Writing for Love or Money – the Conclusion

Love can be the motive -

English: The photographer’s wedding ring and its heart-shaped shadow in a dictionary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 but the profits of writing are diverse

A few weeks ago I began a series of posts on the theme of  ‘Writing for Love or Money’. I wanted to explore what motivates writers – including myself - to write, how money can be made from writing even without a traditional publishing contract - and to discover if money is ever the main motive. As part of the series I  invited several authors to contribute a guest post on what motivates them.

I hope you enjoyed discovering more about all of these talented writers and I want to say a huge thank you to all four of them – Helen Mackinven, Sara Sheridan, Dan Holloway and Andy Harrod for their time - and for sharing their personal and fascinating insights on the topic.

I think it came across very clearly that writing for me and my four guests is something that is vital to all of us. We are all very different types of writers and at different stages in our writing lives. We all write for different reasons - but we have a love of writing in common. Sara earns a living by writing and has a very successful, professional writing career and is published in the traditional way. Helen has studied writing as an academic discipline and is now writing her first novel. Dan and Andy are both unconventional and experimental in their writing. For them, publication is not at all about money, but is about communicating with themselves and with their readers.

For me, its an obsession and an addiction. It’s something I’ve always done as a way of hanging on – just – to my sanity. For me, it’s fun, challenging and therapeutic.

However, it’s only in recent years that I’ve come to think of publishing what I write. Having completed a novel as part of a midlife, now-or-never realisation, I realised I wanted it to be read. It hasn’t made me much money, but it has given me a huge amount of pleasure to have a (small) readership and to see my book in bookshops and online. I still have a day job, but if I’m honest I’d give up my long teaching career tomorrow if I could earn enough money from my writing.

And so to all writers reading this post, and its accompanying ones, I wish you well whatever your motivation. Remember,  keep on keeping on, and profit in whatever way suits you from your love of the written word.

Never About The Money

In this recent series of posts – ‘Writing for Love or Money’ I wanted to explore what motivates writers to write, how money can be made from writing even without a traditional publishing contract - and to discover if money is ever the main motive. As part of the series I have invited several authors to contribute a guest post on what motivates them. The contributors write very different  things and for different reasons. I hope you enjoy discovering more about all of these talented writers.

This is the fourth guest post and it comes from Andy Harrod. I first came across Andy’s work when visiting a virtual exhibition at Dan Holloway’s Eight Cuts Gallery http://danholloway.wordpress.com/eight-cuts-gallery/ and Andy was a contributor. (Dan will also be doing a guest post in this series). I particularly love Andy’s book ‘Living Room Stories’ and reviewed it here.

THANK YOU ANDY!

Never about the Money

by Andy Harrod

I began writing not because of books but due to music, for when I immerse myself in the lyrics they act as a springboard for me to connect with disparate parts of myself, bringing feelings and thoughts together. Of late I have been able to do the same with instrumental music, to drift closer to what I am feeling. Through this I began slowly to unravel myself and my love affair with writing began.

Writing ever since has been a case of capturing those sensations on my edge of awareness and what it means to me to be alive and true to myself. It is not an easy ride, it certainly doesn’t make money, but it is about love. Love for myself and for others. My writing is focused on me, I don’t think of an audience, only what I wish to understand about my thoughts and feelings to help myself and how I relate to other people. Often my writing focuses on emotions to develop an idea, present a perspective, which I hope I leave hanging on the page for the reader to play with.

My writing can therefore be seen as a selfish act or perhaps a selfless one, depending on your view of what it means to be individual. I see a world of individuals as a beautiful thing, with each of us fulfilling what it means to be us. The selfish view comes in through the belief that by allowing(!) people to do what they want there would be no community, but the community I see around me is almost non-existent and shattered as we play out the roles given/inherited. Through this I don’t see contentment, but I do see a comfortable boredom and resentment within a much divided society.

So what does this tangent have to do with the love of writing? That to enjoy writing I believe you need a connection with what you are writing about and a passion for it. It doesn’t matter what other people think, it matters what you think, though tell my self-critic that! Therefore I very much believe in writing for yourself and not for others or what may be in fashion at the time. Through this I have come to develop my own voice and style and I am truly happy with where I find myself.

