If you're cat you will know that. Chiefs are always there to guide, so always serve the Chiefs with pride ...   A booklet entitled "Green Croydon - Discover Your Local Wildlife". Two A5 notebooks. One containing 16 chapters and several pages of notes.  One containing fifteen chapters and a couple of dozen empty pages.  Character names keep jumping out at me - Tamininka, Red, Speck, Elvira, Mono, Raja ...

All this begs the question - Why?  Or lots of questions - like why did I start it?  Why didn't I finish it? Where was I going with it?  And of course What Am I Going To Do With It Now?  I started this book on 14th May 2013 (I have nearly always recorded a start date on my work - even something as small as haiku) and I know I was in a creative frenzy with it for at least six months so why I came to a screaming halt I have no idea.  Maybe Life just got in the way.  Or maybe I was just busy getting My Writer ready for publication - and building the Young Writer group.  Whatever the reason now seems as good a time as any to see if I can revive it - breathe life back into it.  I know that at least one of the characters has been held in a dark dungeon for almost four years now, so maybe it is time I rescued him?  Anyway we shall see...

Slight change of subject, I am doing a talk this afternoon at the Chatterbooks group at Ashburton Library.  I was invited to be a guest speaker by the group leader some months ago so one thing I do need to do this morning is come up with a leaflet I can hand out about  Addiscombe Young Writers. Chatterbooks is a club for similarly aged children with an interest in books and I am actually quite chuffed I have been asked!  I have already devised a work sheet and sent it over so it will be interesting to see if I can tempt anymore AYW members!

What else have I been doing?  I am considering trying my hand at Copywriting.  This is something I have been thinking about for ages and in fact realised today that I have actually done it previously without even realising I was doing it, so I think it is definitely worth a try.  And I am still looking for a part time job that will bring in a regular income.  Mostly I am just so happy to be at home. spending quality time with Steve, getting lots of writing done .... It is after all what I was born to do!

Thursday 2 February 2017

I Have A Dream ....

I decided yesterday that now was the right time to register at the Jobcentre.  I haven't had to do this in a decade but in that short time, the whole thing has changed!  Then I remember walking into the Jobcentre, finding it a hive of activity, having a look at the vacancies on display, talking to an advisor (then finding a job without her help a week or two later).  The Jobcentre now looks more like an internet cafe.  There are computers and a few staff.  But no job-boards, no vacancies on display. Fortunately I had signed up to their online jobsite a few days earlier so I am checking that at least three times a day - but no nibbles yet.  In a way, I think this is a better system.  In the old days it was an altogether humiliating experience with mainly illiterate staff who thought you owed them a living and treated you with complete disdain.  In fact I once pulled one Jobcentre up about the spelling and grammatical errors appearing with such regularity on their vacancies board, even offering to proofread them - but they wouldn't have it!  The guy I spoke to yesterday was really nice, very helpful and he actually made me feel important, so all credit to the new style Jobcentre and their attitude.

In the meantime, I am so enjoying rediscovering the writer within.  I have been invited to do a Creative Writing session next Friday afternoon for a group for 6 - 10 year olds called Chatterbooks which advocates all things literary.  I have also had lots of enquiries about the Young Writer group and one lady who approached me wants to highlight the initiative somehow and draw more attention to it.  So you know what?  I have a dream (as the late great Martin Luther King said). I want to pioneer Young Writer groups all over the country.  I have tried a number of publishers with the idea of a book outlining how to start a group like this, even offering to include the huge number of worksheets and certificates I have produced in the five years the group has been running, but for some reason nobody wants to know.  If their fear is that it is a somewhat limited market then I can reassure them all that it is actually a huge market.  Just think of the schools and childrens' libraries all over the country that could run a Young Writer group!  Not just schools and libraries either but youth centres, churches, after-school clubs ... the list is endless!  What I'd also like to do is set up an official award to be run annually or bi-annually that will give Young Writers everywhere the chance to show what they can do and try to earn a prestigious trophy and/or monetary reward .

Having said all that, and as deliciously heady as I find it,  I do know that things like this don't happen overnight.  I believe in the scheme a hundred and ten per cent.  Convincing other people to share that belief is another matter! So I shall hang on to it, nurture it, love it and believe in it forever.  And in the meantime I will write.  I will Write.  I Will Write ...