The last blog post I wrote was six months ago, a mid-way check in on my DYCP grant projects. Time has flown since then, and I wanted to write a little update now that my year to ‘develop my creative practice’ with support from the Arts Council England has come to an end.
My year-long project finished at the end of September, and due to a mix-up with changing internet provider, I then immediately had three weeks without WiFi at home, which was a mixed blessing! I’d scrabbled about to try and finish everything that I wanted to before my funded year was up, and to get my novella-in-flash polished enough for the Bath Novella in Flash Award deadline in September (which I’ve now found out I’ve made the longlist for!), and then it all suddenly stopped dead because I was having to carefully conserve my mobile data for school emails and children’s homework! I think it was a good thing, that forcing me to stop and not write, or even really engage with the writing community, for a few weeks. I’ll be honest, I was feeling pretty burnt out after all that focused attention, and it was great to have a brain break.
Over the year, I managed to put together a flash collection and a novella-in-flash. And I did manage to finish both, and I’ll be looking for homes for both as soon as I can muster the energy for that! Unless of course I happen to be a winner in the Bath NiF award! I also took part in some amazing workshops and courses. Two particular highlights were Matt Kendrick’s Glorious Words course, and Stephanie Carty’s Psychology of Character course. If you have the time and the funds, I highly recommend these, they were both game changers for my writing.
In hindsight, I think I tried to cram too much into my year, as I found myself trying to squeeze writing time in wherever I could, having committed to taking part in so many different writing workshops, courses and time-bound competitions, like the Globe Soup and NYC Midnight competitions. That said, I also wouldn’t change what I did. Squeezing so much in has led to a really rich year, and though I didn’t get many ‘normal’ flashes written in the time, I know that when I turn my hand to those in the coming months, they’ll be much richer for all I’ve learned. I also owe a huge thank you to Laura Besley, who mentored me through the year, gave me pep talks and kept me on track!
The thing that did take a hit, though, at times over the last year, has been my engagement with the writing community. I’ve been so focused on my projects that I haven’t had much time to read new flash being put out there. I’ve read some fantastic flash collections and novellas-in-flash in print collections, but found that when I wasn’t writing or taking part in courses and workshops, I really craved screen-free time. So I’m looking forward to reading lots more online journals, and pieces of flash my online friends have been writing, over the coming year.
If you live in the UK, I cannot recommend applying for a DYCP grant enough. If you’re interested in doing so, I ran a workshop a few weeks ago with my top tips for applying; I can run it again (for free) if there’s enough interest, or I could send out the replay link. If you’re interested in that, come and find me on Twitter (X, I guess!) – @KatieLHWrites and drop me a message!
Lose Yourself Books 