Category: Become a better writer

I really should even have to go into the obvious nature of this one. I think it’s maybe one of the by-products of reading a lot bout habits and how to be active and successful, The importance of forming good habits – doing things every day at the same time every day, having cues to help you get on with whatever it is you’re trying to achieve. But in my case, that nagging voice has turned this into: “So, you didn’t write yesterday? FAIL! Why bother today!” Obviously, this is ridiculous. It wouldn’t apply to any other section of my …

Sitting down to write something, some fictional glimmer that’s struck me that day or been sitting with me for days, weeks, occasionally months, and I find it difficult to get beyond a few pages. Then I give up. Because obviously, when I think about great writers and their work that makes me want to cry with inadequacy,, in my head they wander to their garden office (on the wishlist) with their morning cup of tea, and write furiously, all day long. They produce beautiful sentences which grow and change into glorious paragraphs, tense and exciting chapters, until finally, a finished …

I’ve been thinking about this series for a while, realising that post-wedding, post-new term, I still am not writing and a series of goal dates flash past while the page stays empty. I have lots of reasons and excuses in my head. But even as I started to type the title, my fingers pause on the colon: I don’t know what to write. I have ideas. I have ideas on the pages of notebooks that line two study shelves and that are in my desk tidy, on a post-it note in the back of my school planner, on word documents …