Being a writer in Gibraltar

 

How hard is it to be a writer in Gibraltar?

It's a bit of an odd question, many of you might think. How hard can it be to pick up a pen and a notebook and write out a story, or an idea, or a poem? After all, a poem might only be a dozen or so lines, not even full lines of a page at that. How hard can that be? And it can't possibly be any harder to be a recognised writer in Gibraltar than it is in any other country in the world...big(ish) fish in small pond and all that!

Oddly enough, it's not that hard in one sense and, in many other senses, it's really tough. Let me try to explain, and let's see what some of you other writers feel about it.

First of all, in terms of its physicality, writing is pretty straight forward. Most of us have been taught to write. If you grew up in Gibraltar you will probably write in English most readily, perhaps also in Spanish, and if you came from, or your parents are, from other countries, then you may write in a different language. If you're lucky and talented in equal measure, you will be able to express yourself reasonably well in written form in several languages. And, unlike golf, or scuba diving, oil painting or even baking birthday cakes, the  equipment you need can be pretty minimal: pencil and paper. It doesn't have to be more than that. And then you think your thoughts, work out the words, transfer these onto the paper, preferably in a reasonably logical order and in an entertaining and clear way that perhaps other people might want to read. That's about it.

Except it isn't. Writing - real, meaningful writing - is often much harder than that. You might be able to write a paragraph in a few moments, or take a week to perfect a sentence. It depends on the subject matter, or the style you are applying or the objective of what you are writing. And writing to be published can be pretty tough. Certainly no easier than earning recognition in any other field, although you don't sit professional exams and career progression is less clear. As part of the creative industries, writing is as tough to succeed in as fine arts or film making. It's a competitive world out there that tends to undervalue creativity. So what about writing and earning in Gibraltar?

Writing for profit

Gibraltar, like most other modern cities, relies on the written word. Whether it is to communicate news, government declarations, or information about rights and responsibilities, we do so in writing. Note: that does not refer to print material only; online information relies on the written word. So the ability to write well is an important skill for our community. Furthermore, businesses in Gibraltar as across the world, rely on written material to provide information to customers, and to tempt potential customers to buy products or services. The internet has created an explosion of writing opportunities for those who develop skills in marketing, in producing 'content' for websites, adverts, scripts for marketing videos and beyond.

This means that there are many opportunities for writers and if you like playing around with words and using words to manipulate thought, then copy writing or content writing is a way for you to get your writing into the public domain and earn while you do it. This does require learning of techniques and a good deal of practice, but picking up these very specific writing skills opens up job opportunities and you can go further than this to develop a freelance writing career producing content for websites across the world. Practise, determination and producing millions of words will see you earn a reasonable income. 

It might also help you to earn enough to be able to put your writing skills to use 'out-of-hours' to write that novel. Because when people talk to me about being a writer, it's being a novelist or a published poet that is what they mean. But there are many other forms of writing, content writing being one. Journalism being another.

Gibraltar has its news outlets - broadcasters and newspapers, both online and in print. These days, many journalists will study the subject at university and then gain practical experience in a newsroom, perhaps in a regional newspaper in UK or other country. In Gibraltar, the openings for journalists are limited - we are a very small city after all - but they do exist, and good report writing along with the other skills a journalist needs to have, such as writing with utmost clarity and balance to very tight deadlines, asking the right, incisive questions to extract maximum information in a short space of time, and so on, are always desirable. Not an easy career to enter or succeed in, but a place for writers to apply their craft, once they have learned, practised and come to excel at that craft.

Writing feature articles also has an outlet in Gibraltar. Again, this is limited to local publications, but a good feature writer will always be able to appeal to content-hungry editors, especially those of monthly publications that need content that will attract the public in order to circulate the adverts that form their revenue stream. In addition to this, there are features that are needed by many magazines - if you can build a good portfolio of published work then there's a good chance that you might be able to pitch to magazines across the world. Provided your subject matter is of interest and pitched to the right publication, the writing world is your oyster.


But don't let me leave you with the impression that any of this is easy. Publication is hard to achieve. Most magazines have a set of regular feature writers that they are happy with and the editors tend to commission work from these. It's hard to break into this field and convince an editor that your writing is worth their while. As a writer you need to find the angle, the story, and above all, the right way of expressing this in words if you are going to convince a busy editor to take you on. And even when you do, you may well find, that because writing is not considered a high-value skill (goodness knows why, it can take years of training to write one short perfect paragraph of marketing content) that you cannot command anything  more than a modest reward.

But then, do we do it for the money or for the love of it? Or, I do better to ask this a different way: why should we not be paid reasonably well for our work, just because we happen to work at what we love?

In a future post, I'll write about the skills you might need to become the successful novelist, poet, or fiction author or author of a non-fiction book that many writers secretly would wish to become. Perhaps we will see that writing well is much harder than so many people realise. That means that as writers, we need to learn to appreciate the effort and skill that we put into our own work, whatever that work is. Writers are suckers for 'imposter syndrome' and yet without writers, how would we know anything about the world about us, and the worlds within us?

Become a guest writer!

If you have experience of writing as part of your work or being a published journalist or features writer in Gibraltar, please contact me and share your experiences, tips and advice with other readers by becoming a guest writer on this blog. Gibraltar Writers will benefit a great deal from your experience!

  

On writing letters

 'You want me to write you a letter?' 

This was uttered in shocked tones by my son, who possibly has not picked up a pen since he left school over a decade ago. His face, on my computer screen by virtue of the internet and some app or other, registered disbelief, and possibly a touch of horror.

It was just a suggestion, clearly dismissed at his end. Why write a letter, on paper, with pen, probably sitting at a table, and forced to slow down? Surely an email or, better still, a text with half a dozen or more emojis, would suffice. No, hold on, there's bound to be a gif to issue the ideal, possibly witty, greeting.

And yet traditional letter writing is an art not so much forgotten, as pushed to the margins of our lives. Perhaps it's because I'm old and grew up in the days when communication came largely via the Post Office and sometimes by telephone. I recall the pleasure of putting time aside on occasional evenings to take out my writing set and settling down to scrawl out, more or less legibly, a few pages of news to friends and family across the globe. It was an oddly relaxing activity: I would settle in my bedroom of an evening or sit at the dining room table while the rest of the family were watching TV, writing pad and envelopes and a set of biros to hand, and then just lose myself in what I wanted to say. For that while, there was a connection in my mind between me and the person to whom I addressed the letter, a sense of pleasure in communicating with them, a feeling of anticipation, of wondering how the person would react to what I had written - would they be interested, would they find my quips witty, would they write back?

Writing a letter by hand means slowing down your thoughts and selecting the right words and phrases so you express yourself clearly, but without overwriting. While emails are limitless, a hand-written letter relies on your having enough paper and sufficient ink to say what you want to say. Except that mostly, if you are writing a casual letter to a friend, you can tailor how much you say to the materials you have to hand. It means that letters can be informative and succinct, and, if you exert enough care and thought, they can be beautiful pieces of writing.

Writing a letter by hand is a sensory experience. These days, there seems to have been a bit of a resurgence, and if you shop around you can equip yourself with gorgeous paper in a whole rainbow of colours, with matching envelopes. You can buy scented ink for an old-fashioned fountain pen, wax and a seal and parchment, and even a quill and nibs if you want to enjoy a seriously quaint writing experience. You can write by candlelight and pretend you're Austen or Dickens, or you can whip out a cheery message in a pretty greetings card in glitter gel ink while waiting for your bus. The feel of physically writing a letter by hand adds to that sense of connection and is deeply satisfying in a way that whipping out an email is not.

I communicate with friends and family mainly using modern technology - WhatsApp mostly, I think, email and video calling, for expediency and because our ridiculously busy lifestyles means that we can spend less time communicating. But I also supplement this with occasional letters. If I enjoy writing them, I absolutely love receiving them. Last week, I checked in my mail box in the usual lack lustre manner and was overjoyed to see a little envelope in gorgeous hand-made paper, hand written with fountain pen and sealed with wax. I recognised the writing immediately - my eldest daughter, also a sucker for hand-writing notes, used her time on furlough to write to me. I was delighted! And two days later I received a letter - several pages in her beautiful handwriting - from my friend Carole who was in lockdown in the depths of North Kent. I loved it.

