Late last year there was a family situation which required a great deal of my time and energy, and then my wife and I left Australia for a six and a half week holiday in Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain. I had limited internet access during that time so no posts appeared here. Besides, we were having too much fun exploring new countries and having wonderful experiences. I’ll be writing about these experiences and showing my 1000s of photos on my other sites, Trevor’s Birding and Trevor’s Travels.

While I was away I still kept up my writing. Every day I added new entries in a journal. In all I wrote nearly 140 pages describing what we’d done and seen, and responses to those experiences. Much of that journal will be expanded and posted on my travel site. The beauty of having a book to write in as my journal was the convenience factor. I didn’t take my laptop with me though I could have used my daughter’s computer. Instead, I could write in my journal anywhere: on the plane, in the waiting lounge of airports, on a train (we used trains a lot in Morocco and Spain), in bed or even in the garden.

Taking a notebook with you wherever you go is an important way of keeping your writing moving along and developing. You can jot down anything that comes to mind: a scene, a description of a character based on a real person, accounts of little scenes that may make it into a novel or short story, or even a poem or two as you are having a coffee break.

During my travelling time I wrote in my journal every day. But I also wrote a great deal of poetry. I usually can only produce a dozen or two good poems a year, but in the last 7 weeks I’ve written 55 poems, so inspirational was the journey. Some are haiku but most are much longer impressions of what I was seeing and doing. All the non-haiku poems were free verse. Some will find their way onto this site in coming weeks.

We went to Ethiopia first to visit our daughter who had been teaching in an international school in Addis Ababa. What they are doing there is inspirational and she is planning on returning in a few years’ time. After two weeks there, my wife and I, accompanied by our daughter, toured Morocco and Spain, spending two weeks in each. Many of our experiences will inevitably find their way into short stories, more poems and even a book or two. My wife has already come up with a picture book idea based in Ethiopia.

Good writing.

Most writers are, I’ve found. If you want to be a good writer you are also a reader. That’s a given.

I am also slightly addicted to buying and collecting books. When I married – that was over 40 years ago – combining my library with my wife’s library created a big problem. She is also a bookaholic, and a hoarder of books like me. In our first year of marriage I built two large bookcases. Problem solved – for the time being. Then came along the children and they soon had their books too and their own bookcases. When they left home the problem was slightly improved; part of my library is now in my daughter’s home in Clare and a few are in my son’s home in Sydney. It’s alright; I’ve read most of those books.

About 5 years ago I bought another 4 bookshelves from a well known furniture chain from Scandinavia. I had fun assembling them and stocking them with books. You see, the problem had grown to a critical stage: there were large piles of books everywhere. Problem solved – or so I thought. Over recent months the situation has reached another crisis point: not enough room on the shelves for new and recently acquired books.

My office has been in need of a drastic makeover for several years. The situation would make any bomb site look tidy in comparison. Time for action, so over several hot days recently – it was too unpleasant working in the garden – I attacked ground zero.

My technique is simple: sort and chuck. (Some unkind people might have suggested ‘slash and burn’ would have been more effective.) I progressively sorted through every item on the shelves. Some items didn’t belong – like dozens of computer disks. It’s a BOOK shelf – not a storage cupboard. Some books were obsolete and went straight into our recycling bin. I don’t need a copy of a guide to Microsoft Windows 95 or Word for Windows 6 for Dummies or even a 1998 Melbourne street directory. I have a more current version of the directory and don’t need another, and the computer books are now many years obsolete.

The trouble was that I have trouble throwing away books. I can give them away, I can let people borrow semi-permanently, I can even sell to a second hand book dealer – but throw away! Never!

I’ve changed.

I have to be ruthless and dispose of any book I will no longer read. Some I want to read again – maybe, so I might keep a few. Over the next year the culling will continue until I have enough room on the shelves for the books I want to read again, or I need to use as reference tools.

Now… what about that huge pile of magazines?

