A long and winding road (Ravensbourne, Australia)
It’s been a great year. A rollercoaster ride. Thankfully, I love rollercoasters!
There have been quite a few shortlists, longlists and publications in 2012, but the elusive book deal is still evading me. I enjoyed some amazing opportunities such as blogging for Listowel Writers’ Week again, writing live as part of the Ciudades Parallelas ‘Station’ installation during Cork Midsummer festival and providing creative writing classes for local teens.
I finally feel as though I’ve settled into the village community and although nature was at its destructive best, we still managed to harvest a decent crop of vegetables and catch a winter’s worth of mackerel. And I can’t wait for it to all start again.
But more importantly, I’ve learned lots, like…
- Opportunities always come – just be ready to say yes
- Sometimes you have to say no because you’re already doing enough
- You need to take time away from writing in your day to let ideas circulate, just as much as you need to fix ‘bum on seat’
- Your goals are set by you and are flexible – don’t be too hard on yourself
- Morning pages really do work – so if you want ideas to keep coming, keep them up
- Your inner critic is both your best friend and worst enemy – get to know it well
- To be a writer, you need to write – it’s that simple!
I hope your year felt just as rewarding. Now, time for a well-earned break (see you in the New Year)!
Do you have anything you’d like to share? What did you learn in 2012?
E.R.Murray 
I learnt to be more confident and daring about my writing. It was a pretty big thing for me to actually put some samples of it out there for others to take a look if they happened to pass by and take a few minutes to read. It’s most likely me who gets the most enjoyment out of creating glimpses into fictional characters’ minds and experiences. What’s been very encouraging is that I’ve found an incredibly welcoming and inspiring community of writers and bloggers. I’ve created stories in my mind as far back as I can remember. I still can’t sit at a cafe or restaurant table without creating stories around passersby or other patrons there. That can be quite annoying to partner or friends who’d be there with me trying to keep a conversation going while I drift off ever so often and suddenly announce something like “See the guy on the round table behind you? Now don’t turn around and look at him! That’d be so rude and embarrassing. He’s a professor of archeaology or ancient history and he’s originally from Italy, Naples actually. He’ll order the regular Bento box but he won’t use the chop sticks. He’ll ask for knife and fork. He’ll also order a sake. He’s been divorced for six years now. He had one fling too many when he had an affair with a tall blond German student half his age in Munich in 2006 during his stint as a guest professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University, while his wife and young teenage kids remained behind in Italy because it wasn’t a good time to displace the kids just then. See how he keeps looking towards the entrance? There’ll be a group of 4 students joining him here in a few minutes.” … 😀 Anyway, it’s been a fab year as far as passion for writing and creativity goes and I’m excited about any further progress I’ll manage to make in 2013. Happy new year! We’ve been having a quiet unwind night – I had to work today, ah well – and have just completed our traditional stepping outside, watching the fireworks and wishing the neighbours a happy new year.
Sounds like the perfect New Year – we saw a few fireworks & Chinese lanterns too as midnight tolled. I’m so pleased to hear that your passion for writing and belief in yourself exploded in 2012 – can’t wait to see what happens for you in 2013! Getting your work out there is the start of an exciting path. Keep going and enjoy every minute!