Good writing skills run in the family as she has reactivated her blog to help family and friends share in her adventure. Her site is called Rose’s Travel Jottings (click to access). I’d recommend a visit every few days, especially as she adds photos. And later in the year we are planning to visit her and then the three of us will travel several other countries together. Stayed tuned for our adventure too.

Good reading – and good writing.

Rose Hampel

I’ve been meaning to do this for a little while now.

Introducing Wendy Noble: reviewer, writer and speaker

I knew of Wendy through a mutual friend before I met her. The first time I did meet her was in a seminar while doing my Master of Arts course several years ago. She had almost finished her MA degree. I took an instant liking to her; warm, friendly and with a delightful sense of humour sharply honed by a few knocks in the School of Life. Her engaging personality lit up the room, and her perceptive comments about my writing, and that of my fellow students, was deply appreciated.

Wendy has recently entered the world of blogging. Her site (click here) is a delightful read about books, writing and general observations about people and life, It is an insightful commentary worth reading – even if all you want is a good laugh.

Links:

• Wendy Noble

Writers need to be public speakers

As much as some writers might want to run from this suggestion, in order to promote one’s work the writer today needs to e a good public speaker. I have done considerable public speaking in other areas but very little in relation to my writing. Over the last 5 years I have had many opportunities to speak about Australian birds as a direct result of another blog of mine, Trevor’s Birding.

Prepare to be a good speaker

Joanna Penn on her blog The Creative Penn has written an excellent article on this very topic. Her article How to prepare for public speaking covers the topic really well. I recommend that you flip over there and have a read – or listen to her video. Excellent stuff.

Good writing.

I am on a much needed holiday visiting my son and daughter in law in Sydney. It is also a great opportunity to get to know my grandson a little better too, and at 19 months he is cuteness personified – and that’s a completely unbiased opinion of course!

One of the things I did before leaving home last week was to write and pre-post a series of articles to appear on my other two blogs (see the side bar for the links to them). These will be appearing every few days while I am away, so I don’t have to worry and can relax. Unfortunately I didn’t get to write a complete series for this blog. I just ran out of time.

I tend to write blog posts in spurts, sometimes writing 5 to 10 or more in the one day and scheduling them to appear at later dates on a regular basis. In this way I get into a rhythm with my writing, totally focussed on the blog and the needs of readers. After I have several weeks’ worth of posts scheduled I can then get on with other writing – like my novel – and focus solely on that. Some people can attend to many different tasks in the one day. Others like the variety but I think I write best when I am totally focussed on the one task. I tend to be more productive that way.

Good writing.

Once Easter is over I will be very busy on two other projects: finishing the final draft of my novel and preparing to present four sessions at our church camp. I won’t have much time for blogging so I like to get the posts written and have them appearing regularly without having to bother about them. I often do this when I know I’m going to be away for a length of time, especially those times when I might only have limited internet access, for example,  when travelling.

There is another benefit. Writing a dozen or more blog posts in one day builds momentum, and before I know it I’ve written five or ten or more. You get in the groove and get very productive. I like that. You can do the same with writing a novel, editing some stories or doing that horrible administrative stuff that writers have to attend to from time to time – like submitting work to publishers.

Must get back to blogging.

Good writing.

Cue: the sound of wild cheering, strains of “Happy Birthday”  and the popping of corks drifting through cyberspace.

[Editors note: corks popping? Why wasn't I invited??]

Yes folks, this blog about writing is now officially 4 years old today. It has crawled, stumbled and staggered across the pages of literary endeavour over the last four years trying to say something significant – and sometimes just trying to say something.

At times I’ve shared some of my short stories, at other times I’ve published here a few samples of my poetry. Over the last two years I’ve shared my struggles, joys and frustrations while trying to complete my Master of Arts in Creative Writing, including the trials of trying to write a novel for my thesis paper.

This blog continues to grow and prosper – well, grow a little each day. Still waiting for the prosper bit. I try to post every day but often it can be several days between posts as the other demands of my writing life take up time and energy.

