Sunday 4 March 2018

Snow and Creativity

Like most of the country, we've been snowed in since last Wednesday, unable to move cars from the drive. Although we're used to cold, frost and snow in Scotland, this has been the worst and longest we can ever remember. Fortunately, we no longer live at the top of a hill in a small village without shops! When we did feel like venturing out, we at least could trudge through the snow for a short walk - not that we wanted to until later in the week.


You might have seen these photos on Facebook, taken just fifteen minutes apart - the blizzard kept up all day, hence the enforced stay at home.


We're lucky we work from home and the schools were all closed so we didn't even need to do granddaughter's school run and could remain cosy and warm, watching the heavy snowfall from the window. As I've often said, I like winter and still find the landscape beautiful but even I am looking forward to a proper spring now.

One advantage writers have when forced to stay indoors is our creativity and the chance to concentrate on writing projects - or that's the theory. I was very pleased to receive the acceptance of another Scottish article from The Highlander Magazine in the US, in which I've been published many times, as well as a new poem accepted by the Wild Musette journal, a first for me. I also sent away a new short story and I'm writing another non-fiction essay.

Before feeling too self-righteous, I keep feeling guilty at not getting on with the actual longer fiction I'm supposed to be trying to finish, but that's normal behaviour for me - much easier to concentrate on the shorter lengths! Yet, it's when I'm feeling most creative that I'm drawn to writing poetry and shorter fiction or articles so perhaps it's not only laziness.

I've also been redrafting The Highland Lass as the rights have only just reverted to me and I wanted to tweak it a little before it reappears on Amazon. A very enjoyable couple of days revisiting what has always been the book of my heart and I was relieved that I was still happy with the story! My lovely publisher, Crooked Cat Books, have even allowed me to keep the original cover which I didn't want to change.

What have you been doing if snow has kept you at home?

Rosemary

8 comments:

Patsy said...

We had snow down here too. Technically we weren't snowed in, but it wasn't sensible to go anywhere we didn't have to, so I stayed in and read a book. Yes, I know I could esily have worked, but I fancied a snow day!

Wendy's Writing said...

We only had a day of snow, thank goodness. I thought of you whenever the news showed a white Scotland, and wondered how you were coping. Beautiful but inconvenient.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

And quite right too, Patsy!

Thankfully, it's now thawing, Wendy, although lots of big mounds of snow still around!

Joanna said...

We've had floods in the house, firstly when the huge snow drifts melted, then just as we were recovering from that, our boiler broke down and a radiator burst with a terrific hiss and a bang, causing yet another flood! We still have no heating or hot water, so I'm writing with a blanket round me. Thankfully the engineers are due to start work tomorrow!

Huge congratulations on your acceptances, Rosemary, and I so agree with you about the surge of creativity often being linked to the shorter pieces. I'm on the first draft of a new novel, but am faltering at 70,000 words because of cold hands - will keep trying once I've found my finger-less gloves! xxx

Julia Thorley said...

I could happily hibernate when the temperatures drops, but I'm full of admiration for your constructive use of your snow days.

Jenna Brandon said...

It is very cosy to stay at home in such weather, especialy when you get inspiration from beautiful sceneries outside and get some cool ideas for creating your own e-book.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

So sorry I forgot to respond to you, Joanna! That was a terrible experience - poor you. Hope everything is back to normal and you can finish your novel.

Thanks, Julia - some were pure hibernation!

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