‘Start Writing Fiction’ Course Review

I have recently completed a fantastic online course that I just had to recommend and share with you all. The course can be found here and it runs a few times per year online. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to start writing fiction (Clever name for the course, right?!).

The course runs for 8 weeks, but you can do as much or as little as you want at a time. The free option only gives you limited access to the course material, but there is a chance to upgrade for £42, which includes a certificate upon completion of the course. There are different mediums involved in the course and, by far my favourite element of the course, there are a couple of opportunities to have people critique your work. I found this really useful, if a little nerve-wracking at first. But everyone on the course was in the same boat, so it felt like equals/colleagues giving feedback on the work you’ve produced. It wasn’t like writing an essay at university and handing it in to the professor who knows everything about that subject. We were all in it together, and there were a lot of us! Some of us chose the same times to study, so I found that I crossed paths with the same people every so often. That was nice. I also got to give feedback on their work, which gave me a different perspective on writing and taught me to see other texts from a writer’s, and editor’s, viewpoint.

There are some great tasks throughout the course as well as videos and audio footage of established authors talking about how they work and offering helpful tips. You will learn about different aspects of writing but the course is mainly focused on character development. This is something I’ve never really started with when thinking of writing a story. I always begin with a plot (of sorts!) and the rest falls into place around that. This course taught me how to prioritise characters and then the plot can work around them. It was also really useful to hear successful authors talking about their processes, including Alex Garland and Louis De Bernieres.

I came out of the course feeling more confident, with the resources to help me formulate any kind of story by myself. There are documents you can save, including a prompt cloud which contains all sorts of random words to alleviate those writer’s blocks and give you some inspiration. Plus, you can download transcripts of the audio files by the published authors. I was so impressed with the content of this free course and I didn’t feel it was worth spending the money for the unlimited access and certificate, but that was just my choice!

Please, if you have any interest in starting to write your own stories, sign up at FutureLearn and, if there are other interests you’d rather pursue, then there may be other courses for you there, too!

Happy Learning!

NSG xxx

Desert Island Discs

Parenting

Hi everyone! Hope you’re not all melting in this heatwave. I am at the office in central London currently, trying to find an alternative route home NOT via the underground… Although, it’s only 2 stops, so it might be fine…

Sorry, now to the point… I am a little bit in love with the Desert Island Discs programme, which I have been listening to on the BBC Sounds app. Both of my grandparents have done one and I thought it would be fun to have a go at finding out what tracks, book and luxury item you would all pick for your desert island stint. I have mine. Wanna hear what they are? Alright, here goes…

My 8 Tracks:

I’m Not In Love by 10CC – This song reminds me of my mum and grandma who shared a love for it when it first came out back in the 70s. When I hear it, I am reminded of a beautiful moment when we were all in a pub in Wales and it started to play on the jukebox. My mum and grandma hugged together and sang along to it. I’ll always remember how it made them feel and how it brought them together as mother and daughter.
Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police – This song takes me back to being a child, growing up near Southampton, and makes me feel reminiscent and innocent… before the adult crap set in!! Plus it reminds me of my Dad which is always a good thing because he is awesome.
I Feel For You by Chaka Khan (But actually written by the wonderful late Prince) – I have a list of songs which immediately take me back to my childhood when I hear them. This is at the top of that list. I love everything about this song and I love to try and hit the high notes when I sing along!
Making Plans For Nigel by XTC – This is such a strong song. I love it. I never skip it or get tired of hearing it. We used to listen to XTC when we were kids (Are you sensing a theme here with my choices?) and this song was always a standout for me.
Licence To Kill by Gladys Knight – The best Bond theme song ever produced, very closely followed by Goldfinger by the incomparable Shirley Bassey. It’s dramatic, beautifully written and Gladys Knight sings it so passionately. I love singing this one, too, and have been known to mime along to it on a late-night walk home from the station, gestures and all!
Drift Away by Dobie Gray – My wonderful man sang this song at my mum’s birthday party last year, and it was amazing. He smashed it. My dad was accompanying him on bass and my brother on the drums. It was a really emotional moment for me to see my family join together on the stage like that – Three of my five favourite men (The other two being my little male creations).
He Lives In You by Lebo M – Better known as the opening theme tune to Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride! There is nothing I don’t like about this song. Lebo M is an incredible writer and artist, and it made me so happy to hear this song, sung in Zulu, on the new Lion King film soundtrack. You can also hear it in the stage show of The Lion King. I always turn this one up when it comes on, and the boys love it, too.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen – Because, well, you know. I think everyone will have this song on their list… It appeals to such a range of music lovers! It reminds me of my family at my cousin’s wedding singing it all together, doing the voices and laughing our way through the song. Freddie Mercury is one of my all-time favourite vocalists – I love the drama, the passion and the power of his voice. Other favourites are Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones (I’m not Welsh, I promise!) for the same reasons.

If I had to choose one, I’d choose…

Probably Bohemian Rhapsody because I could sing and headbang to it all alone on the island and nobody can laugh at me!

Along with the bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare (which I’d love to have anyway), my book choice would be:

If there was such a thing, I’d have the Complete Works of Harlan Coben! But, in lieu of that, I would probably take a massive encyclopedia with illustrations. I love learning facts, so this would be perfect for desert island reading!