My latest book, tearing at thoughts (http://79ratpress.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/our-contributors/), a collection of writing, art and photography, is the accumulation of my unravelling. I think of tearing at thoughts as an album, each piece works separately, but together they layer and resonate the unspoken and the lost. It leaves me feeling exposed, as if I have laid bare my sense of self through a group of fictional characters as I attempt to bring the hidden and pushed aside into focus, through the hope that if it is brought into awareness, change may occur. I finally believe in my writing voice and I won’t allow it to be corrupted by paper lies. Of course it would be great to make a living from my writing, but I would never want it to control what I write. I would rather feel exposed. For the genuine, heartfelt and thoughtful comments I have received is the reward I want, and to be honest, the reward I have sought since I started writing.

BIO:

Andy Harrod is a writer, who writes not out of a desire to tell stories, but a need to understand, to find meaning and connect with self and life. Outside of writing Andy is a trainee person-centred therapist and runs the streets of Lancaster, one day soon the fells of the Lake District.

PUBLISHED WORK:

Living Room Stories was Andy’s first release, handmade (http://decodingstatic.blogspot.co.uk/p/living-room-stories.html) and kindle (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Room-Stories-ebook/dp/B008HSMGGI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1341573814&sr=1-1) editions are available.

tearing at thoughts is to be published by 79 rat press as part of their NOTHING TO SAY (http://79ratpress.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/our-contributors/) exhibition, available to buy from June 2013.

BLOG: Andy posts stories, photos, art and thoughts at Decoding Static (http://decodingstatic.blogspot.co.uk/).

TWITTER: Say hello at  @DecodingStatic (http://twitter.com/DecodingStatic)

Writing for Love or Money – Dan Holloway Guest Post

In this recent series of posts – ‘Writing for Love or Money’ I wanted to explore what motivates writers to write, how money can be made from writing even without a traditional publishing contract - and to discover if money is ever the main motive. As part of the series I have invited several authors to contribute a guest post on what motivates them. The contributors write very different  things and for different reasons. I hope you enjoy discovering more about all of these talented writers.

This is the third in the series of guest posts. I first ‘met’ Dan Holloway several years ago on a peer review writers website. Later I kept up with him on Twitter and we both write for Words with Jam, an online magazine for writers. I have also visited and reviewed two virtual exhibitions of art and writing curated by Dan at his Eight Cuts Gallery. Dan is a true ‘indie’ writer as you will see.

THANKS DAN! 

Love or Money

by Dan Holloway

 It’s a truism that if you don’t love writing, really love it, you’ll get nowhere – wherever it is you want to go. But for me it goes beyond that. When I’ve tried to make money from my writing I’ve felt like my writing has really suffered, I’ve been distracted from the goals I’d always set for my writing. It even got to the stage where I have removed one of my books, which I originally self-published to make money, from availability for good.

My parents bought me an old school desk for my 3^rd birthday, and I’d sneak downstairs to scribble at it almost every night, but despite that and the fact that our house always creaked beneath the weight of books, and I was brought up to idolise the likes of Virginia Woolf and Colette, the main creative influence in my life has always been art. And the desire to transfer the vibrancy I feel in the art world into the way people see books, combined with a love of philosophy and a burning ambition that comes from playing competitive sports from an early age, has led me to turn my back on the idea of ever making money. Or at least to consider it an irrelevance. I still feel slightly nervous putting my goals on paper (exactly the kind of nervousness that separates a lot of literature from a lot of art) because it sounds so over-reaching, arrogant even. I feel the need to make the obvious postscript every time I do – I am not saying I think I’m good enough to do it, I’m saying I have to try.

In short, I want to make literature the stuff of watercooler conversations the way the likes of Tracey Emin has done for art. I want people to look at books in new ways, to get excited by the possibilities they hold, to make them question what books, stories, words, really are and what they can do. And I want to unpick the structural power games, the patriarchies and colonialisms inherent in every language system, to pull language apart and with it the straightjacket that constrains the way we think of ourselves in the world, and to create from the unravelled mess a poetics of hope, the possibility of every voice truly being able to inject itself into the world.

