Making Time, by Dawn McLachlan

I find this time of year a real struggle and to cope with it I often feel I have to turn down work and take myself off to get through. This post is in itself a shortcut - a cheat to buy myself time. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say and it struck me that I'd already said it on this platform before. The blog post is a revision of one that first appeared in another cold month in another year. It remains important and worth repeating.

Here goes... Making Time

One of the things most of us struggle with is time. On the surface the Pandemic years had an abundance of the stuff. To all intents and purposes time was sloshing around in vast unused quantities, but I've not found that I have had extra. To be honest, I've found that there has been far less time than I've needed. It's like it's been slipping away and I was constantly hunting for more. Like keys it's been something I was continuously searching for and only finding when I'd... well.. when I'd run out of time...

You can probably tell from this word soup that filling your time with endless tasks in an effort to rebuild your writing career is actually really bad for your writing career.  Over the last few years I feel that I've been constantly playing catch-up with all the things that I set aside back in 2019 - in the Time Before. This fierce struggle to plaster over all of the gaps and cracks in my career has been damaging to both my health, and my creativity. 

After a bit of a rocky time a while back I was talking to a very wise friend and chatting about how much I was doing and she gently stopped me and said "you've told me what you say you have to do, but what is it that you want to do?"

I sort of blustered a bit and we went our separate ways, but her words stuck with me. They sat in my head because it was a kind of revelation - I hadn't actually given any thought to what I wanted to do. Not once in all my busyness (and business) had I thought about what I wanted to do, or what might make me happy. I realised that I don't have to carry on in this set path, I can choose a different one.

I can't always afford to think about that, and for a lot of my life there was no way I could afford a choice. This is something that set a pattern in my thinking and I'm still desperately trying to hang onto absolutely every opportunity in case I can't pay the bills. I've done this for about four decades, for most of my life. I know that most of us struggle to think about not doing something because finances don't allow it, but I do think that it is important to stop now and again. To take the time to think about the happiness gaps in our lives can be an important thing for our mental and physical health. Back in July 2020 I wrote about how we should all try to stop and notice the small wins, and yet I'd forgotten to do this.

I had a few significant mental and physical health issues in 2022 and this made me admit that I couldn't continue to deliver my time the way I used to. I spent most of last year stepping back from various committees, boards, panels and national steering groups. Bit by bit I withdrew from all of them until in November last year I stood back from the last one and that was that. The only commitments that remained were ones that directly support the community in my little rural home.

I'd finally made time and now (maybe) I can think about what comes next. I have accepted that I will probably never get another contract for a children's book, or work in a library again, but some of my poetry is still being published so that's something. I finally have the headspace to finish the adult novel that has been haunting my thoughts for a few years and I might just independently publish that as I'm pretty sure it's too "quiet" for a mainstream glitzy publisher.

Who knows?

I'm training myself to stop looking at all the things everyone else is achieving, and wondering why I'm not in the same place. I'm finding that painting and poetry, and having more time to just look around me and pick a few small wins is helping me get on a more even keel. I'm pretty skint but I have some other bits of work to keep me bobbling along and I know how lucky I am in that aspect. I've worked constantly since I was 17 years old so that means I have hardly taken a breath for almost the last forty years. That said, it's never too late for a fresh start.

Right now I want to write something beautiful, but I know that to achieve that I'm going to need to take a bit of time to focus on some other things and doing everything all at once isn't good. I'm going to stop and look around at some of my small wins, and maybe rid myself of some of the things that are causing me upset and sadness. We can't always deal with everything at once, but maybe by dealing with just a couple of things at a time we cope with the rest.

Dawn McLachlan is starting a new chapter

Twitter - @dawnafinch

Instagram - @dawnamclachlan

www.dawnmclachlan.com

How to talk to children about Ukraine, by Dawn Finch

I have struggled to find something to write this blog about for this monthly slot. I have been back and forth over the book pile, and crossed off everything on my blogging subject list because everything seemed trite and unimportant. The news fills every corner of my mind and it's so hard to gain perspective and to not feel guilty about the pleasant and calm aspects of my life while others are in such horrific situations. If I'm feeling like this, I dread to think how children are feeling.

