Today’s prompt: Share your goals and how you plan to achieve them
Write more ~ This challenge has been a good start because I want to write more in the wider sense, so I want to keep writing novels, but also shorter more creative pieces too. To achieve this I need to stop procrastinating and doubting myself
Send my work out ~ I think in a blog post much earlier in the year I said I was going to aim for 100 rejections and in order to do that I need to actually enter competitions and submit my work. So I need to start making a note of competitions I want to enter so I don’t miss the deadlines
Read about topics that interest me ~ I want to read wider than fiction. I do sometimes read non-fiction books but not enough and I think I should make time to research topics that interest me. For instance I watched a couple of documentaries about mediums/psychics this year, and one very famous medium posted on his instagram about having an arachnoid cyst in his brain and lots of people then shared stories in his comments about how they also had this cyst or family/friends did, and they also were able to predict things. I will gladly go down these kind of rabbit holes of research to find out more. I think it’s important for writers to be curious about strange things they come across as it can often be good inspiration for creative fiction!
Try new things ~ Maybe a cooking class, tarot reading class – I think I need to make myself a list of things I want to try…
Get fitter ~ I consciously tried to up my steps and was good at doing short dance workouts at the start of the year but I need to be much more disciplined. This gets much harder in Winter! Help me… (how do you keep motivated?)
Connect with old friends~ I feel like I’m still catching up a bit from those ‘lost years of lockdowns.’ Old friends if you are reading this give me a nudge, I do want to have that catch up and let’s get it sorted!
Make art ~ I’ve got this amazing big art kit which was a Christmas present from last year that I have hardly used and art reels of amazing artists demonstrating drawing/painting activities keep popping up on my Instgram and it is making me want to experiment. So maybe I should watch more reels to get me inspired and on my way
Travel ~ Last month was the first time I had been on a plane since 2019 and it was so great being abroad again. There’s a list of places I want to fly to and that will be a definite goal for next year. Looking up flights already…
I think that’s enough for now …. what are your goals??
Today’s prompt: write a post celebrating Winter. I do moan about Winter if we’re cursed with relentless rain and hate it when the alarm goes off in the morning for work with the recurring thought it can’t possibly be time to get up, as it’s still the middle of the night, clearly… But this post has reminded me of the more lovely aspects too. (Photos above are mine from the trip I mention below) So here we go…
Dear Winter,
One of my most beautiful memories of you was during a visit to Arran in 2016, where days awoke with spectacular sunsets, and ended with marshmallow pink skies. You scattered frost across gravestones, accentuating the ethereal beauty of carved forgotten names, the silence more acute amongst the sleeping trees.
Mist curling around houses and hillsides added a sense of the dramatic to an already beautiful landscape. The standing stones were bathed in a late afternoon orange light that my lens never could quite capture. I can still feel the peace and beauty you radiated on every stop we made around the Island.
Even on your darkest, most stormy days, I can still love you from afar. You make me appreciate the warm glow of light and indoor comforts found under warm blankets, wooly socks and jumpers, and when I cradle a hot mug between my hands I burrow down further into the warmth as I listen to your howls outside whipping the last of the autumn leaves away.
The trees become spindles stretching up to the sky, pointing out your beauty when you bestow the skies with blue depths only you can master, casting a magic hue across the streets before the night turns to black, and then sprinkles of stars explode, again and again, the longer I look.
You smell like cinnamon and hot chocolate and fresh pine and German sausages (from the Christmas Fayre I walk past every day I exit the subway station). You taste of soup, turkey, pigs in blankets, Brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, velvety chocolate, and my mum’s homemade trifle. You feel like love and comfort and give me permission to watch absolute cheesy sentimental nonsense and enjoy it.
You are wild and dangerous, and dark and beautiful… no wonder you make it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.
Our White Agate wedding oathing stone/crystal (photo by Heyes Images)
When thinking over today’s prompt: write about an hour that changed my life, the temptation was to try to think of a big dramatic event, but when I was thinking about hours that have changed my life significantly they’ve not happened in isolation, and most often have occurred because I’ve been brave enough to put myself out there, go after new opportunities and remain open-minded and curious.
