Saturday 26 March 2022

Noren Haq Water Story 26th Febrary 2022

Noren’s session was a gift for our hardworking writers with some sound advice to some of the shining stars who are heading into the rough waters of the publishing world. She focused on her experience of three common problems that writers face:
  • the pressure to write perfectly
  • lack of confidence
  • isolation that often makes writing more daunting.
 

"Finding a writing community is vital to keep you going when things get difficult. There are many ways of doing this via writing groups and events." Here are some links offering advice and support that Noren has found helpful during her writing journey:

Screenwriter Sarah Dollard on writing:

"Write. Write every day, in one way or another. If you don’t love writing, then choose another dream. Sometimes writing is hard. Sometimes it’s the worst and you hate it and you hate yourself, and you think you should probably stop for the good of all humanity and maybe make cabinets instead because at least cabinets are useful. Those feelings are normal, don’t worry. But if you go through all that guff and still wake up the next day and love writing all over again, then you’re a writer. Congratulations/commiserations."


Glasgow Women’s Library is an amazing place that provides generous support to writers. Here’s a link to their events and learning opportunities page:

Writing a play? Find support at:


NaNoWriMo is a wonderful thing to help and encourage you to get your novel written:

Twitter is a brilliant place to connect with other writers and find new opportunities, competitions and mentorship programmes. It is also a great place for joining in writing prompts. 
The following writing prompts used in the session were taken from @MirandaKeeling

1) Man on the bus: I’ve just missed my stop. What an idiot.
Woman: That’s nothing. I once got off the plane in the wrong country.

2) Woman in a bar: The restaurant sacked me today.
Man: Why?
Woman: I dropped a pizza. Face down. From a spiral staircase. Onto a bald man’s head.

3) A green-coat-wearing woman at a bus stop shoots an imaginary, two-fingered gun, twirls it and puts it back into an imaginary holster.



‘where’s ma pizza’
by Kay Ritchie

my stomach cramps
my head thumps
rap   reggae   hip hop
as I hop over handbags
negotiate chairs
answer cheek
then this idiot
bald as a coot
hoots up the stairs
‘where the fuck’s ma pizza’
and his table cheer & 
I think ‘spill a beer down his front’
instead, before I even get there
I’ve tripped   ripped my shoe &
tipped a pizza   
cheese-sizzling 
chilli-scalding 
spin-spiralling 
down the spiral stair
down onto his head
where there once grew hair &
I can’t repeat what he said
or what I said
but all I know is 
I’m now unemployed
my stomach still cramps &
my head still thumps

 
Thanks to funders
Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Scottish Book Trust,
Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners).