Scribbler’s Progress – My Writing Journey
Scribbler’s Progress – My Writing Journey My most productive period as a storyteller was between the ages of three and five years. I hid for hours in the bathroom, squabbling with my characters....
View ArticleMum’s Poems
Mum’s Poems Today is the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death. Sylvia Mary Taggart – Ma, to me – born January 7th 1928, died 17th August 2007. Like many daughters, I didn’t fully appreciate her...
View ArticleHistory in the Attic
I don’t have a roof-space; mine is a small single-storey cottage with beams – not even old ones – but my living room is pretty much like anyone else’s can’t-find-a-thing-for-dust-and-boxes attic....
View ArticleFlower Fantasy by Sylvia Taggart
For Mothers Day, one of my late Ma’s poems: Flower Fantasy Though flowers cannot speak, we know, And yet they say so much, I hear a message from each rose And in the petal’s velvet touch. I see your...
View ArticleShould You Write Non-fiction?
Predicting trends in publishing is a risky venture, but there seems to be a growing desire to read narrative non-fiction; not only memoir, biography and travelogue – always popular – but books on every...
View Article10 Reasons to Write Your Nonfiction Book
My first ambitious attempt at nonfiction emerged when, as a stranded 11-year-old, I lived temporarily with my aged Manx grandmother, a good Christian woman of wide girth and narrow attitudes....
View ArticleWhat Makes a Writers’ Workshop Creative – Part 2: Non-fiction
Part 1 explains four key activities for an effective writing workshop – here if you missed it – but for the narrative non-fiction workshop that I lead in Bath, UK recently, I had three additional...
View ArticleMum’s Poems
Mum’s Poems Today is the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death. Sylvia Mary Taggart – Ma, to me – born January 7th 1928, died 17th August 2007. Like many daughters, I didn’t fully appreciate her...
View ArticleThe Benefits of Keeping a Journal
How often have we experienced an episode in our lives that has touched us deeply, and thought, ‘I will never forget this’? But over time, the memory becomes like an old sepia photograph, the finer...
View ArticleWhy Inside the Crocodile?
I’ve been asked several times why I chose Inside the Crocodile as the main title for my recent travel/work memoir. Crocodiles are common in Papua New Guinea’s lowland rivers and they have in many ways...
View ArticleFlower Fantasy by Sylvia Taggart
For Mothers Day, one of my late Ma’s poems: Flower Fantasy Though flowers cannot speak, we know, And yet they say so much, I hear a message from each rose And in the petal’s velvet touch. I see your smile
View ArticleWhy Writers Need a Timeline
Creating a timeline is a vital stage in outlining your non-fiction book, and it has value also for planning fiction. Your outline is not etched on steel – it will develop with revisions and additions...
View ArticleHow to Turn Your Family History into a ‘Good Read’
Members of our local Family History Society amassed so many notes, letters, photos and family myths they didn’t know what to do with it all. They wanted to share their histories to anchor the younger...
View ArticleHow to Write Family History as Story
To make family histories enthralling reads we must tell them as stories. Why? Because stories are how we learn and understand. Not just where and when people were born, married, and died, but who they...
View ArticleStory Visits the Island of Stories
Being Manx by birth and heritage, I saluted ‘Themselves’, the ‘Little People’ or the Faery Folk of the Isle of Man, for their benevolence during this journey – my first return to the island in thirty...
View ArticleWhy Inside the Crocodile?
I’ve been asked several times why I chose Inside the Crocodile as the main title for my recent travel/work memoir. Crocodiles are common in Papua New Guinea’s lowland rivers and they have in many ways...
View ArticleWhy Writers Need a Timeline
Creating a timeline is a vital stage in outlining your non-fiction book, and it has value also for planning fiction. Your outline is not etched on steel – it will develop with revisions and additions...
View ArticleHow to Turn Your Family History into a ‘Good Read’
Members of our local Family History Society amassed so many notes, letters, photos and family myths they didn’t know what to do with it all. They wanted to share their histories to anchor the younger...
View ArticleHow to Write Family History as Story
To make family histories enthralling reads we must tell them as stories. Why? Because stories are how we learn and understand. Not just where and when people were born, married, and died, but who they...
View ArticleStory Visits the Island of Stories
Being Manx by birth and heritage, I saluted ‘Themselves’, the ‘Little People’ or the Faery Folk of the Isle of Man, for their benevolence during this journey – my first return to the island in thirty...
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