The Story of Everything

Plus - NEW COURSE KLAXON

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Hello friends and welcome new followers, it’s good to have you here.

I began working on a novel this week, for NaNoWriMo, the intention being to recapture the joy of telling stories, and get the idea, which had been sat on the back burner of my brain for a good while, from my head and into something physical that I can then use as a structure to really build the story. I met for the first time yesterday with the group of writers who’d signed up for my NaNoWriMo based write along and while the rain pelted the window and the sky lighted we got our heads down and worked on our projects which include novels, poetry and plays. By the time you read this we’ll be settled in again for day two and we’ll be starting off with this quote from Stephen King:

I’ve found a motivational quote a day that sets us off writing rather than thinking about writing. This one’s a good one, it assuages my guilt for spending so much time reading. While I was searching about for quotes I found this one, also by Stephen King:

"Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing
world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her 
toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground 
intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is
small, a seashell. Sometimes it's enormous, a 
Tyrannosaurus Rex with all those gigantic ribs and 
grinning teeth. "

At the time that I found this one I was procrastinating over a job my editor at The Borough Press had asked me to do: draw a map of the landscape of my memoir, The Ghost Lake. There’s a designer working on it (thank god they aren’t relying on me because I found out that map making is very hard to do) but are reliant on me expressing to them the places in the book that are significant, and how they might appear on a map. This is much more complicated than it sounds because the book is about searching for belonging in the landscape, and finding yourself in the archive of the landscape, amongst the things; people, names, places, archeology that has come before. What does a mesolithic settlement that was last in use 11,000 years ago look like? A field. What does a boulder look like that travelled in the belly of the glacier that ground down the landscape to create the valley I live in? Well, it looks like a rock. Just a lump of rock. I realised most of the places in my book are hidden, or look insignificant, and whilst that made map making a challenge, it also pleased me, it reminded me what I was trying to do, to dig myself out of the landscape, to celebrate my insignificant place in the story of the landscape, to tell my story in the context of the story of everything that existed here before, and the things that will exist after me. Everything has a story, including the place where you stand, and you are a part of the story of that landscape. This is what belonging is, for me.

New Course Klaxon

November is peeling autumn away and we are looking down the barrel of winter now.

What can we learn from nature in winter? How can we write about it? Where do we exist in the natural world and how do we tie that world to our own lived experiences, physical and emotional?

Winter is the dark time when the world is waiting: a time for survival, a time for for reflection, a time to experience the darker side of the world and to dig in and recognise the strengths in ourselves and the resilience of the world around us. In this four or six week course (depending on the tier you choose) we’ll be exploring nature in poetry and prose using natural and supernatural themes. From migrant birds arriving and leaving, to insects in their subterranean hideouts, the trees speaking to each other out of sight to the rites and folklore around the darkest days. This is your chance to explore the natural winter world both as an observer and in the context of your place in it. In What to Look for in Winter we’ll explore this world through published works, museum artefacts, film, imagery and physical interaction with nature, using prompts and directed activities to write ourselves into the winter months. 

The course starts on 3rd January, a chance for you to start the year by prioritising your writing, perhaps, and to face the post new year’s slump with positivity and courage.

If you are a paid subscriber to Notes from the Margin, you are entitled to a discount on the course, as a thank you for supporting me and my writing.

You can find out more about the course, and book your place on it, here:

The Dawn Chorus ZOOM writing group returns on the 6th November. This is my gentle morning writing group. Five days of early morning writing time 7-8am UK time. We start with an excerpt and an optional writing prompt then write for an hour before checking in. This is the sort of place you can come and let creativity happen in that magic hour between sleep and awake:

The Next Books from the Margin Book Club Book Chat is 12th November 10am UK time. It’s free to paid subscribers but open to anyone for a pay-what-you-can donation. It’s a chance to chat all things books, and you don’t have to have read the book club choice. November’s choice if Jen Campbell’s Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit, which is excellent. I hope to see you there!

Until next time

x