In these times of digital flooding it is hardly surprising that children are exposed to the news in a way that often causes distress. With the current news being so difficult to understand as an adult, it is obviously even more distressing to a child.

It is incredibly difficult to talk to children about matters like this and to help with this situation the School Library Association has gathered together a few resources that will help both families and teachers to better understand the situation and communicate with youngsters.

You can can access these resources (including a very comprehensive padlet collection) via this link.

https://www.sla.org.uk/article/wendy-cooling-mbe/ukraine-news

It is also worth taking the time to explore the Supporting Wellbeing resources from the National Literacy Trust. These resources are essentially for educators, but they are so useful that they offer an insight into the thinking of children and to ways of communicating better with them and to supporting their mental health.

You can access these resource via this link (below)

https://literacytrust.org.uk/primary/literacy-wellbeing/

I hope that these resources are helpful, and please do add more in the comments

Dawn Finch is poet and children's author. She is the current chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) at the Society of Authors. 

Green Shoots - Ciaran Murtagh

I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot of doom and gloom about the place at the moment. You all know what's wrong with the world and probably have a list of people to blame alongside  a heap of specific personal daily crises to deal with before even considering knuckling down to write.

I have become teacher to a six year old, professional make up model to a three year old, financial emergency service to a twenty four year old and tee total at quite the wrong time.

But rather than rehearse the problems I thought it might be good to accentuate the positive, so here goes.

We know this feeling

As self employed creatives we've always been in a precarious position when it comes to employment and finance, it's odd to find the rest of the world joining us. However, we know what this feels like, we are used to this uncertainty. It's easy to get caught up in the hysteria of those experiencing this for the first time through no fault of their own and certainly not through choice. And yes, everything else that is going on adds to the stress of the situation more than usual, but take a deep breath, you of all people have got this.

What do you normally do when work dries up? You dig it out. You self start. You get your stall in order so that when everything is open for business you are ready to go.  What did you do the first time? You knew nobody, you had no contacts, you just had yourself and you got started. It's exhausting but you need to do it again.

Write something you love. 

I just wrote a sketch for Crackerjack. Is it going to pay me a fortune? No. Is it going to get my kid through maths? No. Is it the best use of my time? Probably not. But then again - in a time like this, what is? It's very easy to think that what we do, in the scheme of things, isn't really contributing much. I'm not on the front line, I'm not saving lives, I'm not looking for a cure, I'm not fixing the problem, I'm writing fart jokes and covering grown men in custard. Here's one I made earlier...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zmqlv

But - and this is crucial - it's what I do. It's what I'm good at. Not everybody is equipped to fix the global problem we face. The best thing anyone can do in this situation is what they do best and trust it will be enough. If everyone does their best, we'll get through this. Right now a fart gag might not be helping, but give it six months and we'll all be in need of a laugh.

Do what you can today to make tomorrow better.

There is still work out there. 

It's hard to find and even harder to get but it is out there. In particular the animation industry is responding to this crisis very well indeed. If you have ever written for animation then dust off the contact list and start emailing, if you haven't then spend some time investigating how you might. One thing this virus has taught us is how quickly things can dry up. Learn what you can from it.

Most live action scripting is being shelved, but animation is going great guns, try and skill up so that the next time this happens you've got places to turn. If you don't fancy scripting start thinking about an original idea. Or even try and turn that book idea that may be hard to get off the ground right now into an animation idea and start pitching -  people will want content, you can give it to them.

On the book front, educational publishers still seem to be generating work. Anecdotally I know this isn't true for every publisher, but I have been approached by a couple in recent weeks to consider pitching new ideas. Again, if you've ever done any educational work dust off those contacts, email those commissioning editors and see what you can dig out. As with everything, it's tough and it's competitive but you never know.

Good luck, stay safe and lets hope May brings sunshine and beer gardens and pubs that are open.

Walking while working - Nicola Morgan

Big apologies - I have reposted this from my own blog, mainly because I only realised last night that I have to do my ABBA post but also because it's VERY relevant to writers...

A few weeks ago, I joined the band of people who work while walking. I type and do almost all my desk work while walking on a treadmill. It has been eye-opening, body changing and inspiring. And unexpected in some ways. Here’s what happened and what it is like.

