Snow and Creativity

Like most of the country, we've been snowed in since last Wednesday, unable to move cars from the drive. Although we're used to cold, frost and snow in Scotland, this has been the worst and longest we can ever remember. Fortunately, we no longer live at the top of a hill in a small village without shops! When we did feel like venturing out, we at least could trudge through the snow for a short walk - not that we wanted to until later in the week.


You might have seen these photos on Facebook, taken just fifteen minutes apart - the blizzard kept up all day, hence the enforced stay at home.


We're lucky we work from home and the schools were all closed so we didn't even need to do granddaughter's school run and could remain cosy and warm, watching the heavy snowfall from the window. As I've often said, I like winter and still find the landscape beautiful but even I am looking forward to a proper spring now.

One advantage writers have when forced to stay indoors is our creativity and the chance to concentrate on writing projects - or that's the theory. I was very pleased to receive the acceptance of another Scottish article from The Highlander Magazine in the US, in which I've been published many times, as well as a new poem accepted by the Wild Musette journal, a first for me. I also sent away a new short story and I'm writing another non-fiction essay.

Before feeling too self-righteous, I keep feeling guilty at not getting on with the actual longer fiction I'm supposed to be trying to finish, but that's normal behaviour for me - much easier to concentrate on the shorter lengths! Yet, it's when I'm feeling most creative that I'm drawn to writing poetry and shorter fiction or articles so perhaps it's not only laziness.

I've also been redrafting The Highland Lass as the rights have only just reverted to me and I wanted to tweak it a little before it reappears on Amazon. A very enjoyable couple of days revisiting what has always been the book of my heart and I was relieved that I was still happy with the story! My lovely publisher, Crooked Cat Books, have even allowed me to keep the original cover which I didn't want to change.

What have you been doing if snow has kept you at home?

Rosemary