Good Friday roundup

Photo by: The Irish Times

Well, I just thought I’d share this photo with you of a St Patrick’s day parade just up the road in Gort, Co. Galway. And no sooner are we over the St Patrick’s holiday weekend, but we’re into Easter, which means Friday and Monday off in Ireland. Friday, because it’s Good Friday, and Monday because it’s the anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916.

I’ve been using the last few days to catch up on a little reading. My reading is one area that I’m really going to have to work on. I should be reading blogs and commenting on them. I’ve really noticed the number of visitors to this blog plummet when I neglect that. So that’s an interesting learning point.

I’ve spent a good time reading Copyblogger lately. I have read it in the past, but was reminded by an article in the Guardian called The world’s 50 most powerful blogs which included it.

There is a guest post from Jane Northcote called Getting Writing Done: How to Stop Thinking About It and Write. This includes the advice: Just do it. Walk into your office, open your computer and start. And, do you know, when I do that it just never seems so bad!

Incidently, they have an excellent Jobs Board now on the site. You can read about it in Introducing the Copyblogger Writing Job Board.

Finally, in this post I’m sure I’ve broken all the rules in 10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves Before Posting, but at least I’ve read them

Morning pages

Photo by: Savannah Grandfather

One of the variety of books that I have read regarding creativity and writing is an excellent book by Julia Cameron, called The Artist’s Way. I’d really recommend it to anyone to wants to develop their artist.

A key activity in this book is Morning Pages. The book recommends these as three pages, I think in the US they’d be called letter size, and here we’d say foolscap. It’s just a free flow exercise in writing. Anything you think of comes out on the page. There’s no wrong way to do them. Writing deep inner thoughts, and writing ‘I really can’t think of anything to write today, I guess I’ll describe the room I’m in …’ are equally valid. You do this as soon as you get up every morning. Without fail.

I’ve been doing this for a few years on and off, but for the past year almost constantly, with the odd break when I’ve been completely out of my routine. I love it. I feel freer after I’ve written them. I’ve learnt things while I’m writing them. And it’s writing practice that I do every single day.

Cameron believes strongly that they should be written in long hand. She loves the flow of the pen over the page. I don’t agree. For me, writing on the laptop is much more of a speed with my thinking. I found the three foolscap pages are 900 words. So do it whatever way works for you. But I do recommend that you try it.

The Freelance Writer’s Handbook

Photo by: amazon.com

I was in Hughes & Hughes, the bookshop here in Ennis, yesterday. I had seen The Freelance Writer’s Handbook there before. Yesterday, though, I decided to buy it. The subtitle is How to make money and enjoy your life, which sounds pretty good to me.

With chapter headings like:

• Why do it?
• Getting Started
• Finding Material
• Writing for magazines, newspapers, etc.

There are also sections on writing for the business world, travel writing, fiction, the spoken word, children’s writing, the web, film, television and radio.

So I figured it can’t hurt to read it. So I’m going to follow it chapter by chapter for the next month, and see where that brings me.

And, obviously, I’ll blog about it an allow you to follow my journey.