I’m Nina Milton, and this blog is all about getting out the laptop or the pen and pad to get writing. My blogposts are focused on advice and suggestions and news for writers, but also on a love reading with plenty of reviews, and a look at my pagan life, plus arts and culture. Get all my posts as they appear by becoming a subscriber. Click below right...

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Happy Writing New Year

I've been working as a tutor for the Open College of the Arts for quite a few years now, but it constantly amazes me that so many people want to learn to write creatively. Maybe because writers 'do it in their heads', I used to assume I was a slightly odd person, alone in my passion. Surely no one else had a brain like mind, filled with all that writing I couldn't help but do?

But I'm not alone. I have a file filled with other people's names, all of who long to write well...some of whom already are writing well...profiles of their writing lives, and their reasons for taking OCA writing courses. When they phone me, students often start with...hope I'm not bothering you...Bother! do they realize just how much I love talking about all aspects of writing? And are they ready for the way I will rabbit on about writing?

People long to write. It's a way of letting thoughts, opinions, memories and stories pour out of our heads. A bit like Dumbledor's Pensieve...down through our arms, into our fingers and onto a screen. After I've written (a blog...a novel...) I feel so good...orgasmic, almost. I have to pull in one of those shuddering deep breaths that tell you everything is alllllright with the world. For now, at least.

This is one of the reasons I love to blog. So that I can share my love and longing for writing with other writers. As a blogging virgin, I used wondered if it wasn't it just all waffle. Then I listened (on radio 4) to the Iraqi girl who blogged her life during the war in Iraq and it was sobering and fascinating. Actually, one of my own OCA sudents has won an award for her natural history blogs. But when I surfed other people's blogs randomly...don't know quite how to put this politely... their sheer mind-blowing tedium and egocentricity gave me short-term attention span.

Blogs, in their essence, are simply the thoughts of ordinary people - this is their glory, but also their downfall. Millions of words sliding throug the ether...how do you catch the nuggets of gold among them?
I do hope - I certainly try - to make my blog interesting, informative and varied. In 2012 I promise my subscribers that's exactly what I will be continuing to do.

Happy Writing New Year