Good reading, and good writing.

I had a very busy day with only one special happening. Well, two actually.

I spent most of the morning at the doctors’ surgery. Nothing to get alarmed about – just a routine check-up and all is in order. I needed new scripts for some regular medications I take. I also renewed my driver’s licence last week because the 10 years on the old one were up. To get my licence I had to declare that I had diabetes (which I was diagnosed with since my last renewal). This required a doctor’s consultation and a 4 page questionnaire for her to fill in after she had run me through quite a few tests, most relating to my eyesight. No problems there.

In the afternoon I helped my wife packing up my mother in law’s unit. Last Monday she was admitted to a local aged care home with advancing dementia. It is sad to see her deteriorating on a daily basis, but she is now receiving the professional care we tried to provide but it was beyond our skills. I admire people who dedicate their working lives to helping people in need like this.

A highlight for my birthday was that I bought myself some new binoculars. My old pair has been good, but I bought some lightweight, compact binoculars which are much better. Can’t wait to get out in the field and try them out doing some birding.

In the evening I took my wife to one of the local hotels for a birthday dinner. We had a lovely time, good food and a great view over the River Murray. It was definitely the highlight of the day. Later we each had separate meetings to attend. Mine proved to long and, at times, difficult and challenging, having to deal with a serious issue.

Now back to writing.

I, too, was guilty of being sidetracked by time wasting activities in my daily routines. Overall I think I managed them at quite a reasonable level. It’s amazing how accountability to parents, colleagues and a principal can be a strong incentive to perform.

Accountability

As a writer, however, I generally don’t have anyone peering over my shoulder ensuring I keep on task. I’m accountable to only myself. There’s the problem; it’s so easy to allow time wasting activities and distractions to get in the way of productive writing times.

In recent months I’ve been aware of the growing problem I have with an enormous volume of email traffic. It was severely getting in the way of essential, on task writing activities. I wasn’t making the progress I desired, so I had to do something drastic. Several years ago I solved the problem in a limited way by categorising incoming emails into folders. This streamlined the way I dealt with less important mail by placing them in their own folders waiting for attention when time allowed.

Problem emails

Since then the problem has escalated to a new level. Dealing with my incoming mail was taking increasingly larger slabs of time every day. Some emails sat waiting in their folder for months without being read. That was not good. The ever growing number of unread documents was beginning to really bug me. In fact, I was almost becoming depressed.

In a few weeks I will be travelling for an extended time, a significant portion of the journey will be without internet access and limited access for the rest. It horrified me to think of how many thousands of emails would be waiting for me on my return.

Dealing with the problem:

Over the last week I have been steadily unsubscribing from a whole range of newsletters that were causing the issue. Many of them are very worthy and interesting, I’m sure. In order to get some semblance of productivity back into my life I had to take this drastic action. After all, I can resubscribe again if I really need to. It will also mean I won’t have a massive problem to deal with when I return home from my travels.

That has to be a good thing.

Good writing.

Before receiving this wonderful boost to my writing career I would fill scraps of paper, old school exercise books, leftover brown wrapping paper and leftover pads with my writing. With my new “typewriter” came the need for typing paper and replacement ribbons. I graduated into writing stories, jokes and articles using my new toy, leaving spaces for hand drawn illustrations.

It wasn’t long before I discovered carbon paper in my father’s writing bureau, so multiple copies of my class newsletter were now possible. I soon had classmates paying for the privilege of subscribing to my periodical. My career was off and running.

Until Dad found out.

It seems that the father of a classmate complained that, in his opinion, my entrepreneurial endeavours were somehow illegal.  Reluctantly I had to pay back the money, and my writing career came to a grinding halt. For next 40 years I dedicated myself to my second choice, teaching. Now in retirement I can finally pursue that early dream, one that was almost snuffed out by an obnoxious and totally meddlesome person.

I sometimes wonder what might have been.

