Summer Season on Notes from the Margin

What's in Store for Subscribers in June, July and August

Photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash

Hello friends

I like to think of Notes from the Margin as a place of connection. I don’t see this newsletter/blog/community as a place specifically for writers to learn to write, but it is certainly a place for people who are in love with literature, art, nature and history and want to find ways to connect themselves, ground themselves, in their own lives. This is what I find myself searching for too. I never quite fit in, am always between places, never quite fully present. This was a big theme in my nature-landscape memoir, The Ghost Lake, and it continues to be a theme in Notes from the Margin.

Over the last few weeks, as I begin to move towards deadlines for the new book I’m working on, and to put the planning in place for some other exciting work I have coming up this summer, I’ve been looking at how to fit substack around my other work, without losing momentum. You’ll notice that going forward there will be a slight restructuring of the account. I’m at a growth point right now and want to expand and change the focus of Notes a little, alter my posting schedule and incorporate a few new ideas. This is exciting as it means that there is more on offer for both paid and non paid subscribers.

What does this mean for subscribers?

As well as the articles, essays and posts for all subscribers, for my gaggle of paid subscribers I have the following treats in store…

Coming up June, July, August for paid subscribers

There are three main branches of subscriber benefits this season - the zoom write-alongs, some brand new weekend writing prompts and a new ekphrastic writing course.

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Weekend Writing Prompts

Give yourself a focus for the weekend, something to mull over, something to work on, something to spark creativity.

Suitable for poets, creative non fictionists, and for journalling, these prompts use art, artefacts, poems, prose and nature noticing as a springboard for deeper thoughts on how we connect and explore the world around us, how we capture and express our emotional response to our environment, how we think about self in relation to place. These are go-at-your-own-pace prompts aimed at stimulating creativity.

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

New Ekphrastic Writing Course - A Still Life

What happens outside of the still moment of a still-life painting? How do you capture your response to art? Where does one art form become another?

Ekphrastic writing is writing written in response to art, often describing the art itself, the reaction to it, or imagined experiences that the art generates in the mind of the observer. Let’s see how we might create literary art from visual art.

The still life genre captures a prolonged moment of stillness, but still life paintings also act as windows on society, the domestic interior, and social hierarchy. This course in three parts uses the still life art genre to create movement and response in writing. This ekphrastic course will include a notes bundle once a month, deep diving into a single painting, following rabbit holes into inspiration, poetry, prose and life experiences. Ekphrastic writing is a particular favourite of mine and I want to share that joy with you.

Suitable for poets, creative non fictionists and journalling.

Photo by Paul Talbot on Unsplash

Zoom Write-Along Sessions

The popular zoom write-alongs continue:

19th June 2025 - 7-8am UK time - The Breakfast write-along

24th July 2025 - 12.30-1.30 UK time - Lunch Time write-along

28th August 2025 - 6pm-7pm UK Time- Evening write-along

What is the Write-Along?

Join me on zoom for an hour of communal writing. We’ll begin with a reading, an optional prompt and then we’ll settle down to some writing in the zoom room. Feel free to bring along a long term project, or use the space in another creative way. This is a place to be creative together, a gentle accountability to your creative self.

I’m excited to be moving into the next three months with some new projects and I can’t wait to share with you. See you there?

If you are a paid subscriber to Notes from the Margin you don’t need to do anything to sign up for any of these offerings. They will arrive within the body of a paywalled substack post direct to your email account.

Not a subscriber? You can rectify that here:

Until next time

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