The practical upshot of this is that what I feel most compelled to write is something no self-respecting publisher would go near. At least not one without a whopping subsidy behind it enabling it to take on board projects with very little chance of selling more than a handful of copies.

But it’s a very hard furrow to plough without deviation. The pull towards something more commercial is incredibly strong. I’ve succumbed to it on several occasions, trying to write thrillers – having a measure of commercial success in the process, but then finding people only wanted to talk to me about marketing or crime fiction, and that the things so deeply ingrained in my writing DNA were being left out of the picture. At other times I’ve found my spoken word shows reaching a wide audience and offered the opportunity to reach a wider one – if I just altered the content a little, made it more widely acceptable.

Pretty much once every six months I find I have to remind myself what I really want from writing, and radically repositioning myself towards the margins. It’s an incredible wrench, and when I am struggling to make basic rent and debt repayments every month it’s even harder, but it feels so much better when I do. And whilst it’s 99% certain that I’ll never achieve my goals, if I head down the path of even thinking about making money, that figure becomes 100%. So, my next project (after my first solo show at Cheltenham Poetry Festival, Some of These Things Are Beautiful, which is a poetic journey through the world of lost friendship), Evie and Guy, due out in May, is a novel without any words, told wholly in numbers. And I will be launching 6 titles from new, largely experimental, poets through my small imprint 79 rat press on June 10^th.

You can see YouTube clips of Dan reading his work at the two links immediately below. N.B.Please be aware that although there is no swearing, the content is adult in nature.

Her Body https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qXXdIqA8LsI

Hungerford Bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q8HRava-2hc

LINKS

http://danholloway.wordpress.com (where my collection “i cannot bring myself to look at walls in case you have graffitied them with love poetry”, which accompanies my spoken word show, is free to download, along with my experimental novel “The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes”)

http://79ratpress.blogspot.com 

You can also read an illuminating interview with Dan over on Jill Marsh’s blog at http://jjmarsh.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/not-the-granta-1-dan-holloway/#comment-1845 -

Fame and Fortune from Writing

In this recent series of posts – ‘Writing for Love or Money’ I wanted to explore what motivates writers to write, how money can be made from writing even without a traditional publishing contract - and to discover if money is ever the main motive. As part of the series I have invited several authors to contribute a guest post on what motivates them. The contributors write very different  things and for different reasons. I hope you enjoy discovering more about all of these talented writers.

 

The first guest post is from Helen Mackinven. Helen has recently completed an MLitt in writing. She’s a fellow Scot and twitter friend of mine. She is currently working on her first bestseller. You can find out more about her over at her own blog here http://helenmackinven.wordpress.com You can also find her on twitter at @HelenMackinven

She originally posted the piece below on her own blog in June last year.

THANK YOU HELEN! – over to my guest:

Fame and Fortune from Writing by Helen Mackinven

“There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.”  But the inspirational quote makes no mention of how much chasing a  dream might cost in pounds and pennies. Like the dress stashed at the back of the wardrobe (it was a bargain, and I’ll get lots of wear out it, honestly!), sometimes it’s best not to admit to the true cost of spending money on something you love.  And I’m all for listening to Jessie J’s advice, “It’s not about the money, money, money… Forget about the price tag.”

But it was still a great feeling this week to receive the first cheque I’ve ever been given for writing.  Woo Hoo! I won 2^nd place in the Roy Wood Short Story Memorial Competition run by Alloa Writers group.

You can read my story, ‘Practice Makes Perfect’, here.

And my picture  was in, drum roll please, the Alloa Advertiser (okay it’s not the Arts section of the Glasgow Herald but I’m all for keeping it real and supporting local newspapers striving to report what matters most in the community, e.g. page 3 has the headline, ‘Bin torched in Alloa’ and page 5 ‘Lamb bitten’ yes, these are actual news story, even as a fiction writer, I couldn’t make them up).

