creativity

The Daylight Saving Club – by Melissa Noble

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Helping you thrive through winter

Introduction

Once the clocks go back, it can feel like we’re in for a bit of a slog. That’s why I’ve created the Daylight Saving Club.

It’s a series of online sessions to help keep the winter blues at bay. They’re carefully crafted to keep in tune with the seasons, embracing the cosiness without slipping into a slump.

Join us and, when Spring arrives, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.

How it works

Sessions run on Zoom, from October 29th through to the end of March. There’s a whole host of brilliant stuff lined up, carefully crafted to help us embrace the cosiness without sinking into a slump. If you know you’re prone to disappearing down a rabbit hole throughout the winter months, this is your year to do things differently.

The sessions

There are three types of session. We meet on a Tuesday evening at 7 (with a repeat on Saturday at 3)

Creative Zing is designed to connect with our creativity so we can use it to make life better. Sessions will be fun and fully interactive. No previous experience or talent required! Here, it’s all about getting stuck in, enjoying that feeling of flow. Perfect for writers who are feeling a bit stuck!

Winter Zen is an hour of pure relaxation. Think storytime, guided meditation, visualisation and deep relaxation. Get your comfies on. Make a cosy nest. No cameras on. No need to do anything except show up.

Hygge Huddle is a virtual fireside sharing space. We’ll tackle some of the challenges of the season and come up with practical solutions to help us all thrive. It’ll be a supportive and uplifting place, rich with lots of wellbeing-boosting tips!

Curious? More details and booking here

Melissa x

Where do writers get their ideas from? – by Ffion Mackenzie

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Whether you want to write that best-seller novel, an award winning short story or an invaluable ‘How to’ book,’ you’ll need ideas to kick start your writing.

In this series, we’ll look at different idea inspiring devices, starting with: Walking in Graveyards.

Here’s why:

1. The science bit: Walking releases the feel good hormones to help you feel more confident and open to your creativity.

2. Simply walking away from your computer and desk with all the detritus of your online life, frees up all that brain space.

3. Step into a graveyard and like me, you’ll hopefully, be engulfed by the calm stillness. The air changes as you breath in the reverence that forms a sanctuary for those who’ve moved on to a different plane.

4. Start strolling around to search for both the familiar and the new in a different light. Notice how your all the senses you need for writing, appear:

Sight:
Look at how low branches of the oat tree seems to form wings around a particular headstone

Smell:
The sticky sweet scent of amber from the tree trunk

Touch:
The dry, rough bark and maybe wonder how it might feel on the skin of a young man’s back
as he makes love to another against the imperious oak.

Sound:
The terrible scream of a Screech Owl,
the wind whipping around the graveyard, knocking over vases of wilted flowers and kicking up the path’s gravel.

What might the dead tell you? Find a tombstone whose inscription moves you, leading to more questions.

Here’s an example loosely based on one I saw:

John Buchanan
Father to Paul Buchanan, who lost his life in 1861 at seventeen years.
Rest Together in Eternity

You might ask yourself, how did Paul die? Did he suffer a disease, an accident – or something more sinister?
What happened to his mother?

In her blog, The Creative Penn, Joanna Penn talks about writing in graveyards. Do check it out. She’s a great baton holder for new and established writers.

Now think again of seventeen-year-old Paul. Was it he who felt the bark of the Yew, raw and sharp as it etched into the naked skin of his back?

A story is blooming as surely as the primrose amongst the weathered headstones.

Put what you can into your phone or notebook.

Your story is almost written.

And for the next one, take a walk along a riverbank or anywhere that lets you hear the whisper of your writer’s voice in nature.

Ffion’s original blog post can be found here.