It’s been a good week in many ways, but the not-so-good things first: a rejection from the London Magazine (not unexpected) and no new poetry writing done at all 🙁 Good things: the first of our Brighton Stanza small group workshopping sessions was on Monday, and although there were only three of showed up inRead more ⟶
Category: Writing
‘My Writing Process’ Blog Tour
Morning! It’s time for a little blog tour… the lovely Jayne Stanton invited me to take part in the ‘My Writing Process’ tour (or ‘meme’ in internet parlance). There must have been thousands of writers already taken the tour. The idea is to answer the same four set questions, then to nominate three more writers toRead more ⟶
Quick writing update
This is probably displacement activity, as I should be working on the book which I have until Easter to write. Yikes! Quick update on a few things. Poetry writing is currently going through a dry patch. I missed out on my Mimi Khalvati fix at the weekend as I was under the weather, but didRead more ⟶
On Heavenly Bodies and feeling empowered
A few interesting things on the go at the moment. ‘Heavenly Bodies’ which I wrote about last week is gathering momentum, and there’s talk on Facebook of having a launch in Preston, or somewhere points North, which will mean I’ll have to miss it, alas. Anyway, at least I’ve written my ‘constellation’ poem, although IRead more ⟶
Stars in our eyes
There was an episode of ‘Girls of the Playboy Mansion’ in which a new ingenue is welcomed into the Playboy ‘family’ with the gift of a star named after her. “Ooooh, you’re a STAR!” says Kendra to the upstart, somewhat mockingly. I watched the show for moments like that. What is it about stars? MostRead more ⟶
Where blogging fits into the writing week
How does your writing week look? Mine can typically include things like blog posts a client email newsletter a lot of emails (sent and replied to) poetry writing/redrafting/editing commenting on blogs client work: proposals, meeting reports, web or brochure copy, etc an email newsletter for one of my groups (poetry or singing) a guest piece forRead more ⟶
Two exciting discoveries (new to me, anyway!)
There I was, just noodling about on the internet, when what should I find but not only a wonderful blog and poetry resource but also a poet who I’d never heard of but whose work immediately excited me. First of all, thanks to a Facebook update by Antiphon magazine* I followed a link to anRead more ⟶
Mimi Khalvati on editing and what to bin
On Saturday I dropped back in on one of the regular workshops with Mimi Khalvati run by the excellent Lewes Live Lit here in my home town. I was lucky enough to be rewarded with a place in one of these highly popular groups about 18 months ago, and although I’ve been on a breakRead more ⟶
From first draft to publication
Something of an experiment today. I love seeing those handwritten drafts of famous poems, with the crossings out and alterations, such as this version of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ at the British Library. I think it’s fascinating to see how people work on poems, and in workshops I often wonder how a particularRead more ⟶
Nice to end the week with an acceptance
Although I was delighted to hear that Antiphon is taking a poem of mine for the next issue, for a moment I had a panic because it’s a piece I’ve altered drastically since, and I was thinking of sending it into the National in its new form (but same title). As it happened, I was soRead more ⟶