Song writing workshop, author talk and the sands of time

Evening folks – I’m on a roll regards work so thought I’d take time out to complete my blog ahead of the schedule.

I’ve had a difficult week made feasible by the odd moments captured between the tasks on the ‘To-do list’. I don’t even wish to linger on how mentally exhausting this week has been – please, who ever is in charge, don’t let me have another week as this one.

Anyhow, Monday night saw the return of the fabulous song writing workshop organized by Barry Hunt. As you know I’ve attend previously, as a means of keeping the creative juices flowing – and it works every time. This month’s session focused on honing lyrics, crafting and improving the structure of your song – the dos and don’ts list and even the ‘I will try harder on these elements’ list – self reflection is always a good thing. The wonderful thing about these evening is the way Barry delivers a lot of info in such a short amount of time. The evening is very much a collaboration between students and master (he’ll smile at that title, I’m sure) with a multitude of examples and reference to well known music and artists – which makes the session so hands-on in terms of knowledge. I have to applaud him for his bravery of requesting our opinion about his song lyrics, which was accompanied by the official critique received by another professional. Brave indeed. The two hours flew by in the blink of an eye and before I knew it I was hitting the highway home. Please take a look at www.barryhunt.co.uk as I’m sure there’ll be many more workshops in the future.

Wednesday – was one of my favourite dates 29^th February – I always ensure that I do something a little extra as I feel it is a free gift, a bit like a buy one get one free bargain, every four years. Anyway, this year I wrote a small poem to celebrate the occasion – fitting given how productive I’ve been recently.

Thursday – I attended my Grade three music exam – oh dear, watch this space for the result because I had a nightmare. I checked the exam as much as I could but know that I lost many points – it won’t be three distinctions in a row – that’s a cert!

Thursday also saw me attend an author’s talk whilst at the day job. I am not going to name them, simply because I don’t wish to be unkind but…. OMG! It was a definite lesson in what not to do. The woman, yes, I’ll give that part away, children’s literature, that too. Well, she was booked to talk to the pupils about her work… that was the agenda - simple. The talk consisted of her children, their childish antics, her previous career, her lack of ambition to be a writer and finally, the price of her books. What we wanted was the creative process, the inspiration, the working process, the highs and lows of being an author, the daily life…. I was so disappointed, but can view it as a huge lesson for the future reference, should I ever need it. I vow, here and now, that I will stick to the agenda and provide you with as much insight into my world as possible and not a single word that is unrelated to my quest as an author. This isn’t the first time I have witnessed such an author talk. If anything, the previous one was by far worse, giving a year by year account of a life (unrelated to writing) – including every family pet and house move!

Today, I’ve had to work on an essay for university – which seems to have drained all my energy but which now enables me to have a free morning tomorrow in which to write. And write, I shall. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’m still fighting with the synopsis for ‘Her’ so that will be my first job tomorrow, as I need to slog it into shape under the weight of a ticking clock. Talking of clocks, I have a thing about them if I haven’t said before. I have clocks that have previously belonged to most of my relatives – and last week I purchased a unique one for me – a beautiful hour glass! I know, an hour glass, that mystical object from the olden days now sits on my desk top and tomorrow I will be using it while I write. Hee hee, going back to basics or what? Literally having the sands of time accompanying me as I write.

I’m going to sign off to give me a chance to have a quiet read of Middlemarch – yes, I’m still at it – now titled ‘That book’.

Remember you can follow me on ‘Twitter’ by searching and following odwyer_author – please pass this blog onto others who may be interested. Enjoy!