I have a great desktop background at the moment called ‘Shed in a Field’.

What I like about it is this rickety looking wooden shed made up of lots of overlapping or uneven pieces which someone all manage to hang together. A bit like our lives I think. I often feel, especially as a writer, full of lots of uneven and misfitting pieces that hardly hang together. The shed also has thick moss on its roof perhaps reminiscent of age and experience. But after feeling discouraged about my writing this week, having had a much loved poem of mine torn apart at a writing group I have decided to quit the ‘feeling sorry for me’ syndrome and try to take some of the advice on board. The result is I think a better poem.
I also want to give credit to the advice of fellow RNA writer, Liz Fenwick for her excellent advice in ‘Writer’s Forum’ magazine this month in her article ‘Taking the long road’. She has just had her first novel ‘The Cornish House’ published but it is the eighth novel Liz has actually written! What’s more she doesn’t regret any of the time it’s taken her to get to her debut novel but says the time has given her the “opportunity to grow as a writer” and “to find my voice”. Maybe I too have a bit more growing to do so that all the different pieces hang together better even if in a higgledy piggledy fashion. Thanks to Liz and the little Shed for this week’s inspiration.