After a very slow summer as far as writing is concerned, characterised mainly by finding a way to avoiding queuing for hours at the border with Spain. Did I say border? It's beginning to feel more like our own Mediterranean Berlin Wall! As I was saying, after a long, hot summer, I have managed to scrape the nib of a biro onto some paper again and clawed my way into second place in the Gibraltar Autumn Festival Poetry competition with a poem called "Nightwatch". Second place to an excellent poem by Rebecca Faller, published in The Gibraltar Chronicle. First verse of "Nightwatch" is printed below. One day, it will form part of an anthology of my poems, but first I have to sharpen up my pencil, fill up my fountain pen, and boot up my lap top and PRACTISE.
Because, if what they say is right, that generally you can expect to scribble out a million words of drivel before you write something worth publishing, I still have a way to go. Not far, I hope, but still a fair way. So practise is a must.
Which brings me to Gibraltar Writers.
Writing can be isolated and isolating. You can only really write something worthwhile when on your own. Not necessarily physically (above-mentioned poem having been written and honed while surrounded by loving but noisy family), but alone somewhere inside your head, in your own space and your own world that you create paragraph by paragraph. And the more time you spend writing the less time you spend interacting with real people - social networking only goes a little way to bring you in touch with people, flesh and blood human beings with all their oddities and quirks. And since books and stories are populated by people, writers just have to go out into the throngs even if only to glean ideas with which to draw their characters.
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| Gibraltar East Side (because it's different to the West) |
And one way to feel a lot less isolated and much more supported and surrounded by others with the same interest in writing as you, is to join a writers group. Gibraltar Writers meets monthly at the Sir John Mackintosh Hall, on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.15. It's a space and place in the month where we can put the lap top to sleep, leave the family to fend for itself and indulge in the company of others who simply can't resist the urge to write down their thoughts, weave wonderful tales, paint visions with words and want to share this with others. We'll be sharing tips, ideas, testing out our own writing on each other, improving our craft by having others share their opinions on our work and generally supporting each other through the minefield of creating, writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.
Whoever you are, whatever age, whether English is or is not your first language, if you like to write, you need to come to Gibraltar Writers on 3rd December. And if you are thinking about it but are unsure, email me for more info and so I can convince you to join us there! jackiegirl@hotmail.co.uk or find me on Facebook, or Google+ or Twitter (Gibtalk).
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| Sir John Mackintosh Hall, Gibraltar |
See you on 3rd Dec with notebook and pen, or tablet, or wax and stigil or whatever you prefer to use to write!
