Thursday 18 September 2014

Blog Hop - my writing process and three other writers you want to meet

Long ago, in the olden days of social media I used to read a fair few blogs every day. Back then I either actually knew the bloggers in real life or knew them well enough online that they felt like actual friends anyway. These days the internet is awash with blogs and my own online time is seriously curtailed so my blog reading is rationed.

I have been tagged by Kirsty at Untrapped Life in this blog hop about writing styles and she rather greedily already tagged two people I would probably have tagged - Jax and Merry so I can't tag them.

I have mentioned Kirsty and her traveling adventures with her family and coaching podcasts before - if you have not already checked out her travel blog and untrapped life website please do so - Kirsty and I have definitely supported, encouraged and inspired each other over the years and continue to do so.

I will tag another three writers at the end of this post, but first to the questions...

1. What am I working on?
Writing wise, obviously, not all the other things I am working on! Along with writing this blog I have also written for various other magazines and publications including Scottish Islands Explorer, The Barefoot Diaries, WWOOF UK newsletter. Currently I am working on a couple of articles I hope to submit to some magazines in the permaculture, small holding, self sufficiency area. I write bits and pieces for various local newsletters, magazines and websites too.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I am not sure I really have a genre - I write about my life, my hopes and dreams and plans, share a little (with permission) about the rest of our family (husband and our two children). As such it varies from our Home Education adventures, our WWOOFing experiences, life on a remote Scottish Island, crofting, self sufficiency, animal breeding, rearing and processing, crop growing, permaculture, off grid low impact living, dream building, a bit alternative craziness! I hope my writing reflects who I am - humorous, adventurous, passionate, individual.

3. Why do I write what I do?
I'd like to reply to this in a really worthy way and say that I keep the blog so that friends and family can keep up with what we are doing, living so far away in such a remote place. Or that I hope to inspire and educate and inform others of the things I am passionate about - family, low impact living, chasing dreams, living life to the full. The truth is that although I do write for all of these reasons the main drive behind my writing is that I have always written and simply can't help myself. If I am not actually writing or typing I am mentally compiling what I will write or type when I am next sitting down with pen and paper or a laptop keyboard. From a very young age I kept a diary, I have always written stories and poems and spewed words out. If I am not talking I am writing.

4. How does my writing process work?
As above - a constant round of words whirling around desperate to get out and either be spoken aloud, typed onto a blog post or written on a page. I write best at night, alone, with silence and candlelight. I struggle with noise or distractions, rarely edit and generally exhaust myself with committing all I wanted to say to a space outside of me before I am ready to go to bed knowing I have concluded my day.

 Writers I think are really rather amazing
I started this post talking about how I only used to read blogs of people I knew in real life. Actually now I have thought about the three writers I am going to mention it turns out I do know all of them in real life anyway.
Ali is a fellow Home Educator, a very good friend and someone I miss a lot from my old life in Sussex where we would often sit, drinking tea (made with nasty soya milk but I put up with it for Ali's company) while our (then) small children would play and we would have surreal conversations, sing Don McLean songs and generally make each other laugh. She is quite my favourite poet and reading her words on the internet is a small consolation for not sitting drinking bad tea with her.  Find Ali's poems here (although I notice that her most recent and very good poems are not there yet.)
Allie another used-to-be-local-to-me Home Educator. Allie is one of the most talented writers I know of both fact and fiction. Her rousing blog posts on a variety of topics from parenting to politics to Home Education used to make me want to paint a banner on an old sheet and march along behind her chanting. Allie shares some of her fantastic (and prize winning!) fiction here.
Aida is, you guessed it, another wonderful woman I met through Home Ed down in Sussex. She has a huge family of the most gorgeous and super talented children, runs an inspirational and very successful business and is a screamingly funny writer and teller of great truths. Her writings are all grouped together under her business website at Whipped and Baked where all of the content is worth reading (and the cakes worth traveling to taste if you are ever anywhere near close to Chichester!).

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