A.L. Michael's Blog, page 17

Owning, not Moaning: How Writing Can Offer a Positive Perspective

You know that image of the moody teenager curled up in her room, writing poetry about how life is meaningless, or that boy she likes doesn’t notice her, or that nothing ever changes? Why do you think that’s become a cliche? Is it that creative people feel more deeply? Or it is that strong feelings are released through creativity?

Picking up a pen when life gets you down doesn’t have to be about losing yourself in your problems. You don’t have to write depressing poetry, or moan about your life in a journal. You can, if you think it will help, but some people don’t like to get too bogged down thinking about their issues, feeling like focusing on them will only make them feel more negative.

 

There’s a place for this theory in writing for wellbeing. Yesterday, I woke up in a foul mood. The neighbours had been partying right through until I got up at 6am. I kept dropping things, losing things, and was pretty much a rain cloud for anyone I interacted with. And I didn’t want to stay that way. So I sat down with a cup of tea, and I wrote a list of things that made me happy. True little details that gave me joy. Listening to Belle and Sebastian on sunny days, singing in the car, walking barefoot on wet grass. I filled two pages with these random little details that make me happy, and when I stopped, I was able to realise I’d fixed my own mood. Sure, that morning had pissed me off, but it was behind me now.

 

Writing acts as a perspective shift. Other ways of doing this are writing down your issue, then retelling it from a different person’s position. Even writing in third person (he/she) instead of first (I/me) gives you distance. And that’s what you want, in order to affect change, you need space. You need a moment to move away from what’s been bugging you, and to switch your focus.

 

We’ll be exploring more positive uses for writing in my Writing for Wellbeing Workshop in April, (April 26th 10am-4pm Barnet) more details HERE.

Tagged: barnet, creative, creative writing, distance, finchley literary festival, health, hot courses, learning, metanoia, mindfulness, north london, therapy, useful writing tips, wellbeing, wellness, workshop, writing

Guest Post from author Rebecca Raisin!

Really excited to be featuring news from Rebecca Raisin’s next novella Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe today, and I’m certainly eagerly awaiting its publication on 20th March!

Welcome back to the warmth, cupcakes and hot chocolate of The Gingerbread Café – your home away from home.

Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Café   – the second novella in The Gingerbread Café series –. Released March 20 th by Carina UK. 

Chocolate…the most irresistible temptation?

The Gingerbread Café is all a buzz! This Easter, Lily and the rest of the town of Ashford, Connecticut are planning a truly decadent Chocolate Festival. Cooking up a storm, CeeCee and Lily are not just baking a batch of their sinfully delicious chocolate-dipped gingerbread men, but an excess of chocolate truffles, squidgy, cinnamony hot cross buns and melt in your mouth chocolate eggs. The Gingerbread Café staff have definitely enjoyed the tasting process!

Add in Damon’s cute-as-a-button seven year old daughter, Charlie, up for a visit and Lily’s perfect Easter may just be around the corner. Until her ex-husband Joel turns up demanding twenty thousand dollars… Suddenly the future of the Gingerbread Café is not so clear…and Lily finds herself eating far more of The Gingerbread Café’s treats than her skinny jeans allow…

Can Lily concoct a brilliant plan to save her beloved café, convince Damon she has no feelings for Joel and still throw a Chocolate Festival the town will be talking about for years? There’s only one way to find out…

Welcome back to the warmth, cupcakes and hot chocolate of The Gingerbread Café – your home away from home

This is the second novella in The Gingerbread Café series

Christmas at the Gingerbread Café

Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Café

Coming Christmas 2014 look out for the next romantic instalment!

Goodreads:

http://bit.ly/1i69MYZ

Find the novella here:

Amazon US http://amzn.to/OFCjw3

Amazon UK http://amzn.to/1fKsW7z

iTunes https://itun.es/au/RXigX.l

KOBO http://bit.ly/1dZoayZ

Google play http://bit.ly/1gPMtlb

Find Rebecca here: 

https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaRaisinAuthor

http://rebeccaraisin.wordpress.com

www.twitter.com/jaxandwillsmum

http://www.pinterest.com/rebeccaraisin/chocolate-dreams-at-the-gingerbread-cafe/

Tagged: carina, chocolate dreams at the gingerbread cafe, gingerbread cafe, harlequin, novella, rebecca raisin, romance

On Dealing with Not Being a Special Snowflake: How the desire for originality can get us down.

