Monday Motivation: Unhappy families
“So who was Alan? Is he your cousin, or your brother-in-Law?” Laura said, clearly perplexed. “Neither,” I said. “He was my second cousin. Thomas’s son.” “Was? Won’t he be at […]
Monday Motivation: Succumbing to the infinite charms of Venice
Six years ago I sat at a table at All’Armoria, a restaurant perched on the lip of the quay overlooking the Guidecca Canal in Venice enjoying the late summer sun […]
Need some inspiration to get writing?
Need some instant inspiration to get writing? Who doesn’t. Here are ten of our Monday Motivations, all focusing on story, sure to spur you on. Read them all at once, […]
Let’s help each other make this a year for writing
Welcome to this month’s newsletter Many of our community, it seems, have earmarked 2018 as their year for writing. We’ve had so many requests for help and support, we’ve decided […]
Our Venice Retreat – just one place available
What would our fourth annual Venice Writing Retreat give you? That’s easy, if we quote one of our past participants, who called it “a life-changing experience”. It will certainly provide […]
Monday Motivation: Here’s an addiction worth cultivating
I often contemplate the power of habitual behaviour. I observe it daily in our cats. One habitually sits with his front paws – I tend to think of them as […]
Writing Secrets: There’s a time to write and a time … to contemplate
There is a time when writing requires contemplation for ideas to coalesce. To write you need sometimes to daydream; to allow your thoughts to roam aimlessly. But this is dangerous […]
Monday Motivation: Oh what stories you could tell
Were you anticipating 2018 with any relish? We usually do look forward to the new year with some degree of excited anticipation. The world conspires to encourage us to do […]
Writing Secrets: Keep staring at the screen
Stare at the screen. That’s my advice for the week. I know, holidays are over, we’re all back at work and now we’re faced with the reality of those good […]
Monday Motivation: Why do we write? Let me count the ways
Why do throngs of people around the world feel the urge to record their thoughts and feelings and observations, but, more than that, to shape them into narratives that engage […]
Monday Motivation: Turn the act of writing into a ceremony
So, just occasionally, when writing has become a burden – or perhaps, at that moment when you anticipate that it will become a burden – here’s an idea… It was […]
The Eleventh Month authors Q&A: Jane D’Abbs
On a weekend in November 2016, a number of writers gathered at Temenos, in the village of McGregor in the Western Cape. In addition to the writers at Temenos, others were tethered […]