So over and above being a media star in Clackmannanshire (I daren’t go near the Hillfoots in case I’m mobbed for autographs), the £50 was most welcome as a very small step towards offsetting the thousands of pounds I’ve spent  on following my writing ambitions.  To date, there’s been Arvon residential courses x 2, numerous day courses/conferences/workshops, author events, books, not to mention the biggies giving up the day job to do the MLitt course. If I added up the cost, eh, well… let’s not go there! I don’t think hubby would want to see the actual figure in black and white.

On Twitter this week, lots of folk I follow made me laugh with the hashtag #thingsnottosaytoawriter and one of the most common phrases was a variation on “So what do you do for money?” I could relate to that, especially after ignoring the voice of reason and giving up my day job.

But once I’m a successful writer, I’ll be able bask in my fame and fortune, right? And I don’t need to worry about bagging that rare elusive beast-a traditional publishing deal; I can always self-publish and cut out the middle man.  The phenomenal commercial success of trash books like Fifty Shades of Grey should surely spur me on (or turn me on if the ‘mummy porn’ hype is true).

So what am I waiting on? I could upload the two books I’ve already written today, sit back and rake in the profits…

EL James is making more than $million EVERY WEEK!!!

Maybe not, in fact it’s highly unlikely that I would become rich by going down the self-publishing route. A recent article in the Guardian, ‘Stop the press: half of self-published authors earn less than $500’ made it very clear that the millions of dollars made by the likes of EL James and Amanda Hocking are the exceptions.  If you’re like me and want to be a writer, you’re not in it for the money (although as Tesco says, every little helps).

Writing for Love or Money

 

Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

How do you become a writer? How do you stay motivated? How do you get published? Is the act of writing enough reward in itself. This is the first in a series of posts where I explore all these questions.

Part One – Call Yourself a Writer

Most writers don’t get rich. Some make enough to live on, but many don’t. So I doubt anyone does it just for the money. However, I do believe all writers write because they love doing it. It’s a passion, it’s an essential part of their wellbeing and it’s a basic need like eating and breathing. A writer would most likely say ‘I write, therefore I am.’

But whether you write for love or money, or both, how do you get to the point where you can call yourself a writer?

The first step to being able to call yourself a writer – and some would say the only step – is to actually write something. Obvious – yes – but a lot of people who would like to be writers are deterred from starting because of unrealistic expectations. You don’t have to produce a bestselling novel right away. You don’t ever have to produce a bestseller. You don’t have to produce anything for others to read. All you have to do is create something – in writing – and then keep on doing it.

Forget rules and expectations and write what you’re driven to write. It can be fiction, poetry, non-fiction. It can be long. It can be short. The important thing is to get those writing muscles flexing. Scribble, free-write, do a five-minute story or a hundred word opinion piece, do a haiku. Whatever – JUST DO IT.

 

Find your voice, find your preferred form and genre, and above all – FIND TIME.

Procrastination is a well known writers’ ailment, but you’re not eligible to suffer from it until you have actually started writing. So having made the decision to commit to your writing, you must then decide how much time you can give to it and when that will be. Then put your writing slots into your diary and KEEP THOSE APPOINTMENTS. It’s important not to over-commit. Be realistic – fifteen minutes on four days is better than nothing – anything is better than nothing. But do be prepared to prioritise your writing when making the appointments. It’s too easy to say, ‘I’d love to write but I don’t have the time.’ You’re kidding yourself if you do. What you’re actually saying is you don’t want to write – that it’s not a priority. Give up an evening’s television. Give up a long-lie at the weekend. Give up time on Facebook. Give up something that isn’t as important to you as writing.

Once you’re at your desk, SWITCH OFF YOUR INNER CRITIC AND PERSEVERE. It’s all too easy to let the negative thoughts creep in. ‘You’re rubbish at this.’ Who do you think you are?’ Call yourself a writer?’ You’re at the start of a long apprenticeship – one that probably never ends. Yes, natural talent is a plus for a writer – just as it is for a musician or artist – but there is a whole set of SKILLS TO LEARN – and you will need lots of practice to develop them.

