Category Archives: Blogs

Hi all

I’d just logged on to check emails, tweets etc and to write a new blog when my last tweet hit me like a tidal wave- apt with the depressing and very sad news we hear everyday and, as we are reeling in the shock of it all, we feel helpless as to what positive action we can take as individuals. What are we doing to our beautiful world? How insignificant each of us really is?

Outside the prunus and cherry blossom trees are coming into flower in dappled pink and white against the perfect, icy blue sky.

Here is the my last tweet and, I can tell you, after a stressful couple of days at college, the words flooded over me as the symptoms of stress seeped from my finger tips to my toes.

Riduna Diana Jackson.  

“Trying to get my head around blogging, tweeting and facebook leaves me baffled as to where I fit in the writing”

 A voice in my head nagged:

‘ Writing should always be a pleasure. If we allow the whole package of what being a writer has become (no longer sitting in a quiet spot with pencil and paper filled with pleasure and anticipation, scribbling out thoughts as they tumble on to the empty page), Blogging, Facebook, Tweeting, Phoning, writing letters, making contacts, Guest Speaking, giving talks…… overwhelm us, then we lose site of the essence at the heart of our writing – joy.

And so (the purist in me says ouch here as I begin a sentence with ‘and’) here is what I am going to do, in order to regain some perspective, and I will share with you my ten point plan: (I know I promised never to write in this style but I feel on this occasion it is apt. It is a style that works for other writers but since my blog is so personal, I have avoided being so prescriptive but here goes.

I am now going to:

1. Switch off the computer (radical I know)
2. Change into comfortable old clothes
3. Open the shed door, take out a trowel and spade and go and spend a couple of hours in the garden
4. Make a cup of coffee and sit in the sunshine under the arbour and look at the blossom, watch the antics of the squirrels, follow the flight of the tiny birds as they dance in their delight
5. Take a deep breath and meditate on nothing particular for a while to clear my head
6. In that spot, aware of the sounds around me, I am going to return to my roots
7. Paper and pencil in hand I will think of my characters: Describe their appearance in the way they dress, their mannerisms which make them unique their flaws and strengths, what makes them likeable and makes me smile, what irritates me as some characters must; but most of all their raison d’etre.
8. After that brain activity I will spend a few minutes meditating on nothing once more
9. Then I will go to a garden centre and have a cup of tea, avoiding the computer which will be beckoning me from the study
10. Then I will return and if I feel refreshed and willing to face this ten inch screen once more i’ll come back and tell you if it worked!
11. If not i’ll return to you once more on Monday!

It amuses me that I have eleven points and not ten. There is something satisfying in being different, but before I finally take courage and direct my index finger to the ‘shut down’ I will set you a challenge.

Share with us all how you deal with moments like this and the most original, funny, poignant comment will receive a copy of ‘Riduna’.

Now I just have to make sure it has tweeted, Facebooked …………………