Today I did a talk at the Perth library as part of the winter arts festival. My topic was “writing blind”. It focused on how I actually write my books, the mechanics as well as the creative side.
At the end, a question was raised as to how I get my motivation to write as a blind person. I’d already explained the tools I used to create characters and plots, and the ones I couldn’t use because of my blindness. Maybe it sounds harder to the sighted person that I have to adapt my writing tools to achieve the same as sighted writers. I suppose ultimately, I don’t see it this way, because I have no choice. I love writing and I want to write, so I just do what I can with what I’ve got. There’s no point feeling bitter or cheated because I don’t have sight.
But on the other hand, I understand the motivation question. It applies to anyone. What keeps me going? I honestly think that my previous career as a competitive athlete, and my current commitment to keeping fit, has a lot to do with it. It is a discipline, and writing is a discipline. I don’t think I could keep going without that sort of discipline. I also find my sport now helps my writing. I am at my most creative when I am exercising. Just the other day, I felt stumped with the plot I’m working on for my young adult novel. It was a horrible feeling, and I thought I’d have to give up. After a few encouraging words from my tutor, and a half hour walk to the gym to run on the treadmill, I had come up with a subplot for my novel after thinking I couldnt even work out a good plot. You hear a lot of authors say that they take long walks each morning before writing, and I think it somehow frees us up to think, to centre ourselves.
Oh, and the running is going super well. I can run 13 kms now at a good pace. Still think my first race will be a short distance, though, as I want to finish the race on a good note,not stagger over the line. And I need some racing experience too, as running blind is quite stressful for someone new to it.

Well, it had to happen sometime! The above blogg is empty because I hit “enter” instead of “tab”. See, as the non-sighted user, I have to use the keyboard rather than the mouse, and this time, I completely forgot how to enter text in the right places.
well, I suppose it is a symptom of lack of practise. I suddenly realised I haven’t written in my blog for ages, and this made me think. Why? And then I realised it’s because I’ve been madly writing for the last few weeks, working on my junior fiction novel, polishing it up to submit to a publisher. And boy, that is hard work! It has gone off to the publisher now, so I am anxiously waiting. But still writing! I’m working on my young adult novel now, really throwing myself into it. Writing is so addictive, so challenging and so rewarding. I’ve got a couple of talks coming up to schools about the joys of writing and reading, and I’m really looking forward to them. I reckon that if I had the choice, this is all I would do.
So it’s back to the writing. Oh, I should say that my running training is going very well too. I can now run 5kms at a pretty decent speed. I’m reviewing my goal of the 21km half marathon in September…think I should do a 5km race first because then I will do it well, rather than crawl over the finishing line in the 21km race! Watch this space.
Thanks to Shirl and Catherine, my running partners who keep me away from hockey goal posts and the like.