I’m on my third novel at the moment, and it’s the first one I’ve ever written under a contract, with a deadline, and expectations and all that jazz. Usually, I write because I fall in love with these crazy people I’ve been having conversations with in my head, but this time round, it’s a bit like walking into a room of people and thinking ‘I have to fall in love with one of you tonight, or I’m screwed.’ A bit like starting a relationship before getting to know the other person. Suddenly we’re curled up watching TV on Sunday nights, and I don’t even know what their favourite colour is.

I’m into character driven stories, incase you couldn’t tell. I want to know about people, how they tick, why they act crazy in certain situations. And usually, the situations arise out of the crazy character. Now, I find myself desperately searching for places to put these characters, searching for drama, making issues where there are none.

 Issues always come from your character. The way they act, or how they think, inevitably causes problems for them. That’s what’s satisfying. Taking your average joe and sticking them on a runaway train, well, that’s not appealing to me. Not unless Joe used to be a train driver, and hasn’t ventured onto public transport in thirty years, because his wife died after being hit by a bus. I don’t care if Joe’s a big damn hero, I want his actions to have effects.

 

And here’s where we get stuck: There are an unlimited combination of people, problems and situations. However, after a while, they all seem to become the same. And I find myself accidentally using names other people have used, or having parts of a similar backstory. Is it that I’m reading more of the genre, and accidentally picking stuff up? Or is it that we’ve adapted to finding formulaic texts comforting, because we secretly know how it’s all going to turn out?

A writer friend of mine always used to have this issue. He’d get halfway through a truly brilliant project, and then find out someone had already done something really similar. My response was always ‘but YOU haven’t done it, your voice has value, it might bring something different to the table’, but now I get how he was feeling. When you’re passionate about what you do, and it starts to look fake, it’s hard to be enthusiastic. So what do I do? Throw away this book and start again? Remove any traces of anything that’s been mentioned in previous books? No. Impossible. Our influences define us, even if they’re unconscious.

 

All I can do is continue to explore my characters, hope that within them, in their histories and quirks, lies the answer to the originality of my story. Yes, boy meets girl, some stuff happens, everything’s fine, there’s drama, they’re together. There’s a reason it’s a cliche. But hopefully, at times like these, we trust that our voice really does have something new to say, even if we’re not sure how to do it.

 
Tagged: A.L. Michael, advice, being original, carina, characterisation, chick lit, how to be original, how to deal with not being original, influences, original writing, writer, writing

Write What We Know, or Write to Discover?

It’s an old writing adage that we should write what we know. Some contest it, some live by it. I think it’s rather unavoidable. Even if you’re writing about a futuristic world war where robots made from old bean tins have started a mutiny, you’re writing about human emotions. Even when it’s robots.

We can’t help but write what we know…it’s just that sometimes we don’t know that we know it. My point here? Writing is revelatory. It’s all very well saying that if we’ve been a butcher for fifteen years, we should use our experience to influence our settings, lend authenticity to our creations, but often we find parts of ourselves embedding in our fiction anyway. 

I’ve often written things, and only found where their familiarity comes from when someone else points it out. Ah, that broken toaster that was a metaphor for how we love unconditionally, we actually had one of those in our first house, didn’t we? Huh.

These aren’t always major revelations, but with the right questions and tasks, they can be very powerful. As writers, people often think we spend a lot of time on self-reflection, but the truth is, if we’re dealing in fiction, we’re more interested in other people. Usually the ones who are having conversations in our heads! But we can use what we enjoy and find useful, to explore parts of our own lives!