This week, I am putting a little time aside to write back. Like noting entries in a journal, writing a letter is a great way to get your writing flowing. There is a discipline to it. You need to work out your sentence before you write it down, so you communicate simply and coherently without crossing out or chucking yet another sheet of paper in the recycling bin. And this means that you plan out what you are going to say, a mental exercise you do almost without realising it and which goes some way to training your mind to plan out a story. You can write about anything and everything in a personal letter, from how gorgeous the sunrise over Catalan Bay when you took the dog out for an early walk was that morning, to the outrageous prices at the local supermarket and the fact that lockdown has resulted in your realising that your neighbours'  taste in music is as far removed from yours as can be!

Now, I thought I liked writing letters because I'm getting older, because it was something I used to do when I was young and had pen friends in France, Austria, Martinique and scattered around UK. So I was pleasantly surprised when my teenage daughter asked to raid my stash of writing paper and then spent a day producing letters to the whole family abroad. She also announced she had joined an online letter-writing club and was writing to a girl in Canada and one in Indiana. I'm about to order some more writing materials. This could be inspirational!

The Joys of Journaling

Journals and creativity

I have a confession to make. I have not kept a journal since my mid-teens, and that grubby old notebook was abandoned after a few months when I realised that it was full of nothing more than the bleating of an angst-ridden adolescent with little to say beyond the ghastly state of her skin, the ghastly burden of homework and the ghastly thought of exercising in daylight in order to shed the extra pounds she always carried around her hips. Not very 'writerly', perhaps, but that was just me.

But, having pondered on finding ways to re-ignite my creative mojo, and feeling a sense of the enormity of the times - the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, the impending economic disaster - I thought I might revisit the idea of keeping a journal. Except this time, I want to make it rather more interesting to write than my early attempts, and, with any luck, I might be able to refer to it in future for writing ideas.

Starting to keep a journal

The first step, this week, then, was to make sure I freed up a specific slot in my day for making journal entries. I chose that quiet time between supper and going to bed, just after I've returned from walking the dog. I figured it's when I would be most relaxed and my mind ready to spill out some thinking. And I decided that if I did not make entries daily, that would not matter. If journaling starts to feel like a burden, it will be dumped as readily as I dump many an attempt at dieting.

The next (and pretty enjoyable) step was to choose from among my many blank notebooks (I am a sucker for buying  notebooks. And I'm not a notebook snob - I have plenty of cheap notebooks from places like The Works in UK and Morrison here in Gib gathering dust among a couple of Moleskin). Ditto with the pen. If I was going to release that creative demon, then the weapon had to be just right. And I am also a sucker for buying pens - from felt tips to fountain pens. I settled for an A5 from Morrison in a bright, summery orange and a black biro from The Beacon Press. As cheap as chips. Cheaper, if you try to buy chips at Ocean Village.

And finally, I was ready to write.

But what about? Stumped again, I turned to the internet, and after procrastinating half the afternoon on social media, I googled the word 'journaling'. There is so much out there, the information is bewildering. I sifted through some, avoiding the ones about journaling to improve my life, and journaling being about self care and self discovery, or about stress management or career enhancement, and managed to muster together some ideas.

I guess journaling can be as simple as recording what you've done every day, or things that have impressed you recently, or carved themselves into your mind. You could journal about someone that caught your eye, or a place that left an impression. You can journal about feelings. You can just free write for the day, and that can be quite liberating and lead to some interesting morsels of writing you can use in a more structured piece.

Themes for your journal

I thought I might journal on a theme. I have to be careful though. My intention for writing a journal is to gather some thoughts and ideas, and to free up my writing. That is why I want to journal with a biro. I need the physical act of writing to tap into my creativity. Typing feels too much like being at work to me.

So what theme? Should I write about food, travel, current affairs, health, travel, money, a personal journey into spiritual discovery (no), the weather, the environment, a personal journey from fat and unfit to slimmer, trimmer and fitter (not likely, doomed to failure from the outset!). Should I make it a memoir? Now, that was an interesting thought.

I am not preparing to write a memoir nor an autobiography, but there are many stories stashed away in our memories. Not that we necessarily need to recount them as true to life stories, but sometimes they can inspire interesting pieces of fiction, or poetry. And as those memories are gathered, they become the story of my life, the lives of my children and grandchildren. I wish my mother would write her memories so that they can shed light on my childhood, and I wish my grandparents had the chance to write theirs.