There have been significant hours where I’ve filled out important course applications, important job applications, taken a deep breath and sent my writing out into the world to be read…
Signed up for a dating site again, putting myself out there, hoping, maybe this time…
And a message that popped up from that dating site then led to an hour which did change my life in a very pleasant, unexpected way. When I met my now husband.
And thinking back I had no idea I was walking towards my last first date.
And the man running down the street towards me, ten minutes late, was actually perfectly on time, meeting me when I felt in the right place and ready for him.
That first hour we spent time getting to know each other, checking we were who we hoped, discovering if we matched up to the online dating persona (or in my husband’s case surpassing it seeing as he had written in his profile he had a peg leg and sold golf balls at the Barras). I remember the detail of the day – it was late October and unnaturally warm and I remember the detail of him… in those first couple of minutes the flash of first impressions when the sun shone in his eyes, reflecting shades of green and his smile was a mix of confidence and youthful energy and there was always a sense of calm, and later laughter.
Our relationship unfolded so naturally from that initial hour onwards that I never paused to think about the significance of that first meeting, of where it might go, because it just….went…flowed naturally without drama.
And I still remember that spark of anticipation when he sent me a message after we met to tell me he got a parking ticket, but I was totally worth it.
Me, several years ago adjudicating and delivering my workshop at the Scottish Association of Writers conference
Today’s prompt is ‘Write about a time you had to speak to a large crowd’ And here’s a post about not just one time, but a few times…
When I was younger there were times when I really hated the thought of public speaking, and other occasions where I quite enjoyed it. This is sometimes the contradiction of being me- I often think I am a bit of a social introvert. Depending on circumstances you can get the ‘quiet’ me, or the ‘confident, communicative me’. (Often if there are very loud folk dominating the room you’ll only get to meet the ‘quiet me’, especially if you start making comments about how ‘I need to come out of my shell.’ No, actually, you need to go back in your shell).
I can think of two different occasions, a year apart in school in English where I had to do the ‘oral presentation’ part of the curriculum and the first time I was so nervous I barely looked up; the second time I was raring to go and had maps and diagrams up on the board. That was the first time I think I understood how to properly ‘command’ an audience.
Fast forward a few years to University and for most of my degree in Media and Communication I hated delivering presentations to my seminar groups. Then in my last year I got to deliver a presentation on a topic I had really researched and was enthused by – Post Modernity (and I got to talk about Andy Warhol as part of this). It was by far the best presentation I had delivered and some people came up at the end to tell me it was the first time they understood what that module was actually about. One woman ( who I didn’t really know that well as we had joint classes sometimes with social science students) was kind enough to say she was going to remember my name as she was positive I would be famous one day. (Still waiting, ha!). ‘First year me’ would have been shocked if I tried to reassure her this moment would happen and that I would get there in the end.
Fast forward another few years and I was back at University again, this time studying a post graduate one year course, training to become a careers adviser (my current day job). This was a very intense, full-on course which I loved. There was no time to feel shy or nervous; we all got thrown right in with client contact, even being filmed interviewing pupils (Uni got permission of course) and we then had to watch the recordings (and analyse them!!) together with our small crit groups so we could hone our practice. Another big part of the course was to get assessed delivering group work to classes in schools. During my first few years as a careers adviser I also had to deliver career talks to full assemblies, and more recently deliver a presentation to a packed room of parents.
Little did I know during my training and early years in the job how useful this experience was going to be for my other ‘career’. When you write for hours in isolation, often not speaking to anyone, (when I lived alone), you kind of forget what can happen when your work then gets published and your readers want to actually interact with you. I felt very fortunate when my first book was published to be invited to deliver creative writing workshops and author talks in both schools and in the community.
Talking to large groups of teenagers can be very unpredictable. You have to learn to ‘read the room’ pretty quickly, and at any group talk/session prepare for IT to fail. This has happened to me several times. One of my biggest author talks was to a full assembly hall of second years and the school IT system died just as they walked into the hall (so cue no flashy powerpoint presentation from me). The librarian who organised it was panicked, then relieved when I told her it was fine, I always had a back-up plan. (a careers adviser 101 rule). Another time the school IT systems decided to do updates on the library computer system.