Think about how you come up with a character’s name, or when you’re a reader, how do you identify with the character. What does their name signify? What possible meanings can come from it. Now think about your names. Not just your given name, but any nicknames, any affectionate words, or unwanted familiarities. How do they make you feel? How do they define you? We name characters and allow their names to shape them- are we given the same opportunity? What about titles? Wife, mother, husband, brother, teacher, agony aunt? Boss? How is who we are shaped by the names we are given.

These are just some small wonderings, but it’s an example of how we use writing to look inward, even when we’re creating outwardly, and it’s part of a task I’ll be doing at my Writing for Wellbeing Workshop in Barnet in April!

 

For details and tickets, click HERE

Tagged: adult class, barnet, barnet football club, creative, creative writing, creativity, growth, health, high barnet, holistic, mental-health, mindfulness, north london, north west london, wellbeing, wellness, workshops, writing

Writing for Wellbeing Workshop- this April!

 This workshop will use fun techniques to improve confidence, self esteem, and help us access our memories and stories! You don’t have to be a writer, you just have to be open to it!

 

When: Saturday 26th April – 10am-4pm

Where: The Amber Lounge, Underhill Stadium, Barnet, EN5 2DN

Cost: £65 – includes all handouts and writing tools, plus tea/coffee, snacks and a delicious lunch!

Where can I book? 

Right here!

As we like to keep this very intimate, we have very limited places, so please book early. If we don’t have space this time, please email and we’ll book you on the next!

Tagged: adults, Arts, authors, barnet, barnet arts, benefits, creative barnet, creative entrepreneurship, creative health, creative london, creative wellbeing, creative writing workshops, growth, health, holistic, learning, north london, stories, workshops, writers

Blog Hop…’My Writing Process’

 

Thanks to Aurelia B Rowl for nominating me to take part in the My Writing Process blog tour! I’m following up from Aurelia’s brilliant post from last week, which you can see here.

Okay, here goes:

 

What Am I Working On?

I’m currently working on my next novel for Carina UK. It’s a snarky romantic comedy, focused around a woman named Tigerlily James (I love my strange names!) and how she deals with how static her life is. She and her friends have The Misery Dinner once a month where they moan about their lives, but she’s tired of being miserable. Cue love interest, the return of strange friends, terrible exes and lots of shenanigans and navel gazing. At the moment the working title is The Young and Bitter Club, but it might be changing to Unstuck.

 

 

How Does My Work Differ from Others of its Genre?

 

Well, I’m trying to make sure it’s not just a romance story. I like there to be a journey of discovery, something positive in the female characters that comes from them and not their love interest. It has to be about the timing, and realisations, and love, all coming together to move them forward. I find that really inspiring in the work of Sarra Manning and Mhairi Mcfarlane, where it’s not just chick lit, it’s an emotional realisation in the mind of the character.

 

 

Why Do I Write What I Do?

 

Well, the first book I wrote was a coming of age drama, and the novel I was working on before I got the call from the publisher was literary fiction. So I’m not going to limit myself to one genre. I’ve also got a few YA novels and a kids book up my sleeve. But at the moment, I love writing chick lit. It’s fun, less taxing, and you get to design the dream love interest and make other people fall in love with them. It’s pretty much like day-dreaming, at least until the hard work of actually writing the thing comes into action. I’d never really visualised myself writing romance, if anything, my first novel was described as ‘a romance trying to be an anti-romance’. I don’t like fluff, I like attraction, and sarcastic comments, attraction and wit. Some handsome guy turning up with roses is not a romantic hero for me. So getting to play with that is pretty cool.

 

 

How Does My Writing Process Work?

 

Well, I start with the idea, which changes over and over again. Last week, over the course of two days I changed the names of three characters, the visuals of the love interest, the back story, and a whole bunch of other stuff! And once that happens, it starts to click. I write fragments in my notebook, and I’m now onto typing up fragments on my laptop. Nothing in order, nothing necessarily structured or even important, I’m just exploring. When I’ve got enough, I’ll print them out, arrange them, look for what I’m missing, and start typing it all up in order, adding in as I go. 