You might want to attend WRITING CLASSES. This could be anything from a local authority evening class, to a week-long residential course, to a university degree. There are also several excellent MAGAZINES for writers and they are full of advice, tips and useful information.

 

 

 

Writing can be a lonely business so it’s good to BECOME PART OF A WRITING COMMUNITY. And if formal classes aren’t your thing then local writing clubs can be a great source of knowledge and support. There also many online writing communities – some which offer peer-to-peer critiquing – and some which simply offer mutual support and advice.

READ LOTS and READ WIDELY. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll pick up once you get started and your mind is alert to possibilities. Read genres you wouldn’t normally read, read stuff from the genre you’re writing. Read old stuff, new stuff, experimental stuff.

If INSPIRATION is hard to come by, there are books, websites and the aforementioned magazines all stuffed with prompts and suggestions. One very simple one is to take a book off the shelf, pick a page number at random. Take the first complete sentence from the top of that page and make that into a story starter.

Keep a PORTFOLIO of your work – electronically or on paper. Try out different genres and find out where your writing heart lies. But whether you decide on a novel, a short story collection, a pamphlet of poetry, a set of articles or a collection of essays, stay MOTIVATED.  If you’re taking writing classes you’ll get assignments to spur you on. Another way to motivate yourself is to enter COMPETITIONS – that way you get a readymade deadline.

And it’s a simple as that! Once you’re done some of the above – and intend to continue doing it regularly – you may call yourself a writer.

But what comes next now you’re calling yourself a writer. Do you want READERS? If you don’t that’s fine – then you truly are writing only for the love of it. But if you want to publish – what’s next?

How to reach your readers is the next topic in this mini-series – so come back next week – when I’ll outline ways to get published and offer some general advice on the process.

 

Some useful stuff-

There’s loads to choose from. But here I list only things that I’ve read/ used/ experienced personally.

Books on writing:

‘WRITING DOWN THE BONES’ by Natalie Goldberg – full of useful exercises

‘BECOMING A WRITER’ by Dorothea Brande – an ‘old’ publication but a classic and still relevant.

‘ON WRITING’ by Stephen King – honest practical advice from a master storyteller.

 

 

Writing Courses:

ARVON FOUNDATION residential courses – I attended one at Moniack Mhor led by Ali Smith – fabulous.

http://www.arvonfoundation.org/

 

Magazines for writers:

MSLEXIA – written for women writers but lots of the advice is applicable to menfolk.  http://www.mslexia.co.uk/index.php

WORDS WITH JAM – I’m a contributor – so of course it’s excellent. http://wordswithjam.co.uk/

 

Online Writing Communities:

On TWITTER there is the wonderful #amwriting community founded by Johanna Harness.

YOU WRITE ON http://www.youwriteon.com/  This is a long-established peer-to-peer review site for beginner writers – well worth a visit and a try out.

Online Sources of inspiration:

DAILY PROMPTS at http://www.plinky.com / and at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/category/daily-prompts /

Writing For Love or Money…

‘Write Enough’ production centre

For Love or Money

First, an apology to regular readers for missing last week. Second, an apology to this week’s readers for today’s rather brief post. The day job and other writing commitments have meant that the blog has been the thing that had to give. But I hope you’ll be interested in the mini-series of posts that I’m working on at the moment. See trailer below –

The trailer:
Writing creatively is a profession for some and a hobby for many. But professional or amateur, it’s probably true to say that anyone who spends time producing pieces of written work will be passionate about what they do. I would go so far as to say passion is a prerequisite for any writer. So it’s most likely a given that all of us who write do it for the love of it, and for some of us it’s also a way of earning a living.

Writing – its forms, methods and means of distribution to its readership – is going through (and has already gone through) significant changes. The existence of the internet and social media has made it possible for writers to become their own publishers and publicists. The mass market of traditional publishing now co-exists with the myriad niche and alternative markets of the ‘indie’ or self-publishing sectors. Real books vie with e-books. Now, more than ever, it’s possible to write for love and for money.