And, finally, my luxury item would be:

Nivea Pearly Shine pink lip balm. I never go anywhere without it. Especially if it’s a warm climate.

Now over to you guys! Post your choices in the comments and have fun!

NSG xxx

Book Review: The Mummy Lessons by Helen Wallen

Parenting

Firstly, I want to say that I only found out yesterday that The Mummy Lessons is the second book in what is hopefully a whole series, following the motherhood experiences of three childhood friends, Emily, Liz and Molly. I am clearly very late to this party! But, like many parties, it’s better to be late than not turn up at all. And, even without knowing the hosts, I still had an awesome time and ended the evening feeling like I knew them well. Plus, it left me wanting to go out and get that first book…

OK, that’s enough of the party metaphors.

It’s true that all three ladies in the book are completely different people, all doing the motherhood thing differently, but you can’t help but sympathise with them all in some way. As a mother, I have probably felt the same way as all of them at some stage in my own experience, and I think other mothers (and fathers) will find this, too. This is how Helen Wallen draws us in to the story – She makes us fully empathise with the characters. I am not going to spoil the story in any way, as that would be just mean (and make my partner, who is a writer of stories, very angry with me!), but it felt like I was reading the diaries, Whatsapp chats and blog posts (and witty poetry!) of my dearest mummy friends – Content that I’d heard, felt and seen before, but this was portrayed by other people… so WE ARE NOT ALONE then!

This is one of the main things that I loved about this book – Its familiarity. It made it a real joy to read. Even at the end of a day (or sixteen) where I have felt so tired and fed up, this book brightened me up and made me laugh out loud before bedtime. Helen’s language and her ease at telling her characters’ stories made it easy to follow and kept me entertained throughout, even when things weren’t going too well in the story (Again, no spoilers).

The book also reinforces the importance of mummy friends, and I think every mum will read this book and feel ever-more grateful for their village. I know I did. I don’t think any of the characters could have gone through these stages of motherhood without each other, and I genuinely feel this way about my own mummy group. Just reading the Whatsapp conversations about babies that won’t sleep, and getting messages at 4.30am and actually responding to them… I remember it all so well!

What sets this apart from other books of its kind is that it is completely fictional (It seems that most others seem to be either autobiographical or an advice book rather than a story), but there is still a hint of ‘hmmmm’ about whether Helen Wallen has used some of her own experiences to create the stories of her characters. I can imagine that most of the parents out there could split their crazy experiences across three separate and totally different characters and still manage to make the stories feel so real.

I genuinely enjoyed reading this book, and was sad when I’d finished it (Although I got a little taster of Helen’s first book, Baby Boom, at the end – Nice touch!). It made me feel warm and cosy, but also sad and empathetic at times. This crazy journey we’re on as parents can only be fully enjoyed with laughter, jokes, not-so-candid conversations about baby weaning and a few swear words, and Helen Wallen has brought that into print for us all to enjoy, and for really not that much money! If that’s not a tonic, I don’t know what is…

NSG xxx

Where else can you follow Helen Wallen aka Just A Normal Mummy other than physically stalking her and her family?

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Links to the books on Amazon can be found in their titles, above. The Mummy Lessons is available on Kindle for only 99p for a limited time only – Get your copy asap!

A Different Approach to Parenting

Parenting

I have just read an article which I’ve had saved on my Facebook account for about a week (We all know how difficult it is to get around to these things!) – An interview with the psychotherapist Philippa Perry (who is also married to the rather brilliant artist, Grayson Perry) about her new book, The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did). I felt compelled to share it with you all (just click on the book title to be taken magically to the article), as it really resonated with me. I am sure some of you other parents will also feel the same way when you read the interview. In fact, the interviewer herself, Robyn Wilder, draws upon her own very personal experiences as a child and a mother.

As a mother who is sometimes, or often if I’m being really honest, lacking in enthusiasm to engage with my children, this article really struck a chord. She is completely right, of course, and I know that I have some work to do to make sure that my boys don’t grow up to be depressed, anxious and, well, like me. Although, saying that, I read the article aloud to my mother, and she only commented on the fact that she never drank coffee (See the article for context)! The truth is that my mum gave her all to us when we were growing up, and put us before everything else, yet I still came into adulthood having bouts of depression and anxiety.

During the parenting journey, we probably don’t realise that the things we do and say can have such an incredible impact on our children. Perhaps we don’t realise until it’s too late. But, what Philippa Perry says is not to fret. We all make mistakes, we are all ‘bad parents’. Even the parents we think have it all sussed out have failed now and then. Sometimes, even on our really off days, we can still succeed. In this day and age of alternative parenting techniques, often written by people who don’t have children, this is a refreshing and rather logical book of ‘advice’ coming from a psychotherapist who has been working with people with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, as well as being a mother herself. Needless to say, I immediately followed the link to buy the book only to find out that it is currently not available. I hope that means that Philippa Perry has completely sold out and is now waiting for more books to be printed!

If you can, grab yourself a copy. I think it will be an interesting read for any parent and very different from the usual parenting advice books. If any of you have any other recommendations like this book, do let me know in the comments section of this post. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Have a good week, followers and chums,

Not So Goldilocks xxx