A few weeks ago, I had my first Zoom meeting with my Golden Egg Academy editor. It went really well. By the end of our hour-long chat, we had agreed that I would work on several things: Reorder the first chapter so things happen in chronological order. (At the moment I jump about a bit… Continue reading A temporary spanner in the works
I am five weeks into my Writing for Children & Young Adults course, and something wholly unexpected has happened. Let me explain: When I was younger I had the confidence of a small gnat. So, I looked for ways to ‘better’ myself – NLP, hypnosis, meditation, visualisation... (It was a long list.) I also clung… Continue reading An unexpected benefit of writing regularly
What has simplifying my life got to do with writing my children’s novel? EVERYTHING! Up until recently, here’s how I was spending my days: Part time job as an assistant to a disabled teacher Teaching TRE classes (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises)Selling cards, mugs and prints in a local shopSelling T-shirts from my online shopWriting… Continue reading Simplifying my life in order to write
Exciting news: I have been offered a place on the Golden Egg Academy's fantastic 'Writing for Children and Young Adults' course! This means I am officially a mini Egg (you are only a full Egg once you’ve graduated) 😊 For the next 12 months I will be crafting my children’s novel under the watchful eye… Continue reading Writing News: I am a mini Egg!
Cave painting photograph © Maxime Aubert An interesting thing happened this morning: I got up at 6am and went downstairs to make a cup of tea. As I waited for the kettle to boil, I checked the weather (to see if a walk was on today) and the BBC News (to see whether Trump had… Continue reading Are you being guided by something?
I’ve just realised I’ve been doing something totally ridiculous. In the corner of my bedroom sits a pile of notes for the novel I am writing/not writing (depending on which month you ask me). Every time I look at this pile (see photo above), I feel stressed. The pile itself cannot be the problem.… Continue reading Creativity, stress and made-up pressure
Like many people, I wrote poetry when I was a teenager; pages and pages of torment and angst! Then I grew up and stopped writing poems. I'm not sure why. Maybe I ran out of angst :-) But recently, little poems have been coming to me. I say 'poems'; they're more like mini affirmations really.… Continue reading Poetry and the great unknown
I had an interesting conversation with my friend J at the weekend. It went like this: ME: Do you ever narrate things in your head? J: What do you mean? ME: Well, I was watching the pigeons on the roof this morning and then a voice in my head started narrating the scene. J: Sure,… Continue reading A question only a writer would ask
Something unexpected has just happened. Since 2012 I have written and submitted 5 picture books to a few carefully selected literary agents. All my submissions have been rejected, though one was a “near miss” according to the agent who represents Julia Donaldson (guess how much I treasured those two words!). Rejections don't faze me; they’re… Continue reading Writing a picture book in 3 days
In my last post I said I was waiting to hear back from a literary agent about my fifth picture book. Well, I can now reveal... that they sent me a standard rejection letter three weeks ago! [Loud raspberry noise.] Whenever I receive a rejection letter (I've had a few), my heart normally sinks for a… Continue reading The rejection letter that made me happy
Katherine Bassford 