Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer

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My paternal grandmother lived in a fairly remote cottage in Tullymore in Co Armagh. She died before I was born, so I never had the chance to meet her. She was by all accounts a bit of a character.

At one stage in her later years, she broke her leg and was housebound. Having been predeceased by her husband, she was home alone, no-one called that often. So to break the loneliness she started writing a letter to herself everyday so the postman would call on his rounds and she would have someone to talk to.

I can empathise with her. One of the downsides of working as a freelance is that very occasionally, and usually when I am cloistered away working on something, I find myself sometimes spending an entire day talking to no-one other than my young daughters and Joanna, our Polish babysitter. The girls potter about the place and occasionally come in to brief me on some drama concerning Peppa the Pig, or perhaps the hens that live in our back garden. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy talking to them and to Joanna. Her English is a hell of a lot better than my Polish; in fact my two-year-old daughter Treasa has now started speaking Polish too.

That is the loneliness of the long distance writer. When I worked at UU I spent a few years as my only departmental representative on a particular campus and was happy in my own company with my colleagues and my boss in particular an hour away if they were needed (and they were!).

I miss the casual conversations with people you might run into at the coffee shop, when posting a letter, when to-ing and fro-ing, to and from meetings, home, other offices etc etc. I don’t miss all the nonsense though, not one little bit.

The last week I have been working for a partner in the US and another here in Ireland, conscious of two time zones. It is interesting the perception when you are working for others. The work must be done, but your own time is the malleable, flexible factor. To do it late at night, early in the morning, whenever. Snatch an hour here and there. It is essentially a solitary pursuit, one that is highly satisfying, and rewarding. I do occasionally miss the opportunity to bounce things off others in person.

And the loneliness? Well, I suppose at least I haven’t resorted to emailing myself. Not  yet anyway.

Today’s List

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Ten DVDs that I bought that I’m going to watch again soon. I’ve watched most of these before, but a DVD these days is so inexpensive, you might as well buy a few – most nights the television is rubbish, for all its nine hundred odd channels.

  • Raging Bull (so good I bought it twice for £3 each time)
  • Life is Beautiful
  • We Were Soldiers
  • The Mission
  • Local Hero
  • Zidane – A 21st Century Portrait
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Seamus Heaney: Out of the Marvellous
  • Syriana
  • The Killing Fields
  • When We Were Kings
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Any Given Sunday

26 Ways

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A few years ago I came across the writing of John Simmons. At the time I was sort of casually hunting about looking for a decent book to give me some fresh ideas on writing copy for business. When I worked at the University, the management and the administrators about the place wrote deadening, stultifying prose that was teeming with best practice, deliverables, cutting edges. . . the whole effect of course was to create a centre of excellence. Aren’t they everywhere?

I knew that this sort of tripe most definitely wouldn’t do if I was going to work for other people. Although I could write with the best of them, I could feel myself gradually getting mired in this nonsense.

Any books on writing copy seemed to be written more in the form of self help books by American copywriters, full of big bold headlines like ‘How to ensure your email is opened’ or ‘Twelve ways to write a sales letter.’ All good stuff I’m sure, but I didn’t feel the immediate need for a writing recovery programme.

So when I discovered John Simmons work almost by accident, it was a breath of fresh air. I think the first book I read was The Invisible Grail. The opening sentence reads:

‘The basic narrative of this book is the quest for the ‘grail’ that will enable brands to build better relationships with their audiences.’

Hmmm I thought, interesting but not rocket science. As I read on however I became more and more enthused. John Simmons advocated an entirely new way of writing for businesses. Creative. Engaging. Using humour. Poetry. Taking inspiration directly from great works. He says:

‘Words are a creative force: words that write poems, tell jokes, engage people in conversations. Words that tell stories.’

This last sentence in particular intrigued me. Telling stories. Reading The Invisible Grail, I quickly moved onto his other works, We, Me, Them and It and Dark Angels. These books tell the story of how you can write well for any purpose without lapsing into corporate speak. But more interestingly how to bring your work alive be being daring, adventurous and using the influences that are all around you. Anyone who is interested in improving their writing should read them. Now.

I have started his latest work which I am enjoying: ‘Twenty-six ways of looking at a blackberry: How to let writing release the creativity of your brand‘

If you have the chance and the time, try reading John Simmons. You’ll find at least 26 ways to improve your writing.

Today I’m Listening To. . .

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I upgraded my iPhone the other day to a 3GS 16 GB. My experience with phones has been interesting. I still have a big brick of a thing I had in 1999. I remember going to the Champions League Final in Barcelona with my brother Peter and a few other lads including Stuart Wilson, formerly of CreativeLynx in Manchester.

Stuart had a nifty wee Nokia and I had this big thing in my pocket that said ‘Is that a mobile phone or are you just pleased to see me’. Since then I’ve been through PDAs, smart phones, stupid phones, you name it. In summer 2008, I dropped a trusty Nokia e65 into a rock pool when I was crab fishing with the children. It was time to bite the bullet and get a new phone.

My friend Kieran Lappin and his wife Ann Marie amused us one night with their ‘his and hers’ iPhones. I admit I was jealous, and thought ‘I want one of those.’ It took me a minute or two to get the hang of it, but it’s definitely a good job. Around the same time Angela got one, although she had a mishap a few months later when our daughter Treasa decided to drop it into the bath. I dutifully got her another one, although we didn’t really ever talk about it again.

Anyway, I now have a funky new phone on upgrade from O2. And what did I do with the old one? Well, it’s been pressed into use as a permanent iPod, docked and loaded, ready for action. It sits in the corner blasting away through a Bose Wave System. So that’s what I’m listening to today.

ps: Angela’s due an upgrade today as well. At least if this one goes for an early bath, we’ll have two old ones to fall back on!