So I think this might be the path I go down. Let's see how far I get and whether I commit to it for any length of time. In the meantime, I dug out an old story I wrote based on a childhood memory. In '71, my family undertook the tricky journey from Gibraltar to Madrid in the early days of the closed border. Madrid was far different then than it is now, but for a seven-year old from Gibraltar who had never before got off the Rock, it was a vast and wonderful city: department stores, trams, the metro, boating lake, kiosks selling ice cream and 'granizado de limon'. And cows. There was a small byre at the bottom of the road where my aunt lived, with a few cows. I had never before seen a cow (nor smelt one!), nor watched one being milked. And here it was going on in a little backwater in one of the world's capital cities.

The memory was vivid and the story came easily. Maybe with the journaling, others will follow. The story, Spilt Milk, is on the Pages section of this blog, for your enjoyment.

Locked down and blocked up

Writer's Block during lockdown

While social media is bubbling with samples of creativity and productivity during lockdown, many other creatives are wondering why they feel 'blocked'. Periods of solitude are often essential for focus, for losing yourself in your creative zone and coming up with your own personal masterpiece, in whatever medium you happen to prefer. Theoretically, having to stay off work and stay home for a prolonged period should give many of us the time and space we have been craving for. Writer's block is a well-documented phenomenon - whether you agree it exists or is just a temporary frame of mind - but perhaps it feels a bit bizarre that it should happen now, when we all seem to have more time and space to be the writers we want to be.

Puzzled as to why I personally was struggling with my own lack of wit or energy to apply to my own writing, I called a couple of friends to see how they were getting on. Here's what they told me:

June

June is in her late middle age and a semi-retired business consultant with a small portfolio of loyal clients that keep her linked to her profession while giving her the time to also write professionally. She is an author of school text books, and her enthusiasm for quality writing being key to communicating information effectively knows no bounds despite the dryness of some of the subject matter (maths, stats and economics).

Me: June, how's it going? How are you finding lockdown is affecting your writing?

June: Hello, dear, nice to hear from you. All well at my end, and busy, busy busy.

Me: So much for people have loads of time to be creative! Are you managing to write?

June: Of course I am. In fact, I'm making great progress with my latest project, and I'm planning out another. And I'm thinking of co-writing a book on the economic impact of the pandemic and the future of small businesses.

Me: I'm impressed, but how do you manage to keep motivated.

June: Good planning and good organisation. You know I like my routine, so  haven't changed it at all except allow more time to go to the supermarket and queue, and then take the shopping round to my neighbour who is in her seventies and can't go herself. I get up at the same time, go to the garden and do my Tai Chi (Note - June used to go to the local park with friends to do this but lockdown rules means she follows the routine at home instead). Then I do any client work that needs to be done - I've just started using Zoom, it's marvellous! - by which time its usually a stop for lunch. Then a call around the kids to make sure they're ok, a bit of housework and by three pm I'm back on the computer and writing. In fact, I'd say the routine works really well, because I'm writing better and faster than before. Perhaps it's a sense of being determined to get the project finished before the bloody virus gets me!

Me: Doesn't Neville (June's other half) interrupt you?

June: He's too busy painting the back room. We're hoping that when all this is over that Julian (youngest son) will come and live here. He's not at all happy alone so far away since he and Imogen split up.

Me: I guess the peace and quiet is helping you stay inspired and creative. No writer's block then.

June (laughs): Oh well, you know I think writer's block is a myth. You might think you've got no inspiration, but inspiration itself is a myth. The best inspiration is an unmovable deadline and the vision of the invoice you're going to send your client or the cheque your publisher has promised you. All you have to do is knuckle down and put words on paper. Once you start forcing the pen, the brain follows, grudging or otherwise. And I don't listen to the news until suppertime when I'm done writing for the day. By the next morning, the bleakness of what is happening has thinned somewhat!

Shefali

Shefali is in her thirties, single and a vet working in a small animal clinic. She has continued working during the pandemic, because pets continue to get sick and need treatment, coronavirus or not, although the clinic is providing emergency treatment only and she is working from home several days a week. Shefali is always inspired by the animals she encounters daily and by their owners, and enjoys writing stories for children.