Over the last year, I’ve been reading a lot about the health dangers of being too sedentary and not doing enough exercise. And I am (was) very sedentary. My desk work and my workaholic personality kept me rooted to my chair for hours and hours on end. It didn’t feel good but I couldn’t stop.

About a year ago, I bought a Fitbit One, to inspire myself to walk more. Although this helped at first, somewhat, there were two problems for me: 1) I was still a workaholic and still needed/wanted to get a lot of work done so I was still staying at my desk too long and 2) I have an arthritic and cartilage-wrecked knee which has been getting worse and which doesn’t like the manic walking pace that I do, partly in my effort to get the damn walking done as fast as possible and partly because it’s just a Type A personality thing. Walking on roads is painful and walking on hills very. Cycling, too.

So, I decided to deal with this sedentariness properly.

I knew that a friend of mine, Vee Frier, used a treadmill set-up, so I got her advice. I am not sure if I have the same setup but it’s the same principle.

(Warning, my solution is not cheap. But it’s tax deductible!)

I ordered this special desk to go on my desk to make it the height for standing at; and a treadmill especially designed for the purpose, because it’s slim, fits under a desk and goes more slowly than a gym one. And has no incline.

The desk arrived first and as soon as I started working at it, I hated it. (Fear not: this has a happy outcome.) It was extremely painful and my knee reacted disastrously. In the nearly three weeks before the treadmill arrived, I thought I’d made an expensive mistake. I was already wondering if I’d be able to send the treadmill and the desk back.

The treadmill arrived and I switched it on. Hooray! It didn’t work! Excellent! I could send it back.

Then I realised I’d misread the instructions and put the magnetic safety doobry on the wrong bit. As soon as I rectified this, the machine sprang into life. Unfortunately, I was kneeling on it at the time, fiddling with things, and – trust me – this is not a position you want to be in when a treadmill springs into life or anywhere.

The second thing I discovered was that it was NOISY. Hooray! A reason to send it back!

However, I am not faint-hearted so I duly lugged it up to my garden office, with the help of Mr M (I’m as strong as he is but it’s always good to give him a task). And left it there over the weekend while I dreaded Monday.

Monday came and I hobbled up the garden to my fate.

And walked for 3 hours at 2mph. With no pain. Gently lulled by the swooshing noise in the background. While typing. And concentrating unusually well on my work. With ideas pouring from my brain and onto the keyboard.

I also realised I loved the desk thing, too. It’s quite big and also sturdy. I can have my keyboard, laptop, mouse, notebooks, and COFFEE.

Thus began my personal revolution. Three weeks later, my knee is bearing up, I’ve walked between 12k and 20k steps each day (whereas on some previous days I’d be doing fewer than 1k) and I’ve lost 4lbs (which could also be the sugar I’ve given up, though I ate very little of it before). I’ve discovered that 2.5mph is the ideal speed for me while typing and it’s a speed I can walk at without thinking about walking. It’s much slower than my outdoor walking pace, and I think this is why it’s good for my knee – it’s motion without so much flipping force.

More to the point, I LOVE walking while working. I’ve

always found walking a great way of loosening my creative brain and freeing up ideas but how very much more convenient it is to do that while actually at the screen!

It feels very good in every way.

It’s very easy to put it on its side out of the way if I actually want to sit down.

Btw, can you see the odd thing under the upper desk? With a red button on it? That’s the console, where you adjust the speed and things. And there’s a red cord, which you are supposed to clip to your belt, with a red magnet at the other end, attached to the console. *cough* I erm, don’t… This is so that if you faint and fall off, the treadmill will stop.

I’ve only fallen off once and that was because I tried to turn round and pick something up. (Don’t do this, really. Especially while holding coffee.) Several friends sent me videos of people breakdancing on treadmills. That’s a trick for the future…

I have found another advantage: all this walking makes me feel nice and warm so, though I’m using some electricity for the treadmill (500W at the most) I don’t need a heater any more. In fact, I’m working with the door open a lot of the time.

It's the best of every world. I'm often reluctant to recommend things, as I know everyone's different, but if you're thinking about doing this - do!