Thank you to all of my faithful readers.

Special thanks to all of you who have made the effort to leave a comment. I’d by mighty chuffed if you left a comment wishing the blog a Happy Birthday.

A extra special thanks to my son Sim’ who does all of the background technical stuff keeping this blog going.

Good writing.

]]> http://www.trevorhampel.com/happy-birthday-to-my-writing-blog/feed/ 5 http://www.trevorhampel.com/some-thoughts-about-weeds-and-words/ http://www.trevorhampel.com/some-thoughts-about-weeds-and-words/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:30:16 +0000 Trevor http://www.trevorhampel.com/?p=1481 I needed to do some weeding in the garden recently. Our rose bed was in danger of disappearing into a jungle of tangled weeds.

Weeding in the garden is so satisfying; in a very short space of time you can see the results of your labours. The garden bed looks much better very quickly. The plants you leave behind – presumably those you want to keep – give a huge sigh of relief. ‘There is a sun after all,’ they say. Weeding improves the garden.

Too often we allow words to grow like weeds in our writing. Many words creep in unannounced and unwanted. There is the danger that they can choke out the good words. At their worst they can rob the desirable words of all the necessary moisture and nutrients for growth. Your story can wilt and die.

Be ruthless. Pull out all unnecessary words. Edit relentlessly.

And your writing will be allowed to bloom into its full potential.

Good weeding – and good writing.

]]> http://www.trevorhampel.com/some-thoughts-about-weeds-and-words/feed/ 0 http://www.trevorhampel.com/top-50-aussie-writing-blogs/ http://www.trevorhampel.com/top-50-aussie-writing-blogs/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:34:29 +0000 Trevor http://www.trevorhampel.com/?p=1056 I am always on the lookout for good blogs – especially those that deal with writing. I was delighted a few days ago to find out that someone has compiled a list of Australian blogs about writing.

Jonathan Crossfield on CopyWrite has compiled a list of the Top 50 Aussie Writing Blogs. I am delighted that my blog sits at #25. It’s doing better than I thought, thanks to all of my readers who keep on coming back for more.

Go over there and have a look at the list. It’s based on various factors, including page rank and traffic. Each blog has a link to it, so it would be worth having a look at some of the blogs listed.

I’ll wait patiently here while you have a sneak look.

Good writing.

Over the last year I have written about 40 new poems, some of them quite long, the longest being about 140 lines. Almost all of these were written ‘on demand.’ I wrote them because they were expected of me as a part of my Master of Arts course. Most weeks I had to produce a poem in a set format as a part of the assessment process. It was tough going, but I managed it. I found the discipline of enforced writing actually worked in my favour: I had to produce something and that meant honing my skills as a poet.

With this in mind I endorse the idea behind April being the Poem a Day month (click here for details and rules). Each day a writing prompt by Robert Lee Brewer of Poetic Asides on the Writers’ Digest site will be given and poets are encouraged to write a poem a day for the entire month – or you may choose to only write one every few days. All poems submitted will appear on the blog site.

It’s a good challenge. Are you up to it?

Not sure where I’ll find the time. [sigh]

Good writing.

Three years, almost 800 articles about writing, reading and blogging and nearly a thousand comments has been a challenge. In the middle of that I’ve had some serious health issues and I’ve taken on full time study. I must be a little crazy. The journey has been exhilarating.

To celebrate I’d like to highlight a few features of my blog, especially for newer readers. Here are some links for further reading.

• About me – some background about me as a writer.
• My poetry – some samples of the many hundreds of poems I have written, some of which have been published.
• Short fiction – some of my short fiction that I’ve published here for you to read.
• Writing hints – just what it says – hints to help you with your writing.
• Short story starters – stuck for an idea for a short story? Check out these very popular story starters.
• Writing a Novel – links to the journal I am writing about writing a novel in 2009.
• Archives – a complete list of every article ever to appear here on this blog – all 800 and counting.

There you have a veritable smorgasbord of reading to help you with your writing.

Good writing.