I’m planning to do a series of three posts under the heading of ‘For Love or Money.’ In the series I want to explore why writers write, how they go about writing, what forms writing can take, and how writers get their writing published – if indeed that’s what they want to do with their end products.

The first post – next week – will look at how to become a writer. The second one will look at publishing and publicising. And the third one will (I hope) be spread over a set of weekly guest posts from a variety of authors who I’ll be inviting to address the ‘Love or Money’ question as it applies to them.

There Will Now Be a Short Pause…

This will most likely be my last post for a few weeks. I have a lot on in my professional, personal and writing lives at the moment – and something has to give. However, it’s my intention to post something early in January reflecting the classic picture of two-headed Janus looking both back and forward at 2012 and 2013.

My writing priorities for the time being are the two novels that I’m currently redrafting – a children’s one and an adult one. My aim is to have them ready for professional editing by the spring of 2013. There are also a few writing competitions coming up that I want to enter. Therefore my writing diary is now pretty full.

But I do have plans for the blog in 2013. During 2012 I’ve had an overall structure for my weekly posts – following a recurring monthly rhythm. This has worked well for me – and it has helped reduce the scariness of the blank post form to have, at least, a heading to work to. However, next year I’m going to try a new theme.

I’m going to have a go at essay writing. Whether that’s a brave or foolish aim remains to be seen. I recently reviewed here Chris Arthur’s essay collection called ‘On the Shoreline of Knowledge’ and I’ve also mentioned Kathleen Jamie’s two excellent collections – ‘Findings’ and ‘Sightlines’. Reading the work of these two amazing authors has inspired me to give essays a try. I’ve no idea if I’ll be competent at this literary form – but there’s only one way to find out…

Irrespective of how the content turns out, I think the essay form will lend itself well to weekly blog posts. And using the essay in its broadest sense will still allow me to continue to post literature reviews, writing news and general reflections on life – personal, local and universal.

But, until then, I’d like to say farewell – for now. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by here this year and especially to those who’ve taken the time and trouble to leave comments. I wish everyone a fabulous festive season and a Happy New Year when it comes.

See you on the other side

 

A technicolour life in a dark November day

Darkest before dawn

It was quite a day today. A visit to the doctor, workplace stress, family strains, worries about the health of a loved one… This was combined with enough rain to make Noah take notice and enough cloud that it never got fully light. And I’m in the grip of one of my periods of insomnia.

The insomnia may explain the quirkiness of my thought processes – but for some reason it occured to me as I trudged on through this gloomy day that it could be summed up in a series of photos – black and white photos at that.

The photo thing is most likely to have been sparked as a result of the talk I attended on Saturday afternoon. The talk was by artist, *Nicky Bird and was arranged by  local arts organisation, Atlas Arts. Nicky is a photographic artist and she works with ‘found’ photographs. The black and white photos might have been taken  long ago and are no longer in the possession of their original owners – so the people in them are no longer identifiable. Or, the photos, although taken some time ago, are still in the ownership of the photographer, the subjects or their descendants. Either way these photos have their own very personal stories to tell – and, along with the landscape in which they’re set, are self-contained historical records. In their own way these photos are every bit as important as official portraits of ‘important’ people and events.

So what small personal history would the still, black and white shots of my day today tell?

Picture 1: Small figure – a woman –  swathed in waterproof trousers, jacket and under large umbrella walking in the rain under a dark sky.

Picture 2: Same woman in doctor’s surgery, sleeve rolled up, doctor taking blood sample. Both doctor and patient look serious.

Picture 3:  The woman – no longer in waterproofs – but in smart white blouse and navy trousers stands at a whiteboard in front of a class of primary school children.

Picture 4:  The woman now sits at a table in a classroom – no children are present. Several other adults also seated round the table. The expressions on the faces of the people tell a story of worry, pressure and stress.

Picture 5: The woman is with a man. They are sitting in a living-room. They are discussing a letter from a hospital. Their expressions are serious.

