Thursday 31 October 2019

Something missing ...

Life has been a bit out of hand for a couple of weeks - things going on socially, a major writing project underway  - and, of course, housetraining the new addition to the family! But I had a feeling that something was missing in all of it, something wasn't quite right. And, when I thought more about it, the missing item? Reading.

For the last few years I've kept a reading diary, noting down all the books I've read, my thoughts on them, why I've enjoyed them or disliked them, what techniques the writer has employed that have (in my opinion) worked or not. It's been a very instructive process and one I'd certainly recommend if you want to really get everything you can out of a book. But the diary pages have been tellingly empty over the last couple of weeks - apart from reference material to do with my current project, I've read very little indeed. And I don't see how writers can hope to write effectively without being readers too.

So - definitely a need to make time where I've been telling myself I haven't any. In recent years I've set myself writing goals for NaNoWriMo - never a novel I hasten to add, but different mini-projects to feel I'm at least in solidarity with those slaving away over their 50,000 word manuscripts. This year I'll be using the time though to catch up on the books sitting by the bed, waiting in my Kindle - and there's no shortage in either location; half a dozen by the end of November ...

Saturday 19 October 2019

A busy week

In a week that has seen a significant birthday, I've had much to be thankful for. I was joined for lunch on Tuesday by writing colleagues I've worked with over the past eight years and I was so aware of how much I owe them - for the inspiration they've provided, the constructive criticism they've offered when they've fed back on my work, the encouragement they've given me when the going's been tough. I free-lanced for many years in my professional life; much as I enjoyed the freedom that afforded, it could have been a comparatively lonely existence. However, I was fortunate then to have a network of peers to whom I could turn for support and I now value my writing groups for the same reason.

And, having been dog-less for the past eighteen months or so, this week also saw the very welcome arrival of Carys, a six year old Beagle. Having been a breeding bitch on an Irish puppy farm, I'm so glad to say that she's now in honourable retirement here with us. The poor girl has never experienced home life so certainly comes with her challenges, but she's already taken up residence in my writing room and listens very attentively when I read drafts of work in progress ...


...before snoozing in the sun!

Monday 7 October 2019

Poems and Patients

A bit of a hiatus since my last post, largely due to seeing too much of hospitals over the last few weeks! However, with health issues hopefully looking to resolve now, it's back into harness and on with several waiting projects.

Sitting around in different wards and departments has given some food for thought though. Whilst most hospitals have a reasonable variety of art on their walls, brightening up otherwise cold and  clinical environments, and at least giving patients and visitors something to look at, few hospitals seem to use poetry in any significant way. I've found the odd poetry book or pamphlet in hospital chapels but only at Neville Hall in Abergavenny have I seen lines of poems used decoratively. In Neville Hall lines from Owen Sheers "Skirrid" greet you, painted on the walls in Reception; stand outside the hospital and you can glimpse the mountain itself across from the town.

In recent years so much work has gone into researching the therapeutic uses of poetry. You may be familiar with the work of the inspirational John Fox and the Institute of Poetic Medicine in the States, or practitioners such as Victoria Field in this country; you may have comes across the annual Hippocrates poetry competition for poems on medical topics. I was delighted a few years ago to have a poem in an anthology for medical students about to qualify as doctors. But the idea of using poems formally or informally in the wider hospital setting doesn't seem to have really gained much of a hold. In a week that's seen a very successful National Poetry Day with events all over the country, perhaps it's high time to work on changing that situation.