Please allow me to introduce myself
Not so much a man of wealth and taste, more a woman of aches and pains. For those of you wondering who the heck I am, I thought I should introduce myself and explain how I came to be blogging at you about all things TLC.
I needed to get out more
Growing up, I found myself more comfortable with books and stories than people, so it wasn’t long before I started writing my own. My very first literary effort was an exercise book filled with scribblings about a teenage female wizard and a group of dwarves battling to save their magical land. My next one was about a poor Dickensian orphan dying of consumption in a workhouse. Obviously, I needed to get out more.
Even now I’m happiest when reading a good book or writing something on my laptop, and apparently that’s all very healthy and acceptable behaviour when you’re a writer. At least that’s my excuse.
Procrastination is my superpower
I found The Literal Challenge by chance one day when accidently putting ‘writing challenges’ into the search engine instead of ‘videos of cats falling off stuff,’ and I’m very glad I did. I had recently tried out a local writing group that made me want to chew my own foot off to escape, proving once again the truth of that old saying about not joining a club that would have you as a member. The Literal Challenge sounded like fun, and since procrastination is my superpower, I thought it could only help to have a reason to write every day.
It turns out that the lovely people at TLC are just that – lovely. They’re supportive and have a good sense of humour, which is a necessary life skill for anyone who deals with writers on a regular basis. I made lots of new friends and still chat with them online regularly, which gives me that much-needed support without needing to leave the house (a win/win for me!)
Never boring
I’ve been doing the challenges for over a year now and would (and do) highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys writing. You can write as much or as little as you want, the briefs are funny, interesting, and annoying but never boring. I have invented new characters and situations that I would never have thought of on my own. I’ve written Haibuns, anecdotes, gothic horror and a Choose Your Own Adventure that made me swear like a sailor. A couple of my TLC plays have been performed at scratch nights in London and some at a local school… I could go on and on, but this is a blog and not a novella.
(Although I have written a novella based on one of the TLC briefs actually… available soon on Kindle… cough-cough)
Oh, yeah, and a writer
When TLC announced they were looking for a blog writer, I asked to be considered. Actually I did the email version of putting your hand up in class and waving it about madly while muttering 'pick me...pick ME' under your breath. I've been waffling away about life, the universe and animals’ bottoms on my own blog for a couple of years now and realised that if I could just curb my inclination to swear, I might have something worthwhile to contribute.
Anyway, that’s me. Scottish/Italian grumpy old woman, gym avoider, last-biscuit eater, true-crime watcher, mother of a nearly-teen, over-user of compound nouns, wife of a teacher, oh, yeah, and a writer.
Always a writer, ready to create worlds, characters and stories at the drop of a hat. Just as well it’s nearly time for the next Literal Challenge then.
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