Friday, January 03, 2014

Time of Year for Writing

This has just appeared on the Spread the Word website.... 
I am Miss September...


What time of year do you write?

We recently ran a competition, tasking writers to share their favourite time of year to write. Take a look at the excellent shortlist and winners and we hope it inspires you through your 2014 writing...

Throughout the year

Is underwater a season? For me, that’s where writing strikes. Maybe it’s the repetition of left, right, turn, left, right, turn - I’ve solved plots, developed characters, even come up with new story ideas that seem so brilliant I can’t believe I haven’t already written them. 
It’s not the same with other exercise – running I have to look out for mud and corners; cycling there’s cars to mind, and I'm yelled at in power pump. Even yoga doesn’t help because I’m concentrating on trying not to think. 
But when I have an idea swimming I repeat it over and over in my head. I jot it in my notebook in the change room. I take it down the street for coffee and expand it while it’s still fresh. We walk home together, have something hearty to eat, and sit down to see how far we can go. 
So the time of year influences whether the sun’s on my back or there’s darkness or rain on the roof above me. But as long as I keep stroking laps then I’ll never run out of ways to arrange words.
Jen Squire | winner | http://jen-squire.blogspot.co.uk | @jen_Squire

The best time of year to write is here
The today, not tomorrow, not sometime, it's clear
365 days could never be enough
For writers, love writing
Not to write would be tough
Imagine a Winter without any words
A silent Summer would be absurd
Spring must bud story lines to interweave
What is Autumn without any turning leaves
Your wish for the best time of year to write?
Anytime at all that the page is white.
Helen Turnbull | www.helenturnbull.com

April

My favourite time of the year to write is in April. I like writing in April because I am beginning to see things afresh with new eyes as Spring unfolds. I can look back over the last four seasons especially significant happenings culminating in an Autumn harvest before hibernation in the Winter. I can then think and feel from an outpouring emanating deep within my soul.
Elsa Pascal

July

My favourite time for writing is in the summer. Even if I am stuck in the suburbs of my parent's home, I can write myself into another place. I don't think I can live without knowing that the summer holidays are stretching out before me... so it's a good thing I work at a school! I enjoy the feel of the hot sun on my skin and the way that paper seems to shine in its light.

September

Like most women who write and work and have a child, my time to write is based around practicalities rather than around inspiration. The best time for me to get fingers to keyboard is in September, when my daughter goes back to school. The two months previous to that, in which I am a full-time mum and part-time wage earner, allow my ideas and creativity to build up like water in a dam. That first day of school is like opening the floodgates ... everything just flows out, and I can barely keep up with myself. September and October, with the trees turning their autumn colours and the days darkening and my ideas taking shape, are truly glorious.
Joanna Pocock

October

My favourite time of the year to write is winter; from the staleness that October yields and before the cold rolling stones that December brings. The air stiffens and like looking through an empty vase, the mind can melt into clarity, forgetting about the wilted flowers that succumbed to the winters frozen exterior. The frivolity of summer does not beckon you and instead the bare trees and crisp gatherings speak to you like an individual thought; yes we do talk to yourselves amongst the darkness. Perhaps there is a sense of retreating that we are all subordinate to during this time of the year. We all go into our hovels, shells and boxes to etch away at the person we have been all year. The engine of creativity beings to purr with activity, and soon we are disturbed by the embedded roar of our thoughts. The doom of cold that thickens upon us acts as a vessel of emotion. It is almost as if winter wants us to remember, because staring coldness in the face is like looking back into yourself. The air thins to white, the acute sound of birds, the nude trees and the people more scarce. The charm of summer is behind me and I feel less lithe. My freedom is dictated by the sky that quickly draws blackness. I am required to write! For what good is it to count the glimmer of black birds against white sky? They will continue to fly as you continue to look. The sun now hides and the moon boasts its white eye. The moon itself is like a white ball of condensed thought. It has dips and crevices that like human nature, symbolise fault. How is it so far and yet I see it’s tired eye and dimpled cheek. The moon looks back at you in the winter night as frozen breath of definiteness, although full it appears hollow. It is a plate for your thoughts to feed off of one another. What becomes bare must be re- nourished and so my mind is filled with how I can create a river of richness to stream along my consciousness. Winters promise is quietness, it is a constant and perhaps one of its most alluring aspects. Quietness is the essential ingredient to the romancing of thoughts.
Emma Jacobs | winner
The time when acorns litter the brow of the hill. Hundreds of acorns scattered on the mossy grass, hundreds of possibilities, cracking under my heavy tread. When leaf smoke tendrils softly in the afternoon cold and the sun sits masked by the clouds. When the leaves are falling, and I fall with them, tumbling, twirling through space, through the spaces where nothingness was, but now something, something fleeting, paper thin, like the thoughts in my head. This is when I write, as the world tips into darkness, as I take the fading sunlight and ink it into prose, etching it on paper, for my winter hibernation.

December

My Favourite time of year to write is December when I am mitten-clad and wrapped up warm, enjoying the festive spirit of Christmas and looking forward to the New Year, when anything seems possible. I find December inspiring as it's also my birthday month and I like to set new personal and writing goals around this time too. I wrap up odd writing projects and write more poetry and begin to plan for the year ahead - whether it's completing my novel draft (Finally) or putting together a comprehensive collection of poetry.I also submit work to magazines such as MSLEXIA in the hopes that I will be rewarded with good news post Christmas when everything suddenly seems gloomy!
Dina Begum
For the Spread the Word link, go to:
http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/resources/view/what-time-of-the-year-do-you-write

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