When I first start, I’m writing to discover, which is why things change. I’m allowing for adaptations, realisations, character development.  Then comes the typing up, changing, and about five rounds of editing! 

All of that seems so far off right now! But I’m chugging away at it so it’s ready for deadline on the 1st May. Terrifying.

 

Next Week: The Blog Hop moves on to two brilliant writers and creatives:

 

Louise Davidson 

 

Louise Davidson is a writer, free-lance script-reader, dramaturg and PR executive. She graduated from the University of East Anglia and has worked in theatre for the last four years, doing everything from directing to ushering. She has acted as Assistant to the Director on shows such as Uncle Vanya at the Lyric Theatre and Land of Giants as part of the Cultural Olympiad and is a script-reader for Tinderbox Theatre Co. and Accidental Theatre Co. For the last year, Louise has worked in PR, specialising in Arts Marketing and PR. She has written two plays, various flash fiction, and is currently working on a novel.

 Check out her entry here 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annie Harris

 

Annie is a 23-year-old actress, theatre producer and blogger living in North London.
 
After graduating from the London College of Music in 2011 with a degree in Musical Theatre, Annie networked her way through the scary, bustling city that is London with a tummy full of caffeine and a backpack full of business cards.
 
Recently, she’s written articles for [Miro Magazine](www.miromagazine.co.uk) and [Youth Arts Online](www.youthartsonline.org), been featured as an incredibly dumpy and spoilt young woman in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the classic Walt Disney film, Cinderella, and has recently dipped her toe into the world of vlogging by becoming a [Youtube Partner](www.youtube.com/missannieharris). 
 
When she’s not busy poking her nose into other people’s lives, you can find Annie tending to her fast-wilting coriander plant, fantasising about taking up pole dance classes, or singing 80′s power ballads in the shower.
 
You can find Annie on Twitter [here](www.twitter.com/ubermagee).
 

 

 

Tagged: authors, blog tour, carina uk, harlequin books, how to write a novel, how to write romantic fiction, london, mills and boon, novels, theatre, writing a book, writing process, young writers

Writing for Wellbeing: Using Metaphor

 

 

Images are powerful things. The best writing is imagistic, powerful, visual. Since starting this course in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, it seems like I can’t express how I feel without turning to metaphor. There are some emotions that would take pages to untangle and analyse, but when associated with an image, can suddenly make our feelings clear. 

Like standing on an unsteady ladder. We feel worried, we feel nervous, we know we’re in danger, we’re continuing anyway. But that feeling? That specific feeling when you’re on the edge and you can feel yourself falling? Well, we may not have all been on a rickety ladder, but we can all understand what that means.

 

Images are the best way to succinctly and clearly explain how you feel. There is a place for writing reams and reams in a journal or diary, exploring feelings and specific instances, but the use of metaphor explains just how powerful poetry can be when we’re trying to emotionally connect something.

 

Metaphors can’t really be forced. To push them is to somehow make them less encompassing. But next time you’re trying to explain a difficult emotion, see if you automatically use a metaphor. We use them so often now, without even thinking. And next time you do use one, write it down, explore it, continue it. 

 

Just as in English class our job was to identify those images and tear them apart, I am asking you to build them up. Embellish them. If you feel like a caged bird, what is the cage made of? What colour is your plume? What song do you sing? Where does the bird wish to go? Explore your image, because metaphors are a path to deeper understanding. We use them because it’s an easy connection- something in us identifies with that image, but by exploring it, we can reveal so much more!

 

 

A Reminder that my Writing for Wellbeing Workshop in Barnet is now up and running. You can find details HERE and HERE. It’s a full day of writing tasks and discussion, guaranteed to leave you feeling thoughtful and uplifted, and hopefully with a collection of writing work you can feel proud of! Please do get in touch if you’re interested by emailing andrealmichael@aol.com

 

Tagged: A.L. Michael, counselling, creative writing london, creative writing north london, hertfordshire, how to use metaphor, metanoia, metaphors, narrative therapy, north london, north west london, professional writer, self confidence through writing, uea writing, underhill stadium barnet football club, using imagery, write, writers health, writers wellbeing, writing, writing for health, writing for wellbeing barnet, Writing for wellbeing london, writing for wellness

Sacrificing Stability for Creativity.

