InkWell Writing Workshops - End your Self-Doubt...

Hey everyone, well as you know I started my journey into the world of writing earlier this year, having happily left behind a twenty year career in Finance.  My Journey so far as been interesting, frustrating, extremely enjoyable but mostly surprising! I hadn't been prepared at all for the different stages my little adventure would take me on..

First came the Procrastination, this really surprised me as I had so many ideas so it wasn't that i was stuck for something to say.  I sat at the laptop and I looked at the blank page and i typed away, putting down lots and lots of words on the page.  Then when i was finished I would hit delete, walk away and promise myself that better writing would come for me tomorrow. The only person judging my writing at that point was me.  So as the blank pages mounted up along came the frustration.  I wasnt getting anywhere, I was doing it all wrong after all.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "You may delay, but time will not ."   My light, at the end of the procrastination tunnel, was 140 tweets which I spoke about in my previous blog and that was it, I was up and running.  Running faster than my fingers could keep up with the words spilling out of my imagination. My fingers hovered over the delete word but it remained untouched.   However, unbeknown  to me at this time, was that i was about to enter into the next stage, or stumbling block on my writing journey.  This is when my confidence leave by the front door and self doubt stepped in.

But wait, don't throw down your pen or turn off the computer.. There is a God!! and I found it last Saturday in Dun Laoghaire.   Inkwell Writing Workshops had been recommended to me and I finally got around to attending one last week. I walked in the door of the Yacht club on that sunny saturday morning, without realising  just how much I was going to walk back out with that evening.
The course was attended by just 8 students so immediately you felt relaxed and welcome.  The atmosphere was friendly and really informal which was great when faced with meeting a group of strangers for the first time.  First we had a talk from Monica McInerney.  Her lovely voice alone, never mind her words was enchanting as she talked about her journey and how she got started.  She asked us all about where we were at in our writing careers and spend time at the end to talk individually to all of us.  So we were off to an inspirational start as Monica said, "The writer sees a picture in their head and puts this picture in words on a page, then the reader reads the words and paints their own picture in their heads"

After a lovely lunch and a chat with the other students, we had an afternoon session with Julie Parson's and we prepared writing exercises with her.  And for me this was where the real magic happened.  We were given one line and asked to write the opening paragraph of a story or a person and asked to explain them through the writing.  It was amazing to see what came out of me just i applied myself to the tasks.  I shocked myself.  It was also amazing to listen to other peoples interpretation of the same line.  The stories read out in that room were fantastic.  Julie critiqued our work, giving encouragement and letting each of us know what she liked about the very different pieces.   There is no better praise than having a best selling author say, wow, i really liked that.. She liked that, I wrote that!!!   I am sure everyone got something different out of the workshop that day but we all definitely got some reward.
So what did that mean for me? Well i walked out  that door last saturday with the confidence to know that I can do this, I am a good writer and other people will want to read what I write.  Self doubt gone, Self believe restored!!  I can not recommend highly enough to all new writers to attend an Inkwell Writing Course as you might be very surprised what you walk out of the door with!
I now face the next step of my journey but that is another story for another blog so when in doubt of your writing remember the words of Stephen King..

"No, it's not a very good story—its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside."