So here I am, and so are you. This space, The Writing Shed, has changed its colours several times over the years. Originally, it started on WordPress in a blog of a different name and was where I interviewed other writers and provided occasional hints and tips about the business of writing. It moved to Substack in November 2022 with more of the same, as well as the previous decade’s archive.
I added a weekly writing prompt in January 2023, moving from the Hysteria Writing Competition website, and these posts are responsible for the bulk of the conversation that takes place.
Naturally, we change over time. We age, we have different experiences and our perspectives shift. Who I was, is not who I am now, I have moved away from explaining how to use the digital world. So this place is now a place and a space for me to discover my own unexamined life through words.
What you’ll get
Free subscribers can expect weekly writing prompts, and occasional forays into topics I find fascinating. This content is available for two weeks before going into the archive for paid subscribers’ eyes only.
Paid subscribers get immediate access to the entire archive and back catalogue of everything that has appeared on these pages, together with my deepest gratitude for their support of my writing.
Within the archive you’ll find my original work on living a writing life, courses I created about self-publishing, book marketing hints and tips, how-to guides, and much more.
There may be the occasional online get-together on an ask-me-anything basis - I’ll let you know through the posts I create just for you!
Why follow me?
I'm a writer and the author of nine books. I’ve also edited eleven anthologies over the years. Playing with words is what I do, I can’t imagine not doing it. To not write would be like not breathing.
Today, I recognise just how powerful words are. They are how we navigate the world. Slowly, I realised the thing I found most helpful was how they allowed me to discover and uncover layers of meaning in the way I live my life. This has helped me navigate the last few years more gracefully than I might otherwise have done.
I first started writing professionally as a way to generate funds for my social enterprise The Hysterectomy Association, way back in the mid-1990s. It started with website content, booklets, and newsletters before rapidly moving into books, writing competitions, and anthologies. Along the way, I learned a lot about the business of writing; from self-publishing to content development and management, marketing as well as business strategy. I was fortunate, an audience running into the millions every year meant I had the best testing and learning ground. All I learned, found about, practised, and perfected over the 20+ years of running the website is what I share with my clients and occasionally, the audience here.
Being a writer came a little later as I developed a personal understanding of what it means to admit you are a writer. The desire to self-edit, be coy, and shy about writing is strong because the nature of words and how they are put together is so subjective.
This place is where you will find all this in the writing prompts I create. It's a work in progress that will never be finished as there is always something else I want to say, share, and understand myself.
Most years, between April and August I organise and manage the international Hysteria Writing Competition.
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