Comments on: What Do You Dream About Writing?

By: Looking For Some Inspiration? | Confident Writing

Looking For Some Inspiration? | Confident Writing — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:01:23 +0000

[...] over and explore this month’s treats – on the theme of dreaming. In my contribution I wonder What Do You Dream About Writing? (You might be surprised at my own [...]

By: 罗先群

罗先群 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:49:13 +0000

i want to write the truth.

By: Managing with Aloha Coaching

Managing with Aloha Coaching — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:44:54 +0000

Hau‘oli la hanau to Joanna Young!…

Surely you know Joanna by now too: She is the personification of our Ho‘ohana Community in Scotland! Today is her birthday. Spirit Spiller and Confident Writing Coach Joanna Young. Because of Joanna, I can now spell Edinburgh right the first…

By: Joanna Young

Joanna Young — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:17:12 +0000

Chris, I haven’t had the chance to read all the articles yet either… But I will.

I’m sure you’ll find the right frame for the book on relationships – something that suits your style and adds value for others – and when you do, when the time is right – you’ll be away

Edinburgh is tailor made for crime novels right enough – so many contrasts of darkness/light, wealth/poverty, even streets that run over each other, criss-crossed in layers with cellars, basements, narrow tenement closes, underground passages…

I don’t know when I’ll ever get time to do this – but it would be so much fun. BBC Radio Scotland ran a series of tips and prompts on writing a crime novel in February – I’ve saved all the e-mails and links for the ‘rainy day’ (or two!) when I finally get round to it…

Joanna

By: chris

chris — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:14:22 +0000

Joanna
I’m late to find the chance to sit down and read my Calm Space for the month.
And what do I find? A challenge and not just from you but the gauntlet is also thrown down by Rosa and Karen.
I too think I have a book inside me and like Karen, I have no desire to be the great Australian novelist. I’d love to do something about relationships but it’s such an overworked genre in the self-help section!
But I’m also delighted to discover another crime fiction lover and I envy you living in the gritty world of Rebus and his ilk!

By: Joanna Young

Joanna Young — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:19:35 +0000

Annie, that’s fantastic you’ve already written your first children’s book – and another one in the pipeline. The illustration thing must be a challenge when you have a clear mental picture of how a character or indeed a fairy should look – hard for someone else to capture it.

I remember my own frustration and irritation as a child when I looked at the illustrations in books that bore absolutely no relation to how the characters ‘really’ looked (inside my head!)

I’m glad my words make some connection with you – it’s such fun to write here, and I love the way the ripples spread out…

Joanna

By: annie

annie — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:10:25 +0000

Great stuff Joanna – go the Agatha Christie and Barbara Cartland!
Having written a children’s book (second in draft), I can tell you how wonderful an experience that is! I’ve always had fairies in me so they had to come out sometime thanks to a push by the beloved (not the least bit fairy!) Commonly publishers don’t want you to have your books illustrated – they like to use their own. I had a stab at a couple of illustrators though because the fairies were so vivid in my mind, I wanted to give it a go – very hard to impart so have given that up for now.
Now busy writing a ’serious’ book which is not easy to do with full time work but very rewarding nevertheless.
Thanks Joanna – you keep me going!

By: Joanna Young

Joanna Young — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:51:33 +0000

Wow!

I am left saying ‘wow!’ to both of you for sharing such powerful and heart-felt writing dreams.

Rosa, thank you indulging the diversion

I love the idea of the book for children. I’m sure you’ll find the illustrator when the time is right.

Your big dream is just that: big, powerful, beautiful. I will watch and wait to see how you make it happen…

Karen, my skin is tingling as I read your words! What a fantastic dream and desire to have uncovered. Now we just need to find the way to make it be…

Joanna

By: karen

karen — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:53:29 +0000

Joanna, you’ve really touched me with this!

Early in our relationship my husband used to tell me I should write ‘Mills and Boons” books… and even though I never read them, I knew he basically meant romantic stuff… because funnily enough that’s what I wrote for him.

As I have learned more about myself and my writing strengths, I realise that fiction is probably not for me, unless it’s children’s books. I marvel at the plot intricacies of some of the novels I read, and know I could never do that.

I guess my writing dreams, the wild ones, are more along the lines of inspiration… stories, ideas, pictures.. beautiful paper, with a very tactile sense of the book. I have dabbled in making books – as in the paper and the thread and the cover/binding – and I would love to be able to combine that love of paper and physically making the book with writing the words to grace the pages with.

NOW you’ve stirred juices I didn’t even know were lurking there… like Rosa, I am left ‘drooling with the wanting’… (and Rosa, I love your over the top dream – all I can say is WOW!)

By: Rosa Say

Rosa Say — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:58:21 +0000

Ah Joanna, what delightful diversion just thinking about this! And you know, I think that just about every woman (and probably a lot of men) if pressed for honesty would say they would love to play with “over the top, feisty-female bodice-ripping historical romantic [or erotic] nonsense.”

My more practical dream, the one I am intent on making happen as soon as I can partner with a good illustrator – a children’s book on the Hawaiian values.

My over the top writing dream? It would be to shed all of my possessions, live a nomadic existence in a new place every 6 months all across the world (including Edinburgh for time with my soul sister and spirit spiller of course…) and write about Sense of Place and cultural callings in each and every one. I am drooling with the wanting…