The Mystery Of Writing.

Nothing we do is as mysterious as we like to pretend.

I'm paraphrasing, because I can't remember the exact words. But it's close enough to something Amy Espeseth said at a writers' workshop I recently attended. It struck a chord with me because it's something I'd recently been thinking about anyway.

There are a number of writers who seem to play up the apparent spirituality of writing, speaking of muses who won't leave them be, words that seem to have been received from some ethereal place beyond our physical universe. Writers as alchemists, turning the 26 letters on a keyboard into something much more. And I suppose non-writers may see writing that way. "Where do you get your ideas?" is an extremely common question.

Of course I get ideas and inspiration, and I make notes as soon as I can. And if they won't leave my mind, then I push them forward in the queue and start work on them.

Dean Wesley Smith offers a different approach. They're just ideas, just words, and he has hundreds of them. No pataphysical explanations, just a mind at work. I guess this is how I see it as well. When I don't have enough ideas for a particuler story, I make them. I create them. Over the past few years I've learned some exercises that help me do this.

But there are those times when I'm writing, when I'm in the 'zone' and the words just seem to pour out, and I wonder. Maybe, just maybe there is a muse watching out for me.

Winter Writing Workshop 2014.

I recently undertook a writing workshop at Trinity College. Two days of classes with Kate Forsyth and Amy Espeseth.

Both these writers have great publishing credentials, and although they took different approaches to their teaching, their sessions worked off each other to create a fantastic experience.

They covered some ground I had previously learned, but I didn't mind that. It reinforced those aspects, and reminded me of some I'd forgotten. Most importantly, however, I learned lots of new tricks, exercises and methodology that I intend to put to good use.

The focus of the weekend was on writing a novel, something I've yet to attempt but it's something I've recently been thinking about doing. Everything I learned on the weekend made me feel a little more confident about tackling a longer work.

Thanks  Kate and Amy, it was a fantastic weekend.