 

We make a living behaving like children- creativity is the last vestige of childhood, it remains within a few of us, unhindered by bills and mortgages and the responsibilities of adulthood. We all have the potential for creativity, we’ve just forgotten it in the wake of more present worries.

Yesterday, my father pointed out to me that I would never build a life without a nine to five job. He said life is about sacrifice, and that the way to get a mortgage and a home and the nice things every adult wants, is to get up at an ungodly hour each morning, work at a job I hate, and then come home and enjoy the spoils.

 

That made me sad. Mainly because that’s what he’s been doing for over thirty years, but also because lots of people still seem to have this skewed view of the self-employed professional.  

If you are not passionate about the process of your work, then of course you are going to be passionate about the spoils. But I am passionate about the work I do. I will sacrifice the chance at a mortgage, at having extra money, at extravagant holidays and expensive jewellery, just so I can do what I do. So what does that leave me, the realisation that, at least in my father’s eyes, I am not building a career for myself? 

 

Except, a career isn’t built on wages. It’s built on reputation, on success, on recognition, on improvement and growth. Now, of course, profitability comes into it, we need to survive. But the realisation I had was that it doesn’t take much to make me happy- a little flat, enough money for fruit, and the occasional gig or show somewhere, and the fact that I get to write, and I’m pretty darn ecstatic.

 

So, by living happily, am I ignoring my future? No. Everything I do works towards making my name synonymous with what I do. Towards earning what I’m owed, having the confidence in my abilities, building up the experience and knowledge so that I can be the best I possibly can. What is that if not building for my future?

 

My generation is not the generation of mortgages and marriages and money. We are the scroungers, the interns, the jokers, the survivors, and it will be that way for quite a few years more, I’d guess. But the building we do to our futures, the foundations that we are setting right now are in our experiences, our friendships, our loves and our losses. We are beginning to define ourselves right now, as artists and as people. We are always working on our future, no matter what.

So keep building, keep creating, keep dreaming. Because that’s what gets you through.

 

 

Tagged: A.L. Michael, creative business, creative entrepreneurship, getting a mortgage as self-employed, how to live as an artist, living as a writer, stability in the arts, surviving as a writer, writer, writing, young people

Wellbeing at the Weekend: Week 1

Hi all,

 

I’m going to try and offer a writing exercise every Sunday that will be gently creative, something for you to try out and explore for your wellbeing at the weekend.

This week we’re going to start with narrative. What is the story and structure of your life? What has been achieved? Where have your plot points and tailspins and adventures been?

Imagine you are writing your autobiography. Choosing what to include and not include in the story of your life is defining for you- what makes your story? What was the making of you?

Think about what the title would be, consider how you would arrange your chapters, what those chapter titles would be. Where would you start and end your story? Is it a star chart, jumping from point to point, getting higher and higher? Did you have a dip? Have you risen again from the ashes?

 

Don’t feel you have to force a plotline to form. Our lives, day to day, are about plodding. They’re about slow and quiet realisations that look little but mean much. Looks for the simples and re-occurring themes in your life. This can be as simple as noticing the bluebells in the garden every year, and recognising the passage of time. The tune that recalls a certain memory when you hear it. These realisations and moments of contemplation matter, they are the fabric that binds us.

Think about the stages in your life. Where are you now? Are you at the beginning of your journey? We are always discovering, always changing and growing. Do you think you can recognise the stages and phrases of those changes?

 

You do not have to write your biography, just plan our the chapters. Give them titles, decide what would be involved. Perhaps you would like to try to write a bit about some of those moments that you feel are defining. Try to get as close and as within the moment as you can- look for the sensory memories, the strange details. As you envelope yourself in your own memories you will often find these details appear. The taste of school dinners, the journey to your first job, the feelings and sounds and blur of having children. Look through photos, talk to people, try and regain the wholeness of these moments. To truly own your history is a beautiful thing, and to find the narrative is to feel like the journey carries on, open for exploration and new beginnings.

