You never really know something until you teach it to someone else. I always thought this adage meant that you prove your mastery by teaching. Now I know that you groove your mastery by teaching – learning in real time, as you go. I owe the discovery to Nicki Fisher, a local alpaca farmer with […]
Tag Archives | writer’s craft
A Valentine’s Day Fairy Tale
If your partner was a fairy tale character, who would he or she be? For me, the answer became clear over a Sunday breakfast, as my husband extemporised about yet another a quantum physics chestnut he’d been turning over in his brain. “I feel like I’m starring in a Sleeping Beauty mash up,” I said. “Instead […]
She Writes, Therefore She Can: Reflections on My Daughter’s First Writing Competition
“So what does winning mean to you?” I ask my ten-year-old daughter, after the initial excitement subsides. We had noticed Ginger & Pickles’ flyer advertising a Halloween poetry competition on a visit to their snug children’s bookshop in Edinburgh, during a family getaway. Their prompt was to write about a potion. I thrilled to see […]
20 Tips for Writers from SCBWI
On the weekend of November 18-20, I attended my first ever creative writing conference organized by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) UK in Winchester. It was welcoming, invigorating, informative, humbling, encouraging and inspiring. I joined SCBWI upon the recommendation of several of the writer mothers profiled on Mums Write and can now […]