Me: Hiya Shefali, how are things with you?

Shefali: All good, thank you,  pretty busy as usual. I'm working from home quite a bit, doing call outs as and when I have to but generally managing to give advice to owners over the phone and offer prescriptions etc. I've been going into the clinic either mornings or evenings and keeping the admin under control. It is a lot quieter than usual though. It's a bit weird, to be honest.

Me: Are you still managing to write?

Shefali: Well, funny you should ask but I'm really struggling. I started a new story at the beginning of the year; remember I said that I was going to try my hand at YA fiction? But I just can't settle down to write. 

Me: Why do you think that is?

Shefali: I don't know at all. I do have a bit more time on my hands, and you see on Facebook and on TV all these people learning new skills and performing music, and all I can do is lounge about in my PJs eating chocolate! Seriously, when this is over I'm going to have to get back to horse riding and work it all off! But as for the writing, I don't know. When I'm at work, I am focused, caring, I know exactly what I'm doing, but I find that in my spare time I feel tired, I don't want to think much and when I try to think about the story, or characters, or plot, I feel confused, a bit lost really.

Me: Writer's block then?

Shefali: I guess it is. Or maybe just a way for my anxiety to manifest. I feel perfectly fine most of the time, but I am finding it hard to be away from family. I speak to them every day on Skype and WhatsApp - in fact, I've spoken more to my aunties in India in these past few weeks than I had in months - but when I try to work out what I want to do in my free time, I'm at a loss. So, other than jotting down some research notes for the story, I have not got very far. But I am reading.

Me: Does reading help?

Shefali: Reading is so relaxing. I'm hoping it will eventually unlock my creativity again, and get me writing. I've just started Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall". I got the whole trilogy now that "The Mirror and the Light" is out so I'm giving it a go during lockdown. And I've set myself a target to have all the character summaries for my story completed by next weekend. Perhaps if I get all that going, I will get my mojo back! (And I hope she does because her stories are great!).

Colin

Colin writes poetry. He's a teacher in a comprehensive school and has been working incredibly long hours helping his students through this difficult time of uncertainty.

Me: Colin, how are you and the family?

Colin: Hey, good to hear from you. We're all well, and the kids have taken to lockdown surprisingly well, which Maggie is delighted about because I am working mainly from home and we were worried that I would not be able to concentrate with all of us in the house together. But so far so good.

Me: I guess with delivering lessons online and assessments and grading the A-levels, you haven't had time to write?

Colin: You've got it in one. Well, I have drafted a couple of poems, but these are literally in pencil on the back of a scrap of paper I was doodling  on during a Zoom meeting with the heads of department (I probably shouldn't admit to that!).

Me: Interesting, so where did the inspiration come from for those poems? The pandemic?

Colin: Not really. Not about people getting sick or the heroism of medical and care workers. I was thinking about the disengaged kids, and that the risk of them falling away from engagement with society is so much higher  now. The kids whose home lives are not supportive of education, who have so many disadvantages to overcome anyway, and now this. Or the kids who are vulnerable and at risk, and of course, we're not really seeing them now so we can't help them if help is needed. That's what's keeping me awake at night far more than A level results, and that's what came out in the poems. But don't misunderstand me - they need a lot of polishing up before I can really call that gathering of words actual poems!

Me: But at least you have been creative...

Colin: At the end of the day,  it doesn't matter whether as a writer you can be productive during lockdown. What matters is that we get through it. And perhaps one day, we can refer back to this experience for inspiration in our poetry or whatever it is we write. No-one has to do anything during this time. We are all different and we are all trying to survive. 

Quite an interesting mix of thoughts. Perhaps writer's block is a figment of the imagination, an excuse for not knuckling down. Perhaps it is that we cannot always be creative when we are anxious, or overworked, or tired. Or perhaps we just need to relax and let our minds mull. Shakespeare might have written "King Lear" during his version of lockdown, but none of us is called upon to be Shakespeare and right now, being ourselves is perhaps the best we can be. So my lesson? If I can't concentrate on writing, go and do something else. Like Shefali, I'll get my mojo back eventually! And like Colin, a scrap of paper with a selection of words is a start. I'd love to be half as organised as June though!