A post about writing and blogging

It seems a long time since I wrote about writing rather than books or craft. I haven’t been able to meet with any of my writing friends this year due first to my own illness in January and subsequently due to lockdown and then the inadvisability of travelling unnecessarily and meeting in groups.

Instead I have attended some events on Zoom organised by the Association of Christian Writers. I have enjoyed these, learned from them and been able to have short chats with other writers in ‘breakout rooms’. I have also enjoyed informal chats with other ACW members on Zoom. These were set up by a member, who asked for some adult conversation. We have had some fun. Occasionally one or more of the male members of ACW joins us, but often it is like a night out with the girls, but from the comfort of our own homes in geographically diverse places.

I have also co-ordinated the local group’s bimonthly meetings, which we began doing by email and have now added a Zoom session as well. It has been time-consuming, but worthwhile.

The irregularity of some of my blogging activity, especially on Sue’s Words and Pictures is the result of having other demands on my time and little opportunity to visit photogenic places. I am learning how to use the camera on a new mobile phone as I had to upgrade from an old Android version, when too many Apps stopped working.

As if a new phone were not enough of a challenge, WordPress is now trying to force everyone to use the new Block editor. After blogging for more than eight years, I am very familiar with the classic editor. I shall continue to use it as long as possible since it seems far more versatile. This week I prepared a blog post for future publication by creating it with the block editor (there didn’t seem to be any other way!) and then editing it by selecting classic editor from WP Admin. (WP Admin has been hard enough to find for some time, being at the bottom of a menu and requiring some scrolling to find it!)

Blogger has recently introduced a new system, causing confusion to many bloggers. (I use that for my More than Writers’ posts.)

If you blog are you finding all these changes annoying and time-consuming? Or do you like battling through new ways of doing things?

About my Twitter anniversary

I have been rather quiet on social media recently due to a week away from home. My Twitter anniversary came as something of a surprise, when it was flagged up to me – not least because I have now been tweeting, twittering or otherwise being a twit for five years. (Photo from Twitter)

My reasons for joining Twitter may be found in an earlier post.

Why have I continued with Twitter for 5 years? The short answer is that I enjoy Twitter. Although it is known as a place where feelings run high and people are nasty to each other, that has not been my experience.

I follow accounts for news, writers, books, countryside, photography, heritage, nature (especially wildflowers and birds), people I have met offline, church, music, A to Z bloggers, over 40s bloggers and a few random accounts of bloggers. I also ‘follow back’ people, who seem to have something in common with me. Twitter analytics tells me that most of my followers are interested in dogs.

From Twitter I learn lots of things. I do not watch television at home. However the information I find on Twitter for news and weather keeps me up-to-date. My knowledge of the names of wildflowers and some of their characteristics has been helped by #wildflowerhour.

While I was away recently I watched several quiz shows on my hostess’s television. I was amazed how many answers I could guess correctly. I haven’t learned from TV. Twitter and books are my teachers!

When people tweet about TV programmes, I am not particularly interested, but I do become aware of the programmes, which are being shown. At one time I’d have had this information from the Radio Times. Nowadays it is available online.

I keep away from political debate. If something seems to be happening locally, which might be newsworthy, I do not Tweet about the emergency vehicles I have seen. The emergency services need to be able to work without undue attention. Afterwards I might write about something, such as a recent fire. I sometimes retweet other people’s tweets. There has to be a balance about how much one retweets and original posts. Many of my posts alert my followers to blog posts – either mine or those on the More than Writers’ blog to which I am a contributor. I sometimes interact with others, but not many people reply to most of my tweets.

Since I joined, Twitter has changed from 140 to 280 characters. I could usually say what I wanted in the original number of characters. I have just about become used to the longer Tweets. I also find the Add a Tweet facility quite useful as one can produce a thread of tweets all at once. I have begun to add descriptions to my photos for those with impaired or limited vision. Tweetdeck is very useful for Twitter chats, such as #wildflowerhour.

As I have followed more people on Twitter the number of posts I have liked compared to the number of my tweets (including retweets) has increased.

I perhaps spend too much time scrolling through Twitter. However I do not watch TV, so I regard Twitter as my entertainment.

Why it is good to meet up with other writers

Last weekend I attended a writers’ conference. The main theme was short story writing.

The weather was perfect – dry but not too hot. There was plenty of good food, beautiful scenery, birds to watch and more besides.

The speakers and most of those attending the sessions are members of the Association of Christian Writers (ACW), which has a new website. There is a link to its daily blog to which I contribute seven times a year.

The first time I attended one of these weekends I wrote a post about how over-stimulated I was afterwards. Now that I have met many of the people before, it is not so overwhelming. They are the sort of people with whom one resumes a friendship as if we met more frequently. The phrase, picking up where we left off, springs to mind. Quite a few of us keep in touch on Facebook.

I had been feeling short of writing inspiration and enthusiasm for blogging before I went. The writing exercises and conversations with other people helped me write a short story and two poems on the Saturday. I also decided what to write about for my next More than Writers blog post.

Because I was still bruised from a fall in our garden over a week earlier, I didn’t venture on a long walk on the Saturday afternoon, but stayed in, putting a few pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. It had only been started by our group and had 1000 pieces. The usual comment from passers-by was, “Have you finished it yet?”

I also borrowed a children’s book from the library at Scargill House and read it from cover to cover during the weekend. My next post here should be about books. I have been reading more than writing this month.

The weekend ended with a service of Holy Communion in the beautiful chapel and Sunday lunch. The leaders gave the talk in the service, encouraging us in life as well as in writing.