I’ve had lots of great experiences talking to groups as part of my writing life. One of my favourite events was when I got to speak at a ‘Read to Succeed’ evening – this was to both young people and adults at a school and I was asked to tell them about the part reading played in me becoming a writer. So I got to speak from the heart and talk about two of my passions in life – reading and writing – and it was really one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve had. One of the girls who attended that night found one of my author social media pages and sent me a message to tell me I had inspired her to start reading again, and maybe even try writing, and it was one of the best messages I’ve ever received in my writing life.
Another favourite experience was returning to the Scottish Association of Writers conference to deliver my adjudication for a competition I had been asked to judge (and deliver a creative workshop). I attended my first conference when I was 17 and returned over the years, winning my first ever writing competition there. (and winning meant reading your story in front of the packed conference which was a very scary moment at the time!). It meant a lot to return to the conference as an adjudicator and felt like a real ‘full circle’ moment.
The night that really topped all experiences of talking to a large group was launch night for ‘Follow Me’ at Waterstones. As any writer knows there are a lot of ups and downs in the writing life, and that night was definitely up there with one of my most memorable nights – mainly because it was so unique to have some many people I loved from so many walks of my life in the one room together, cheering me on as one of my ultimate dreams became a reality. I always joke that no matter what happens in my writing future, at least I have that night to remember!
And yes, I do still get scared and nervous when I speak to large crowds, but now I think I have learned to develop a ‘performance’ persona where I know I can get through it and actually enjoy the experience. And there’s nothing quite like the buzz of feeling like you have made a connection with the audience in some small way.
Home today after a night away in Stirling (and back on my laptop for this post, so hopefully the photos might not look so squashed together!). When looking through my prompts I landed on: ‘Write about the best trip you’ve ever taken’ and I decided to put a spin on this. I’ve been lucky enough to travel abroad to some spectacular places, and maybe I will still do a post about one of those holidays, but some of my favourite trips are ones that have become a bit of a tradition – small places not too far from home which have become favourite haunts. Stirling is a city my husband and I have visited a number of times over the years and we have a favourite B&B and a couple of favourite restaurants we go to now. We enjoy dropping in on the lovely indie bookshop/cafe the Book Nook., and on this trip we discovered a new shop, called Made in Stirling which was filled with amazing art products from local artists.
Another tradition is to drop in to Tir na NOg on the way home, which I call my ‘happy place’. I took some photos (above) but they don’t do it justice. I love the little shops here bursting with magical trinkets; candles, crystals, cute ornaments, gorgeous jewellery, cards and so on. The courtyard is always lit up which looks particularly nice in the darker, autumn months. Today it was looking quite festive, with colourful lights. The Soup Dragon cafe serves amazing food. We had too big a breakfast for lunch today, but I managed one of their very tasty brownies. As I was sitting in the courtyard I began to daydream about how great it would be to open a bookshop/cafe that captured the spirit of both The Book Nook, and Tir na NOg…. if anyone with any business sense wants to get in touch…
The best thing about the trip this weekend was we didn’t book it until the last minute and the spontaneity added to the fun.
Skipping ahead one prompt to do a post this evening about why I love writing. When I took part in the Writetober23 challenge during October over on Instagram one of the questions I had to answer was why do I write, and aspects of my post below capture some of my response.
Reading inspired me to start attempting to write my own stories. To this day, when I read a good book I can feel something firing up inside of me; reading a good story makes me feel exhilarated. A great book makes me want to be a great writer and to create characters and situations that will resonate and pull the reader into another world, and drift along on adventures and be captivated by emotion.
Writing has always felt a part of me. I love the fact I can create characters and worlds, letting my imagination take over. It feels like I get to live multiple lives without ever having to leave the house (though I find getting out into the world provides the best inspiration!).
When I write and it’s going well it’s like some kind of magic starts to happen. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe, but you will often hear creative people say they get lost ‘in the flow’, when they are deep in writing, creating art, playing music, whatever. I think you can feel that sense of ‘flow’ from the other side too, when you are consuming good art – the kind that takes you out of your body and transports you somewhere new.
When I’m in ‘the flow’ of writing it’s like my brain exits my body and I connect to something much bigger and more freeing than logic. Feelings and instinct take over and finally that inner voice, the bad critic one that tries to overthink and overanalyse every word, is silenced, and the words just flow. It’s sort of similar to touch typing – somehow I know where the letters are on the keyboard without even looking or thinking about where they are. But guaranteed if I start to analyse how I could possibly know, I then start to lose the magic, and stumble over the keys. So the trick for me is to try to keep in that heightened state of mind for as long as possible. I think this is why on good writing days I can just keep writing and writing, as I don’t want to break the spell. And listening to emotional music often helps me keep in the flow, taking me outside of reality for a while.
What I also love about writing is the chance to have fun and tap into my imagination. I have a day off work tomorrow and I’m delivering a flash fiction workshop to Erskine Writers. I like delivering creative workshops as I love seeing what ideas the participants come up with from the prompts I set, and I find it a freeing way of experimenting with different forms.
Setting myself this challenge, of writing posts inspired by daily prompts, is a great way to just let go of over-thinking and seeing what happens! It’s taking me back to the core of what I love about writing; being able to express myself and connect with the world whilst having some fun along the way.
Today I’ve chosen a prompt from later down my list as I wanted to write something that was fun and creative. I’ve posted a couple of attempts below of 6 word stories.
I’m going to be delivering a workshop on writing flash fiction in the coming week and attempting this exercise was a really great way of trying to make every word count!
Today’s November writing prompt is ‘Write about an outfit you associate with an important memory.’
I’ve chosen the above dress, and it’s not memories per se that have prompted me to choose this outfit (though the ones below are good ones). It’s the dress itself I feel attached to and even although I can no longer fit into it I can’t bring myself to put it out to the charity shop as I love it so much. I bought it from the Joe Browns website back in 2011 I reckon, and I love the ‘graffiti’ style of it and the detail of the skulls and playing cards and random other squiggles.
I wore this dress a lot during my 30s which was a fun decade for me. It was when I developed confidence in a lot of areas of my life; with work, with my writing, forged some great new friendships and went on amazing trips alone, with family, friends and then later, with my now husband.
This dress joined me on some of those journeys…
The Writing Conference
This blurry photo was taken at the York Writing festival back in 2012. I’ve cropped out the very drunk ‘celebrity’ who was in attendance trying to pitch his book to agents. This was a great conference where I got to pitch Follow Me to two agents, one of whom loved the idea and first few chapters and told me she was dying to read the rest, so as you can imagine I was excited for the rest of the conference and the six months that followed, until it was a disappointing ‘no.’ I felt this conference marked a turning point for me with my writing, where I was starting to get really serious about it, in terms of thinking maybe one day I could get a book published, and I was soaking up all the workshops with hints and tips of how to submit, and improve my work.
Cruising the Mediterranean
I was lucky enough to go on a couple of amazing cruises with my parents – this photo was also taken in 2012, on the lead up to my Dad’s 60th birthday, when we went on a cruise around the Mediterranean. My Dad always worked in travel and as a family we went on some amazing trips throughout the years. One of the best things about this cruise was the amazing food served on board and the library! I loved the fact I got to see so many interesting places without having to unpack each time. This was me dressed for dinner one night and it wasn’t long after posing beside this big apple that I made it to the actual Big Apple… (on a separate trip). Some favourite stops on this trip were Venice, Taormina and Dubrovnik.
In Barcelona (one of my favourite cities)
I’ve been on some great trips to Barcelona. This photo was taken in 2017 and it was fairly early on in my relationship with my now husband. We had a great time on this trip – visiting lots of great art galleries and the food was amazing. I loved this piece of art work behind us called ‘The World Begins with Every Kiss.’ by Joan Fontcuberta. It’s a mural which is made up of hundreds of little photographs and I just think it looks so cool. (and has quite a lovely title).
Chris loves to remind me of the evening we started off with pre-dinner drinks at the amazing Vietnamese restaurant/bar beside our hotel and by the time we finished our bottle of white wine and pizza at another restaurant he had to practically carry me home. I blame the rocket fuelled cocktails in the first bar. Europeans seem to like to free pour their measures! I also have some great memories of another Barcelona trip I went on in 2015 (or thereabouts!) with my friend, Julie, but ‘the dress’ didn’t join me on that adventure.
VICTORIA GEMMELL 