But this would not be the whole story. Because, later in the day, I was re-reading some inspirational quotes from Rumi, the thirteenth century Persian poet and I was reminded me of the importance of our attitude to events. We can’t control what happens in a day but we do at least have a measure of control over our reactions. The quote that jumped out at me was:

‘Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.’

So let’s revisit the day – but this time we’ll pick out different scenes and they’ll be in full colour.

Picture 1: The woman is seated at a table in a classroom. Five eleven-year-old children are also seated around the table. The children seem to be listening to the woman talking. She looks relaxed. She is pointing to something in a book and is smiling.

Picture 2: The woman is a corridor in a school. She is talking to another woman – a parent of a pupil. The parent is smiling at the woman and is shaking her hand.

Picture 3: Now the woman is in the living room of a house. She is sitting on the floor and playing with a baby girl who looks about a year old. A young woman sitting on the sofa looks on. The woman’s smile is that of a besotted grandparent.

Picture 4: The woman sits on a sofa beside a man. The couple are looking at an email confirmation for a hotel booking for a trip they are planning to the city at the weekend. They both look happy.

Picture 5: The woman is sitting at a desk. She is typing on a laptop. She is obviously enjoying the act of writing.

I have so much to be grateful for. Awaiting important blood test results, the worry of the other half’s imminent heart surgery, a job with a lot of stress and responsibility, a dreich November day – all formed part of the day. But, so did a bit of a breakthrough in the learning of a group of my pupils, a conversation with the grateful parent of one of my other pupils, playing with my lovely wee granddaughter and planning a shopping trip to Inverness at the weekend combined with going to see ‘Skyfall’ and a stay in our favourite hotel in the Highland capital. And then of course, there was an evening of writing.

Life is good and it sure beats the alternative…

Be happy.

* Nicky’s website  is http://www.nickybird.com

Essay the essay

For many of us an essay is something we wrote at school and, perhaps, at university. Sometimes these were imaginative, fictional pieces of writing, set by our English teacher and at others they would be discussion pieces where we would try to show what we understood about a particular subject and attempt to offer a reasoned opinion on any issues raised.

However, the true essay is a respectable, challenging and fascinating genre of professional writing. And while it’s true that over the last century or so, it has fallen out of favour with both readers and publishers, it has never gone away completely. In the UK there is a modern genre of writing called ‘creative non-fiction’ a somewhat clumsy and rather ugly name in my opinion. Presumably the marketers prefer this horribly trendy label  to the much older term of ‘essay’. There is a squeamishness and reluctance about simply calling an essay an essay.

But whatever you call it, it’s an underrated art form and one that will repay any reader who seeks it out. The true essay isn’t an article -it doesn’t need to make an argument or set out proof or try to educate. Neither is it a feature – it’s not required to showcase or persuade. It may do any or all of these things but these will be incidental and not vital. Essays are spontaneous. They are not required to follow a formula. The essay author is a free-ranging explorer who writes observational pieces about anything and everything.

I mentioned  Kathleen Jamie‘s ‘Sightlines’, her superb second collection of nature essays, here in May this year. Indeed, it was reading her first collection ‘Findings’ which first introduced me to this neglected genre.

And now I’ve discovered another wonderful essay writer – namely – Chris Arthur. I read his new collection entitled ‘On the Shoreline of Knowledge’ whilst on holiday a couple of weeks ago. It was captivating, stimulating and challenging read – at times comforting, at times unsettling. Arthur is a master essay writer. On his website http://www.chrisarthur.org  Arthur quotes Alexander Smith who describes essays as being concerned with ‘the infinite suggestiveness of common things’ and he states ‘I am drawn to the everyday epiphanies such suggestiveness sparks and like the freedom essays offer for exploring them.’

In the book he writes about Zen Buddhism, his father’s briefcase, mementoes, lists and photos – to name just a few subjects. And through his subjects –  which are often objects – he examines all of life. He addresses the nature of time, the universe and human mortality. He shines a ray of light into the meaning of life’s almost impenetrable darkness. It is deeply moving and thought-provoking writing.

Chris Arthur has a scribes accuracy, an artist’s eye and a poet’s soul. This is mindful, wonderful and transcendent writing. It’s proof that the unexamined life is an unforgiveable waste.

