Timid Writers Need Not Apply

“I’d like to do what you’re doing,” said Jean, another mum from my son's school.
“Oh, that’s dead easy,” I said, “just send your articles into Ronnie; he’s the editor and he’ll print them.”
“How much do you get paid?”

“I don’t, I do it for free.”
“Fuck that,” she said and walked off.

In 2005, on the recommendation of a friend, I went to see a Russian shaman. I was living in Hong Kong at the time and worked as the librarian in the French International School. I wanted to know:  am I a writer.  The shaman told me I was not destined to write a novel but that I should write articles for a magazine and once I had built up a collection, I could publish a book.  She also told me there was a little girl waiting for me.  “You mean if I go again, I’ll have a daughter?” I said.
 “Yes but you’ll have six sons first.”
At the time, I was volunteering as deputy editor for AWARE, the American Women’s Association’s monthly magazine.  I wrote the back page, On a Final Note and regularly contributed researched articles as well.  On the strength of this and in an attempt to forge a link with my home country, I sent one of my On a Final Note pieces to The Douglas Weekly in Cork.  They printed it and asked for more. I wrote a snapshot of living abroad, living as an Irish Ex-pat in Asia, raising a family of three small boys all rolled into one.  No money changed hands.  A year later the Weekly merged with the Cork Independent which covered the county as well as the city.  It didn’t occur to me to approach the Independent which I now think must be a reflection of my timidity at the time.
In 2008, I start submitting weekly contributions to a max of 400 words to the Douglas Post.   Ronnie McGinn, the editor of the Post, told me my pieces are popular and readers have told him they only pick up the Post because I’m in it.  So I know I’m liked.   I came across a great quote in the Irish Times on-line recently, ’Mickey Spillane, when criticised for writing pulp fiction, he retorted, “More salted peanuts are eaten than caviar – the public likes you, you’re good”.
So I know the public in a little corner of Cork City like me, what next?  Mary Morrissey gave a presentation at the West Cork Literary Festival this July, to promote the MA in Creative Writing with UCC.  I applied for the MA in 2013 but was not successful.  Since my primary degree is Law, I decided to do the Higher Diploma in English Literature as a natural bridge into the MA programme.  I graduated in 2015 with a 2:1.   The part time option for the MA in Creative Writing UCC is offered bi-annually; the next slot is September 2017.  I intend to apply in December 2016 and I’m in discussion with my job-share partner to restructure our working week around my lecture times. 

In the meantime, I am focussing on upgrading my blog, The Morning Growler, named after my favourite blend of Cork Roasters Coffee.  In February 2008, I attended one of Vanessa O’Loughlin’s Inkwell Publishing workshops in Killiney Castle Hotel in Dublin.  Guest speaker, Elizabeth Murray (Beth) introduced to us to the concept of Blogging, its benefits and the fact it’s free.  I immediately set about creating my own.  The blog is not only a vehicle to reach a wider audience, - I wish - but is also a means of cataloguing my better pieces.  I registered this week for Beth’s Blogging and Beyond on-line course which starts Monday, 8^th August 2016.

The Post gives me the discipline to keep writing something every week, to stick to a word limit and to a deadline which I never miss.     The Blog allows me to write honestly and at any length I want.  I haven’t told anyone I have a blog.  I am, so far, reluctant to do so because: the articles are about things that happen to me; I don’t write about issues that people care about; and I don’t have an expertise that I can share.  After Beth’s course, I may think differently.

Attending the workshops with Vanessa, the Listowel Writers and the West Cork Literary Festivals have been wildly successful in setting my brain on fire and tapping my creativity.  I have written six 500 word articles this week alone and I fear it will fizzle out unless I find something to keep it going.  Doing the on-line writing courses has prodded me to write outside the box but also to force me to lift up my eyes and look to the horizon.  Yesterday afternoon, I wrote to Blake Creedon, sub editor with The Irish Examiner and asked him to consider me as a contributor.  I attached one of the more risqué 500 word pieces while telling him I had several more lined up.  The audacity of me.  A month ago I would not have done that. 

Having to come up with a 1,000 words on what to do next in order to propel my writing higher has been useful in ways I didn’t expect.  It exposed the fraud in me: it’s now shit or get off the pot.  It has forced me to quit the daydream, to climb down from my comfortable nest on the fence and put down on paper ‘what exactly were my ambitions?’   In doing this, the baby steps unfolded and the concrete actions I needed to take became clear.  This Monday, I will blog with Beth for eight weeks.  In December, I will apply for the MA in UCC and by then I will have written a 1,000 word piece for my portfolio that will finally secure me a place on the programme. 

Maybe I’ll hear from Blake.