Don’t let anyone steal your dream.

Good writing.

My grandson's solar powered helicopter

I am writing this post at my son’s home where we are staying for a few days of holiday. Our grandson, aged two and a half is a wonderful delight and his bright nature brings us all much joy. One of his favourite toys is a solar powered helicopter. It’s a simple little device made mainly of wood with two small solar panels on the rotor blades. Even a small amount of sunlight filtering through a window will send the blades whirring. It is an amazing contraption which intrigues us all.

One of the amazing things about this toy is the power generated by such small panels. Words are like that too. A few simple, uncomplicated words can have a powerful effect on the reader. A few well chosen sentences can change a person’s life. A story, poem or article can have a lasting influence over one person – or many people.

Choose your words carefully. Craft them lovingly. Launch them out into the wild world where they fly into the lives of others, bringing joy, blessing, laughter and perhaps even challenge to the recipients. Don’t waste your words; make them count for something.

Good writing.

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

Penguin Point, Marion Bay, South Australia

My wife and I have just arrived back from a short holiday on Yorke Peninsula here in South Australia. We stayed in a holiday unit in the coastal town of Edithburgh. Despite the weather being wild with gale force winds and heavy showers of rain, we managed to get out and about and have a good time. While I’ve done quite a deal of reading recently, I have not had the chance to do a great deal of writing.

On the positive side, the short break has recharged the batteries and I’ve taken lots of interesting photos, some of which I will be sharing on my other sites. You are welcome to have a look at what we saw here:

• Trevor’s Birding – about Australian birds
• Trevor’s Travels – stories about our travels with plenty of photos.

The recent reading I’ve been doing will result in some interesting reviews coming up soon in this site, and the magnificent and rugged scenery of the peninsula has inspired me to get back into writing some poetry.

Stay tuned.

Good writing.

While visiting my brother he showed me some photos I can’t ever remember seeing. These photos were originally on slides but John had converted them to digital images and could show them to me on his television. Many of the photos were of John’s pride and joy: his tractors. He thinks he has a photo of every tractor he ever owned – except one.

While this was interesting, what really grabbed my attention was that several of the shots showed me aged between eight and fourteen. It triggered in my mind a desire to focus a little more on writing about my childhood days. Here is a largely untapped resource of experiences that I can use in my writing. It is a deep well of interesting and colourful incidents that can only enhance my writing.

A word of caution is needed. Approaching a topic like this in a dry, journalistic way would be of interest to no-one. Except perhaps immediate family. A more creative method is required if you are interest a broader readership. This is not a problem if you are only recording your experiences as part of your family heritage.

If you do desire a wider audience for these stories, why not try rewriting your life experiences as a child (or an adult for that matter) as fiction? Take that incident with the bull when you raided a neighbour’s paddock while picking mushrooms and turn it into an exciting escapade, complete with other characters who may or may not have been a part of the original story. Turning fact into fiction can release those creative juices and you will never know where the story will end up. It will surely be a more interesting read than a dry narrative account of the facts.

You never know: one or more of these stories might end up being the text for a children’s picture book, or included in a magazine or anthology.

Good writing.

I now have completed my Master of Arts (Creative Writing) degree.

It has been an interesting journey of discovery. I’ve always regretted not having a higher degree to go with my basic teaching qualifications. I had resigned myself to the fact that such a lofty degree was beyond me. I limited my thinking, putting myself down in the process.

On reflection, I probably thought the same about my writing. I’d never be good enough to get published. I’d never make it as a writer. No one would want to read what I wrote.

Through sheer determination – and the encouragement of family and friends – I’ve proved myself wrong on all counts.

• I have passed my degree – and with a distinction too.
• I have a large and growing readership of my three blogs.
• I have been published in recent years in a range of magazines, journals and anthologies.

The best is still to come.

Good writing.

Trevor Hampel, Master of Arts (Creative Writing) April 2011