Welcome to This Free-Range Writing Life
A place for adventurous writers.
In the early years of my writing career my accountant told me to claim for everything; he said, ‘The life is the writing.’ (In case there are any tax inspectors reading this, it was thirty years ago, and I did not take his advice)
What I learnt as my career progressed is that it works both ways, it isn’t just that life enriches and informs our writing, it’s also that a practice of writing enriches and changes the way we live our lives.
The skills we develop through creative writing enable us to live more creatively, with greater courage and curiosity, self-awareness and self-belief.
And more than that, for such a solitary venture, writing is a way to a more connected life. It connects us with our deep self and the wider world, with readers and with every other writer, from dabblers to award-winning authors; everyone who writes understands the challenges and rewards.
My books and articles on writing, and my workshops and courses, are an invitation to new writers and a reminder for more experienced ones; we are one tribe, all of us who delight in developing our skills and hear writing’s call to adventure.
About me
I do write about writing, but mostly I just write
I write books and articles on the subject of writing, but I do that alongside my other writing projects, which at the moment are creative non-fiction. I started my current column in Writing Magazine, ‘Real Life, Great Stories’ last year as a way of deepening my understanding of the genre.
Since my first book came out in 1993, I have written scores of fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children and had articles published in many national publications. I have worked for major educational and mainstream publishers and self-published new books and re-editions of some of my out-of-print titles.
The seedbed for all my writing is my creative and dream journals, that I began keeping in my student days and have continued ever since.
I run innovative courses on ‘Creative Journalling’ and ‘Writing in the House of Dreams’, ‘Writing the Tarot’ and ‘Map and Compass: Compelling Fiction Using the Hero’s Journey’ as well as more mainstream skills workshops on all the basics, such as plotting and pacing, creating characters, using settings and writing dialogue.
My one-day themed workshops are a mix of memoir, poetry and fiction writing, which makes them a great writing workout and creative refresher for all levels of writing experience.