 

Don’t forget about my Writing for Wellbeing Workshop in April!

Tagged: al michael, autobiography, barnet, creative writing for health, health tasks, london, narrative therapy, north london, wellbeing, write to feel great, writing a novel, writing for health, writing for the weekend, writing for wellbeing, writing tasks, writing tasks for wellbeing, writing your autobiography, writing your story

On Being Authentic (and how writing can help)

It’s hard to be ourselves, these days.

 

We are constantly seeking a place to validate our thoughts and feelings on paper, or on screen. To see those words, and have them responded to respectfully and emotively is often all we crave. To receive a few kind words of encouragement or understanding. But the power of social media today means that we misplace that intention into a great fizzing ball of everyone’s insecurities, hang-ups, stresses and day to day life.

We do not heal ourselves by writing about our dead cat on facebook. We open ourselves up to derision, insincerity and judgement. But to write in a private moment about how we feel about such things, about our day to day life, our losses- it is our moment of understanding in expressing these things that matters, not the reception.

It is so expected that your realisations and thoughts should be public, to be related to or ignored, that people cannot even define what is important to them. The loss of self, of authentic voice is more prevalent on social media sites than anywhere else. I am sad today. Well, if I tell facebook, people will tell me to cheer up, if I use twitter I am limited to characters, perhaps I’ll text a friend and they will comfort me. Nowhere in this scenario is sitting down and using words to consider why you’re unhappy today. You are too busy trying to figure out if your feelings matter enough to be considered your ‘status’ or if they are appropriate for the medium you’re using. That is the power of private writing- or even of therapeutic writing that is shared- there is no inappropriate, as long as you are authentic.

 

An Exercise in Connecting to the Authentic:

Take a moment to ‘check-in’ with yourself. How are you today? Do you feel good? What one word would sum up how you are right now? Say it aloud. Own it. It is surprising? Is there anything more to be said? Have you picked a word that gives little away, like ‘fine’ or ‘okay’? You don’t have to limit yourself, or be polite, you are just interacting with yourself. If you feel content, if you feel anxious, if you feel awful, all of these feelings are okay.

 

Take out a watch, or a timer on your phone. You’re going to do five minutes of ‘free-writing’. This means you will write whatever comes to mind, you won’t form it, you don’t have to worry about spelling or punctuation or sentences. Go with what feels right. Try and almost bypass the brain in this exercise, imagine your pen is connected to a delicate thread that goes up through your arm and into your centre. The pen connects with the subconscious, just let it do what it wants. Start with the word you used to define your state of being. Run with it. Write as much as you can, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t look back, just keep writing.

…

Okay, so you’ve done that. Look back. Was that check-in how you really felt? Did anything become apparent? How do you feel? Writing this way, writing for ourselves, not for any validation, recognition, or to fill a space, is a powerful thing. There might not be any writerly ‘merit’ in the thing you have written, but if it feels honest and true to you, then that is merit enough. You may also find a phrase or word that you really like in there, and can use that to jump onto a more structured piece of work.

 

Authenticity is important- we are surrounded by the noise and pressure and expectations of others, things to do, places to go, how we should be, that sometimes we just need to centre ourselves again.

That is just one small and simple exercise in how writing can be therapeutic. Why don’t you try it out and let me know what you created? If you’re interested in the therapeutic possibilities of writing, remember I’m doing a Writing for Wellbeing Workshop in Barnet on Saturday 26th April. Email andrealmichael@aol.com for more details!

Tagged: 2014, a.l. michael writing, adult workshops, andrea michael writing workshops, april, authentic writing, authenticity, barnet creativity, barnet writing workshops, confidence, connect to the self, creative, creative writing for therapy, creative writing for wellness, free writing, health and wellbeing, holistic, london, mental-health, north london, self esteem, therapeutic writing, using writing to feel better, wellness in barnet, wellness workshops, writing, writing exercises for wellbeing, writing for wellbeing, writing for wellness