Ottery Gazette and Ottery Writers Group Literary Festival October 2022

 I’ve been a member of Ottery Writers for a few years now. We have a regular spot in the Ottery Gazette. I had written a couple of pieces before and was only too happy to volunteer to write this month’s article at our last meeting.

The Gazette is currently the baby of Adrian at The Curious Otter Bookshop in the town. Adrian is a great supporter of Ottery Writers and has hosted 

book launches for several of its members

Ottery Writers are currently in the throes of organising their first literary festival in October this year. First mentioned at a group meeting back in 2019, the initial aim was to have a festival in the autumn of 2020. We all know what happened next!

Like many organisations and families in 2020, Zoom meetings saved the day. As writers in the 21st Century, most members are computer literate, so these online meetings took off quite quickly.

 The group took advantage of the eagerness for a literary festival and organised a creative writing competition, which was a resounding success.

As the country made its way out of the various lockdowns during 2021, the writing group felt it had to change its location from the Silver Street Tea Rooms, where they had met since inception in 2012, to the Ottery Hub at the Old Station.

My next task for the group is to write a feature about the literary festival for Devon Life. I have started, and I’m waiting for the events and guest authors to be confirmed, and then I will request some publicity photos. Fortunately, I seem to have the start of a good writer’s relationship with Devon Lifes editor Andy Cooper. Andy was very receptive to my pitch and approach email for the article, and I now have a copy date in August for the October publication.

The literary festival is also tying up with the Coleridge Memorial Trust, unveiling a statue of Ottery St Mary’s most famous son, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge’s birthday is October 21st, the same as my wife, Kathy. 

I know the group is looking forward to hosting the festival and planning plenty of events. If you like writing or not and fancy a few days in East Devon, why not join us in October?

Meanwhile, I have several pieces of research to work up into a decent pitch. I hope to pitch at least one of them toward a national publication. I also intend to keep up posting on this blog regularly and of course, my novel is always going on in the background. 

What's Happening in 2022 and Binaural Productivity Music

 

Binaural music, what’s that all about then?

Binaural - relating to sound recorded using two microphones and usually transmitted separately to the listener's two ears. 

Focus Music - focus music blocks distracting stimuli with one relatively simple stimuli, music.

I’m writing whilst listening to ethereal music marketed as binaural focus music for productivity, which I found on

a YouTube review channel (link below). I had never heard of productivity music before.

It is early evening, and I have this music on in my earpieces, the TV is on in the room, and yet here am I, not being distracted, rattling away writing what well may become my first blog piece in some time. This music has not been on for not too long, and I have knocked out nearly 200 words at a time in a situation where I would have struggled even to get started in the first place.

This week I have been working on my writing productivity. Monday and Tuesday mornings, I rose at about 0530 and crept downstairs and worked on an article that I am writing for Devon Life Magazine. On Tuesday morning, I wrote roughly 500 words for my thriller novel. I then feel great after a shower, breakfast, with an excellent freshly brewed coffee and a quiet five minutes before I have to leave for work. Last night I had a restless night, and I slept through to 0630 and missed my writing half-hour. I was going to have a go at a quick starter exercise from Writers Forum magazine. I can have a go at that on another day. For the next two days before the weekend, I am starting at 1000, which will allow me to have an hour to write. I’m going to have a further go at my novel. I will give this binaural focus music a try; hopefully, that will keep me going.

I’ve hinted at another article for Devon Life. I can only say that it is about Ottery Writers’ upcoming literary festival in October. My pitch to the editor went well, and I have a copy date looming and need to get the piece up to scratch. My novel is not currently my main project; however, it is getting larger and larger. I’m unsure if it will be good, but I enjoy writing it. After decades of thinking about it, false starts, and leaving versions on obsolete computers, I want to get on with it and get it to the point where I can send it for editing—an exciting prospect.

I want to increase my writing productivity; I start from a low number. I have begun researching for a pitch, which is my intention to pitch toward a national newspaper travel section. I’d also like to use the research slightly differently and aim toward Devon Life and other publications. Using analysis in different ways is a crucial skill for a writer.

I have set myself the challenge over the next couple of years to get my article output to a stage where I could start to work a day or two less a week and use those days to concentrate on my writing business. I’m hoping it might not be too big an ask, but I do think that writing is something that can keep me going for the next decade or so now. It is something that I relish doing and will keep me focused now that I have reached 60. Yes, 60; how did that happen?

The keen-eyed amongst you might have spotted, on my social media, that the other month I invested in a MacBook M1Air. I have been sceptical about Apple Mac products over the years, despite having had an iPhone for quite a few of them. I came across a great reviewer, Mark Ellis, on YouTube. His channel is full of good, honest information. I did quite a bit of research, and by the time I got to the Apple shop in Exeter, I was fully confident about what I wanted to buy. That was disappointing for the Apple employees who had bought their sales pitch ready to roll out. They did mention that I could get a discount for being an NHS worker, worth £75 in this case.

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It is an outstanding laptop. There is no time waiting to boot up, and the battery life is impressive. I’ve only charged it once this week, and I’ve still 80 %!  I have all the files that I had on my Windows 10 laptop. I have also bought the Scrivener app, on which I do most of my writing. It was vastly less expensive than an office 365 subscription. It is ideal for all forms of writing that I may get into in the future. When finished, I can even compile my novel for an ebook. To self publish or not is will be the conversation over the coming months.

There we are then. After an hour or so with Binaural Focus Music, I now have a piece for my blog. I will keep you up to date on how I get on with increasing productivity, but at the same thought, I trust you will start seeing my work more. 

Links:

Productivity and Deep Focus Music

Mark Ellis Reviews