So, readers, be brave – go forth and essay the essay!

‘On the Shoreline of Knowledge’ by Chris Arthur is published by University of Iowa Press.

Subversive rants and grateful raves

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so it’s whine and whoop time. I’ll start with my gripes and save the goodies till later.

The grumpy, cynical and subversive bits of my old bat personality are well and truly stirred up this month. I hardly know where to start. So deep breath, focus and here goes…

Politics – or rather UK politicians – when did they stop being political? Was it in the 1980s? Did Thatcher strangle the passion out of them? And by naming the blessed Margaret, I’m not trying to be party political. I’m getting at the whole blooming lot of them, regardless of affiliation.

Being a politician is now, more than ever before, a career. Politicians are no longer driven by a passionate commitment to change or preserve things for the greater good – whatever their perception of that greater good might be. Now it seems to be about personal ambition, promotion, power and fame. Of course these ‘perks’ have always been part of the motivation and reward for success in politics – but it seems to me that they’re now the sole motivation. Posh boys dominate on all sides and it’s all more X-Factor than solid apprenticeship and hard slog. All of them take the short-term view, basing decisions on what will work for them during their short tenure – and to hang with the long view of what will be best for their constituents in the long run.

As for Scottish politics – good grief! It’s embarrassing. There’s wee Eck Salmond’s vanity project a.k.a. the campaign for independence. In Scotland we are subjected to a cynically controlled trundle towards the 2014 referendum. Meanwhile almost one in four Scottish children live in poverty. Yes, it’s relative poverty and not the absolute poverty of a child in famine hit country in Africa. But that doesn’t make it acceptable. Some of our youngsters eat only one meal a day i.e. their free school lunch – with some having nothing between the Friday one and the Monday one. Some parents are going without food themselves in order to feed their children.

And local politics are no better. I live in the local government area with the most scattered population in the UK i.e. the Highland Council area. The council is currently holding a series of budget consultation meetings which the public are invited to attend.  However these meetings have been poorly advertised and held in the evenings at a wet and windy time of year in places with no public transport during the day, never mind in the evening. They have also been held on only one evening in each location. Oh, and in an area where the council is a major employer, employees like myself aren’t allowed to express an opinion in public about council business. So I can’t comment personally on what is up for discussion but I’m told that’s what’s causing the most consternation is the proposal to save money by cutting the school day for primary children. Draw your own conclusions on this one.

And breathe…

So to the good bits – my wee granddaughter continues to be a joy. Nine months old already and what a privilege it is to see her every day. She and her Ma and Pa are living with me and Mr Writeanne as they’ve relocated to Skye and are awaiting the sale of their flat before they can get a place of their own here. It’s so fascinating watch her develop – something new every day. I wonder anew at the amazingness of the human brain and its capacity to learn and develop.

This weekend me and Seanair (Grandad) will be in sole charge of the grandbaby as her parents are away for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary. Can’t wait.

In other good news stuff – On the writing front – I got my entry sent off for the Mslexia magazine children’s novel competition. I feel a great sense of achievement just to have got it to this point. I’ll know in November if it’s got to the shortlist. I’ve also completed my contribution to the October issue of Words with Jam, the writers’ magazine. I’m proud to have contributed to every issue of this magazine since its inception. I also just received my second royalty cheque for the kindle version of my novel. That’s quite a buzz. And now the competition deadline for the children’s novel is past, I can leave it to one side for a while and get back to my second adult novel. My writing keeps me sane and is my anti-stress drug of choice. I love my day job teaching children with special needs but it is exhausting at times. However, I always find the energy to write no matter how tired I am.

Another positive is that autumn is my favourite season and I am enjoying the softer light, the turning of the leaves, the nip in the air. This year the heather is particularly magnificent with all the hills sporting a gorgeous purple blanket. And a wee robin has taken to visiting the garden feeder on a regular basis – so that and the selection boxes in the co-op gives an intimation of end of year festivities.

And that’s it. Gosh that feels better. Thanks for listening.

Tioraidh till next week!