sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Reports

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The good news – today I spent most of the day writing. The bad news – I was writing school reports. Yes it’s that time of year and, as a part time teacher, I had to give up some of my writing time to produce feedback on my students’ progress.

When I started I was feeling a little resentful of the time being taken away from more productive pursuits. I figured I would perhaps do some, so that I could tell myself I’d made a start, and then have a break for some quality writing time. Then, once I’d got started and mastered the new reporting form which involved logging on to the server from home and filling in the appropriate fields, I figured I’d keep going until I’d done it all. Then I could get it out of the way and have tomorrow for writing time.

So, that’s what I did and now it’s all done for another six months and I feel good about that. But, along the way I realised that writing report comments isn’t the worst way I could spend my writing time, because I was writing (and in my opinion every bit of writing adds to your total experience) and, at the same time, I was actually challenging myself to really mean what I was writing.

It isn’t always easy (or possible) to come up with a completely new comment for each student. But it IS possible (and should be compulsory) to be sure that you can justify what are you saying. So, you have to stop and think before you write, and again after you’ve written, whether the comment is fair and reasonable. You also have to be constructive, so that you are offering the student and parent the chance to understand how they can improve or maintain their grades.

Anyway, I’m glad it’s over, but not so resentful of the time now that I’ve thought more about it. I also snatched ten minutes to jot down the outline of a story that’s been incubating, so I’m looking forward to get more time with that one.

Useful Website

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Just a quick post this morning.

Avoiding housework (don’t tell my beloved) I clicked on a link in an email then clicked another link and eventually found a wonderful article about writing stories in rhyme by American author Dori Chaconas. It’s here.

It’s the best article about writing in rhyme I think I’ve come across. She explains about story elements, rhyme and rhythm patterns in detail, but in a way which is easy to understand. It has a lot to say to anyone who writes in rhyme – whether you are a beginner or more experienced.

I know I’ll be rereading it often.

Shoes

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Nothing to do with writing, but last night I discovered I have a shoe fetish. Not for buying shoes (though that’s fun, too) or wearing shoes (though that’s necessary), but for the smell of good leather shoes.

I went to a shoe party (like a Tupperware party, but with shoes) and, as the shoes were passed around for us all to admire (and they were beautiful, good quality shoes) I found myself holding each one up to my nose and breathing deeply. That rich leathery scent of new shoes is divine! Of course my friends all thought I was crazy – but they already did, anyway.

So I had a scent-full night and came home with a lighter wallet. I fell in love with two pairs of boots, each very different, and decided I could justify getting both.

The brown pair are comfortable and semi-dressy, so I could wear them out or to work.

The red pair (yes, red) are sensible bots with elastic sides, like a pair of work boots. But I got to choose the colour – and I chose red. They’ll be great for school visits and such and will sit proudly in my wardrobe alongside the purple shoes I ordered last year.

Now for the writing-related bit. My number one piece advice to writers attending literary festivals and the like is to wear sensible shoes. They can be purple or red if you so choose, but do remember that you are likely to spend large parts of your day on your feet, and if they start aching, you cease to enjoy yourself.

If you are going to a conference, please do your feet a favour and pack your sensible shoes. You’ll be glad you did.

Productive Week

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Today I wrote a poem over breakfast. As I showered, I was tossing around ideas and suddenly one grabbed me. So, cup of coffee in one hand and pen in the other, I wrote the first draft. Yes, it’s rough and will need revising (ALL writing needs revising), but I’m happy with where it’s going. It’s the first new poem I’ve written in a long time, though my pal Pemberthy wrote a limerick earlier in the week. I’ve just typed the poem up and saved it, tweaking a little as I went.

The poem caps off a really productive week for me, after several months of slow progress. This week I’ve written first drafts of two 600 word stories, created Pemberthy’s new blog and this one (and written six posts between the two), written a 1000 word article for Buzzwords and had it accepted, along with a request for another, and written a new proposal for a book with an educational publisher .

I’ve also managed to keep up with my daily life – running a household, spending time with the kids, reviewing some books for Reading Time and aussiereviews, marking assignments for my tutoring job, and teaching part time.

When I list it all, I feel like I’m showing off, but I promise I’m not. So many writers I know do so much both in terms of writing and in their other lives. What I do see when I list it all is that I have had a successful week. This inspires me to keep going and also reminds me that when I’m firing I CAN juggle all these things.

Here’s to full weeks.

Hi

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Hello There
You have found the brand new blog of Sally Murphy – that’s me – children’s author, reviewer, speaker, mother, wife and so on. I used to have a news page on my website, but found I didn’t update it very often (okay, so I updated it ONCE) because I kept waiting for something really big to happen. I’d get to the end of another month and think ‘hmm – nothing major to report’ or, if something did happen, I’d think ‘hmmm – is that really NEWS?’

Anyway, I’ve recently discovered the wonders of blogging, through the skills of my friend Pemberthy Bear, who isn’t just the star of one of my picture books, but is now a blogging bear. And I thought, heck if Pemberthy can blog, then so can I. And it doesn’t just have to be news. It could also be my views on the world, the highs and lows of my writing career, writing advice – anything really. Because that’s the beauty of this blogging phenomenon – anything goes.

So, now I’ve got a blog and time will tell if I’m better at keeping it up that I was with my news page. but I’ve just equalled the number of posts I made there, so perhaps there’s hope.

Check back and see how I go 🙂

sallymurphy.com.au